Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a brain surgeon, rock musician, test pilot, inventor and all-around good guy. His father was Japanese, and his mother was American. After the death of his parents, Buckaroo was raised by his mentor, Professor Tochichi Hikita (Robert Ito). Buckaroo, along with Hikita, has perfected a device called the oscillation overthruster. The device is supposed to allow a solid object to pass through another solid object. To test the device Buckaroo drives his Jet Car through a mountain. While doing so, he passes through another dimension. After the test drive Buckaroo discovers that an alien life form, from the other dimension, attached itself to the Jet Car.
Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) is a resident of the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. In 1938, he and Dr. Hikita had built a prototype of the overthruster. While testing it before it was perfected, Lizardo ended up stuck for a time between dimensions. This affected him and landed him in the asylum. One day he sees a news report on television about Buckaroo’s test drive and his success in penetrating the barrier. Lizardo escapes from the institute in order to steal the overthruster.
During a performance with his band “The Hong Kong Cavaliers” Buckaroo becomes aware of a suicidal woman in the audience. He learns that her name is Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin). He then learns that she is the long-lost identical twin of his late wife. Buckaroo and Penny become attracted to each other.
A freak electrical discharge gives Buckaroo an electric shock that allows him to penetrate the disguise of aliens coming from the 8th dimension. Buckaroo is contacted by John Parker (Carl Lumbly), a friendly alien. From Parker Buckaroo learns that a peaceful alien race called Black Lectroids from Planet 10 banished hostile Red Lectroids to the 8th dimension. It seems that when Lizardo did his failed experiment in 1938, his mind was taken over by the ruler of the Red Lectroids. Now Buckaroo fears that Lizardo plans on freeing the Red Lectroids from the 8th dimension. If he succeeds, the Black Lectroids will have no choice but to initiate an action that will bring about Armageddon.
“The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” was released in 1984 and was directed by W.D. Richter. It is an American science fiction comedy adventure. It was meant to be a series of movies but only one was ever made. The film did spawn books, comics and a video game. It tanked at the box office, but the subsequent cult is quite strong.
In general, this is one of those movies that you either love or hate. I’m not a total fan of it, but I can see the appeal. There are a lot of quirky stars in the film that bring their individuality in abundance. The plot itself is a little complex. It’s a kitchen sink movie with lots of silliness delivered in sober dialogue interjected with offhand quips that are easy to miss unless you watch it again. The movie is chock full of strange characters and just about every movie theme you can think of.
Jamie Lee Curtis did a flashback scene as Buckaroo's mother, but the scene was deleted. It does appear on the DVD release as a special feature.
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