Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

The music of Bill and Ted's band, Wyld Stallyns, has created a utopian future society. Dissatisfied former gym teacher Chuck De Nomolos, frustrated by what he considers a foolish and frivolous society, steals one of the time-traveling phone booths from the Bill & Ted University and sends two evil robots modeled after Bill and Ted back to the late 20th century to prevent Bill and Ted from winning the San Dimas Battle of the Bands. Rufus attempts to stop De Nomolos but seemingly becomes lost in the circuits of time.

In the present, two years after Bill and Ted first traveled through time and successfully passed their history report, Wyld Stallyns is preparing for the contest. Though Bill and Ted's current girlfriends and former 15th-century princesses Joanna and Elizabeth have become skilled musicians, Bill and Ted are still inept. Despite this, the organizer, Ms. Wardroe, assures them a slot in the contest as the final act.

At a birthday party for Joanna and Elizabeth, Ted's father recommends that he sell the instruments or pay back some money lest he be sent to Col. Oats military school should they fail the Battle of the Bands. Missy, Bill's former stepmother, divorced his father and married Ted's. After the party, Bill & Ted propose to Joanna and Elizabeth - simultaneously just before Evil Bill & Ted arrive. The Evil robots lure Bill and Ted away to Vasquez Rocks and kill them by throwing the two over the side of a cliff. They then replace Bill & Ted, behave rudely to the princesses who break off the engagement, and work to ruin the duo's fame. The Evil Duo plan to "waste the babes" during the upcoming concert.

In the afterlife, Bill and Ted's souls are met by Death who says they may challenge him in a game for their souls, but that nobody has ever won. Bill and Ted escape after giving Death a "melvin". They attempt to alert the police by possessing Ted's Dad and a Deputy but the police are don't believe them, and are eventually cast down into Hell at a séance held by Missy. In Hell, they are tormented by Satan and forced to face their own fears, and realize their only escape is to take Death's offer. Taken to Death's chambers, the spirit allows them to choose a game to play. Bill and Ted, to Death's dismay, select modern games like Battleship, Clue, Electric Football and Twister.[10] They easily beat Death every time; Death admits defeat and becomes their servant.

Bill and Ted realize they need to locate the smartest person in the universe to help build robots to counter De Nomolos' evil robots. Death escorts the two to Heaven, and with God's help, the three are directed to an alien named Station who readily offers to help Bill and Ted. Death brings them back to the mortal world, where it is the night of the Battle of the Bands. Bill and Ted take Station to a hardware store, and then race in their van back to the concert while Station constructs two benevolent robot versions of Bill and Ted. Elsewhere, the Evil Bill & Ted robots abduct Joanna and Elizabeth and tie them high above the stage at the Battle of the Bands.

Just as the evil robots take the stage, Bill and Ted arrive, and Station's robots easily defeat their evil counterparts and lower Joanna and Elizabeth down to the stage. De Nomolos appears in the time booth, ready to defeat Bill and Ted himself, and overrides the broadcasting equipment to send video footage of the Battle to everyone on the planet. The two work out that they can later go back in time to arrange events for De Nomolos to be trapped in the present, aided by Death and Station; though De Nomolos is apparently able to do the same, Bill and Ted gain the upper hand with the explanation that it is only the winners who get to go back, and De Nomolos is arrested by Ted's father. Ms. Wardroe reveals herself to be a disguised Rufus, and urges them to play.

As Bill and Ted reunite with their fiancées, they realize that they are still terrible musicians, and the four use the time booth. Though they then return immediately, "an intense 16 months of guitar training plus a two-week honeymoon" have passed for them. They begin to perform a stunning rock ballad, joined by Death, Station, and the benevolent robots. The worldwide broadcast set by De Nomolos continues, and Wyld Stallyns' music is played across the globe, creating harmony. Wyld Stallyns win the Battle of the Bands. The band, along with Death, encounter many perks of fame that help them fulfill their destinies as the Two Great Ones and create their utopian society with their music. Wyld Stallyns eventually take their act to Mars.

• Keanu Reeves as Theodore ‘’Ted’’ Logan/Evil Ted
  • Brendan Ryan as Young Ted
• Alex Winter as William ‘’Bill’’ S. Preston/Granny S. Preston/Evil Bill
  • William Throne as Young Bill
• William Sadler as Death/English Father (uncredited)[11]
• Joss Ackland as Chuck De Nomolos
• George Carlin as Rufus
• Chelcie Ross as Col. Oats
• Pam Grier as Ms. Wardroe
• Annette Azcuy as Elizabeth
• Sarah Trigger as Joanna
• Hal Landon Jr. as Captain Logan, Ted's father
• Amy Stock-Poynton as Missy Logan, formerly Bill's stepmother now Ted's
• Ed Gale and Arturo Gil as Station
• Tom Allard as Big Station
• Michael "Shrimp" Chambers as Good Robot Bill
• Bruno "Taco" Falcon as Good Robot Ted
• Frank Welker as the voices of Satan, The Easter Bunny and Station (uncredited)
• Tony Cox as Station (uncredited)

Progressive rock/metal band Primus appear as themselves during Battle of the Bands, performing Tommy the Cat. Candace and Lauren Mead portray "Little Bill" Logan and "Little Ted" Preston; with the characters revealed in Bill & Ted Face the Music to be girls, whose full names are shown to be Billie Logan and Thea Preston.[12][13]

As was particularly common at the time, the soundtrack album focuses on the rock music heard throughout the film. An album of the full orchestral score by David Newman would not become available until 2007.[14]

The song Bill and Ted play for the battle of the bands is "Final Guitar Solo" by Steve Vai, which he wrote to help blend into "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II" by Kiss, although Bill appears similar in appearance to Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top.[15]

There's also a reference to the lyrics from "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison.[16]

Critical reception to the movie was mixed. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reported that 54% of 50 surveyed critics gave Bogus Journey a positive review; the average rating was 5.93/10. The film's consensus stated: "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey has the same stars—and cheerfully wacky sense of humor—as its predecessor, but they prove a far less effective combination the second time around."[17]

Desson Howe of The Washington Post called it "an entertaining, surreal journey" that is "funnier and livelier than the original."[18] Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "amusing but sloppy and overcomplicated".[19] Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of a possible 4 stars, writing, "It's the kind of movie where you start out snickering in spite of yourself, and end up actually admiring the originality that went into creating this hallucinatory slapstick."[20] (Ebert did not see or review the first film.) Dave Kehr, then of the Chicago Tribune, also gave the film 3 stars. He stated that it is unusual for an Ingmar Bergman parody to show up in a teen comedy, and referred to the film as a "genuine pleasure."[21] Gene Siskel, also of the Tribune, gave the film only 2½ stars, but did say that the second film was better than the first.[21] Leonard Maltin also gave Bogus Journey 2½ stars, a half-star more than he gave to Excellent Adventure.[22] Variety wrote that the film has "a few triumphant moments, but not enough to sustain pic's running time."[23]

To coincide with the release of the movie, Marvel Comics released a one-shot comic book adaptation of the movie, hiring Evan Dorkin to adapt the screenplay and pencil the art. Like Archie Goodwin's adaptation of the first Star Wars film, Dorkin worked from the original script, which included many deleted scenes such as the fears from Hell attempting to block Bill & Ted from the concert, and Evil Bill & Ted Killing Bill & Ted again before they remind The Reaper they are owed lives from beating him so many times. Death was portrayed as the archetypal skeletal figure. Due to the popularity of the comic, Marvel commissioned a spin-off series, Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book, which kept the talents of Dorkin, DeStefano, and Severin. The series ran for 12 issues, featuring original stories, such as Death taking a vacation, The Princesses old suitors a medevil version of Bill & Ted, gaining a band manager, a return by DeNomolos, an attempt to stop John Wilkes Booth and meeting Little Bill & Ted from the Future. [24]

In 2010, Reeves indicated that Matheson and Solomon were working on a script for a third film,[25] confirming in April 2011 that a draft was complete.[26] Winter said in March 2012 that he and Reeves both like the finished script, which revisits the two characters after the changes of the past twenty years. Despite the script being finished and satisfied by both parties, no specific filming dates were given.[27]

In April 2016, Winter said that he hoped the film would begin production in 2017.[28] Reeves gave an update on the film in February 2017; he said a story has been written for the third film. "Basically, they're supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven't done that. The pressure of having to save the world, their marriages are falling apart, their kids are kind of mad at them, and then someone comes from the future and tells them if they don't write the song it's not just the world, it's the universe. So they have to save the universe because time is breaking apart."[29] On May 8, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Bill & Ted: Face the Music, was officially in pre-production, with Dean Parisot directing, and no announced release date.[30] Both Reeves and Winter agreed to return to reprise their roles.

On February 6, 2019, Production Weekly listed production on Face the Music as slated to start on March 5 of that year.[31][32]

• Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey on IMDb
• Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey at AllMovie
• Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey at Rotten Tomatoes