Bill & Ted Face the Music

Much like the return of Dumb and Dumber with 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To [sic], the Bill & Ted franchise (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves, respectively) is set to return with a third entry after its 1989 and 1991 heyday.

Of course, with nineteen years comes aging—if not, perhaps, wisdom. At the outset of the trailer (following a microteaser) we find the pair with their wives in couples’ therapy, seated next to each other in the middle. A clap track pauses, as is comedy trailer tradition, at 0:13 for Bill’s deadpan delivery. Things get considerably more interesting afterwards at 0:16 as the hair metal-style electric guitars enter the soundtrack. Note the distinctive guitar trill at 0:24 synched to the epic percussion as well as the first look at the film’s version of hell.

At 0:31 we see Ted on theremin and Bill emitting a guttural utterance before their high-five figuratively hands it off back to the soundtrack, all in synch. The low-end synth acts almost like a sound bridge to the appearance of what is presumably a time travelling machine at 0:46. Throughout, the soundtrack generally has all the marking of an epic film—which, in a way, it is—while incorporating the pauses for comedic one-liners and a general sense of over-the-top theatrics appropriate for the series.

At 1:19 we see Bill and Ted playing air guitar, synched to real guitar shredding in the soundtrack. This split second moment effectively encapsulates the spirit of the trailer—a refutation of the older man who tells Bill and Ted “enough of the delusions” at 0:19. Instead, they lean into their sense of imagination and fun, and the soundtrack realizes it.

While this is realized perhaps most obviously through visual effects wizardry, moments like the guitar at 1:19 more clearly exemplify how it’s Bill and Ted’s spirit that has made the franchise so enduring. This sensibility is extended as Bill and Ted’s daughters seek to assemble an extraordinary band using people from different time periods to save the world (don’t think about it too hard).

Through the inclusion of a harpsichord sound bridge with a line synched to the soundtrack, we’re introduced to, presumably, Mozart or a similar figure. After this, we also hear a dizi (Chinese flute) player. While serving as an interlude of sorts and lightening the tone, it also leave space for the epic music—a combination of electric guitars and symphonic strings, now—to return with an added punch at 1:46.

Through the use of brief diegetic musical interludes that also serve as mild comedic relief, the trailer for Bill & Ted Face the Music effectively balances an epic soundtrack with a relatively uninterrupted flow, while also delivering the steady punchlines expected in comedic trailers.

— Curtis Perry