The Theme of Buckaroo Banzai or Wherever You Go, There You Are

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^th Dimension was a flop during it’s original theatrical run in 1984. It’s weird, it’s quirky and it’s got a complicated plot, but after the movie started making its rounds at the video stores and cable channels it’s gained a fanatical and loyal following. It’s a true cult classic. This leads to the questions of what are fans getting out of the Buckaroo story? Sure, it’s entertaining as all get out, but is there an underlying message or theme of Buckaroo Banzai?

This week’s pod episode focuses on what I liked and the questions that I had about Buckaroo Banzai, and when I talk about some of my favorite parts of a movie, I’d like to find out what the overall theme of the movie is. Admittedly, I find it difficult to find themes in most films, especially action movies or any of its subgenres and Buckaroo Banzai is classified as an action sci-fi comedy. As with most action films I struggled to find, what might be considered as, an overall theme.

I kind of settled on the famous Dr. Banzai quote, “Wherever you go, there you are.” It sounds prophetic and poetic, but what does that actually mean? During the recording I didn’t have an answer, but now that I’m typing this and I’ve had some time to reflect on it, then it could mean that: you are always the person that you are no matter where you go. I don’t think it means that you can’t change who you are; like, if you’re an alcoholic and you go through some sort of drug treatment program to improve your wellbeing. It’s more like: if you’re an alcoholic and it caused problems in the workplace, so you quit that job to get another job without any effort of self-improvement or self-reflection. Then you’ll still be that same alcoholic at your new job. Nothing changed. You effectively tried to run away from yourself, but there’s no place to run, and no place to hide because no matter where you go: there you are.

Buckaroo Banzai, Physicist, Neurosurgeon, Rock Star

Naturally I did a cursory Google search on the famous phrase to find out what others thought this phrase meant. Various answers include,

·       YOU are the Thing you bring wherever you travel – Neha Arora, from Quara

·       It doesn’t matter where you go, you are still going to be the same person with the same issues – Love Undone, from Quara

·       If you don’t like yourself, or you haven’t made peace with yourself for things you’ve done in the past, you will be dealing with that baggage – galadarling.com

But my favorite has got to be from Jon Kabat-Zinn the author of a book with the title Wherever You Go, There You Are, who suggested that happiness is found wherever you are. I learned about this author and book from a Medium article by Matt Karamozov titled Jon Kabat-Zinn Explains That “Wherever You Go, There You Are”. I like it because it’s the first positive version of the famous saying that I’ve ever read, but is this the theme of the movie?

The Hong Kong Cavaliers

I’m still not quite sure. It might be the theme of the scene in which the line is said, but for the entirety of the movie I think I settled on trust (It’s been a few days, so I don’t quite remember what I settled on when I recorded the show). When I think about it I remember how much trust that others had put into Buckaroo, especially The Hong Kong Cavaliers, his inner circle. Even when Buckaroo was acting strange and unusual their trust never wavered. They followed his direction without question, because adhering to him usually lead to a positive outcome. We are dropped into the story of Banzai at the height of his fame. It’s a time when he is loved and admired the world over. He’s a subtle, quiet, yet charismatic and energetic. At this point when the film takes place, his crew had been on many adventures with him, and I get the impression that through all that time he never gave anyone who followed him reasons not to trust him.

I think that is one of the things that endears people to this movie, because we all want to be liked, admired and trusted. On some level we want to be a person like Buckaroo Banzai and not mere "monkey boys"; you, too can be Buckaroo Banzai wherever you go . . . and there we are.

Lord John Whorphin, with John O'Connor and John Bigbooté