Wayne's World

Wayne's World Information

Wayne's World is a 1992 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Mike Myers in his film debut as Wayne Campbell and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar, hosts of the Aurora, Illinois-based Public-access television cable TV show Wayne's World. The film was adapted from a sketch of the same name on NBC's Saturday Night Live.

The film grossed US$121.6 million in its theatrical run, placing it as the tenth highest-grossing film of 1992 and the highest-grossing film ever based on a Saturday Night Live skit. It was directed by Penelope Spheeris, with Myers co-writing the script. It was filmed in 34 days.

Wayne's World was Myers' feature film debut. The film also featured Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Lara Flynn Boyle, Brian Doyle-Murray, Robert Patrick (spoofing his role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Chris Farley, Ed O'Neill, Ione Skye, Meat Loaf, and Alice Cooper.

Wayne's World received mostly positive reviews upon release and was commercially successful. It was followed by Wayne's World 2. In 1993, readers of Total Film magazine voted Wayne's World the 41st greatest comedy film of all time.

Plot

Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Algar (Carvey) are the hosts of Wayne's World, a local Friday late-night cable access program based in Aurora, Illinois, where they ogle pictures of beautiful celebrity women, play guitar and air drums, and interview local people, indirectly making fun of them over the course of the interview. The program is popular with local viewers. One day Benjamin Kane (Lowe), a television station executive, is visiting a girlfriend (Ione Skye) who turns the TV to the show. When she tells him how many people watch the show, he instructs his producer Russell Finley (Kurt Fuller) to find out where the show is taped, telling him they may have an opportunity for a huge sponsorship.

Benjamin offers to buy the rights to Wayne's World for $10,000 and keeping Wayne and Garth as hosts for a "huge" salary. Garth, speaking to the audience, expresses concern that the deal is shady, but is too shy to confront Wayne about it. With their newfound wealth, the two attend a concert, where Wayne meets and becomes infatuated with hard rock vocalist and bassist Cassandra (Tia Carrere) of the band Crucial Taunt. The two begin seeing each other more, putting a strain on Wayne and Garth's relation. Benjamin provides them with backstage passes to an Alice Cooper concert in Milwaukee, during which he tries to get closer to Cassandra himself, offering the chance to sign her onto a record deal.

At the first show shot on a professional set, Wayne and Garth are initially fazed, but find that they are forced to follow Benjamin's wishes, including interviewing the show's sponsor, arcade owner Noah Vanderhoff (Brian Doyle-Murray). During the interview, Wayne writes insulting messages on the back of his cue cards, such as "Sphincter Boy". Benjamin fires Wayne on the spot and leaves a panicked Garth in charge of the show. Garth comes to learn that Benjamin only wants the rights to the popular name of the show and couldn't care less if Wayne or Garth were involved, as well as having sets sights on Cassandra. Garth later meets up with Wayne, and the two reconcile their friendship.

The two and their friends work out a plan to return Wayne's World to them. Recalling information from a concert security guard, they prepare a broadcast of a performance of Cassandra and her band from their basement aimed via satellite to the antenna aboard the limo of record executive Frankie Sharp (Frank DiLeo). Benjamin learns of this and though he tries to drive to the basement to stop it, a police officer, working with Wayne and Garth, detains him.

Both Frankie and Benjamin arrive at Wayne's home. In what appears to be a sad conclusion, Frankie tells Cassandra that it is just not the right time to sign her up; she leaves with Benjamin; Wayne is told by his crazy ex-girlfriend Stacy (Lara Flynn Boyle) that she is pregnant; and then Wayne and Garth are nearly incinerated in a house fire. Speaking directly to the audience they say this was a bad ending, and then decide to do another joke ending with a homage to Scooby Doo, before finishing with the real "mega happy" ending. Frankie gives Cassandra a six record deal, Wayne and Cassandra kiss, Benjamin realizes that being successful does not get you everything, and Garth gets to meet his dream girl (Donna Dixon).

Cast

Mike Myers as Wayne Campbell
Dana Carvey as Garth Algar
Tia Carrere as Cassandra Wong
Rob Lowe as Benjamin Kane
Lara Flynn Boyle as Stacy, Wayne's crazy ex-girlfriend
Michael DeLuise as Alan, one of Wayne and Garth's crew
Lee Tergesen as Terry, Wayne and Garth's head cameraman
Dan Bell as Neil, Wayne's and Garth's other crewman
Sean Gregory Sullivan as Phil, Wayne and Garth's perpetually wasted friend who works at an auto repair shop
Brian Doyle-Murray as video arcade magnate Noah Vanderhoff
Colleen Camp as Mrs. Vanderhoff
Kurt Fuller as Russell Finley, Benjamin's assistant
Chris Farley as the well-informed security guard at the back of Alice Cooper concert
Frank DiLeo as rock promoter Frankie 'Mr. Big' Sharp
Ed O'Neill as Glen, the manager at Stan Mikita's Donuts
Mike Hagerty as Davy, a controller at the Cable 10 television station who Benjamin and Russell ask for help, he later claims that he got laid off while at Stan Mikita's.
Frederick Coffin as Officer Koharski
Donna Dixon as Garth's dream woman
Ione Skye as Elyse, Benjamin's girlfriend, who introduces him to Wayne's World
Robin Ruzan as a waitress
Charles Noland as Ron Paxton, who tries to market his invention, the "Suck-Kut", to Garth
Carmen Filpi as Old Man Withers
Chaz Healy as Concert-goer
Robert Patrick as T-1000
Alice Cooper with Pete Friesen, Derek Sherinian, Stef Burns, and Jimmy DeGrasso as themselves.

Reception

Critical response

The film received positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives a "Certified Fresh" score of 85% based on reviews from 46 critics.

Awards

American Film Institute recognition:

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Schwing!" - Nominated
- "We're not worthy. We're not worthy." - Nominated

Box Office

The movie was a box office success debuting at No.1. The film's final domestic gross was $121,697,323.

Effect on pop culture

Filled with pop culture references, the sketches and film started catchphrases such as "Schwing!" and "Schyea", as well as popularizing "That's what she said", "Party on!" and the use of "...Not!" after apparently affirmative sentences in order to state the contrary. It augmented the slacker language of Generation X, much as Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure had done previously.

The film frequently breaks the fourth wall, with Wayne, Garth, and others on occasion speaking directly to the audience. Parts of the story are carried by Wayne's narration to the camera, in which he offers his thoughts on what's happening in the film. Despite Wayne, Garth, Cassandra, Glen, and Ben addressing the viewer, no one else seems aware that they are in a film.

Video games

In 1993, Wayne's World video games were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Mega Drive, and the Game Boy. The plot of the games differs from the film. In the Super NES and Mega Drive versions, the player controls Wayne as he goes on a mission throughout Aurora – visiting The Gas Works, Stan Mikita's, and the music store from the "No Stairway" scene, among other locations – to rescue Garth from inside the "Zantar the Gelatinous Cube" arcade game mentioned in the film.

Alternatively, an adventure game version of Wayne's World was released around the same time for DOS. The plot involves Wayne and Garth trying to raise money to save their show by holding a "pizza-thon".

In the beginning of the film, the Noah's Arcade commercial features Starlight Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog playing behind Noah Vanderhoff, the owner of the Noah's Arcade franchise.

The video games Pong, Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man were mentioned by Noah & Wayne but not seen in the film.

In addition, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned features a car based on the AMC Pacer named "Rhapsody" in reference to the famed scene from the film. If the player zooms in on the dashboard with the sniper rifle, they can see a photograph of Wayne and Garth.

Music

Main article: Wayne's World (soundtrack)

The use of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the film propelled the song to #2 in Billboard singles charts nearly 20 years after its first release. The soundtrack album reached number one in the Billboard album charts. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, died of bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS a few months before the film's release.

Gary Wright rerecorded "Dream Weaver" for this film and it was used whenever Wayne looked at Cassandra.

Tia Carrere sang all her own vocals on songs she performed in the film, and her cover version of songs, such as Sweet's "The Ballroom Blitz", were included in the film's original soundtrack recording.