The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Page #4

PERFECT TOMMY ON TV

Nope.

ANCHORWOMAN ON TV

Was Buckaroo acting different this morning, I mean, in terms of other

mornings?

The Cavaliers rolling their eyes, looking at one another...

RAWHIDE ON TV:

Well, we partied pretty late last night.

91

BACK TO Dr. Lizardo now hearing footsteps outside in the corridor, and

HIS LEFT AHND, ACTING INDEPENDENTLY OF HIS RIGHT, ERASES THE EQUATION

HE'S JUST WRITTEN...as his right hand reaches under his pillow and

picks up a crude HOMEMADE ELECTROMAGNET...a piece of metal wrapped in

copper wire, one end of which is a small loop that Lizardo now attaches

directly to his thumbs...

DOCTOR LIZARDO:

(muttering)

The Overthruster! The Overthruster!

Lizardo looking back at his equation, at first puzzled to find it

erased, then becoming angry.

92

CLOSE ON HIS HAND NOW STICKING THE OTHER END OF HIS HOME-MADE DEVICE

DIRECTLY INTO AN ELECTIRCAL SOCKET...

ANGLE ON:
93

DOCTOR LIZARDO:

(obsessed)

The Overthruster!

ELECTRICAL CURRENT COURSING THROUGH LIZARDO'S BODY...AN AURA

SURROUNDING HIM AS HIS LIPS CURL INTO A HIDEOUS SMILE...BURNING THE

SCREEN, TAKING US INTO AN ASTOUNDING FLASHBACK SEQUENCE:

INT. STRANGE LABORATORY - NIGHT94

Forty-six years prior (years before the ill-fated primitive speed car

run involving Buckaroo's parents) an unlikely experiment in a strange

factory...A RUNWAY...a much younger, dark-haired Doctor Lizardo being

strapped into a homemade wicker chair/rocket sled by two LAB

ASSISTANTS, the entire contraption set up like a catapult AIMED

DIRECTLY AT A LOSID BRICK WALL, THROBBING ELECTROMAGNETS AND BANKS OF

GLOWING OSCILLATORS...

95

ANOTHER ANGLE...and peering into an unusual periscope, an equally

JUVENILE PROFESSOR HIKITA wearing glasses and scraggly

goatee...standing in front of a 1938 calendar on the wall, today's

eagerly awaited date circled in red...

PROF. HIKITA

Almost ready, Dr. Lizardo...almost...

Doctor Lizardo pulling on a leather helmet, Professor Hikita nodding

grimly at the LAB ASSISTANTS who tug on a GIANT LEVER...the

ELECTROMAGNETS PULSATING...

DOCTOR LIZARDO:

More! More!

PROF. HIKITA

Not so fast...

96

ANGLE ON Doctor Lizardo pulling a switch, UNLEASHING HIS WICKER CHAIR

AT A FANTASTIC SPEED down the rails!

97

AT THE END OF THE TRACK...the strange device coming to an abrupt and

total stop ten feet from the brick wall, pitching Lizardo forward

and...

98

...through the wall, at least partially, the seemingly solid bricks

turning out to be more like vertical QUICKSAND...Lizardo half in, half

out, physically unhurt but screaming his head off...

99

...the assistants rushing down the runway to help pry him loose, while

Professor Hikita observes an astonishing thing through his periscope.

100

PERISCOPE POV:
HUGE GROTESQUE RED CREATURES IN AN AURA OF ELECTRICITY

TRYING TO PULL DOCTOR LIZARDO TOWARD THEM...ONE CREATURE IN PARTICULAR

ENVELOPING LIZARDO!

101

BACK TO...the doctor's assistants frantically tugging on his feet,

dragging him back into the room only to find this SUDDENLY ORANGE-

HAIRED LIZARDO a fearsome, changed individual...a beast!

102

CLOSE ON LIZARDO! A terrifying scream issues from his mouth as he

straightens up, at last wrenching free of the wicker chair, smashing

his two assistants' heads together as he jumps over the runway! Hikita

watching wild-eyed as Lizardo makes a mad dash into the vast shadowy

expanse of the factory...

103

A DISTANT VIEW OF LIZARDO as he rips a door off its hinges, escaping

into the night, SILHOUTTED AGAINST A DAZZLING SECURITY LIGHT, THE

SCREEN BURNING WHITE...OUR FLASHBACK ENDING.

INT. LIZARDO'S ROOM - NIGHT104

Nearly half a century later, the elderly Lizardo regards with

smoldering evil the turn of the key in his own door and the appearance

of a GUARD who comes in and unplugs his TV set.

GUARD:

Cheer up, Lizardo, it's Friday. I come for your TV. You been using

too damn much juice...ten thousand kilowatts again this month. Beats

me how one old homicidal loony could use that much power.

The guard leaving with Lizardo's TV...Lizardo trying to control

himself, his eyes rolling up at the ceiling where yet another UNUSUAL

EQUATION has been scrawled in an angry hand.

DOCTOR LIZARDO:

I want my TV...don't take my TV...I want it. I want the Overthruster.

I want it.

INT. NIGHTCLUB - NIGHT105

Mysterious half-light...CLOSEUPS...plugs and jacks...a portion of an

upright base...drums with the BANZAI LOGO writ large...hands and feet

putting everything together as an unseen audience stirs restlessly...

INT. DRESSING ROOM - NIGHT106

Backstage in a small dressing room, the rock band known as the Hong

Kong Cavaliers waits to go on...three unidentified GROUPIES in

attendance as Rawhide naps and Reno tunes his saxophone while Perfect

Tommy answers the questions of a FEMALE REPORTER from the local

underground press...

Professor Hikita meantime at a corner table, studying his big notebook,

examining a pair of KODAK SLIDES...

...as there is the sound of a commotion in the corridor, EXCITED VOICES

and FOOT TRAFFIC coming this way, Rawhide methodically counting down

under his Stetson:

RAWHIDE:

Five...four...three...two...one.

107

The door to the dressing room opening precisely on the count of one,

admitting an out-of-breath and hastily tuxedoed Buckaroo Banzai, A

SMALL CROWD OF ASSORTED FEMAL FANS locked outside.

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

I'm starving...somebody, help.

RAWHIDE:

Got a half a tuna sandwich.

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

Same one you had yesterday?

Rawhide taking a half-eaten sandwich out of his hat and tossing it to

Buckaroo...

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

Smells fermented.

(taking a big bite)

Check in with the Institute, Reno, see if everything's kosher.

PROF. HIKITA

Buckaroo, I've done an advanced spectrograph analysis on the specimen

you pulled off the Jet Car drive shaft.

RENO:

And there's a two-hundred-dollar deductible we have to eat on that

crack in her windshield.

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

Figures. Anybody seen my scope?

PERFECT TOMMY:

Coming right up, Buckaroo.

Perfect Tommy producing a highly sophisticated SLIDE VIEWER...Buckaroo

slipping in a transparency.

108

HIS POV OF A COLORFUL PRISMATIC GRAPH over the backdrop of A NAKED

WOMAN.

109

Buckaroo immediately diagnosing the problem and removing the naked-

woman slide from the viewer...

BUCKAROO BANZAI:

Anybody we know?

PERFECT TOMMY:

Who put this dirty picture in Buckaroo's viewer?

Rawhide reclaiming his raunchy slide, Buckaroo looking back into the

sleek device...

PROF. HIKITA

I ran it through the centrifuge, but I came up blank. It's definitely

dead now, although it still conducts electricity even better than

copper does.

PERFECT TOMMY:

Super performance organic material.

PROF. HIKITA

Yes, Perfect Tommy, in a way. However...

(slipping in another slide)

...notice...although certain components resist identification, it

corresponds very closely to an ordinary praying mantis.

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