Summary

• The Bill & Ted movies are a series of sci-fi comedies that follow the adventures of two lovable and gullible teenagers tasked with saving the space-time continuum.
• The franchise consists of three films: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure, and Bill & Ted Face The Music, each taking the duo on a journey that is both excellent and ridiculous.
• While the films can be watched chronologically or in release order, their time-travel shenanigans make the story progression full of fun detours, but each movie follows the events of its predecessor.

The Bill & Ted movies take their two heroes on many excellent adventures through space and time. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure became a sleeper sci-fi comedy hit upon its release, following two slow-witted but lovable teenagers, Bill Preston (Alex Winter) and Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves), aspiring rock stars tasked with saving the space-time continuum. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure fully embraces the goofy absurdity of its story, elevating Bill and Ted themselves into the iconic duo of gullible protagonists with hearts of gold that they are.

Bill and Ted's shenanigans continue in the two sequels Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure and Bill & Ted Face The Music, in which the goofily endearing pair are in over their heads again with the fate of the universe resting on their shoulders. Bill and Ted's powerful rock ballads and infectious personalities give the Bill & Ted trilogy its innate charm and hilarious sense of fun, with each movie in the series taking them on a journey that is excellent and ridiculous in equal measure.

The Bill & Ted Movies In Release Order

Bill and Ted share their first story in 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. The movie follows Bill and Ted as they meet Rufus (George Carlin) for the first time and are sent on their time-traveling quest in the high-tech phone booth. Bill and Ted subsequently return for another tale of comedic time-travel hijinks in 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure, with George Carlin also returning as their intergalactic guide.

After a long hiatus of 29 years, Bill and Ted finally return for another wacky romp in 2020's Bill & Ted Face The Music, bringing the franchise's sci-fi silliness back into play (though Face the Music has a fair amount of real science, too.) Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill & Ted Face the Music saw a hybrid release in theaters and on PVOD. With three movies in the Bill & Ted franchise altogether, the way to watch them in their release order is as follows:

• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
• Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure (1991)
• Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020)

The Bill & Ted Movies In Chronological Order Of Events

The Bill & Ted movies essentially follow the same story chronology as their release order. Naturally, though, their time-travel shenanigans put the duo all over the space-time continuum. That said, each movie follows the events of its predecessor, making it easy to go from one film to the next.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure follows Rufus as he is tasked with traveling back to 1988 and making sure that Bill and Ted history class, in order to preserve the future in which Bill and Ted, as the "Great Ones" inspire the peaceful, high-tech society of 2688. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure has a runtime of 90 minutes, and earned $40.5 million against a $10 million budget.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure

Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure involves another time-travel plot, with Chuck De Nomolos (Joss Ackland) trying to travel back in time to prevent Bill and Ted's eventual excellent society. Bill and Ted also temporarily die in Bogus Adventure, which leads them to meet Death (William Sadler) and bring him into Wyld Stallyns. Bill & Ted's Bogus Adventure has a runtime of 93 minutes, and earned $38 million against a $20 million budget.

Bill & Ted Face The Music

Bill & Ted Face The Music takes place in the year 2020, with the two heroes having reached adulthood, with Bill and Ted both divorced and having not yet written the song that will bring the world together in harmony. This leads Rufus's daughter Kelly (Kristen Schaal) to travel back in time from 2720 to help Bill and Ted save the timeline and the world. In addition to the many cameos seen in Face the Music, Bill and Ted also cross paths with Death again, reconciling after their previous falling out and bringing him aboard Wyld Stallyns once again to save the world with rock music.

Bill & Ted Face The Music runs for 91 minutes, and while it only earned $6.8 million against a $25 million budget, its theatrical release occurred when movie theaters were just starting to open again during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Bill & Ted Face The Music performing well on its PVOD release. In all, with the story progression over the course of the three Bill & Ted movies, their chronological viewing order is linear, but also full of fun time-travel detours.