Chapter 03 - An Excellent Adventure

He decided that, with 24 years, the time was over to continue interpreting teenagers and began to pursue adult papers. So, he moved up a gear by appearing as Chevalier Danceny in Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons. this movie showed Keanu’s determination to succeed as a “serious” actor as, to make it, he turned down the lead in The Fly 2 and took a 90% paycut.

Abdomen scar, gift of a "Demon Riding" in 1991.

At this time, one of the hobbies that Keanu enjoyed was called ‘demon riding’, describing how he often drives with no headlights during the night. On one such ‘demon ride’ in 1998, Keanu Reeves crashed his vehicle near Topanga Canyon. The crash broke several ribs and also ruptured Keanu Reeves’ spleen. As a result of the injuries, and the various operations undertaken afterwards, Keanu Reeves now bares a large scar on his abdomen.

It also began a string of major hits for Reeves. Next came Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the teen comedy that, despite the variety of his roles thus far, would seal his reputation for years to come. Here Keanu played Ted “Theodore” Logan, son of a police chief in the valley and best friend of Alex Winter’s Bill S. Preston.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures

The boys are a dopey pair, far more interested in bodacious babes and heavy metal than schoolwork and are appalled when Ted’s father threatens to send his son to military academy if they don’t pass their upcoming history exam, for which they must deliver an A-graded presentation. Fortunately, they’re visited by Rufus, a fellow from the future, who lends them his time-travelling phone-booth, allowing them to round up the likes of Billy The Kid, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon and Beethoven and bring them back to present-day San Dimas, along with some “historical babes”. Keanu and Alex become friends, and remains until today.

Bill And Ted was a wacky classic, a cross between Time Bandits and Wayne’s World. Brilliantly written and performed, it was a huge hit that launched a long (and increasingly awful) succession of California teen comedies. Reeves moved on to Ron Howard’s Parenthood, a feel-good comedy involving the extended family of couple Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen and their problems with kids of all ages. Here he would met River Phoenix, one of his greatest friends. That instantaneous friendship generated the desire of they work together, what would happen in Keanu’s next film, I Love You to Death. Always working without stopping he did another film, where he interpreted a moved adolescent again, in Life Under Water, with Sarah Jessica Parker.