Word Of God is that Buckaroo and his team were working on a air-droppable watermelon to help solve world hunger, which is why the watermelon is in a hydraulic press. The problem they were working on specifically was how to open the nigh-indestructible watermelon once it had hit the ground and stopped rolling.
The real life reason is even more amusing: they put that scene in there to see if the producers and executives were actually paying attention to the movie, as it would surely evoke a response if they were. There was no response, so they made the film we know and love, and not the one the producers wanted made.
I have a pipe dream of recreating the end credits scene on a walk through Comicon. One would need a committed posse of 16 people and the ability to create some rather detailed and specific costume pieces (as well as mid-walk challenging costume changes).
I’ve long been amazed that there’s never been a dedicated B.B. RPG. It seems like this world, with its exceptionally colorful characters and outlandish adventures, would be a no-brainer for that treatment, but I’ve never found one, unless I’m missing something that’s not obvious. My efforts to get together a group to play a B.B. game through GURPS back in the day failed - just couldn’t get a critical mass of friends together who were fans.
It’s weird to me seeing how this got made. I mean, it’s a great film in my opinion, but imagine making a film today about a rag tag team of band nerds, a surgeon polymath, and space aliens fighting space Hitler. I don’t think the alt-right would not be flipping their lids over it. I’m surprised no one is now to be honest.
Edit: and honestly, I’m surprised no independent developers haven’t approached the rights holders to make a video game based on this (not on the exact events, maybe another adventure for the Blue Blaze Irregulars).
You seem to be mistaken. The sequel “Versus the World Crime League” was made. But, there were issues, so instead of a riveting tale about Buckaroo battling Lo Pan’s Crime Syndicate, we get a slightly less riveting (but still excellent) film starring Kurt Russell instead.
I think Space Mussolini is what Lithgow was going for, and he does a great parody of the O.G. fascist dictator.
I worked at an electronics plant in my youth and one of the guys on my team was an older Italian dude named Vito. He used to do Mussolini impersonation bits every now and then and when I saw the movie I realized “omg John Whorfin acts and sounds just like Vito doing his Mussolini parodies”. So I’m an expert on the subject, you see.
