“Bill & Ted Face the Music” is the long-awaited conclusion to to an unlikely teen comedy franchise that launched the careers of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. The original two movies have over time developed a cult fanbase and have their DNA in numerous slacker comedy duos throughout the ’90s and beyond. But did anyone think it would actually nearly three decades for a reunion to happen? Whoa.
In fact if you ask Reeves and Winter — and we did — they’d say they really didn’t think it would ever happen at all, despite the repeated efforts of producer Scott Kroopf, writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon and director Dean Parisot, to bring all the pieces together over the last 10 years. And the new movie even plays with the idea that we’ve been away from Bill & Ted for so long, with each of them now middle-aged dudes with families who are still underachieving and can’t manage to fulfill their rock and roll destiny.
But it really is a joy to see the innate chemistry Winter and Reeves have on screen together as “Bill & Ted.” Kroopf, who championed as a producer way back in the mid-’80s in developing “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” told TheWrap that together they are “two friends,” but “one brain.” He said that they even always made a point to film both Winter and Keanu together in two shots, rarely as just singles, because you lose that hilarious interplay that’s between them whenever they can’t share the frame.
“Bill & Ted Face the Music” is even more special as its one of the few movies that will help relaunch movie theaters in America and hope to bring audiences back to cinemas amid the pandemic. It’s already a tough sell for some people to even want to go back, but if you do, is it worth keeping your mask on and waiting around just a little longer until the end of the credits?
The answer is yes, “Bill & Ted Face the Music” does have a post-credits scene at the end of the film and gives audiences one last taste of Winter and Reeves together. During the credits though, you’ll hear another take on the title song “Face the Music” that’s performed at the end of the film, as well as an original song by Weezer called “The Beginning of the End” that was featured on the movie’s soundtrack album.
As for the post-credits scene though, and keep in mind there are SPOILERS here for “Bill & Ted Face the Music” if you have yet to see the film, Bill & Ted rock out one final time.
During the film, Bill & Ted visit themselves further and further into the future in the hopes of finding the song that they wrote that will eventually save humanity. “It’s not stealing if we’re stealing from ourselves,” Bill cleverly explains. After encountering increasingly pathetic versions of themselves, they finally meet themselves as they’re elderly and lying on their death beds. And we get to revisit Grandpa Bill & Ted during the film’s post-credits sequence.
“Dude, are you dead yet,” Bill asks Ted. “No, are you?” Bill explains that the Wyld Stallyns have one more thing they still need to do before they go, and they then plug guitars into amps and have a final jam session. “We still got it,” they declare before calling for the nurse.
“Galaxy Quest” director Dean Parisot directed “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” which also brings back William Sadler as Death from “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” and adds to the cast Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Kid Cudi, Anthony Carrigan, Kristen Schaal, Holland Taylor, Beck Bennett and Jillian Bell.