50 years, looks almost the same. Also, he wasnt like the other Lectoids, so to speak, so I never fully understood what was up with him.
shareWhy do u think it was 5o ywars? He gets posessed during an experiment at yoyodyne not during thr 1938 failed invasion.
shareIt actually was 50 years....well, 46 years to be exact.
According to the Buckaroo Banzai timeline (and the film):
Toichi Hikita and Emilio Lizardo create the first Overthruster at Princeton in 1938.
This is depicted in the flashback when Lizardo is in the mental hospital and connects all the electrodes to his ears and tongue. From one of the many online scripts:
"DR. LIZARDO throws a switch on the device. A nimbus of miniature lightning bolts surrounds his head, and the scene fades...into a flashback to PROF. HIKITA and DR. LIZARDO's laboratory, 1938. A long track runs the length of the room, ending at a wall. A sled-like vehicle rests at the other end of the track."
Here's a site with a boatload of FAQs on the film and subsequent BB universe, including this one we're discussing now.
http://www.figmentfly.com/bb/bbindex.shtml
The film doesnt say it was that long. If its in an online script it was changed to prevent people asking your question, i think.
I watched the deleted sceens with jamie lee curtis, and such. I think the film deviated frim the originak script at editing.
The other lectoids physically arrived here in their shipwreck on Halloween 1938. Lazardo was possessed when he partially entered the 8th dimension during that failed experiment. None of the lectoids aged (unless they started as babies).
shareI just watched the film again yesterday, and everything is spelled out clearly. So I'm trying to figure out why there is any confusion as to what year the experiment happened. The exact sequence of events follows:
- Lizardo is in the insane asylum and is listening to a news broadcast on TV while assembling the electrodes
- The broadcaster is saying "Buckaroo Banzai said it was exactly like Dr. Hikita had glimpsed in 1938 when he looked through the overthruster he and Dr. Emilio Lizardo built out of spare parts in a laboratory at Princeton. 1938...can you imagine what it must have been like then...then....then...(fades)"
- The scene shifts to a young Hikita and Lizardo in their lab in 1938, and a calendar on the wall can be seen with the year 1938 showing
- Lizardo starts the vehicle and crashes through the wall
- Hikita looks through the overthruster and sees the Lectoids grabbing at Lizardo
- Lizardo is pulled back through the hole in the wall
- He emerges with tall hair like the Bride of Frankenstein and a wild look on his face, screams maniacally, jumps through a window and lopes off in a weird way.
So what's the confusion? The film states clearly the failed experiment happened in 1938. And Lizardo comes away a complete maniac, possessed by a Lectoid.
Now some may argue it wasn't possession...but whatever it was, the film says CLEARLY it happened in 1938.