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Buckaroo Banzai production script comparison
By Steve Mattsson

(This article originally appeared as part of In Medias Res: The Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders By Sean Murphy, Dan Berger, DeWayne Todd, and Steve Mattsson in the August 2019 issue of the World Watch One newsletter.)


The Shields Against the Devil script contained in the Production binders was compared to the Buckaroo Banzai Shooting Script—Revised Third Draft 3/30/83 (http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/banzai_script.txt) for this article.

The Revised Third Draft of the Buckaroo Banzai screenplay is very close to the filmed version. The Shields Against the Devil script contains some significant differences.

The character Pecos is an active participant in Shields, but was “in Tibet” during the later version. Pecos mainly filled Reno’s role in Shields. Reno was still around, but he had fewer lines.

The biggest difference between the two scripts came during the Jet Car sequence. As part of the test, General Catbird deployed a company of elite troops who tried to destroy the Jet Car while Buckaroo appeared to attack the Kremlin.

Here is some dialogue from that sequence:

             GENERAL CATBIRD

It's fast. I'll give Banzai that. 

             GENERAL CATBIRD

           (raising binoculars)

You can run. But you can't hide...not from the talons of my Screaming Eagles. 

            SENATOR CUNNINGHAM

Personally, General Catbird, I don't think Buckaroo's trying to hide. He's using a fast machine to teach certain slow minds a lesson: all the high- tech hardware in the world is useless against one American boy in a good car. 

             GENERAL CATBIRD

Let me point something out, Madame Senator from Detroit, war is a demolition derby, not a stock car race. 

Despite the troops’ best efforts, Buckaroo rams the Jet Car through a cloth façade of the Kremlin. He then rockets toward a familiar mountain range and his date with the Eighth Dimension. As a set piece in an action movie, the “troops vs. the Jet Car” is exciting, but when conducting a scientific experiment, you want to eliminate as many variables as possible. It’s doubtful that Buckaroo and Hikita would choose to complicate the Overthruster test like this. In the end, cutting the sequence probably came down to a matter of budget. This line from the filmed version saved the production thousands and thousands of dollars in special effects.*

             GENERAL CATBURD

It's fast. I'll give Banzai that, but one heat seeking missile and he's history. 

Perhaps, General Catburd, perhaps not.

An odd sequence, unique to Shields, is where a “cornball emcee” introduces The Hong Kong Cavaliers prior to their gig at Artie’s Artery. Initially, he is just awkward and unfunny. Later his patter devolves into paranoia, until he has a mental breakdown on stage. Uncharacteristically, Buckaroo chooses to subdue him physically rather than treat his condition medically. Then the music starts and we’re back at the Artie’s we know and love.
 
A deep dive into the Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders gives us the chance compare an earlier version of the screenplay and the shooting script. Although a later version of the shooting script exists, we are using the one dated 3/30/83 because it is the one most readily available on the internet.
 
Another change is that after Dr. Lizardo escapes from the insane asylum, he short circuits the Banzai video game at a pizza parlor where “wayward youths” are listening to Hong Kong Cavalier music on the juke box.

In the filmed version, Buckaroo commandeers a Harley when a motorcycle convention sets up at the hotel where the infamous press conference occurs. In Shields, a circus troop is unloading equipment. Buckaroo takes a fancy circus Honda and it’s a clown who says, “Hey, you can’t ride that!” Later, large plumes of pink and blue smoke pour from its exhaust pipes and trick handlebars come off in Buckaroo’s hands while he pursues the Yoyodyne van.

The duck hunter sequence and Buckaroo’s escape play out differently in Shields. There are three duck hunters and it’s only a two man thermopod (no Jon Valuk). The state trooper is happy to let the executives from Yoyodyne clean up the mess. They do this by bringing in a helicopter to lift the black thermopod back to Yoyodyne. Buckaroo rescues Hikita and then takes his place inside the crate. Buckaroo escapes once he’s inside the Yoyodyne compound, but is re-captured when he hails a cab driven by the escaped Lizardo. Buckaroo escapes again when John Gant self-destructs the thermopod, killing many red aliens.

Other small differences:

• Buckaroo’s father, Masado Banzai is called Takeo Banzai. 

• As seen previously, General Catburd’s name is spelled “Catbird.” 

• There’s a roadside billboard on the way to Yoyodyne, with heavy foreshadowing, that reads, “GROVER'S MILL, NEW JERSY, THE TOWN ORSON WELLS MADE FAMOUS...VISIT THE WAR OF THE WORLDS MUSEUM, 10 MILES.” 

• Mrs. Johnson is “a kindly old lady” with all of the same lines as the teenage Mrs. Johnson, except for the addition of, “My stars...” 

• Billy Travers is 12-years old, which makes his line, “My phone phreaks went into town for the big ice cream social...” a little less weird. 

• John Emdall looks like Lola Falana. 

• The Black Aliens are targeting Moscow instead of 
Smolensk. 

• There are three strike groups at Yoyodyne—Apache Team led by Reno, Bronco Team lead by Pecos, and Chaparral Team lead by Perfect Tommy (A, B, & C). All are equipped with flame throwers. 

• The Secretary of Defense accidentally shoots himself in the leg during the assault on Yoyodyne. 


There is some holdover from an even earlier version of the Banzai script, Lepers From Saturn: A Buckaroo Banzai Adventure. In Shields Against the Devil, the aliens are from Saturn rather than Planet 10. A famous sequence from the film reads like this in Shields:

DOCTOR LIZARDO

     
So where are we going? Tell me! 
               

RED INSECTS

         To Saturn!

DOCTOR LIZARDO

	When?

RED INSECTS

	Real soon!

The last significant difference between the scripts is obvious from the above. In the film, the aliens are Lectroids. In the Buckaroo Banzai Shooting Script they are Arachtoids. In Shields, they are giant insects with mandibles. The Lectroids’ red & black coloration, penchant for sweets, and use of terrestrial ants for torture are all artifacts from when they were giant ant-like creatures in earlier versions of the script. Scooter describes the poison from the aliens’ stingers as, “Formic acid. Ant venom.” Giant ants with clacking mandibles would have been terrifying, but more expensive and less expressive than the Lectroids we’re familiar with from the filmed version.



What are the Buckaroo Banzai Production Binders?

• What are the Buckaroo Banzai production illustrations?
  
  
• What is the Buckaroo Banzai production script comparison? (You Are Here)s
  
  
• What are the Buckaroo Banzai production storyboards?
  
  
• What is the Essential Buckaroo in the Buckaroo Banzai production binders?

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This page was last updated on May 10th, 2020.
Maintained by Sean Murphy [figment@figmentfly.com]