Adventurer, brain surgeon, rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his crime-fighting team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, must stop evil alien invaders from the eighth dimension who are planning to conquer Earth.
Cast: (First 20, for the rest click 'Show All Cast & Crew' below.)
John Bigboote: Let's go back up to my office and talk about this like two reasonable beings.
Lord John Whorfin: May I pass along my congratulations for your great interdimensional breakthrough. I am sure, in the miserable annals of the Earth, you will be duly enshrined.
Buckaroo Banzai: You can check your anatomy all you want, and even though there may be normal variation, when it comes right down to it, this far inside the head it all looks the same. No, no, no, don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to.
Rawhide: Dr. Banzai is using a laser to vaporize a pineal tumor without damaging the parthogenital plate. A subcutaneous microphone will allow the patient to transmit verbal instructions to his own brain. Observer: Like, "raise my left arm"? Rawhide: Or "throw the harpoon." People are gonna come from all over. This boy's an Eskimo.
Perfect Tommy: Pictures don't lie. Reno: The hell they don't. I met my first wife that way.
Trivia:
The latitude and longitude recited by the technicians during the "alignment" of the Oscillation Overthruster are the coordinates of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Peter Weller is really playing the guitar in the nightclub scene.
Overall concept and several names appear to be taken from the Doc Savage pulp magazines of the 30's and 40's: both main characters are multi-talented surgeons, adventurers, and musicians; and both have an inner circle of sidekicks with nicknames (Renny, Ham, Monk, Long Tom, and Johnny, compared to Reno, New Jersey, Perfect Tommy, and Rawhide).
W.D. Richter wrote a screenplay for a sequel to this film. The never produced "Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League" was eventually re-tooled into Big Trouble in Little China.
The "oscillation overthruster" device reappeared as a "spectral analyzer" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Pen Pals."
DVD Easter Eggs: (Hidden So You Don't See Anything You Don't Want To See)
Edition: MGM Special Edition
Region: 1
Description: Multiple hidden features
a. If you select the middle Jet Car image on the first menu screen, you will be able to scroll through a selection of quotes from Doctor Banzai.
b. If you select the yellow circle in the top left corner of the first menu screen, you will be able to scroll through 36 alternate DVD menu designs.
c. If you select the Banzai Institute logo on the Banzai Institute Archive Menu screen, you will be able to scroll through two alternate DVD cover designs.
d. If you select the watermelon image on the first Deleted Scenes Menu screen, you will be taken to an article called "Food from the Skies?" which discusses why the Banzai Institute was putting watermelons in high guages.
e. If you select the BB logo on the second screen of the "Food from the Skies?" article, you will be taken to a video clip of W.D. Richter called "Why?" where he discusses watermelons and shows a recipe for Chicken in a Watermelon.
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