'Bill & Ted' Honestly Had Some Pretty Bodacious Lessons
Updated June 9 2020, 7:35 p.m. ET
We should all be able to agree on one thing: the best thing to come out of 2020 is that Bill and Ted are back together. It's been 29 years since we last saw Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves go to hell and bring us back a bass-wielding Grim Reaper (William Sadler). And now Bill, Ted, and Death are on a new adventure that's honestly pretty timely.
In Bill & Ted Face the Music, we see our heroes haven't exactly had the lives that they thought they were going to have after Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Following the conclusion of the second movie, it did seem like they were on their way to creating that utopia that they were fated to create.
But Face the Music finds them floundering, having never written the song that was supposedly the reason the world united in the first place. But when they go forward in time to steal the song from their future selves, they find that their future isn't what they initially saw it to be.
While we anxiously await seeing Bill and Ted back in theaters, let's take a look at some of their most bodacious sayings, to remind us all to be excellent to each other.
"You may be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later you dance with the Reaper."
Sounds dark, no? Well, it's really not. Death says this line while being introduced on stage during Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, and follows it up with, "Get down with your bad self!"
If anything, the saying is somewhat of a comfort. Bill and Ted are all about uniting the world. This line reminds us that, though there are so many divisions, we are all human at our core. So get down with your bad self, because we all only have the time we're given.
"The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." "That's us, dude!"
We should all strive to have the same self-awareness that Bill and Ted demonstrate when they learn Socrates' lesson here. We all learn more when we accept that we know nothing. It's generally just a good state of mind to have.
"Dude, we may have met our match." "Kudos to you, good human us's!"
Say what you want about Evil Bill and Evil Ted — since they're murderers, sort of — but when they are defeated by Good Robot Bill and Ted, they do it with grace and dignity. We could all learn a lesson in losing gracefully from these evil metal d--kweeds.
"The best place to be is here. The best time to be is now."
Bill and Ted constantly gave us lessons in seizing the day and appreciating the time we have and the final scene of Bogus Journey was rife with lines focused on exactly that. The film did incredible work exploring the unknown. Although, technically speaking, the dudes could go and explore any time, they recognized their own finite time and embraced what they have.
"Be excellent to each other." "Party on, dudes."
How could we leave this lesson out? "Be excellent to each other" is a lesson we could all stand to learn. The world would certainly be better for it, just like in Bill and Ted's world. "Party on, dudes" isn't a bad lesson either.
