The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is undoubtedly a movie. While students and faculty alike walked around campus, some playing spikeball, some playing badminton, others just mingling and existing, I was one of a few that sat in Bliss 203’s unofficial movie night, watching this absolute gem of a 1980s sci-fi schlop. Why, you may ask? Well, Swadesh S. ‘23, a fellow audience member, explains, “his best hypothesis at present attributes it all to a malevolent deity with a particularly cruel sense of humor.” Starring an alarming number of future stars — Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Clancy Brown (Spongebob Squarepants), John Lithgow (too many to count), and Jeff Goldblum (that one time he was shirtless in Jurassic Park) –, this unsuccessful 1984 sci-fi film became a cult classic, partly due to being seen as a decent satire/mockery of science fiction movies. However, it becomes difficult to tell whether it is satire, an actual attempt at a low-budget sci-fi movie, or a mix of both. That being said, this movie was just too interesting to be left alone, so I vowed to take a crack at it.

The Wikipedia entry claims that this movie is an action-adventure sci-fi film, centered around “Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star, to save the world by defeating a band of inter-dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10.” However, I could not conceivably describe this experience to you beyond that collection of words of questionable verity. I came out of that viewing experience a changed person. As Swadesh puts it, “What had become of my brain? Did the law of universal gravitation hold anymore? Why do grapes exist? Only Buckaroo knows.” I second this notion. It was a religious experience, but instead of an omniscient, omnipotent deity floating towards me out of the light, there was only Dr. Buckaroo Banzai. He filled the god-shaped hole in the universe, he and his awful accent and abominable trigger discipline. What few flashes of memory I retained from that fateful evening race by, like Buckaroo Banzai racing his Jet Car through a mountain; I can remember but a few key moments, many bad props, and some questionable racial metaphors. So. Either watch the movie or read the Wikipedia article.

The props most strongly suggest this was at least originally intended to be a satire. The most stand-out example is the plastic-and-bubble-wrap goggles meant to protect from intense light from a holographic message. What muddles this vision is the slightly impressive (if unclear) spacecraft design and somewhat convincing alien costumes. As is the American WayTM, there is also an excessive number of guns and a similarly disturbing amount of poor trigger discipline. In fact, the climax involves the gaggle of secondary characters accompanying Dr. Banzai to the launch site of the Red Lectroids’ spaceship, meant to be used to destroy the planet. One of said gaggle is a prepubescent member of the Blue Blazes, Banzai’s fan club. Along with piloting a helicopter, this child also wields an assault rifle. ‘Murica.

The effects are not half-bad either, considering Return of the Jedi had been released a year prior. The spaceships are competent, and, again, the alien costumes are not that bad, if obviously fake. The main drawback is the particularly un-good action, filled with people falling over at no discernible impact, an absolutely null sense of pacing, and predominant floatiness.