by (http://www.swcp.com/synth/, synth@swcp.com)


(All info obtained via Denise Tathwell & the original 
 Buckaroo Banzai Fan Club at 20th Century Fox.)


- Peter Weller (Buckaroo) and John Lithgow (Whorfin) are both big fans of
  the film.  Weller used to regularly wear a black Team Banzai leather
  jacket ...

- For a year or so after the movie was released in 1984, the folks at
  Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic and the BB folks at 20th Century
  Fox liked to play gags on one another.  ILM's particular favorite was to
  repeatedly steal the Jet Car and store it up at the ILM warehouse ...

- The home videocassette of BUCKAROO BANZAI went platinum after its first
  10 days of release ...

- Billy Vera (Pinky Carruthers) is an accomplished jazz and blues musician,
  singer and songwriter.  His band, Billy Vera and the Beaters, appear
  in the movie as the Kolodny Brothers & the Rug Suckers, colleagues of Team
  Banzai called to help with the raid on Yoyodyne -- and who also make up the
  rest of the Hong Kong Cavaliers house band.

- Various movies have paid tribute to BB:

  In the film INTO THE NIGHT, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldblum
  (New Jersey), there is a scene where Goldblum, about to drive away and leave
  Pfeiffer, gives her a cheerful thumbs-up and with a knowing look on his
  face says "Banzai!"

  In MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, one of the characters uses the line "No matter
  where you go ... there you are ..."

  BACK TO THE FUTURE has scores of deliberate Banzai references, thanks to
  producer Neil Canton, who also was producer of BB.  Among them:

   88 mph (crossover speed) .......... 88 is a common Team Banzai icon -- (Jet
                                       Car's license plate was HB88, visual
                                       similarity between "BB" and "88")

   the name "flux capacitor" ......... derived from "oscillation overthruster"

   triangular design of flux capc .... triangular LEDs on Hikita's overthruster
                                       readout

   Doc calling Marty "futureboy" ..... derived from "monkeyboy"

   Doc's silver jacket in 1955 ....... worn by all Black Lectroids (Nova Police
                                       uniform)!


 ... and more recently spotted:

  In STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, the starship Excelsior's
  bridge dedication plaque bears the motto "No matter where you go, there
  you are."

  In the episode "Pen Pals" on STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION, the "spectral
  analyzer" used in the geology laboratory was none other than the 
  oscillation overthruster itself.

  Another STTNG episode, "Up The Long Ladder", finds Captain Picard
  looking through a list of starships on a computer readout.  Among
  them is the Starship Buckaroo Banzai, captained by John Whorfin.
  This and another ship, the Hathway, are both listed as being built
  at Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems ...

  In THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE, Mike invokes the "no matter where you go ..."
  line ...

  In the "Larry Sanders Show" on HBO, an episode with Jeff Goldblum
  has a character telling him she's a fan of Buckaroo Banzai.  
  Goldblum happily reminisces about "Perfect Tommy ... Reno ...
  Rawhide ..."

(added 28 may 99:)
  The Star Trek TNG Technical Manual's "special thanks" section (in
  the Author's Introduction) mentions as its last expert a "John
  O'Connor of YPS". (thanks to djohnson@physics.spa.umn.edu)

(added 02 feb 03:)
  In _Into The Night_, Goldblum's thumbs-up and "Banzai!" is followed
  by the 3 notes of the Oscillation Overthruster.  (thanks to
  Brandy Power)

(added 27 sep 10:)
  "So, I was watching the newly released 'Max Headroom' DVD set, 
  specifically the episode 'Security Systems,' and what should turn up
  as the slogan of a titular all-invasive megacorp but, 'No matter
  where you go, there you are.'"
    - dw (david_w) on the BB Yahoogroups mailing list

-------

For those of you peeking in looking for information on the rough cut of
the movie (a rough cut is a working print, usually sans post-production or
uncompleted: it generally lacks music, visual FX, sound FX, dialogue looping.
Rough cuts usually have footage that are later edited out for time/pacing
constraints, so they're valuable in that they are extra footage or scenes
that didn't make it to the theater.  Yes, I have a copy of the BB rough cut :-)

So I had painstakingly detailed a list of ALL additional footage found in
the rough cut when I acquired it, and it dawned on me that others could
benefit from these notes.  So here they are, timestamped and everything.
If you own the rough cut, this will help you locate extra footage.  If you
don't own it, then this will give you a taste of what you're missing! :-)

BUCKAROO BANZAI ROUGH CUT
1 hour 55 minutes
no soundtrack, ADR, foley, visual effects

additional footage:
        00:00:00 - 00:02:39 1955 intro narrated by Rawhide
        00:18:56 - 00:19:23 Arnie's Backstage. Dirty picture in viewer
        00:22:14 - 00:22:23 Penny: "There I said it ... it's not important"
        00:22:45 - 00:23:05 Penny: "as long as there's a sidewalk"
        00:32:14 - 00:32:57 BB & HKCs arrive at Press Conference
        00:34:43 - 00:34:51 Buckaroo: "ugly snoot"
        00:36:10 - 00:36:23 Penny: "space inside that mountain"
        00:41:15 - 00:41:25 Lectroids in Van.  "gimme a fix"
        00:41:42 - 00:41:59 HKCs waiting in Conference Rm, Penny playing
                            "Since I Don't Have You" on the piano
        00:46:53 - 00:47:01 Gomez saying "3-man thermal pod"
        00:49:35 - 00:50:25 HKCs enter room, Billy asks if they're going to
                            rehearse.  Rawhide instructs Billy to break into
                            Yoyodyne computer system
        00:51:23 - 00:51:29 John O'Connor discovers Hikita missing
        00:52:57 - 00:53:10 Pinky at Institute. On phone informing Reno that
                            Hikita just arrived
        00:58:44 - 00:59:00 Hikita brainstorming in lab
        01:01:59 - 01:02:26 John Emdall talking to Perfect Tommy
        01:04:35 - 01:05:06 Buckaroo and Penny discuss Hanoi Xan
        01:12:18 - 01:12:40 2-way link: additional conversation between
                            President & Buckaroo
        01:13:16 - 01:13:37 John Parker to President
        01:14:10 - 01:14:15 Secy: Where's the Jet Car these days?
        01:16:40 - 01:17:02 Penny threatens Lizardo
        01:19:40 - 01:20:19 President rambling
        01:27:03 - 01:27:50 Secy in World Watch One, Buckaroo saying
                            Whorfin's real name
        01:40:16 - 01:40:34 Secy finds Jet Car; bouncing Lectroids

-------


synth@swcp.com
www.swcp.com/synth


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