091014 Brainstorming 2 "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"
So, we had a viewing of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" last week. Unfortunately this film did not stand the test of time like "Back To The Future" did. :-(
The parts of the film that were most relevant to our project were the many points where the titular characters use their time machine to go back in time and prepare just what they needed with the aid of hindsight...such as stealing keys to the prison and leaving them in just the right spot.
In no particular order, here are other gags from the movie:
First, the signature quote of the movie, "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K..."
Also, "The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing." How true, how true for Bill & Ted!
Also, "Don't be dead, dude." You don't see acting like that these days.
Their catchphrases included, "Excellent," "Be excellent to each other," "party on, dudes!" "most triumphant," "bogus," and "heavy metal" (which, interestingly, mirrors the use of the word "heavy" in "Back To The Future")
The name of their would-be band was Wyld Stallions.
Their mentor was "Rufus," played by George Carlin, as opposed to Leon from "Midnight Madness."
Bill's hot step mom was named "Missy."
Key scenes took place at Waterloo Water Park.
Their time machine was a phone booth with an umbrella mechanism on top. The phone's keypad had an infinity symbol where the # should be.
The film takes place in 1988 in San Dimas, CA (and also in 2688, as well as other points in history).
The famous historical figures they kidnapped were:
Napoleon (who looked and acted a bit like Mr. Bean) Socrates (don't forget to pronounce that "So Crates") Billy The Kid Joan of Arc Ghengis Khan Sigmund Freud Abraham Lincoln Beethoven
as well as two unnamed bodacious medieval princesses, a/k/a the "historical babes."
We brainstormed a bit after the cinematic portion of the evening. Our initial assessment was that the best themes, etc. to lift from this film was the use of traveling back in time to leave resources for the present. We also liked some of the silly catchphrases.
Wei-Hwa also inspired us with his collection of time travel-themed board games. I particularly liked the Chrononauts card game. I thought its handling of time paradoxes, changing history, etc. was very clever (and the game text was very funny).
What's next? Now that we've filled our brains with the enduring wisdom of "Back To The Future" and "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," it's time for us to start creating our own ideas.
I'll schedule a working session for us to create ideas. We won't be making any hard decisions quite yet...but soon, I promise! Instead we'll be coming up with as many candidate plot points, specific puzzle ideas, themes, locations, etc. as possible.
I'll start the scheduling process and also suggest more details on what we should try to accomplish at this get together.
Allen
