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The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

April 08, 2024

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film produced and directed by W. D. Richter and written by Earl Mac Rauch. It stars Peter Weller in the title role, with Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd. The supporting cast includes Lewis Smith, Rosalind Cash, Clancy Brown, Pepe Serna, Robert Ito, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, Jonathan Banks, John Ashton, Carl Lumbly and Ronald Lacey.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Theatrical release poster
Directed byW. D. Richter
Written byEarl Mac Rauch
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
[1]
Edited by
Music byMichael Boddicker
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox[2]
Release date
  • August 10, 1984 (1984-08-10)
[2]
Running time
102 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million[4]
Box office$6.3 million[2]

The film centers upon the efforts of the polymath Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star, to save the world by defeating a band of inter-dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10. The film is a cross between the action-adventure and science fiction film genres and also includes elements of comedy and romance.

After screenwriter W. D. Richter hired novelist Earl Mac Rauch to develop a screenplay of Mac Rauch's new character, Buckaroo Banzai, Richter teamed with producer Neil Canton to pitch the script to MGM/UA studio chief David Begelman, who took it to 20th Century Fox to make the film. Box office figures were low and less than half of the film's production costs were recovered. Some critics were put off by the complicated plot, although Pauline Kael enjoyed the film and Vincent Canby called it "pure, nutty fun." Buckaroo Banzai has been adapted for books, comics, and a video game and has attracted a loyal cult following.

Plot edit

Buckaroo Banzai and his mentor Dr. Tohichi Hikita perfect the "oscillation overthruster", a device that allows an object to pass through solid matter. Banzai tests it by driving his Jet Car through a mountain. While in transit, he finds himself in another dimension. After exiting the mountain and returning to his normal dimension, he discovers an alien organism has attached itself to his car.

Dr. Emilio Lizardo, incarcerated at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane, sees a television news story of Banzai's successful test. In 1938, Drs. Lizardo and Hikita had built a prototype overthruster, but he tested it before it was ready and became stuck between dimensions. He was attacked by aliens until freed by his colleagues, emerging changed and violent. Understanding that Banzai has finally accessed the 8th dimension, Lizardo escapes the asylum and plots to steal the overthruster.

Banzai and his band, "The Hong Kong Cavaliers", are performing at a nightclub when Banzai interrupts their musical intro to address a depressed woman in the audience, Penny Priddy. During a song he performs especially for her, she attempts suicide, which is mistaken for an assassination attempt on Banzai. After questioning her at the jail, he realizes she is his late wife Peggy's long-lost identical twin sister and bails her out.

Later, during a press conference to discuss his Jet Car experience, the overthruster, and the specimen of alien/transdimensional life he obtained while traversing the 8th dimension, Banzai is called to the phone, where he receives an electrical shock. Simultaneously, strange men disrupt the event and kidnap Hikita. When Banzai returns, his electrical shock enables him to recognize them as humanoid aliens, and he gives chase. He rescues Hikita, and they manage to evade the aliens long enough for the Cavaliers to rescue them.

Banzai and the Cavaliers return to the Banzai Institute, where they are met by John Parker, a messenger from John Emdall, the leader of the peaceful Black Lectroids of Planet 10. Parker delivers a recording from Emdall in which she explains that her people have been at war with the hostile Red Lectroids for years, managing to banish them to the 8th dimension. Lizardo's failed test of the overthruster in 1938 allowed the Red Lectroids' tyrannical leader, Lord John Whorfin, to take over Lizardo's mind and enable several dozen of his allies to escape. Because Banzai has now perfected the overthruster, Emdall fears Whorfin and his allies will try to acquire it to free the other Red Lectroids and tasks Banzai with stopping Whorfin; otherwise, the Black Lectroids will attack Russia from their orbiting ship, triggering a nuclear World War III that will annihilate the Red Lectroids on Earth as well as humankind.

The Cavaliers track the Red Lectroids to Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems in New Jersey. They realize that Orson Welles's broadcast of The War of the Worlds described the Lectroids' arrival in 1938, though afterward the Lectroids forced him to state it was fictional. Yoyodyne has been building a spacecraft to cross over to the 8th dimension, disguised as a new United States Air Force bomber. While the Cavaliers are planning their response, Red Lectroids break into the Institute and kidnap Penny, unaware that they have also captured the overthruster, which she was carrying.

At Yoyodyne, Penny refuses to tell the Red Lectroids where the overthruster is, and they begin torturing her. Banzai enters Yoyodyne headquarters alone; the Cavaliers follow, reinforced by several groups of the Blue Blaze Irregulars, civilians recruited to assist the Cavaliers when necessary. Banzai saves Penny and fights off the Red Lectroids, though she is wounded and unconscious. While the Cavaliers tend to her, Banzai and Parker sneak into a pod on the Yoyodyne spacecraft. Lacking Banzai's overthruster, Whorfin insists they use his imperfect model, which fails to make the dimensional transition; instead, the Red Lectroid spaceship breaks through the Yoyodyne wall and takes off into the atmosphere.

Lord Whorfin ejects the pod containing Banzai and Parker from the craft, but they manage to activate it and use its weapon systems to destroy Whorfin and the other Red Lectroids. Banzai parachutes back to Earth while Parker returns to his people in orbit using the pod. With the situation resolved and war averted, Banzai finds Penny has died from her injuries. When he goes to give her a final kiss, Emdall gives Banzai another brief shock, reviving Penny.

Cast edit

Production edit

Development edit

In 1974, W.D. Richter's wife read a review of Dirty Pictures from the Prom, the debut novel from Dartmouth College graduate and writer Earl Mac Rauch, and recommended it to her husband. Richter, also an alumnus from the college, read the book, loved it, and wrote Mac Rauch a letter.[5] The two men began corresponding. When the writer told him about his interest in becoming a screenwriter, Richter offered him an open-ended invitation to visit him in Los Angeles where he was attending the University of Southern California[6] and working as a script analyst for Warner Bros.[7]

Screenplay edit

Years passed and Richter became a successful screenwriter. Mac Rauch took Richter up on his offer and arrived in L.A. Richter proceeded to introduce the writer to producer/director Irwin Winkler, who gave Mac Rauch rent money for the next six months.[6] Over several dinners, Mac Rauch told Richter and his wife of a character named Buckaroo Bandy about whom he was thinking of writing a screenplay. Richter and his wife liked the idea and paid Mac Rauch $1,500 to develop and write it. According to Mac Rauch, his script was inspired by "all those out-and-out, press-the-accelerator-to-the-floor, non-stop kung fu movies of the early '70s".[8] Richter remembers that Mac Rauch wrote several stories about this character, then he "would get thirty or forty pages into a script, abandon its storyline and write a new one".[5] Mac Rauch recalled, "It's so easy to start something and then—since you're really not as serious about it as you should be—end up writing half of it ... You shove the hundred pages in a drawer and try to forget about it. Over the years, I started a dozen Buckaroo scripts that ended that way."[7]

Mac Rauch's original 30-page treatment was titled Find the Jetcar, Said the President - A Buckaroo Banzai Thriller.[7] Early on, one of the revisions Mac Rauch made was changing Buckaroo's surname from Bandy to Banzai. Mac Rauch was not happy with the name change, but Richter convinced him to keep the new name.[6] The Hong Kong Cavaliers also appeared in these early drafts, but, according to Richter, "it never really went to a completed script. Mac wrote and wrote but never wrote the end".[6] Another early draft was titled The Strange Case of Mr. Cigars about a huge robot and a box of Adolf Hitler's cigars.[7] Mac Rauch shelved his work for a few years while he wrote New York, New York for Martin Scorsese and other unproduced screenplays.[7]

In 1980, Richter talked with producers Frank Marshall and Neil Canton about filming one of his screenplays.[9] Out of this meeting, Canton and Richter formed their own production company and decided that Buckaroo Banzai would be the first film. Under their supervision, Mac Rauch wrote a 60-page treatment titled Lepers from Saturn.[7] They shopped Mac Rauch's treatment around to production executives who were their peers, proposing that Richter direct it, but no one wanted to take on such unusual subject matter by two first-time producers and a first-time director. Canton and Richter contacted veteran producer Sidney Beckerman at MGM/UA, with whom Canton had worked before.[9] Beckerman liked the treatment and introduced Richter and Canton to studio chief David Begelman. Within 24 hours, they had a development deal with the studio.[7] It took Mac Rauch a year and a half to write the final screenplay; during this time, the Lepers from the treatment became Lizards and then Lectroids—from Planet 10.[9] Much of the film's detailed character histories were taken from Mac Rauch's unfinished Banzai scripts.[10]

The 1981 Writers Guild of America strike forced the project to languish in development for more than a year. Begelman left MGM as several of his projects had performed poorly at the box office; this put all of his future projects, Buckaroo Banzai included, in jeopardy.[7] Begelman formed Sherwood Productions and exercised a buy-out option with MGM for the Banzai script. He took it to 20th Century Fox who agreed to make it with a $12 million budget.[11] Mac Rauch ended up writing three more drafts before they had a shooting script.[8]

Casting edit

When considering the role of Buckaroo Banzai, Richter wanted an actor who "could both look heroic with grease all over his face, and project the kind of intelligence you would associate with a neurosurgeon and inventor".[12] The studio wanted a recognizable film star, but Richter and Canton wanted to cast a relatively unknown actor.[7] Richter looked in New York City because he assumed that an actor with experience on stage and small films "would be able to completely interact with props".[12] He had been impressed by Peter Weller's performance in Shoot the Moon and met with him.[9] At first, the actor was hesitant to take the role because he was unclear on the overall tone of the film. "Would it be campy? Would it be a cartoon? Or would it be the sort of wacky, realistic film that would catch people sideways—and not be a cartoon", Weller remembers thinking.[7] Richter told Banzai's story to Weller and convinced him to do the film. The actor stated that he based his character on Elia Kazan, Jacques Cousteau, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Adam Ant.[9]

For the role of Dr. Emilio Lizardo, the studio wanted to cast an unknown actor, but Mac Rauch had written the role with John Lithgow in mind. Like Weller, Lithgow was not sure about the character, but Richter convinced him by "claiming what a real feast for an actor this wonderful Jekyll and Hyde character was", Lithgow later said.[7] He told an interviewer, "I have had roles where I came very close to going over the top. In Twilight Zone I almost went over the top several times. But this role is completely over the top. It makes the role in Twilight Zone seem like a model of restraint. I do it in a wild, red fright wig and rotten false teeth with a thick Italian accent. It's wild."[13] For Lizardo's accent, Lithgow spent time with an Italian tailor at MGM and recorded his voice (film credit to "Roberto Terminelli: John Lithgow's dialect coach"). Lithgow changed his walk to that of an "old crab, because my alien metabolism is supposed to be messed up".[9] He said of his character, "playing Lizardo felt like playing the madman in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."[9]

Ellen Barkin, who played the romantic interest "Penny Priddy", describes the film as "if Terry Southern had written Star Wars. None of the characters are quite what they should be—just my kind of thing."[9] Richter's only choice to play John Bigbooté was Christopher Lloyd, who agreed to the role. Richter first met Jeff Goldblum on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and wanted him to play the character New Jersey; the actor admired the script and was eager to work with the cast the director had assembled. Lewis Smith was asked to dye his hair blond; it took eight hours, and he saw it go from red to orange to fluorescent yellow to white.[9] Clancy Brown said that his character is "very common sensical. He's the everyman of the film".[9] Robert Ito was so determined to get the role of Dr. Hikita that he disguised himself as an old man, designing his own make-up job to age himself thirty years.[9]

Pre-production edit

 
Getting the right look for the characters was an important part of the filmmaking and led costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers to raid LA stores looking for appropriate outfits. From left: New Jersey (Goldblum), Billy Travers (Santoro), Rawhide (Brown), Buckaroo (Weller), Reno (Serna), Pinky Carruthers (Vera) and Perfect Tommy (Smith).

Production designer J. Michael Riva had worked with Richter before and spent two years working on the look for Banzai.[9] He and Richter studied many kinds of art and literature for the film's look, including medical journals, African magazines, and Russian history. The inspiration for the look of the Lectroids came from Riva sporting a lobster on his nose. He based the Lectroids' alien form on Canadian-American paleontologist Dale Russell's "dinosauroid", an extrapolation of what dinosaurs might have evolved into if they had survived, but modified the concept because it would have required prosthetics that would have immobilized the actors.[14] Their makeup consisted of 12 separate pieces of latex appliances per alien. Each actor's makeup was unique, with casts taken of their faces.[14] For the Red Lectroids, Riva consulted Russian history to give them a "baggy-suited, Moscow bureaucrat sort of image";[14] their outfits were influenced by contemporary Russian lifestyles and they went with greens, blues and yellows because, according to Riva, they are "sick and anemic."[9]

Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers, who designed costumes for Return of the Jedi, American Graffiti and The Conversation, met Richter while working on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Riva noted that "She fell right into step with the stuff I was designing for the sets," making the costumes match the color of the rooms.[15] Richter wanted the Black Lectroids to have a "warrior-like demeanor, but in an elegant, not fierce fashion";[14] their costumes came from African tribal markings. For Buckaroo's and his Cavaliers' look, Rodgers gathered Gianni Versace, Perry Ellis, and Giorgio Armani sports jackets, suits, and ties.[9] The clothing was mostly found in LA area stores. Rogers noted "We also wanted to have something a little off so that there's a kick to everything to make it unique. Rick changed something on every outfit" and that "It's an interesting style, not a cliche style. You throw stuff in there that people will recognize."[15] Goldblum's character Dr. Zweibel was given a cowboy outfit to wear; according to costumer Radford Polinski, the character thought he was dressed appropriately for an audition for a person named "Buckaroo". The outfit itself was from Nudie Cohn's Rodeo Tailors.[16]

Richter and Riva did not want metal spaceships and opted for a more organic look like a deep sea oyster shell.[9] Gregory Jein, Inc. and Stetson Visual Concepts built the spaceship models and worked off sketches by production illustrator Tom Cranham and used seashells as guides.[9] Richter purposely wanted the film to have an unpolished look because the "real world appears ramshackle—because people constantly repair whatever's around them".[17]

Principal photography edit

By the time of filming, Richter had compiled a 300-page book called The Essential Buckaroo[6] that consisted of notes and had every incomplete script Mac Rauch wrote over the years.[7] These included various references to a villain named Hanoi Xan, leader of the World Crime League. Begelman was adamant that Across the 8th Dimension would be the one and only Buckaroo movie and that all references to Xan be removed. This included the removal of the original opening, which showed Buckaroo's father being killed by Xan and featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Buckaroo's mother. The director later described Begelman as "our enemy for the entire movie."[18]

Principal photography began during the second week of September 1983 on locations in and around South Gate, an industrial suburb of L.A.[7] Buckaroo's neurosurgery scene with New Jersey was shot at the Lakeview Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley.[9] The jet car sequences were shot in October on a dry lake north of the San Bernardino Mountains. The vehicle was designed and built by Riva, art director Stephen Dane, and Thrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Hedebeck. Segal started with a Ford F-350 truck, reinforced the frame assembly, added the front end from a Grand National stock car, borrowed air scoops from a DC-3, and a one-man cockpit modeled after a Messerschmitt fighter plane.[9] Under the hood, Segal modified the Ford engine with an oversized carburetor and nitrous oxide injectors. Northrop University loaned the production a working GE turbojet engine.[19] The oscillation overthruster was created by Riva and visual effects supervisor Michael Fink out of a gyroscope to which a metal frame, wires, circuits, and tiny strobe lights were added.[9]

Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth was initially hired as the film's director of photography but, halfway through production, producers replaced him with Fred J. Koenekamp.[20] Several scenes shot by Cronenweth, including the iconic nightclub scene, are included in the final cut, though Cronenweth goes uncredited.[21][22]

The Banzai Institute exteriors were shot in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, with the interiors filmed in an Art Deco house designed in 1931 by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for his wife, Dolores del Río.[9] Deserted rooms at Brentwood's V.A. hospital were used for Dr. Lizardo's room at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. Lizardo's 1938 laboratory was filmed at a deserted industrial site, Alpha Tubing. The set decorators rented a collection of 1930s electrical props originally used in the original Boris Karloff Frankenstein films.[9] The interiors of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems were shot in the abandoned Firestone tire factory. Wilmington's Department of Water and Power provided the location for Dr. Lizardo's shock tower and served as the Yoyodyne exterior, while the Armco Steel Plant in Torrance housed the Lectroid launch hangar.[9] Weller remembers that during the scene where his character is tortured by Dr. Lizardo, "I was laughing at the banter between [Christopher] Lloyd and [John] Lithgow ... I never laughed so hard in my life! They had to stop takes over and over on that segment."[23] Finally, 12 weeks of filming were done on the backlot and soundstages at MGM.[9]

Begelman continually interfered with production through the initial stages of shooting, demanding changes and sending notes. By the end of filming, these demands had disappeared. The crew became convinced that Begelman had "checked out", and to test their theory, added a now-famous scene in which the presence of a watermelon becomes a topic for a short discussion. When the scene was allowed into the movie without comment, they concluded that management was indeed ignoring them, and they had free rein to put in whatever they wanted.[18]

Begelman eventually made one more major change after seeing that the movie ended with a kiss and demanding something more. By this time the budget was almost completely spent and postproduction nearly complete. Richter decided to have the end credits appear over a new scene that was shot in the style of a music video, hiring a choreographer to arrange the action over new music by Michael Boddicker. The song was not ready in time, so the crew filmed it while playing Billy Joel's Uptown Girl. Richter described the scene as having "kind of emerged from the end of the postproduction."[18] The scene was shot with the actors walking in the LA River bed in front of the Sepulveda Dam.[9] The scene, called "gleefully bizarre",[18] opens with the only remaining reference to the Hanoi Xan storyline when it mentions a (never produced) sequel called "Buckaroo Banzai against the World Crime League."[18]

Soundtrack edit

The film's music coordinator and sound designer Bones Howe began working with musician Michael Boddicker on the film's theme music and sound effects, as they had worked together on the soundtrack for Get Crazy.[9] Boddicker was Howe's first choice to write and perform the film's score. Boddicker had just won a Grammy Award for his song "Imagination" on the Flashdance soundtrack. In addition to composing the score, Boddicker also produced the alien sound effects, while Alan Howarth was hired to create the sounds of the 8th Dimension.[9]

Howe selected the source music for the club scene and put together a special arrangement of "Since I Don't Have You" that Buckaroo sings to Penny Priddy. Weller, an accomplished musician, played the guitar and pocket trumpet, did his own vocals, and learned to mime piano playing. Howe and the filmmakers decided not to go with a rock music score for the film and opted for an electronic one instead. Howe wanted to "integrate music and sound effects so that everything would merge on the soundtrack with no distinction between music and sound."[9]

Reception edit

Release edit

Fox hired Terry Erdmann and a team of publicists including Blake Mitchell and Jim Ferguson to promote the film at Star Trek conventions with a few film clips and free Banzai headbands, which have since become highly sought-after collector's items by fans of the film.[7] The studio made no attempts to sell the film to a mainstream audience with traditional promotion, although there were some magazine advertisements (primarily in Marvel Comics) and related licensing which served as viral advertising in limited venues. Studio publicist Rosemary LaSalmandra said, "Nobody knew what to do with Buckaroo Banzai. There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about—I'm not sure anybody knew".[7] Lithgow said, "I've tried to explain the story line to people and it takes about an hour. I mean it; it's that complicated. But it's terrific. Every time I tell people about it, I get so excited that I end it by saying, Buckaroo Banzai, remember where you heard it first!"[13]

Buckaroo Banzai was originally scheduled to be released on June 8, 1984 but was pushed back to August 10. It opened on 236 screens and faced stiff competition against the likes of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (also featuring Banzai co-star Christopher Lloyd), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters. It made US$620,279 on its opening weekend before finally grossing $6.2 million in North America, earning back less than half of its production costs.[2]

Critical response edit

Although reportedly "dismissed by many critics as 'strange' and 'unintelligible'" at the time of its release,[7] the film received positive reviews from 66% of 44 surveyed critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, "Sci-fi parodies like these usually struggle to work, but Buckaroo Banzai succeeds through total devotion to its own lunacy."[24] Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald praised it as "an unusual film": "Its comedy springs from that odd combination of self-effacement and self-absorption ... [it] is basically a comic strip, relentlessly hip ... an adventure in the Buck Rogers mold."[25] Dave Kehr, in the Chicago Reader, wrote, "Richter seems to have invented an elaborate mythology for his hero ... but he never bothers to explicate it; the film gives you the mildly annoying sensation of being left out of a not very good private joke".[26] Danny Peary's 1986 Guide for the Film Fanatic described Buckaroo Banzai as a "scatterbrained, sloppily made science-fiction comedy for the stoned-out generation ... a surprising failure when hip audiences were turned off by [the] conceited attempt by filmmakers and actors to show off how hip they were."[27] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote that Buckaroo Banzai "may well turn out to be a pilot film for other theatrical features, though this one would be hard to top for pure, nutty fun".[28] Richard Corliss, for Time, wrote, "its creators, Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter, propel their film with such pace and farfetched style that anyone without PhDs in astrophysics and pop culture is likely to get lost in the ganglion of story strands. One wonders if the movie is too ambitious, facetious and hip for its own box-office good".[29] The New Yorker, film critic Pauline Kael wrote, "I didn't find it hard to accept the uninflected, deadpan tone, and to enjoy Buckaroo Banzai for its inventiveness and the gags that bounce off other adventure movies, other comedies. The picture's sense of fun carried me along".[30]

Danny Bowes, writing a retrospective in 2011 for Tor.com, said that the film "is paradoxically decades ahead of its time and yet completely of its time; it's profoundly a movie by, for, and of geeks and nerds at a time before geek/nerd culture was mainstreamed, and a movie whose pre-CG special effects and pre-Computer Age production design were an essential part of its good-natured enthusiasm. What at the time was a hip, modern take on classic SF is now ... almost indistinguishable from the SF cinema that inspired it in terms of the appeal to modern viewers: the charmingly old-fashioned special effects, and the comparatively innocent earnestness of its tone."[31]

Home media edit

Buckaroo Banzai was first released for home media on LaserDisc, VHS and Betamax in 1985 by Vestron Video, in 1990 by Video Treasures, and in 2001 by MGM Home Entertainment. The film was released on DVD on January 4, 2002, by MGM.[32] Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD release a "B+" rating and wrote, "Fans will drool over the extras, including some illuminating deleted scenes (of particular note is an alternate opening detailing Buckaroo's tragic childhood, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Banzai's mother) and director Richter's commentary, which reveals some colorful behind-the-scenes battles with studio execs."[33] IGN gave the DVD their highest rating and was "thrilled by the special edition treatment that this landmark cult film has received at the hands of MGM. The video is great, the sound is great, there are tons of extras".[34] For the Blu-ray format, the film was featured as part of Shout! Factory's Shout! Select Blu-ray line in August 2016; the Shout! Factory release contains a two-hour retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Weller, Lithgow, Brown, Serna, Smith, Vera, Lloyd and director W.D. Richter, among others. A Blu-ray was also released in the United Kingdom by Arrow Video.[35]

Legacy edit

Buckaroo Banzai has since attracted a loyal cult following and has been popular on home video.[36] Richter said, "It has had the most dramatic reactions of anything I've worked on. Some loathe it and others are willing to die for it".[36] The director feels that the film failed commercially because the narrative was too complex; he would have liked to have had more coverage for certain scenes and felt he could have edited the film better, as there were too many master shots and two-shots that left little for the editor to work with.[36]

Wired Magazine, in 2009, celebrated "the 25th anniversary of the release of a film near and dear to many geeks who came of age in the '80s. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was a great, adventurous, geeky movie, with enough silly science fiction and great characters to fill any three lousy summer blockbusters these days ... and it gave us so many great, geeky lines to quote."[37] Cosford, in his 1984 review: "I suspect that Buckaroo's odd musings, particularly the one about being there no matter where you go, are about to enter the popular argot on the scale of "Where's the beef?";[25] his prediction has been proved right.[37][38][39][40][41][42] Entertainment Weekly ranked Buckaroo Banzai as No. 43 in their Top 50 Cult Movies.[43] The film was also ranked No. 21 on the magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list.[44] The Guardian has also cited Buckaroo Banzai as one of their "1,000 films to see before you die".[45]

Other media edit

Books edit

The film was novelized by creator Earl Mac Rauch in 1984. The book was titled Buckaroo Banzai, published by Pocket Books and released in conjunction with the film. It was reprinted in 2002 to coincide with the release of the film on DVD. In the foreword, Mac Rauch mentions that the Buckaroo Banzai series would be continued in a series of novels.[citation needed]

The second book in the series, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, et al: A Compendium of Evils, also authored by Earl Mac Rauch, was published by Dark Horse in November 2021.[46] Both novels are written in the first person point of view from Reno's perspective.

Comics edit

Also in conjunction with the film's 1984 release, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation by writer Bill Mantlo and artists Mark Texeira in Marvel Super Special No. 33.[47] The adaptation was also released as a two-issue limited series.[48]

Moonstone Books began publishing comic books in 2006 depicting earlier and further adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers. The first story, Buckaroo Banzai: Return of the Screw, was written by creator Earl Mac Rauch. The black-and-white preview edition of the comic was released in February 2006, featuring a behind-the-scenes article by Dan Berger regarding the transformation of the rejected Buckaroo Banzai television pilot script Supersize those Fries into the present comic book limited series. The three issues of this comic have been collected into a trade paperback.[49] In December 2007, Moonstone released a new Banzai comic story "A Christmas Corrall" in the Moonstone Holiday Super Spectacular compilation, also written by Mac Rauch and drawn by Ken Wolak. A two-issue prequel to the film was released in early 2008 called Of Hunan Bondage. It was written by Mac Rauch with art by Superman Returns storyboard artist Chewie. Moonstone released Big Size in early 2009, a special oversize one-shot comic written by Mac Rauch with art by Paul Hanley.[citation needed]

Video game edit

In conjunction with the film's 1984 release, the interactive fiction game The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension was released for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 16, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatibles and ZX Spectrum. It was created by Scott Adams and published by Adventure International.[50]

Television series edit

In late 1998, the Fox Network announced development of a Buckaroo Banzai TV series titled Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets and New Mysteries, but it was never released.[51] The special edition DVD contains a short computer-animated sequence by Foundation Imaging made as a test reel for the series. The clip depicts a Space Shuttle trying to land with broken landing gear; Dr. Banzai maneuvers his Jet Car under the Shuttle and uses it to take the place of the broken gear.

In May 2016, Kevin Smith announced he would be adapting the film for television through MGM Television.[52] Amazon Studios indicated a deal was being negotiated to produce the series.[53] However, by November, during a Facebook Live Stream, Smith revealed that he would be walking away from the project after MGM filed a lawsuit against the original creators.[54]

Other references edit

The film has been seen in other media. The 1987 instructional book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet[55] made frequent use of "Yoyodyne" in its examples of corporate URLs. Yoyodyne had earlier been featured as the name of an aerospace company in two 1960s novels by Thomas Pynchon. The ending scene of the movie, in which Banzai and an ever-growing group of his friends and associates walk together triumphantly while the closing credits roll, was copied for the ending of the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. (Jeff Goldblum appears in both scenes.)[56] The current incarnation of the comic strip Dick Tracy has seen two subtle references to the film in the storyline. In a strip dated October 22, 2013, there is a reference to a business named "Emilio Lizardo Crematorium".[57] In a strip dated November 7, 2013, Dick Tracy's granddaughter Honeymoon tells him she will be attending a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert with the hope of getting Perfect Tommy's autograph.[58] Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems had an office on the promenade of Star Trek's Deep Space Nine.[59] The PhD thesis of Eric Weinstein was called Extension of Self-Dual Yang-Mills Equations Across the Eighth Dimension.[60] Parzival, the main character of the film Ready Player One, appears in a Buckaroo Banzai costume for a date. Aech says to Parzival, "You're going to wear the outfit from your favorite movie." His date Art3mis responds to his costume with, "I like Buckaroo Banzai!"[61]

References edit

  1. ^ Sobczynski, Peter. "No Matter Where You Go, Here It Is: 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension' Hits Blu-ray". rogerebert.com. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  3. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. November 15, 1984. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  4. ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989. p. 260.
  5. ^ a b Burns 1984, p. 56.
  6. ^ a b c d e Berger, Dan (2004). (PDF). World Watch One: Newsletter of Team Banzai. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 22, 2006. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Flynn, John L (1995). . Sci-Fi Universe. Archived from the original on May 15, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
  8. ^ a b Goldberg, Lee (July 1984). "Earl MacRauch: Living with the Lepers of Saturn". Starlog.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Production Notes". 20th Century Fox Press Kit. 1984.
  10. ^ Burns 1984, p. 60.
  11. ^ Burns 1984, p. 55.
  12. ^ a b Burns 1984, p. 61.
  13. ^ a b Lyman, Rick (February 19, 1984). "An actor who has mastered versatility". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. I01.
  14. ^ a b c d Burns 1984, p. 54.
  15. ^ a b The Buckaroo Banzai Press Kit Contents (Technical report). 1984.
  16. ^ Mattsson, Steve (September 8, 2019). "Interview: Radford Polinski". World Watch One Newsletter - 35th Anniversary. pp. 20–24.
  17. ^ Burns 1984, p. 53.
  18. ^ a b c d e Ryan, Mike (August 15, 2011). . Moviefone. Archived from the original on April 30, 2013.
  19. ^ "What do we know about the Jet Car?". figmentfly.com.
  20. ^ Ryan, Mike (January 26, 2011). "Jeff Cronenweth on His Oscar Nomination for The Social Network and Joining His Late Father as a Nominee". Movieline.com. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  21. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) - 140 Character Movie Review". Now Very Bad. March 31, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  22. ^ Sobczynski, Peter. "No Matter Where You Go, Here It Is: "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" Hits Blu-ray". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved June 25, 2017.
  23. ^ Niderost, Eric (August 1987). "Peter Weller: Code Name: Robocop". Starlog.
  24. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved October 6, 2021.  
  25. ^ a b Cosford, Bill (August 11, 1984). "Buckaroo Lies on the Lunatic Fringe". The Miami Herald.
  26. ^ Kehr, Dave. "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension". Chicago Reader. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  27. ^ Peary, Danny (1986). Guide for the Film Fanatic. Simon & Schuster. p. 16. ISBN 978-0671610814.
  28. ^ Canby, Vincent (October 5, 1984). "Sci-Fi Farce". The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  29. ^ Corliss, Richard (August 13, 1984). "It Came from Beyond Bananas". Time. Retrieved August 20, 2008.
  30. ^ Kael, Pauline (August 20, 1984). "The Charismatic Half-and-Halfs". The New Yorker.
  31. ^ Bowes, Danny (July 27, 2011). "Wherever You Go, There You Are: A Look Back at Buckaroo Banzai". Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  32. ^ Rivero, Enrique (September 21, 2001). . hive4media.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2001. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  33. ^ Kim, Albert (December 25, 2001). . Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  34. ^ Sanchez, Rick (January 10, 2002). "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension: Special Edition". IGN. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  35. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension [Collector's Edition] - Blu-ray/DVD - Shout! Factory". shoutfactory.com. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  36. ^ a b c Goldberg, Lee (June 1986). "W.D. Richter Writes Again". Starlog.
  37. ^ a b Denmead, Ken (August 17, 2009). "No Matter Where You Go, There You Are: Happy Birthday Buckaroo Banzai!". Wired. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  38. ^ Murphy, Sean; Wike, Chris. "What are some of the more popular quotes from the Buckaroo Banzai movie and book?". figmentfly.com. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  39. ^ Mitchell, Nigel (January 7, 2013). "10 Ways 'Buckaroo Banzai' Has Infiltrated Pop Culture". The Geek Twins. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  40. ^ Martell, Nevin (August 13, 2010). "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: No Matter Where It Went, There It Was". Filter Magazine. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  41. ^ "Buckaroo Banzai: Statements, aphorisms, quotes by Buckaroo Banzai – 75 total". Quotebook.us. Archived from the original on April 21, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  42. ^ Pearlman, Nathaniel (April 3, 2005). "Buckaroo Banzai: "Why is there a watermelon there?"". Political Mammal. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  43. ^ . Entertainment Weekly. May 23, 2003. Archived from the original on August 30, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  44. ^ . Entertainment Weekly. September 3, 2008. Archived from the original on September 3, 2008. Retrieved September 4, 2008.
  45. ^ . The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
  46. ^ Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League HC
  47. ^ "GCD :: Issue :: Marvel Super Special #33". comics.org. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  48. ^ "GCD :: Issue #2". comics.org. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  49. ^ . Archived from the original on February 12, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  50. ^ "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension". mobygames.com. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  51. ^ Wolk, Josh (December 16, 1998). . Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  52. ^ Damore, Meagan (May 16, 2016). "Kevin Smith to Adapt 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai' for Television". ComicBookResources.com. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  53. ^ Patten, Dominic. "Amazon Close To Deal For Kevin Smith-Adapted 'Buckaroo Banzai' TV Series – Comic-Con". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  54. ^ Jayson, Jay (November 28, 2016). "Kevin Smith Walks Away from Buckaroo Banzai TV Series After MGM Sues Creators". Retrieved November 28, 2016.
  55. ^ "The Hitchikers Gude to the Internet (Worldcat.org)".
  56. ^ Smith, Kyle (March 11, 2014). "24 'Grand' things you don't know about Wes Anderson's films". New York Post.
  57. ^ "Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Oct 22, 2013". October 22, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  58. ^ "Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Nov 7, 2013". November 7, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  59. ^ Terry J. Erdmann; Paula M. Block (2000). Deep Space Nine Companion. p. 13.
  60. ^ "Inspire".
  61. ^ "'Ready Player One' Is a Vintage Pop Bonanza. Here's a Primer Before You Watch". The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2018.

Sources edit

  • Burns, James. "An Interview with the Director of Buckaroo Banzai W.D. Richter". Marvel Super Special #33: Buckaroo Banzai. New York: Marvel Comics, 1984.

External links edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
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  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension at IMDb  
  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension at The Numbers
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  • Buckaroo Banzai November 18, 2018, at the Wayback Machine at Moonstone Books
  • Buckaroo Banzai Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), including What are some of the more popular quotes?
  • Buckaroo Banzai Intro + Q&A at New York Film Festival (October 24, 2011)

April 08, 2024
adventures, buckaroo, banzai, across, dimension, often, shortened, buckaroo, banzai, 1984, american, science, fiction, comedy, film, produced, directed, richter, written, earl, rauch, stars, peter, weller, title, role, with, ellen, barkin, john, lithgow, jeff,. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film produced and directed by W D Richter and written by Earl Mac Rauch It stars Peter Weller in the title role with Ellen Barkin John Lithgow Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd The supporting cast includes Lewis Smith Rosalind Cash Clancy Brown Pepe Serna Robert Ito Vincent Schiavelli Dan Hedaya Jonathan Banks John Ashton Carl Lumbly and Ronald Lacey The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionTheatrical release posterDirected byW D RichterWritten byEarl Mac RauchProduced byW D RichterNeil CantonStarringPeter Weller John Lithgow Ellen Barkin Jeff Goldblum Christopher LloydCinematographyFred J KoenekampJordan Cronenweth 1 Edited byGeorge BowersRichard MarksMusic byMichael BoddickerProductioncompanySherwood ProductionsDistributed by20th Century Fox 2 Release dateAugust 10 1984 1984 08 10 2 Running time102 minutes 3 CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 17 million 4 Box office 6 3 million 2 The film centers upon the efforts of the polymath Dr Buckaroo Banzai a physicist neurosurgeon test pilot and rock star to save the world by defeating a band of inter dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10 The film is a cross between the action adventure and science fiction film genres and also includes elements of comedy and romance After screenwriter W D Richter hired novelist Earl Mac Rauch to develop a screenplay of Mac Rauch s new character Buckaroo Banzai Richter teamed with producer Neil Canton to pitch the script to MGM UA studio chief David Begelman who took it to 20th Century Fox to make the film Box office figures were low and less than half of the film s production costs were recovered Some critics were put off by the complicated plot although Pauline Kael enjoyed the film and Vincent Canby called it pure nutty fun Buckaroo Banzai has been adapted for books comics and a video game and has attracted a loyal cult following Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Development 3 2 Screenplay 3 3 Casting 3 4 Pre production 3 5 Principal photography 3 6 Soundtrack 4 Reception 4 1 Release 4 2 Critical response 4 3 Home media 5 Legacy 6 Other media 6 1 Books 6 2 Comics 6 3 Video game 6 4 Television series 6 5 Other references 7 References 7 1 Sources 8 External linksPlot editBuckaroo Banzai and his mentor Dr Tohichi Hikita perfect the oscillation overthruster a device that allows an object to pass through solid matter Banzai tests it by driving his Jet Car through a mountain While in transit he finds himself in another dimension After exiting the mountain and returning to his normal dimension he discovers an alien organism has attached itself to his car Dr Emilio Lizardo incarcerated at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane sees a television news story of Banzai s successful test In 1938 Drs Lizardo and Hikita had built a prototype overthruster but he tested it before it was ready and became stuck between dimensions He was attacked by aliens until freed by his colleagues emerging changed and violent Understanding that Banzai has finally accessed the 8th dimension Lizardo escapes the asylum and plots to steal the overthruster Banzai and his band The Hong Kong Cavaliers are performing at a nightclub when Banzai interrupts their musical intro to address a depressed woman in the audience Penny Priddy During a song he performs especially for her she attempts suicide which is mistaken for an assassination attempt on Banzai After questioning her at the jail he realizes she is his late wife Peggy s long lost identical twin sister and bails her out Later during a press conference to discuss his Jet Car experience the overthruster and the specimen of alien transdimensional life he obtained while traversing the 8th dimension Banzai is called to the phone where he receives an electrical shock Simultaneously strange men disrupt the event and kidnap Hikita When Banzai returns his electrical shock enables him to recognize them as humanoid aliens and he gives chase He rescues Hikita and they manage to evade the aliens long enough for the Cavaliers to rescue them Banzai and the Cavaliers return to the Banzai Institute where they are met by John Parker a messenger from John Emdall the leader of the peaceful Black Lectroids of Planet 10 Parker delivers a recording from Emdall in which she explains that her people have been at war with the hostile Red Lectroids for years managing to banish them to the 8th dimension Lizardo s failed test of the overthruster in 1938 allowed the Red Lectroids tyrannical leader Lord John Whorfin to take over Lizardo s mind and enable several dozen of his allies to escape Because Banzai has now perfected the overthruster Emdall fears Whorfin and his allies will try to acquire it to free the other Red Lectroids and tasks Banzai with stopping Whorfin otherwise the Black Lectroids will attack Russia from their orbiting ship triggering a nuclear World War III that will annihilate the Red Lectroids on Earth as well as humankind The Cavaliers track the Red Lectroids to Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems in New Jersey They realize that Orson Welles s broadcast of The War of the Worlds described the Lectroids arrival in 1938 though afterward the Lectroids forced him to state it was fictional Yoyodyne has been building a spacecraft to cross over to the 8th dimension disguised as a new United States Air Force bomber While the Cavaliers are planning their response Red Lectroids break into the Institute and kidnap Penny unaware that they have also captured the overthruster which she was carrying At Yoyodyne Penny refuses to tell the Red Lectroids where the overthruster is and they begin torturing her Banzai enters Yoyodyne headquarters alone the Cavaliers follow reinforced by several groups of the Blue Blaze Irregulars civilians recruited to assist the Cavaliers when necessary Banzai saves Penny and fights off the Red Lectroids though she is wounded and unconscious While the Cavaliers tend to her Banzai and Parker sneak into a pod on the Yoyodyne spacecraft Lacking Banzai s overthruster Whorfin insists they use his imperfect model which fails to make the dimensional transition instead the Red Lectroid spaceship breaks through the Yoyodyne wall and takes off into the atmosphere Lord Whorfin ejects the pod containing Banzai and Parker from the craft but they manage to activate it and use its weapon systems to destroy Whorfin and the other Red Lectroids Banzai parachutes back to Earth while Parker returns to his people in orbit using the pod With the situation resolved and war averted Banzai finds Penny has died from her injuries When he goes to give her a final kiss Emdall gives Banzai another brief shock reviving Penny Cast editPeter Weller as Dr Buckaroo Banzai John Lithgow as Dr Emilio Lizardo Lord John Whorfin Ellen Barkin as Penny Priddy Peggy Banzai Jeff Goldblum as Dr Sidney Zweibel New Jersey Christopher Lloyd as John Bigboote Lewis Smith as Tommy Perfect Tommy Rosalind Cash as John Emdall Robert Ito as Professor Tohichi Hikita Pepe Serna as Reno Nevada Michael Santoro as Billy Travers Ronald Lacey as President Widmark Matt Clark as Secretary of Defense McKinley Clancy Brown as Rawhide William Traylor as General Catburd Carl Lumbly as John Parker Vincent Schiavelli as John O Connor Dan Hedaya as John Gomez Mariclare Costello as Senator Margaret Cunningham Bill Henderson as Casper Lindley Damon Hines as Scooter Lindley Billy Vera as Pinky Carruthers Laura Harrington as Mrs Eunice Johnson Yakov Smirnoff as National Security Advisor Jonathan Banks as Lizardo Hospital GuardProduction editDevelopment edit In 1974 W D Richter s wife read a review of Dirty Pictures from the Prom the debut novel from Dartmouth College graduate and writer Earl Mac Rauch and recommended it to her husband Richter also an alumnus from the college read the book loved it and wrote Mac Rauch a letter 5 The two men began corresponding When the writer told him about his interest in becoming a screenwriter Richter offered him an open ended invitation to visit him in Los Angeles where he was attending the University of Southern California 6 and working as a script analyst for Warner Bros 7 Screenplay edit Years passed and Richter became a successful screenwriter Mac Rauch took Richter up on his offer and arrived in L A Richter proceeded to introduce the writer to producer director Irwin Winkler who gave Mac Rauch rent money for the next six months 6 Over several dinners Mac Rauch told Richter and his wife of a character named Buckaroo Bandy about whom he was thinking of writing a screenplay Richter and his wife liked the idea and paid Mac Rauch 1 500 to develop and write it According to Mac Rauch his script was inspired by all those out and out press the accelerator to the floor non stop kung fu movies of the early 70s 8 Richter remembers that Mac Rauch wrote several stories about this character then he would get thirty or forty pages into a script abandon its storyline and write a new one 5 Mac Rauch recalled It s so easy to start something and then since you re really not as serious about it as you should be end up writing half of it You shove the hundred pages in a drawer and try to forget about it Over the years I started a dozen Buckaroo scripts that ended that way 7 Mac Rauch s original 30 page treatment was titled Find the Jetcar Said the President A Buckaroo Banzai Thriller 7 Early on one of the revisions Mac Rauch made was changing Buckaroo s surname from Bandy to Banzai Mac Rauch was not happy with the name change but Richter convinced him to keep the new name 6 The Hong Kong Cavaliers also appeared in these early drafts but according to Richter it never really went to a completed script Mac wrote and wrote but never wrote the end 6 Another early draft was titled The Strange Case of Mr Cigars about a huge robot and a box of Adolf Hitler s cigars 7 Mac Rauch shelved his work for a few years while he wrote New York New York for Martin Scorsese and other unproduced screenplays 7 In 1980 Richter talked with producers Frank Marshall and Neil Canton about filming one of his screenplays 9 Out of this meeting Canton and Richter formed their own production company and decided that Buckaroo Banzai would be the first film Under their supervision Mac Rauch wrote a 60 page treatment titled Lepers from Saturn 7 They shopped Mac Rauch s treatment around to production executives who were their peers proposing that Richter direct it but no one wanted to take on such unusual subject matter by two first time producers and a first time director Canton and Richter contacted veteran producer Sidney Beckerman at MGM UA with whom Canton had worked before 9 Beckerman liked the treatment and introduced Richter and Canton to studio chief David Begelman Within 24 hours they had a development deal with the studio 7 It took Mac Rauch a year and a half to write the final screenplay during this time the Lepers from the treatment became Lizards and then Lectroids from Planet 10 9 Much of the film s detailed character histories were taken from Mac Rauch s unfinished Banzai scripts 10 The 1981 Writers Guild of America strike forced the project to languish in development for more than a year Begelman left MGM as several of his projects had performed poorly at the box office this put all of his future projects Buckaroo Banzai included in jeopardy 7 Begelman formed Sherwood Productions and exercised a buy out option with MGM for the Banzai script He took it to 20th Century Fox who agreed to make it with a 12 million budget 11 Mac Rauch ended up writing three more drafts before they had a shooting script 8 Casting edit When considering the role of Buckaroo Banzai Richter wanted an actor who could both look heroic with grease all over his face and project the kind of intelligence you would associate with a neurosurgeon and inventor 12 The studio wanted a recognizable film star but Richter and Canton wanted to cast a relatively unknown actor 7 Richter looked in New York City because he assumed that an actor with experience on stage and small films would be able to completely interact with props 12 He had been impressed by Peter Weller s performance in Shoot the Moon and met with him 9 At first the actor was hesitant to take the role because he was unclear on the overall tone of the film Would it be campy Would it be a cartoon Or would it be the sort of wacky realistic film that would catch people sideways and not be a cartoon Weller remembers thinking 7 Richter told Banzai s story to Weller and convinced him to do the film The actor stated that he based his character on Elia Kazan Jacques Cousteau Albert Einstein Leonardo da Vinci and Adam Ant 9 For the role of Dr Emilio Lizardo the studio wanted to cast an unknown actor but Mac Rauch had written the role with John Lithgow in mind Like Weller Lithgow was not sure about the character but Richter convinced him by claiming what a real feast for an actor this wonderful Jekyll and Hyde character was Lithgow later said 7 He told an interviewer I have had roles where I came very close to going over the top In Twilight Zone I almost went over the top several times But this role is completely over the top It makes the role in Twilight Zone seem like a model of restraint I do it in a wild red fright wig and rotten false teeth with a thick Italian accent It s wild 13 For Lizardo s accent Lithgow spent time with an Italian tailor at MGM and recorded his voice film credit to Roberto Terminelli John Lithgow s dialect coach Lithgow changed his walk to that of an old crab because my alien metabolism is supposed to be messed up 9 He said of his character playing Lizardo felt like playing the madman in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 9 Ellen Barkin who played the romantic interest Penny Priddy describes the film as if Terry Southern had written Star Wars None of the characters are quite what they should be just my kind of thing 9 Richter s only choice to play John Bigboote was Christopher Lloyd who agreed to the role Richter first met Jeff Goldblum on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and wanted him to play the character New Jersey the actor admired the script and was eager to work with the cast the director had assembled Lewis Smith was asked to dye his hair blond it took eight hours and he saw it go from red to orange to fluorescent yellow to white 9 Clancy Brown said that his character is very common sensical He s the everyman of the film 9 Robert Ito was so determined to get the role of Dr Hikita that he disguised himself as an old man designing his own make up job to age himself thirty years 9 Pre production edit nbsp Getting the right look for the characters was an important part of the filmmaking and led costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers to raid LA stores looking for appropriate outfits From left New Jersey Goldblum Billy Travers Santoro Rawhide Brown Buckaroo Weller Reno Serna Pinky Carruthers Vera and Perfect Tommy Smith Production designer J Michael Riva had worked with Richter before and spent two years working on the look for Banzai 9 He and Richter studied many kinds of art and literature for the film s look including medical journals African magazines and Russian history The inspiration for the look of the Lectroids came from Riva sporting a lobster on his nose He based the Lectroids alien form on Canadian American paleontologist Dale Russell s dinosauroid an extrapolation of what dinosaurs might have evolved into if they had survived but modified the concept because it would have required prosthetics that would have immobilized the actors 14 Their makeup consisted of 12 separate pieces of latex appliances per alien Each actor s makeup was unique with casts taken of their faces 14 For the Red Lectroids Riva consulted Russian history to give them a baggy suited Moscow bureaucrat sort of image 14 their outfits were influenced by contemporary Russian lifestyles and they went with greens blues and yellows because according to Riva they are sick and anemic 9 Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers who designed costumes for Return of the Jedi American Graffiti and The Conversation met Richter while working on Invasion of the Body Snatchers Riva noted that She fell right into step with the stuff I was designing for the sets making the costumes match the color of the rooms 15 Richter wanted the Black Lectroids to have a warrior like demeanor but in an elegant not fierce fashion 14 their costumes came from African tribal markings For Buckaroo s and his Cavaliers look Rodgers gathered Gianni Versace Perry Ellis and Giorgio Armani sports jackets suits and ties 9 The clothing was mostly found in LA area stores Rogers noted We also wanted to have something a little off so that there s a kick to everything to make it unique Rick changed something on every outfit and that It s an interesting style not a cliche style You throw stuff in there that people will recognize 15 Goldblum s character Dr Zweibel was given a cowboy outfit to wear according to costumer Radford Polinski the character thought he was dressed appropriately for an audition for a person named Buckaroo The outfit itself was from Nudie Cohn s Rodeo Tailors 16 Richter and Riva did not want metal spaceships and opted for a more organic look like a deep sea oyster shell 9 Gregory Jein Inc and Stetson Visual Concepts built the spaceship models and worked off sketches by production illustrator Tom Cranham and used seashells as guides 9 Richter purposely wanted the film to have an unpolished look because the real world appears ramshackle because people constantly repair whatever s around them 17 Principal photography edit By the time of filming Richter had compiled a 300 page book called The Essential Buckaroo 6 that consisted of notes and had every incomplete script Mac Rauch wrote over the years 7 These included various references to a villain named Hanoi Xan leader of the World Crime League Begelman was adamant that Across the 8th Dimension would be the one and only Buckaroo movie and that all references to Xan be removed This included the removal of the original opening which showed Buckaroo s father being killed by Xan and featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Buckaroo s mother The director later described Begelman as our enemy for the entire movie 18 Principal photography began during the second week of September 1983 on locations in and around South Gate an industrial suburb of L A 7 Buckaroo s neurosurgery scene with New Jersey was shot at the Lakeview Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley 9 The jet car sequences were shot in October on a dry lake north of the San Bernardino Mountains The vehicle was designed and built by Riva art director Stephen Dane and Thrust Racing owners Jerry Segal and George Hedebeck Segal started with a Ford F 350 truck reinforced the frame assembly added the front end from a Grand National stock car borrowed air scoops from a DC 3 and a one man cockpit modeled after a Messerschmitt fighter plane 9 Under the hood Segal modified the Ford engine with an oversized carburetor and nitrous oxide injectors Northrop University loaned the production a working GE turbojet engine 19 The oscillation overthruster was created by Riva and visual effects supervisor Michael Fink out of a gyroscope to which a metal frame wires circuits and tiny strobe lights were added 9 Cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth was initially hired as the film s director of photography but halfway through production producers replaced him with Fred J Koenekamp 20 Several scenes shot by Cronenweth including the iconic nightclub scene are included in the final cut though Cronenweth goes uncredited 21 22 The Banzai Institute exteriors were shot in Rustic Canyon Los Angeles with the interiors filmed in an Art Deco house designed in 1931 by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for his wife Dolores del Rio 9 Deserted rooms at Brentwood s V A hospital were used for Dr Lizardo s room at the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane Lizardo s 1938 laboratory was filmed at a deserted industrial site Alpha Tubing The set decorators rented a collection of 1930s electrical props originally used in the original Boris Karloff Frankenstein films 9 The interiors of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems were shot in the abandoned Firestone tire factory Wilmington s Department of Water and Power provided the location for Dr Lizardo s shock tower and served as the Yoyodyne exterior while the Armco Steel Plant in Torrance housed the Lectroid launch hangar 9 Weller remembers that during the scene where his character is tortured by Dr Lizardo I was laughing at the banter between Christopher Lloyd and John Lithgow I never laughed so hard in my life They had to stop takes over and over on that segment 23 Finally 12 weeks of filming were done on the backlot and soundstages at MGM 9 Begelman continually interfered with production through the initial stages of shooting demanding changes and sending notes By the end of filming these demands had disappeared The crew became convinced that Begelman had checked out and to test their theory added a now famous scene in which the presence of a watermelon becomes a topic for a short discussion When the scene was allowed into the movie without comment they concluded that management was indeed ignoring them and they had free rein to put in whatever they wanted 18 Begelman eventually made one more major change after seeing that the movie ended with a kiss and demanding something more By this time the budget was almost completely spent and postproduction nearly complete Richter decided to have the end credits appear over a new scene that was shot in the style of a music video hiring a choreographer to arrange the action over new music by Michael Boddicker The song was not ready in time so the crew filmed it while playing Billy Joel s Uptown Girl Richter described the scene as having kind of emerged from the end of the postproduction 18 The scene was shot with the actors walking in the LA River bed in front of the Sepulveda Dam 9 The scene called gleefully bizarre 18 opens with the only remaining reference to the Hanoi Xan storyline when it mentions a never produced sequel called Buckaroo Banzai against the World Crime League 18 Soundtrack edit The film s music coordinator and sound designer Bones Howe began working with musician Michael Boddicker on the film s theme music and sound effects as they had worked together on the soundtrack for Get Crazy 9 Boddicker was Howe s first choice to write and perform the film s score Boddicker had just won a Grammy Award for his song Imagination on the Flashdance soundtrack In addition to composing the score Boddicker also produced the alien sound effects while Alan Howarth was hired to create the sounds of the 8th Dimension 9 Howe selected the source music for the club scene and put together a special arrangement of Since I Don t Have You that Buckaroo sings to Penny Priddy Weller an accomplished musician played the guitar and pocket trumpet did his own vocals and learned to mime piano playing Howe and the filmmakers decided not to go with a rock music score for the film and opted for an electronic one instead Howe wanted to integrate music and sound effects so that everything would merge on the soundtrack with no distinction between music and sound 9 Reception editRelease edit Fox hired Terry Erdmann and a team of publicists including Blake Mitchell and Jim Ferguson to promote the film at Star Trek conventions with a few film clips and free Banzai headbands which have since become highly sought after collector s items by fans of the film 7 The studio made no attempts to sell the film to a mainstream audience with traditional promotion although there were some magazine advertisements primarily in Marvel Comics and related licensing which served as viral advertising in limited venues Studio publicist Rosemary LaSalmandra said Nobody knew what to do with Buckaroo Banzai There was no simple way to tell anyone what it was about I m not sure anybody knew 7 Lithgow said I ve tried to explain the story line to people and it takes about an hour I mean it it s that complicated But it s terrific Every time I tell people about it I get so excited that I end it by saying Buckaroo Banzai remember where you heard it first 13 Buckaroo Banzai was originally scheduled to be released on June 8 1984 but was pushed back to August 10 It opened on 236 screens and faced stiff competition against the likes of Star Trek III The Search for Spock also featuring Banzai co star Christopher Lloyd Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Ghostbusters It made US 620 279 on its opening weekend before finally grossing 6 2 million in North America earning back less than half of its production costs 2 Critical response edit Although reportedly dismissed by many critics as strange and unintelligible at the time of its release 7 the film received positive reviews from 66 of 44 surveyed critics on Rotten Tomatoes The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads Sci fi parodies like these usually struggle to work but Buckaroo Banzai succeeds through total devotion to its own lunacy 24 Bill Cosford of The Miami Herald praised it as an unusual film Its comedy springs from that odd combination of self effacement and self absorption it is basically a comic strip relentlessly hip an adventure in the Buck Rogers mold 25 Dave Kehr in the Chicago Reader wrote Richter seems to have invented an elaborate mythology for his hero but he never bothers to explicate it the film gives you the mildly annoying sensation of being left out of a not very good private joke 26 Danny Peary s 1986 Guide for the Film Fanatic described Buckaroo Banzai as a scatterbrained sloppily made science fiction comedy for the stoned out generation a surprising failure when hip audiences were turned off by the conceited attempt by filmmakers and actors to show off how hip they were 27 In his review for The New York Times Vincent Canby wrote that Buckaroo Banzai may well turn out to be a pilot film for other theatrical features though this one would be hard to top for pure nutty fun 28 Richard Corliss for Time wrote its creators Earl Mac Rauch and W D Richter propel their film with such pace and farfetched style that anyone without PhDs in astrophysics and pop culture is likely to get lost in the ganglion of story strands One wonders if the movie is too ambitious facetious and hip for its own box office good 29 The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael wrote I didn t find it hard to accept the uninflected deadpan tone and to enjoy Buckaroo Banzai for its inventiveness and the gags that bounce off other adventure movies other comedies The picture s sense of fun carried me along 30 Danny Bowes writing a retrospective in 2011 for Tor com said that the film is paradoxically decades ahead of its time and yet completely of its time it s profoundly a movie by for and of geeks and nerds at a time before geek nerd culture was mainstreamed and a movie whose pre CG special effects and pre Computer Age production design were an essential part of its good natured enthusiasm What at the time was a hip modern take on classic SF is now almost indistinguishable from the SF cinema that inspired it in terms of the appeal to modern viewers the charmingly old fashioned special effects and the comparatively innocent earnestness of its tone 31 Home media edit Buckaroo Banzai was first released for home media on LaserDisc VHS and Betamax in 1985 by Vestron Video in 1990 by Video Treasures and in 2001 by MGM Home Entertainment The film was released on DVD on January 4 2002 by MGM 32 Entertainment Weekly gave the DVD release a B rating and wrote Fans will drool over the extras including some illuminating deleted scenes of particular note is an alternate opening detailing Buckaroo s tragic childhood featuring Jamie Lee Curtis as Banzai s mother and director Richter s commentary which reveals some colorful behind the scenes battles with studio execs 33 IGN gave the DVD their highest rating and was thrilled by the special edition treatment that this landmark cult film has received at the hands of MGM The video is great the sound is great there are tons of extras 34 For the Blu ray format the film was featured as part of Shout Factory s Shout Select Blu ray line in August 2016 the Shout Factory release contains a two hour retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Weller Lithgow Brown Serna Smith Vera Lloyd and director W D Richter among others A Blu ray was also released in the United Kingdom by Arrow Video 35 Legacy editBuckaroo Banzai has since attracted a loyal cult following and has been popular on home video 36 Richter said It has had the most dramatic reactions of anything I ve worked on Some loathe it and others are willing to die for it 36 The director feels that the film failed commercially because the narrative was too complex he would have liked to have had more coverage for certain scenes and felt he could have edited the film better as there were too many master shots and two shots that left little for the editor to work with 36 Wired Magazine in 2009 celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of a film near and dear to many geeks who came of age in the 80s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was a great adventurous geeky movie with enough silly science fiction and great characters to fill any three lousy summer blockbusters these days and it gave us so many great geeky lines to quote 37 Cosford in his 1984 review I suspect that Buckaroo s odd musings particularly the one about being there no matter where you go are about to enter the popular argot on the scale of Where s the beef 25 his prediction has been proved right 37 38 39 40 41 42 Entertainment Weekly ranked Buckaroo Banzai as No 43 in their Top 50 Cult Movies 43 The film was also ranked No 21 on the magazine s The Cult 25 The Essential Left Field Movie Hits Since 83 list 44 The Guardian has also cited Buckaroo Banzai as one of their 1 000 films to see before you die 45 Other media editBooks edit The film was novelized by creator Earl Mac Rauch in 1984 The book was titled Buckaroo Banzai published by Pocket Books and released in conjunction with the film It was reprinted in 2002 to coincide with the release of the film on DVD In the foreword Mac Rauch mentions that the Buckaroo Banzai series would be continued in a series of novels citation needed The second book in the series The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League et al A Compendium of Evils also authored by Earl Mac Rauch was published by Dark Horse in November 2021 46 Both novels are written in the first person point of view from Reno s perspective Comics edit Also in conjunction with the film s 1984 release Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation by writer Bill Mantlo and artists Mark Texeira in Marvel Super Special No 33 47 The adaptation was also released as a two issue limited series 48 Moonstone Books began publishing comic books in 2006 depicting earlier and further adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers The first story Buckaroo Banzai Return of the Screw was written by creator Earl Mac Rauch The black and white preview edition of the comic was released in February 2006 featuring a behind the scenes article by Dan Berger regarding the transformation of the rejected Buckaroo Banzai television pilot script Supersize those Fries into the present comic book limited series The three issues of this comic have been collected into a trade paperback 49 In December 2007 Moonstone released a new Banzai comic story A Christmas Corrall in the Moonstone Holiday Super Spectacular compilation also written by Mac Rauch and drawn by Ken Wolak A two issue prequel to the film was released in early 2008 called Of Hunan Bondage It was written by Mac Rauch with art by Superman Returns storyboard artist Chewie Moonstone released Big Size in early 2009 a special oversize one shot comic written by Mac Rauch with art by Paul Hanley citation needed Video game edit In conjunction with the film s 1984 release the interactive fiction game The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was released for the Apple II Atari 8 bit family Commodore 16 Commodore Plus 4 Commodore 64 IBM PC compatibles and ZX Spectrum It was created by Scott Adams and published by Adventure International 50 Television series edit In late 1998 the Fox Network announced development of a Buckaroo Banzai TV series titled Buckaroo Banzai Ancient Secrets and New Mysteries but it was never released 51 The special edition DVD contains a short computer animated sequence by Foundation Imaging made as a test reel for the series The clip depicts a Space Shuttle trying to land with broken landing gear Dr Banzai maneuvers his Jet Car under the Shuttle and uses it to take the place of the broken gear In May 2016 Kevin Smith announced he would be adapting the film for television through MGM Television 52 Amazon Studios indicated a deal was being negotiated to produce the series 53 However by November during a Facebook Live Stream Smith revealed that he would be walking away from the project after MGM filed a lawsuit against the original creators 54 Other references edit The film has been seen in other media The 1987 instructional book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet 55 made frequent use of Yoyodyne in its examples of corporate URLs Yoyodyne had earlier been featured as the name of an aerospace company in two 1960s novels by Thomas Pynchon The ending scene of the movie in which Banzai and an ever growing group of his friends and associates walk together triumphantly while the closing credits roll was copied for the ending of the 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Jeff Goldblum appears in both scenes 56 The current incarnation of the comic strip Dick Tracy has seen two subtle references to the film in the storyline In a strip dated October 22 2013 there is a reference to a business named Emilio Lizardo Crematorium 57 In a strip dated November 7 2013 Dick Tracy s granddaughter Honeymoon tells him she will be attending a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert with the hope of getting Perfect Tommy s autograph 58 Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems had an office on the promenade of Star Trek s Deep Space Nine 59 The PhD thesis of Eric Weinstein was called Extension of Self Dual Yang Mills Equations Across the Eighth Dimension 60 Parzival the main character of the film Ready Player One appears in a Buckaroo Banzai costume for a date Aech says to Parzival You re going to wear the outfit from your favorite movie His date Art3mis responds to his costume with I like Buckaroo Banzai 61 References edit Sobczynski Peter No Matter Where You Go Here It Is The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Hits Blu ray rogerebert com Retrieved June 25 2017 a b c d The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai 1984 Box Office Mojo IMDb Retrieved August 29 2015 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension PG British Board of Film Classification November 15 1984 Retrieved November 17 2018 Aubrey Solomon Twentieth Century Fox A Corporate and Financial History Scarecrow Press 1989 p 260 a b Burns 1984 p 56 a b c d e Berger Dan 2004 The Saga of a Hollywood Orphan An Interview with W D Richter PDF World Watch One Newsletter of Team Banzai Archived from the original PDF on March 22 2006 Retrieved July 20 2007 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Flynn John L 1995 Across the Eighth Dimension Remembering the First Adventure of Buckaroo Banzai Sci Fi Universe Archived from the original on May 15 2007 Retrieved July 20 2007 a b Goldberg Lee July 1984 Earl MacRauch Living with the Lepers of Saturn Starlog a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Production Notes 20th Century Fox Press Kit 1984 Burns 1984 p 60 Burns 1984 p 55 a b Burns 1984 p 61 a b Lyman Rick February 19 1984 An actor who has mastered versatility The Philadelphia Inquirer p I01 a b c d Burns 1984 p 54 a b The Buckaroo Banzai Press Kit Contents Technical report 1984 Mattsson Steve September 8 2019 Interview Radford Polinski World Watch One Newsletter 35th Anniversary pp 20 24 Burns 1984 p 53 a b c d e Ryan Mike August 15 2011 Buckaroo Banzai Director Speaks About Film s Anniversary Lost Footage and Still Possible Sequel Moviefone Archived from the original on April 30 2013 What do we know about the Jet Car figmentfly com Ryan Mike January 26 2011 Jeff Cronenweth on His Oscar Nomination for The Social Network and Joining His Late Father as a Nominee Movieline com Retrieved April 1 2012 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension 1984 140 Character Movie Review Now Very Bad March 31 2015 Retrieved June 25 2017 Sobczynski Peter No Matter Where You Go Here It Is The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Hits Blu ray www rogerebert com Retrieved June 25 2017 Niderost Eric August 1987 Peter Weller Code Name Robocop Starlog The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension 1984 Rotten Tomatoes Fandango Retrieved October 6 2021 nbsp a b Cosford Bill August 11 1984 Buckaroo Lies on the Lunatic Fringe The Miami Herald Kehr Dave The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Chicago Reader Retrieved January 18 2008 Peary Danny 1986 Guide for the Film Fanatic Simon amp Schuster p 16 ISBN 978 0671610814 Canby Vincent October 5 1984 Sci Fi Farce The New York Times Retrieved November 17 2018 Corliss Richard August 13 1984 It Came from Beyond Bananas Time Retrieved August 20 2008 Kael Pauline August 20 1984 The Charismatic Half and Halfs The New Yorker Bowes Danny July 27 2011 Wherever You Go There You Are A Look Back at Buckaroo Banzai Retrieved November 17 2018 Rivero Enrique September 21 2001 MGM to Bow Mad Max Banzai DVDs Jan 4 hive4media com Archived from the original on November 1 2001 Retrieved September 7 2019 Kim Albert December 25 2001 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Special Edition Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on March 26 2009 Retrieved December 18 2008 Sanchez Rick January 10 2002 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Special Edition IGN Retrieved November 17 2018 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension Collector s Edition Blu ray DVD Shout Factory shoutfactory com Retrieved November 17 2018 a b c Goldberg Lee June 1986 W D Richter Writes Again Starlog a b Denmead Ken August 17 2009 No Matter Where You Go There You Are Happy Birthday Buckaroo Banzai Wired Retrieved March 25 2013 Murphy Sean Wike Chris What are some of the more popular quotes from the Buckaroo Banzai movie and book figmentfly com Retrieved March 25 2013 Mitchell Nigel January 7 2013 10 Ways Buckaroo Banzai Has Infiltrated Pop Culture The Geek Twins Retrieved March 25 2013 Martell Nevin August 13 2010 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai No Matter Where It Went There It Was Filter Magazine Retrieved March 25 2013 Buckaroo Banzai Statements aphorisms quotes by Buckaroo Banzai 75 total Quotebook us Archived from the original on April 21 2013 Retrieved March 25 2013 Pearlman Nathaniel April 3 2005 Buckaroo Banzai Why is there a watermelon there Political Mammal Retrieved March 25 2013 EW s Top Cult Movies Entertainment Weekly May 23 2003 Archived from the original on August 30 2008 Retrieved January 18 2008 The Cult 25 The Essential Left Field Movie Hits Since 83 Entertainment Weekly September 3 2008 Archived from the original on September 3 2008 Retrieved September 4 2008 1 000 films to see before you die The Guardian London Archived from the original on December 10 2008 Retrieved December 18 2008 Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League HC GCD Issue Marvel Super Special 33 comics org Retrieved June 11 2018 GCD Issue 2 comics org Retrieved November 17 2018 Moonstone Books Buckaroo Banzai Archived from the original on February 12 2006 Retrieved August 1 2018 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension mobygames com Retrieved November 17 2018 Wolk Josh December 16 1998 Role On Entertainment Weekly Archived from the original on October 11 2008 Retrieved January 18 2008 Damore Meagan May 16 2016 Kevin Smith to Adapt The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai for Television ComicBookResources com Retrieved November 17 2018 Patten Dominic Amazon Close To Deal For Kevin Smith Adapted Buckaroo Banzai TV Series Comic Con Deadline Hollywood Retrieved July 21 2016 Jayson Jay November 28 2016 Kevin Smith Walks Away from Buckaroo Banzai TV Series After MGM Sues Creators Retrieved November 28 2016 The Hitchikers Gude to the Internet Worldcat org Smith Kyle March 11 2014 24 Grand things you don t know about Wes Anderson s films New York Post Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Oct 22 2013 October 22 2013 Retrieved June 11 2018 Dick Tracy by Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Nov 7 2013 November 7 2013 Retrieved June 11 2018 Terry J Erdmann Paula M Block 2000 Deep Space Nine Companion p 13 Inspire Ready Player One Is a Vintage Pop Bonanza Here s a Primer Before You Watch The New York Times Retrieved March 29 2018 Sources edit Burns James An Interview with the Director of Buckaroo Banzai W D Richter Marvel Super Special 33 Buckaroo Banzai New York Marvel Comics 1984 External links edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Official website archived Full length film available via archive org The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension at IMDb nbsp The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension at The Numbers Official Banzai Institute Website archived Buckaroo Banzai Archived November 18 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Moonstone Books Buckaroo Banzai Frequently Asked Questions FAQ including What are some of the more popular quotes Buckaroo Banzai Intro Q amp A at New York Film Festival October 24 2011 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension amp oldid 1217612797, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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