Peter Weller's Absurd And Inventive '80s Sci-Fi Flop Is Streaming For Free

Milos Forman's "Amadeus" may have cleaned up at the Oscars while "Ghostbusters" dominated the box office, but for me, 1984 is best remembered as a vintage year for cult movies. For starters, "This is Spinal Tap" was one of the most quotable movies of all time, and there was more musical madness with Val Kilmer spoofing Elvis in "Top Secret!" and Walter Hill's rock 'n' roll fable "Streets of Fire." Elsewhere, Emilio Estevez was on the trail of a UFO Chevy Malibu in "Repo Man," while Troma gave us an alternative superhero for the ages in "The Toxic Avenger." The list goes on, but arguably the weirdest of the bunch was "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension," a sci-fi action adventure starring Peter Weller that is just as absurd and inventive as its title suggests.

Trying to briefly outline the movie's plot is a challenge worthy of the best flash fiction writers. Dr. Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a superstar neurosurgeon and daredevil test pilot who winds down in the evening by fronting his rock band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Banzai finds himself caught up in a conflict between inter-dimensional aliens after he pilots a jet car capable of passing through solid matter via the 8th dimension thanks to its "oscillation overthruster." This quantum realm is inhabited by villainous aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10, imprisoned by the relatively benign Black Lectroids. Meanwhile, Banzai's nemesis Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) was possessed by the creatures' evil leader during a similar experiment back in 1938, and he plans to steal the overthruster and free his pals. This displeases the Black Lectroids, who give Banzai and the gang an ultimatum: Thwart Lizardo's plan or they will trigger World War III.

This wild tale came from the vivid imagination of Earl Mac Rauch, who had come to the attention of Hollywood screenwriter W.D. Richter in the mid-'70s thanks to his unconventional debut novel, "Dirty Pictures from the Prom." The pair started putting together a project about a multi-talented hero which incorporated elements of science fiction, kung-fu movies, and Westerns. It took them a decade to finally get "Buckaroo Banzai" to the screen, but their efforts were greeted with bafflement as the movie flopped hard at the box office. But it's a blast for cult movie fans, and you can currently check it out for free on Pluto TV.

Getting "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" to the screen was a long and complicated process, not helped by its writer's mercurial approach to putting a screenplay together. Initially paid $1,500 by W.D. Richter and his wife to pen a script, Earl Mac Rauch enthusiastically launched himself into one story about the hero (initially called "Buckaroo Bandy") before abandoning it and starting all over again with a different concept. By his own admission, Rauch dumped around 12 screenplays featuring wacky ideas, including a giant robot and a box of Hitler's cigars.

In the meantime, Richter was building up his reputation in Hollywood, most notably writing the excellent 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (one sci-fi remake that is better than the original) and receiving an Oscar nod for his "Brubaker" screenplay. In 1979, Richter teamed up with Neil Canton (who would later produce the "Back to the Future" trilogy) to form their own production company. Richter decided that "Buckaroo Banzai" would be the perfect project for him to make his debut as a director, but the pair realized they would need a completed screenplay if they had any chance of a studio stumping up the cash to relative unknowns. That meant getting Rauch back behind the typewriter and actually finishing something.

That something was a new Buckaroo Banzai adventure called "The Lepers from Saturn," and it took Rauch until 1982 to complete a script. That was just in time for the Writers' Guild of America to call a strike and shut down Hollywood. Eventually, the project was funded by 20th Century Fox, who handed Richter a handsome initial budget of $12 million. It would still take Rauch three more drafts before cameras eventually rolled with a workable screenplay, not to mention a 300-page tome called "The Essential Buckaroo" as a kind of reference book containing all the lore that Rauch had come up with previously. "Buckaroo Banzai" was finally a go picture, but the production was hampered by the presence of producer David Begelman, who didn't get it at all and continually interfered (Richter referred to him as "our enemy for the entire movie"). To Begelman's credit, however, he was responsible for the joyous end credits sequence with Buckaroo and his friends walking along the L.A. River.

A synopsis for "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" doesn't do full justice to the experience of actually watching it. On the surface, it's an offbeat sci-fi comedy with the familiar grain of a mid-budget, mid-'80s genre movie, but it has an attitude and a style that sets it totally apart. Key to the film's left field vibe is Peter Weller's performance as Buckaroo Banzai. Weller's approach to finding his character was suitably unconventional, drawing from the diverse likes of Elia Kazan, Albert Einstein, Jacques Cousteau, Leonardo da Vinci, and Adam Ant as inspirations.

Weller's unflappable Zen mystique as Banzai ("No matter where you go, there you are") is wonderfully contrasted by John Lithgow's utterly bonkers performance as Dr. Emilio Lizardo, who goes big with his outrageous Italian accent and bizarre mannerisms. They are supported by a colorful supporting cast including Clancy Brown and Lewis Smith as members of the Hong Kong Cavaliers; Ellen Barkin as Buckaroo's quirky love interest; and Christopher Lloyd as an alien going by the name of John Bigbooté (pronounced "Big Booty"), because all the Red Lectroids are called John. Last but not least, Jeff Goldblum is another neurosurgeon who likes to be called "New Jersey" and wears a cowboy outfit. His quirky acting technique fits perfectly here, and "Buckaroo Banzai" definitely goes down as one of the best Jeff Goldblum movies.

"The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai" revels in its own weirdness and the peculiar tone makes it totally understandable why some viewers simply wouldn't get it. The film takes itself at least semi-seriously (there aren't many outright jokes or winks to the camera), but a lot of the goofier elements play like a live-action cartoon — indeed, I was surprised to find out that it wasn't based on a comic book when I first saw it. If the film has a fault, it's that it gets a little repetitive in the last act when it morphs into a slightly more conventional sci-fi action movie. But the first hour is an absolute hoot as we get immersed in the wild self-contained world of Banzai and his pals and it's a super-stylish flick, too, championed by Los Angeles Magazine as "the moment geeks became cool." If that sounds like your jam, you can catch up with it now on Pluto TV.