Have you ever wondered what Napoleon would think about waterparks? How Joan of Arc would feel about aerobic classes and classic U.S. malls? What epic ballads would Beethoven create if he had a Moog synthesizer instead of a boring old Steinway? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then I have the most excellent movie for you. 

“Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” starts off not so excellent for our heroes. A man named Rufus (George Carlin) must go back in time to help Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (the one and only Keanu Reeves) preserve a future in which they are revered as gods. From this premise, you may be thinking that Bill and Ted are destined to turn into supersoldiers or brainiacs who help stop the end of the world from an asteroid or alien invasion.

But instead, the fate of the world hinges on the success of the pair’s ’80s glam rock band, Wyld Stallyns, whose audience is currently the walls of Bill’s garage. In addition to not knowing how to play the guitar or showing any musical acumen, Bill and Ted are totally bogus at history, so much so that if they don’t pass the history presentation due the following day they will flunk out of high school. 

After making several fruitless attempts to study historical figures, calling Napoleon “the short dead guy” and pronouncing Socrates as “so-crates,” Bill and Ted meet Rufus, his time-traveling phone booth, and the future version of themselves. After accidentally kidnapping Napoleon in 1805 and bringing him to the present, Bill and Ted make the righteous decision to kidnap more historical figures to help them pass their history presentation. 

After managing to survive a bar fight in the Wild West with the help of Billy the Kid, they travel to ancient Greece, where Ted proves that glam rock is a form of modern philosophy — Socrates would have loved Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind.” The movie then moves into a montage in which Bill and Ted snatch figures like Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund “Siggy” Freud, and Ludwig van Beethoven, all accompanied by a totally rad ’80s pop-rock soundtrack.

After Bill and Ted rescue their archival pals from jail, where they’ve been detained for terrorizing the local mall, it’s time for the history presentation. The duo rocks out on stage, recruiting “the most bodacious philosophizer” Socrates to describe his newly adopted philosophy and Siggy Freud to psychoanalyze Ted’s rocky relationship with his father, who is determined to send his son to military school in Alaska (Yikes!). In the end, Rufus reveals how important Wyld Stallyns is to the future before shredding a sick solo and leaving them to finally learn how to play the guitar. 

Throughout the movie, Bill and Ted consistently look like they just stumbled out of a Reagan-era “this is your brain on drugs” PSA: two zoned-out space cadets who share the same clocked-out brain cell. Despite their hilarious stupidity, they are good-natured dudes who never mean harm and only want to explore things they find cool, which consists mainly of sick air guitar solos. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter do a phenomenal job of acting endearingly stupid, which is not as easy as it seems. Part of what makes this movie work is the chemistry Bill and Ted share. Sure, they may be airheads who can’t pronounce Beethoven or Socrates, but when the occasion calls for it they are able to band together to get the job done. 

Bill and Ted also share a number of iconic phrases, which could become tiresome if they weren’t so absurdly funny. Instead, the gags and mind-numbingly stupid jokes will have you quoting the movie long after you see it. “Most excellent” is a phrase I have permanently added to my vocabulary since watching, in addition to my increased propensity for random air guitar solos. The visuals and special effects may make it evident that this movie is from 1989, but even this adds to the whimsical attitude of the movie. 

With a wide array of jokes, unique time travel concepts, great chemistry between Reeves and Winter, and even a waterslide-loving Napoleon, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” is a masterclass in dumb fun and a must-watch for any Keanu Reeves fan. As the legendary Wyld Stallyns would say, “Be excellent to each other and party on dude!”