Keanu Reeves And Alex Winter Fought For The Wild Plot Of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

Typically, Hollywood rewards sequels that are more or less similar — if not complete retreads — of the original. Ivan Reitman's "Ghostbusters 2" is, beat for beat, very similar to his "Ghostbusters." James Cameron's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" has the exact same premise as his "The Terminator." A short span of brainstorming can produce myriad other examples. 

As such, it's something of a minor miracle that Pete Hewitt's "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" is as bonkers as it is, and its predecessor was already plenty wild. In the previous film, Stephen Herek's "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), the title characters (played by Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, respectively) were given a time-traveling phone booth from the future so that they may kidnap various historical figures and present them as their high school history final. If they failed, they would flunk out of history, be separated into different schools, and they'd have to break up their band Wyld Stallyns. Wyld Stallyns is vital to the future, as their music will one day unite humanity and usher in a Roddenberrian era of everlasting peace. So it's vitally important that these two dunderheaded surfer dudes from San Dimas, CA, are given a time machine. 

The sequel, surprisingly, is not a time travel story, although there is time travel in it. "Bogus Journey" follows our heroes as they are killed (!) by evil robot clones from the future. Death (William Sadler) appears to them, but they give him the slip and exist briefly as ghosts. This is before being banished to Hell, escaping to Heaven, enlisting a pair of undead space aliens to build additional robot clones, and having an ultimate showdown against the fascist future villain played by Joss Ackland. 

The makers of "Bogus Journey" could have merely repeated themselves. They most assuredly did not. 

Additional oddities from "Bogus Journey" included an evil granny also played by Winter, a demonic Easter Bunny, a scene of demonic possession, a strange causality loop, and a marriage proposal. In the end, Death joins the band. 

In a 2020 video oral history of the "Bill & Ted" movies hosted by Rotten Tomatoes, Reeves said that he really enjoyed how strange the movie was, and appreciated that he and Winter would each be playing at least two characters. He called the film a "unique meal." Co-screenwriter Chris Matheson recalls the post-"Excellent Adventure" success sharply, and that he and his writing partner Ed Solomon wanted to put a sequel into production as quickly as possible. 

A fun piece of trivia: the Joss Ackland character in "Bogus Journey" is named De Nomolos, which is Ed Solomon backwards. 

Matheson said that he and Solomon's first idea for a sequel — and one that the studios pushed for — would have been very similar to the first. Having passed history, Bill and Ted would now have to pass their English class. A magical futuristic device would allow them to infiltrate various works of literature. Matheson is on record as not liking that idea, and it was eventually used as the premise of the two short-lived "Bill & Ted" TV shows. Matheson's and Solomon's second idea was essentially "Bill & Ted Go to Hell," and involved all the weird s*** listed above. The studio hated it and mandated that the English class version be made.

 Luckily for Matheson's sanity, his lead actors stepped in to rescue their preferred project.

Matheson recalled that it was only the enthusiasm of Winter and Reeves that convinced the studio to do the weird one. He said:

"The studio wasn't really into it, they were not in favor of that. They liked the other one a lot better. And it ended up being Alex and Keanu, of course, because it always ends up being Alex and Keanu in Bill & Ted world, that we got their support, and they made it very, very clear that they didn't ... they weren't interested, and they wanted to break new ground. I think they loved the idea of playing evil versions of Bill and Ted, I think they liked how kind of strange and surprising it was, and so we got it made because the guys were into it."

Matheson also admitted that he and Solomon wrote a really weird movie. Luckily, because the schedule was so tight and the shooting was to start as soon as possible, they were able to write in a lot of very strange ideas at the last minute without much studio oversight. "Excellent Adventure" was released in February of 1989, and "Bogus Journey" was already playing by July of 1991. That's a pretty quick turnaround for a film that was unplanned and that featured so many surreal special effects. Matheson said: 

"It's a strange movie, there's some strange jokes in it, and I think they got through because it was rushed, and to a certain degree there wasn't just time for the studio to say 'That's too weird, what is that even doing in there?' And so we got some very peculiar jokes in."

Very peculiar indeed. And very, very funny. "Bogus Journey" is a visually explosive hoot.