Buckaroo Banzai
Encyclopedia
Buckaroo Banzai is the lead character, played by Peter Weller
, of the eponymous 1984 cult film
, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
. A renaissance man
, the character is a top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock
star and comic book
hero, and probably the last hope of the human race
. In the film, his latest experiments open the door to the 8th dimension and unwittingly start an interplanetary battle for the world.
in 1950, the son of two scientists: Masado Banzai, a brilliant Japanese
research physicist
whose work in theoretical quantum mechanics
is reported to have "rattled" Albert Einstein
, and Sandra Willoughby, the daughter of the eccentric Scottish
-born Texas
mathematician
Edward McKay Willoughby. Sandra Willoughby fell in love with Masado Banzai when she was sixteen and married him twelve years later, after becoming an expert in her own right in the field of negative mass propulsion. The couple fled Japan at the outbreak of World War II
and eventually settled in Texas. Their son grew up in Colorado
and Arizona
and was named "Buckaroo
" because of his father's love for the American West.
In 1946 Masado Banzai and Sandra Willoughby joined forces with Masado's old friend and colleague, Professor Toichi Hikita, who shared their belief that one day man would be able to pass unharmed through solid matter. Their researches culminated in 1955 in the Texas desert, when Dr. Banzai took the controls of a jet car equipped with an early version of the Oscillation Overthruster. But the experiment ended tragically: Buckaroo Banzai's parents were killed in an explosion (caused by sabotage planned by criminal mastermind Hanoi Xan) as the five-year-old child looked on. Hikita raised young Buckaroo, using the entire world as his classroom, and the boy grew up to be, among other things, an extraordinarily skilled neurosurgeon.
Dissatisfied with a life devoted exclusively to medicine, Buckaroo Banzai perfected a wide range of skills. He designed and drove high-powered automobile
s. He studied bujutsu and particle physics
. His skill with a sixgun was reputed to eclipse that of Wyatt Earp
. He spoke a dozen languages and wrote songs in all of them. His band, the Hong Kong
Cavaliers, was one of the most popular, hard-rocking bar bands in east New Jersey
(Buckaroo plays electric guitar
and pocket trumpet
), though its members (bearing names like Rawhide, Reno, the Swede, Perfect Tommy, Big Norse, and Pecos Bill) were not professional musicians at all, but rather cartographers and botanists, linguist
s and propellant engineers, an entomologist and an epidemiologist. All of them experts in their fields of endeavor, they were drawn to Buckaroo.
In the meantime, after a hiatus of over twenty years, original writers Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter have begun new adventures for Buckaroo Banzai, in the form of a comic book produced by Moonstone Books
. The new story, the three issue mini-series 'Return of the Screw', which was published on September 15, 2007, picks up where the film left off. It has since been collected in trade-paperback.
In March 2008, a two-issue prequel to 'Adventures in The 8th Dimension,' titled 'Of Hunan Bondage,' was published. Most recently, a one-shot, Big Size, was published.
universe, a science fiction world taking place in the 31st century. It is not clearly explained how they find themselves in the future other than some sort of time warp, either intentional or inadvertent, but he occupies himself in that era as a professor at the New Avalon Institute of Science on the world of New Avalon within the Federated Suns
successor state and is also a Battlemech designer, having designed the Hatchetman and Axeman mechs according to the sourcebooks Battletech Technical Readout 3025 and Battletech Technical Readout 3050. He is also featured as a character in some of the Battletech novels written by Michael Stackpole.
Many of the crew involved in Star Trek
, especially the incarnations made during the 1990s, were fans of Buckaroo Banzai and frequently included or inserted 'in-jokes', often in on-screen graphics not entirely visible to the audience. Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki, has a list of these.
Peter Weller
Peter Frederick Weller is an American film and stage actor, director and lecturer.He is best known for his roles as the title character in the first two RoboCop films and Buckaroo Banzai in the cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension...
, of the eponymous 1984 cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!, often shortened to Buckaroo Banzai, is an American spoof science fiction film that was released in 1984. It was directed and produced by W. D. Richter, and concerns the efforts of the multi-talented Dr...
. A renaissance man
Renaissance Man
Renaissance Man is a 1994 comedy film, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar, and Ed Begley, Jr. It also features Mark Wahlberg in one of his earliest roles....
, the character is a top neurosurgeon, particle physicist, race car driver, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
star and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
hero, and probably the last hope of the human race
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
. In the film, his latest experiments open the door to the 8th dimension and unwittingly start an interplanetary battle for the world.
Biography
Born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1950, the son of two scientists: Masado Banzai, a brilliant Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
research physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
whose work in theoretical quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
is reported to have "rattled" Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, and Sandra Willoughby, the daughter of the eccentric Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
Edward McKay Willoughby. Sandra Willoughby fell in love with Masado Banzai when she was sixteen and married him twelve years later, after becoming an expert in her own right in the field of negative mass propulsion. The couple fled Japan at the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and eventually settled in Texas. Their son grew up in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and was named "Buckaroo
Buckaroo
A Buckaroo is a cowboy of the vaquero tradition of the Great Basin and California regions of the United States, particularly one skilled in the handling of horses...
" because of his father's love for the American West.
In 1946 Masado Banzai and Sandra Willoughby joined forces with Masado's old friend and colleague, Professor Toichi Hikita, who shared their belief that one day man would be able to pass unharmed through solid matter. Their researches culminated in 1955 in the Texas desert, when Dr. Banzai took the controls of a jet car equipped with an early version of the Oscillation Overthruster. But the experiment ended tragically: Buckaroo Banzai's parents were killed in an explosion (caused by sabotage planned by criminal mastermind Hanoi Xan) as the five-year-old child looked on. Hikita raised young Buckaroo, using the entire world as his classroom, and the boy grew up to be, among other things, an extraordinarily skilled neurosurgeon.
Dissatisfied with a life devoted exclusively to medicine, Buckaroo Banzai perfected a wide range of skills. He designed and drove high-powered automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s. He studied bujutsu and particle physics
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
. His skill with a sixgun was reputed to eclipse that of Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
. He spoke a dozen languages and wrote songs in all of them. His band, the Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
Cavaliers, was one of the most popular, hard-rocking bar bands in east New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
(Buckaroo plays electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and pocket trumpet
Pocket trumpet
thumb|250px|Pocket trumpet in B-flat, with a 5-inch standard size bell and medium-large boreThe pocket trumpet is a compact size B trumpet, with the same playing range as the regular trumpet. The tubing is wound more tightly than that of a standard trumpet in order to reduce its size while...
), though its members (bearing names like Rawhide, Reno, the Swede, Perfect Tommy, Big Norse, and Pecos Bill) were not professional musicians at all, but rather cartographers and botanists, linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
s and propellant engineers, an entomologist and an epidemiologist. All of them experts in their fields of endeavor, they were drawn to Buckaroo.
Further Adventures
The end of the 1984 Buckaroo Banzai movie promised a sequel, Buckaroo Banzai Vs. The World Crime League, but Sherwood Productions' bankruptcy prevented the film from being made--at least for the time being. The original film's ownership changed hands over the years, and the Banzai franchise is currently owned by MGM, so any sequel or remake is at their discretion.In the meantime, after a hiatus of over twenty years, original writers Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter have begun new adventures for Buckaroo Banzai, in the form of a comic book produced by Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
. The new story, the three issue mini-series 'Return of the Screw', which was published on September 15, 2007, picks up where the film left off. It has since been collected in trade-paperback.
In March 2008, a two-issue prequel to 'Adventures in The 8th Dimension,' titled 'Of Hunan Bondage,' was published. Most recently, a one-shot, Big Size, was published.
Other media
Buckaroo Banzai and several other members of Team Banzai are prominently featured in the BattletechBattleTech
BattleTech is a wargaming and science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2000, and owned since 2003 by Topps. The series began with FASA's debut of the board game BattleTech by Jordan Weisman and L...
universe, a science fiction world taking place in the 31st century. It is not clearly explained how they find themselves in the future other than some sort of time warp, either intentional or inadvertent, but he occupies himself in that era as a professor at the New Avalon Institute of Science on the world of New Avalon within the Federated Suns
Federated Suns
In the fictional BattleTech Universe, the Federated Suns is the Successor State ruled by House Davion. The Federated Suns is considered the military powerhouse of the five Successor States. In fact, one of the requirements for the title of First Prince of the Federated Suns is at least five years...
successor state and is also a Battlemech designer, having designed the Hatchetman and Axeman mechs according to the sourcebooks Battletech Technical Readout 3025 and Battletech Technical Readout 3050. He is also featured as a character in some of the Battletech novels written by Michael Stackpole.
Many of the crew involved in Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, especially the incarnations made during the 1990s, were fans of Buckaroo Banzai and frequently included or inserted 'in-jokes', often in on-screen graphics not entirely visible to the audience. Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki, has a list of these.
Links
- Character page on IMDbInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...