I just realized something about the historical figures in "Bill and Ted"...

[Bicoastal]

Nearly all of them met with tragedy at the end of their lives...after, presumably, traveling to 1987 San Dimas, California with two Excellent Adventurers.

Five out of Eight were killed outright:
Socrates is executed by the Athenian court
Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by the English
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
Billy the Kid is shot to death by Pat Garrett

Three end their lives in exile:
Napoleon wastes away on St. Helena, having lost France and Josephine
Sigmund Freud flees Austria after the Nazis annex it, and dies of oral cancer in London

Of the remaining two:
Beethoven goes completely deaf, loses custody of his nephew, and soon wastes away.
Genghis Kahn's death remains somewhat of a mystery.

So I guess an unspoken irony of this movie is that if Bill and Ted were better history students, they could have warned their historical friends of their untimely/unhappy deaths. But since they weren't, they didn't--and world history remained unaltered.

[flvegan]

1. Why didn't they "summon" Jesus?

Yeah, think of that one. Imagine what they could have averted with that one.

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. Because they only

summoned reality based creatures.:rofl:

[harmonicon]

2. they couldn't have done that

If they'd changed things that radically, they may have rewritten history to such an extent that they would no longer exist, causing a paradox which would cause space-time to fold in on itself and destroy the universe.

[DarkTirade]

3. But that whole movie was about changing things. Radically!

:P

[PermanentRevolution]

4. On a side-note...

How pissed do you think the actor who played Bill (Alex something-or-other?) is every time he sees a new Keanu Reeves movie trailer? I mean, when your sidekick becomes a multi-million-dollar superstar and you fade into obscurity, that's gotta sting.

[harmonicon]

5. I don't think so...

if that former side-kick was Keanu Reeves, I wouldn't be too jealous. Would you want to be Keanu Reeves? Sure, you'd be rich and famous, but you'd have to live your entire life as Keanu Reeves, which I just don't see as being a worthwhile trade-off.

[PermanentRevolution]

6. Good point...

I hadn't considered that!

:rofl:

[Runcible Spoon]

17. you back off Keanu now!

he's like the golden retriever of the movie industry..OK OK he might not be that bright but he's a good boy!


Arenchoo! Arenchoo! want a cookie? good boyyyyy!

[harmonicon]

18. I love Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure!

.... I've also seen some other movies with him that I've liked, but I know for a fact that I'd rather have my life than his, and rather be me than him.

[jobycom]

9. Like that blond guy in "Bossom Buddies"

He got credit in "The Polar Express" playing "lonely boy," while his former co-star played the lead.

[JVS]

20. Yeah. That's a great irony.

[realisticphish]

7. well

maybe Bill and Ted CAUSED the deaths.

[insanity]

8. At least Wyld Stalions made it to the big time

[jobycom]

10. How many historical figures could they choose who didn't die?

Interesting people often die interesting deaths. That's even part of why they remain famous--when you die at the height of your fame, you are remembered longer than if you fade away in obscurity. Socrates is only famous because Plato was so affected and angered by his execution that he made him the center of every philosophy he wrote. If Joan of Arc or Abraham Lincoln had lived long enough to have to clean up after their wars, they would have gone down as less effective, maybe even failures depending on how things turned out. Certainly not the romantic figures they are now. For contrast, what if Bush had been assassinated immediately after Hussein's capture? He might have gone down as a war hero, and left Cheney to get the bad reputation for failing the rest of the war.

Napoleon, Freud, Beethoven, and Ghenghis John Wayne Kahn only suffered interesting deaths because they were interesting in life. Their deaths were pretty normal for their eras.

So if Bill and Ted were better history students, they could have warned each figure that they would die. That would have been a big surprise to each, no doubt.

But that's still an interesting point. They did choose people famous for dying early. I wonder if they knew it.

[PassingFair]

12. Napoleon didn't "lose" Josephine...

he dumped her.

:(

[JVS]

13. 5, 3?

[Bicoastal]

16. Are you saying I can't count?

[JVS]

19. Well which of the 5 kind of people in the world are you, one who can count or one that can't?

[Connonym]

14. I'm thinking that you're the first person to ever give such serious thought to Bill and Ted

:) I only own a handful of movies and B&T's Excellent Adventure is one of them.

[frickaline]

15. I thought the whole point was that B&T were so historically clueless

that they couldn't pronounce their names properly. Certainly they would not have performed actual research to learn of each one's demise.

The real question is why didn't any of these geniuses think to look it up for themselves?