The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

FADE IN:

EXT. SMALL TEXAS TOWN - DAY1

Beside a 1950 Ford, a quartet of elite intellectuals poses

playfully...dressed in the local custom of boots and cowboy hats, the

TOW ORIENTAL MEN, A CAUCASIAN MAN, AND A CAUCASIAN WOMAN squint into

the hot sun and then down at the jiggling home movie camera, the

operator lopsided...

NARRATOR:

The advent of the Soviet nuclear capability ushers in a dangerous phase

of the Cold War as the decade of the 1950s looms. Stung by this Soviet

challenge and the rapid race to develop ever more sophisticated

weapons, the United States resurrects maverick Professor Toichi

Hikita's work in electromagnetic particle acceleration...despite the

dismal record of failure that has dogged the project.

TOICHI HIKITA, one of the group, walks forward, taking the CAMERA from

its present operator, a four-year-old child...A LITTLE BOY IN CHAPS AND

COWBOY HAT who now joins the other adults, in particular Caucasian

woman and the elder Oriental man who pick him up and hug him...

NARRATOR:

Doctor Masado Banzai, preeminent Japanese quantum theorist, declares

himself anxious to work for the Allies. Enamored of the great American

West, Banzai sires a precocious son and tags the tiny child "Buckaroo."

A tribute to his adopted homeland.

EXT. TEST SITE - DAY2

A strange TWO-MAN SPEED VEHICLE readies for takeoff...the FIRST "PILOT"

in the cockpit Dr. Banzai himself:

NARRATOR:

And thus given a second chance after his secret pre-war laboratory

disaster at Princeton, Doctor Hikita finds new life at the Texas School

of Mines, where he assembles a team of crack scientists willing to

gamble he's right in his bold assertion that man can indeed pass

unharmed through solid matter.

The SECOND "PILOT," a fair-haired Caucasian:3

NARRATOR:

Sir Alan Motley of Cambridge, a brainy, affable limey, co-developer

with Whitehead and Lord Russell of the world's most advanced

theoretical gravity catapult...

4

The fourth scientist, the female Caucasian, busy with last-minute

details, securing the two pilots in their seats, checking their

instrument data, writing on a clipboard...

NARRATOR:

Dr. Sandra Banzai, Texas-born pioneer in Negative Mass Propulsion

...wife of Dr. Masado Banzai.

...as the four-year-old BUCKAROO BANZAI now approaches the speed

machine and gives his father a good-bye kiss...Dr. Banzai saying

something to the boy, Buckaroo bowing respectfully, as his father and

mother exchange last-minute assurances...

The cockpit canopy comes down, and Sandra Banzai tugs a reluctant

little Buckaroo toward a sandbagged shelter...

EXT. SANDBAGS - DAY5

...where Professor Hikita sits at a bank of monitoring equipment,

Sandra Banzai and Buckaroo entering the enclosure as...

...A SUDDEN NOISE causes Sandra Banzai to turn in fear, the bizarre

speed machine's motors whining at an astonishing rpm, BLINDING GREEN

FLAMES ENGULFING ITS COCKPIT...

EXT. TEST SITE - DAY6

...Sandra Banzai rushing toward the sheet-metal vehicle through SMOKE

AND GREEN FLAME as her husband and Sir Alan both struggle to get out...

7

...Buckaroo running after his mother who attempts to help the

scientists free themselves when suddenly the child is thrown to the

ground and protected by Professor Hikita's own body...as the

experimental car VAPORIZES IN A FLASH OF EMERALD GREEN LIGHT! THE

SCREEN GOING WHITE, A LAUNCH COUNTDOWN BEGINNING UNDER A SOMBER CARD:

TODAY:

THIRTY YEARS LATER

VOICE OF MISSION CONTROL

T Minus five hundred and counting. Phaser positive. Latch compressor.

INT. BLOCKHOUSE - DAY8

CLOSE ON AN OLDER, WISER PROFESSOR HIKITA:

PROF. HIKITA

Power source output, zero-zero-niner. Multi-stage axial compressor

latched.

EXT. JET CAR - PROVING GROUNDS - DAY9

One hundred yards from a concrete blockhouse, a SERIES OF MYSTERIOUS

CLOSEUPS of an UNUSUAL STRATEGIC AUTOMOBILE sitting ready to roll, as

TECHNICIANS in asbestos suites fill its tanks with HIGHLY FLAMMABLE

FUEL.

INT. BLOCKHOUSE - DAY10

PROF. HIKITA

Fuel pressure, 1800 torrs. Oxygenation.

...amid television screens, monitoring devices...an elite assortment of

GOVERNMENT VIPS, MILITARY MEN, AND NEWS MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES standing

by...

11

...one such observer, GENERAL CATBURD, an AIDE approaching, whispering

unpleasant news in his ear...

GENERAL CATBURD:

You're kidding. Where is he? Still in the hospital?

The aide shrugging, the General leaning over to a nervous man sitting

next to him...SECRETARY OF DEFENSE McKINLEY.

GENERAL CATBURD:

Banzai hasn't showed yet, Mr. Secretary. Looks like he's got cold feet.

Another angle. Two of Buckaroo's men, RENO and PERFECT TOMMY, sitting

with their boots on a computer console.

PERFECT TOMMY:

Better see what's keepin' the boss, Reno.

RENO:

Why me?

...an attractive NETWORK TV ANCHORWOMAN headed this way...

PERFECT TOMMY:

'Cause I'm busy. And get your clodhoppers off the UNIVAC.

INT. OPERATING ROOM - DAY13

THE EYES OF DOCTOR BUCKAROO BANZAI, THE REST OF HIS FACE HIDDEN BY A

SURGICAL MASK...such concentration.

INT. SURGICAL SCRUB ROOM - DAY14

...a phone ringing, a NURSE answering it, then:

NURSE:

Rawhide, it's for you.

Jacketless, A SINISTER PISTOL visible in the tooled leather shoulder

holster, RAWHIDE takes the receiver.

RAWHIDE:

I'll ask him.

(into his Go-Fone)

Buckaroo, I need an estimate. They're getting antsy over at Mission

Control.

INT. OPERATING ROOM - DAY15

Buckaroo Banzai speaks into his GO-FONE:

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

Another ten minutes down here, Rawhide.

REVEALING DOCTOR BANZAI, the great surgeon, surrounded by a well-oiled

team of physicians and nurses...his steady, miraculously skilled hands

working a LASER KNIFE on the brain of a PATIENT sitting clamped in a

serious chair.

INT. SURGICAL SCRUB ROOM - DAY16

RAWHIDE:

(into phone)

The chief needs ten more minutes. I got the chopper waiting. Don't

start without us.

INT. BLOCKHOUSE - DAY17

Perfect Tommy still leaning back in his swivel chair, smiling at the

blonde TV anchorwoman, waiting for her CAMERAMAN to set up...

TV ANCHORWOMAN:

So where's Buckaroo?

PERFECT TOMMY:

(a wry smile)

Whadda you need Buckaroo for?

The anchorwoman catching his drift, smiling, knowing Perfect Tommy

perhaps intimately...Perfect Tommy glancing across the crowded room at

Reno raising ten fingers...

PERFECT TOMMY:

Unscheduled surgery. He'll be waltzing along momentarily. What're you

doing tonight?

TV ANCHORWOMAN:

(picking up his hat)

Flying to Cambodia.

Perfect Tommy frowning severely as she tried on his Stetson, the

anchorwoman promptly getting the message and putting it back down.

PERFECT TOMMY:

That's why I wear a fifty dollar hat. Was a two hundred dollar hat, I

hadda kill you.

TV ANCHORWOMAN:

Bet you say that to all the girls, Perfect Tommy.

PERFECT TOMMY:

Bet I do.

INT. SURGICAL SCRUB ROOM - DAY18

Another STAR SURGEON, scrubbing for an operation next door now peeking

at his wrist watch TV:

CLOSE ON THE TINY TV: AN IMAGE OF THE JET CAR...19

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