In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, plucky teens Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) traveled through time to ensure they passed their history class. They were thus ensuring that their band Wyld Stallyns could continue to fulfill their future world-saving destiny. The sci-fi comedy’s follow-up took a slightly darker, though no less comical approach; Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey saw the duo navigate their way to Hell, Heaven, and back to thwart their evil robot doppelgangers and win the Battle of the Bands. There’s nothing remotely terrifying about this endlessly charming franchise; not even our heroes battling toe to toe with the Reaper for their very souls could scare. Except, that is, for the Easter bunny.
After the evil robots throw Bill and Ted off a cliff in Bogus Journey, they’re greeted in the afterlife by Death (William Sadler). Death tells them that they can challenge him in a game for their souls, though his winning streak is perfect. After goofing around as ghosts on Earth, the duo plummets to Hell in a séance gone wrong, forcing them to confront their darkest fears. For Bill, it’s facing his overly affectionate Granny (also played by Winter). For Ted, it’s a childhood memory of stealing his younger brother’s Easter basket.
Which comes back to haunt him in the most nightmarish way.
Young Ted (Brendan Ryan) steps into an atrocious Pepto-Bismol pink home, snatches up a candy-filled basket addressed to Deacon, and marches upstairs. Waiting for him at the top is one very angry Easter bunny. It taunts Ted as it chases after him in a darkened corridor of Hell.
It’s a brief scene, and the Easter bunny’s design is somewhat cute; for a fully articulated puppet created to torment Ted in Hell, anyway. Still, for unassuming audiences, this jarring scene came out of left field. The menacing bunny, set against a backdrop of garish monotone pink, made for pure nightmare fuel for younger viewers. At least it did for me.
Interestingly, this moment of terror could’ve been exacerbated tenfold had the filmmakers continued with the originally planned ending. The plan was for Bill and Ted, alive and back on Earth, to confront their demons from Hell on the way to the Battle of the Bands. The original bunny was downright docile in Hell compared to the massive eight-foot terror beast with razor claws created for the climax. This ending didn’t test well from the sounds of it and left director Pete Hewitt scrambling to redo it last minute before release. That explains why the eight-foot Easter bunny monstrosity makes an appearance in the novelization and comic book adaptation. It also explains why the scene appeared on a Pro Set trading card.
From the trailers of Bill & Ted Face the Music, it looks like the boys will travel back to Hell again for their old pal Death. Assuming Ted has long made peace with his past mistake, the Easter bunny shouldn’t pop up. And that’s probably for the best, for the kids of today.