THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE

As pop-culture touchstones (Tony Stark even referenced them) and fan favourites, it should have been totally easy to reunite time-traveling BFFs, Bill & Ted, for a third installment. Bogus theory, dudes! As real-life buddies Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and their team tell Total Film, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC has been a 29-year labour of love driven by tenacity, artistic integrity and friendship. And air guitar...

- JANE CROWTHER

When chatting to Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, it’s sometimes tricky to know which one is talking. They finish each other’s thoughts and sentences, speak with the same laidback cadence and seem to operate on a similar low frequency – all unhurried modesty and unfailing politeness. Though they don’t actually use the vernacular of the characters they’ve now played for 33 years, they’re rocking serious Bill & Ted energy (so much so that Total Film inadvertently refers to them by their character names at one point, much to their amusement). “Keanu and I have known each other and have been good friends a very, very long time at this point,” says Winter, “the relationship we have off-screen is… you know, we’re two grown-ups, right? It’s not like ‘Bill and Ted’ play at all.”

Admittedly they don’t jam together in an atrocious rock band, mime fret noodling when delighted, time-travel in a phone booth and – as far as we know – hang out at the Circle K. But Reeves and Winter’s strong bond, and that of the team who first put Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure together in 1989 and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in 1991, is a driving force in evoking a belated third installment. Because though the films have achieved cult status and Reeves has become a globally bankable megastar, Hollywood wasn’t knocking at their door to make another. No way! Yes way…