15 Most Excellent Things You Didn't Know About 'Bill & Ted'

The duo of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey are some of the most endearing movies from the late 80s and early 90s. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are great as the two titular knuckleheads who have to travel through time to save the world, get their band together, and of course, pass their history class.

We love these movies, and we know you do too, but we're willing to bet you probably didn't know these 15 things about them!

1) At one point in time, you could win the time-traveling phone booth!

The prop used in the movie was given away in a raffle by Nintendo Power Magazine to promote the Bill & Ted video game for the NES!

2) The phone booth was originally supposed to be a 1969 Chevy van

The writers decided that it would feel too similar to Back to the Future's DeLorean.

3) It's full of surprisingly smart historical references

When Napoleon outlines his waterslide presentation, which Ted responds to with "I don't think it's gonna work," the map actually shows his invasion of Russia, the real-life Napoleon Bonaparte's biggest defeat.

4) Keanu Reeves was worried it would define his career

He's previously commented "I used to have nightmares that they would put 'He played Ted' on my tombstone".

5) Eddie Van Halen (who is mentioned in the movie) is a fan

The Wyld Stallyns insist they need to get him to join their band. After seeing the movie, Van Halen commented that he'd have absolutely appeared in the movie if anyone had asked him to.

6) It was supposed to be much darker

Bill and Ted were actually supposed to cause nearly every major historical disaster with their time-traveling, including the sinking of the Titanic, the crash of the Hindenburg, and the Black Plague.

The facts only get more surprising from here...

7) Steve Vai recorded all of the guitar riffs in the movies

He was most excellent at it.

8) The city of San Dimas, California is pretty proud of the movies

At the city's 50th Anniversary, the festivities were called "San Dimas, 1960-2010 - An Excellent Adventure"

9) Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves were cast for basically being Bill and Ted

They were discovered while goofing around in a lineup at McDonald's in front of writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson

10) There's an unfortunate coincidence to almost all of the historical figures they kidnap

Most of them died pretty horribly. Socrates, Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid, and Abraham Lincoln were all either executed or assassinated. Sigmund Freud died from assisted suicide, and Napoleon's death while under house arrest is often believed to be because of arsenic poisoning.

11) The second movie originally had a very different title

It was going to be called Bill & Ted Go To Hell but the studio was worried about people's reactions to the word "Hell."

12) The boys playing games against Death is a movie reference

It's a reference to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal where the protagonist plays a game of chess with Death for his life.

13) The band playing before Wyld Stallyns at the Battle of the Bands is Primus

Pretty awesome.

14) The writers wrote themselves into a lot of jokes

The exorcism spell Missy uses on the boys is really "Ed and Chris will rule the world" said backwards. They are also the two men in the scene.

15) The original director didn't return for Bogus Journey

He said it "felt like a parody of something that was already a parody."

Share with anyone you know who loves Bill & Ted.