Factual error: When Bill and Ted grab Beethoven, we are shown the piano he was playing which is a Steinweg (Steinweg later changed his name to Steinway when he immigrated to the United States). Steinweg made their first piano in 1835, and the model shown was built in Braunschweig so must have been made after 1858, but Beethoven died in 1827, years before a Steinweg piano existed. Also the onscreen graphic says it's 1810. (00:47:50)
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Directed by: Stephen Herek
Starring: Alex Winter, George Carlin, Keanu Reeves
Continuity mistake: At one point, when they time-travel away from "1,000,000 B.C.", Bill is on the left inside the phone booth and Ted is on the right. When the camera switches away, then back, they've changed sides.
Continuity mistake: When Napoleon first comes back from France and he's hanging in the tree, he disappears when the camera angle changes to an aerial view of Bill and Ted.
Trivia: The shots of the French army are from the 1956 film War and Peace.
Trivia: One of the guys says at one point says something like "Look it's the Goodrich blimp" while looking towards the sky. This was in reference to a commercial popular in the 1980s for Goodrich tires where people would be faked out by others after being told to look up at the Goodrich blimp. The fooled one would then say "Hey, Goodrich doesn't have a blimp" after looking up and being tricked. The point was Good Year had the blimp but not Goodrich.
Abraham Lincoln: Fourscore and...[looks at his pocket watch]...seven minutes ago... We, your forefathers, were brought forth upon a most excellent adventure conceived by our new friends, Bill...and Ted. These two great gentlemen are dedicated to a proposition which was true in my time, just as it's true today. Be excellent to each other. And... Party on, dudes!
Bill: Ted, while I agree that, in time, our band will be most triumphant, the truth is, Wyld Stallyns will never be a super band until we have Eddie Van Halen on guitar.
Ted: Yes, Bill. But, I do not believe we will get Eddie Van Halen until we have a triumphant video.
Bill: Ted, it's pointless to have a triumphant video before we even have decent instruments.
Ted: Well, how can we have decent instruments when we don't really even know how to play?
Bill: That is why we NEED Eddie Van Halen.
Ted: And THAT is why we need a triumphant video.
Bill/Ted: Excellent.
Teacher: Ted, who was Joan of Arc?
Ted: Noah's wife?
Question: Why was Beethoven arrested? He wasn't doing anything illegal.
Answer: This appears to be a reference to Beethoven's real-life arrests. He had a dark side, often drinking excessively and prowling the streets at night, peering into peoples' windows. Police mistook him as a drunken vagrant.
Question: Is the portrayal of the historical figures and their respective surroundings accurate in any way?
Answer: Yes and no. The basic premises are all right; the years are accurate, and maybe the costumes. Napoleon was at war in 1805, and Joan of Arc was undoubtedly in church at some time during 1429, etc. But everything with the mysterious King Henry and his two teenage daughters in the middle ages is completely fabricated. Although there were four King Henrys during that century, none of them fit the age or family situation seen in the film.
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Answer: While it's not unusual for musicians to try out new instruments (playing a few rifts and even entire compositions) in a music shop, Beethoven's extended sampling-keyboard performance went wild, drawing an enthusiastic mall crowd into the relatively small music shop. The shop manager no doubt felt overwhelmed and called in mall security to clear out the shop before any damage and/or theft occurred. Keep in mind that the security team was already scrambling to respond to several simultaneous disturbances throughout the mall, all caused by 7 strangely-dressed oddballs (more than half of whom only spoke obsolete dialects and ancient languages). The time-travelers were, thus, probably all perceived as one group of pranksters or escapees from a mental institution.
Charles Austin Miller