Summertime is officially upon us, and that means I have even more time to watch movies I’ve been meaning to catch up on. As I mentioned in an earlier article, my friend Gabs and I are cinema freaks. We stay up until 2 am marathoning Star Wars, and even managed to watch all of Queen Charlotte in one sitting. Hours of our time are spent delving into these mostly fictional worlds, but none of the movies we watch quite fit the summertime vibes like the all-time classic film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
The film was released in 1989 and takes place in San Dimas, California. It follows the story of two high school best friends, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), who are starting a band. The two boys are on the verge of failing their History class and must pass in order to prevent Ted from being sent to military school. They are greeted by a man named Rufus (George Carlin), a time traveler from a world where their band sets the foundation for a perfect society. Bill and Ted use Rufus’ time machine to travel to various points in time and collect iconic historical figures, like Abraham Lincoln and Socrates, and make it back in time for their history presentation.
This film has so many iconic one-liners that my friend and I quote on the daily. At any given chance, we will spew out a quote or make a reference to some aspect of the film. I cannot tell you how many times we have mentioned seeing a Circle-K to each other since watching this movie. We have established ourselves as a character from the movie (I’m Bill and Gabs is Ted), and our contact images for each other show which character we are. We take every single online quiz that relates to this series, and we always end up saying to each other, “We should rewatch Bill and Ted,” at the end of every conversation. Now that summer is upon us, I can guarantee that we will end up watching this movie at least once a month, if not more. We take this movie seriously, and it has truly become a staple in our friendship. We have so much fun watching it over and over that this movie will never leave us bored.
The movie today is deemed a cult classic by the creators, and I couldn’t agree more. Once you delve into the world of Bill and Ted, there’s no going back. This movie forever changed my life, and I truly think it’s one of the best pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen. So, in honor of this brilliant movie and all that it means to me, I will leave you with the wise words of Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan:
“Be Excellent to each other and Party on Dudes.”