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Talents: Animal Handling, Musician, Writer, Detective/Espionage, Engineering, Repair/Tinkering, Martial Arts A, B, Medicine, Military, Occult, Thief, Vehicles, Guns, Leadership, Scholar - Languages.
Contacts: U.S. President, Universities.
Background :
Marital status : Single
Known relatives : Parents (deceased)
Base of operations : New Jersey
Group membership : His own network of agents, the Blue Blaze Irregulars. His crack team, which is also his rock group, is called the Hong Kong Cavaliers (more details below).
Eyes : blue
Hair : black
Powers and abilities:
Buckaroo Banzai is a top neurosurgeon, race car driver, rock star and comic book hero - and sometimes probably the last hope of the human race. He's also the head of the Banzai Institute, an independent, non-profit, research organization of ranking scientists. His skill, intelligence and determination are unbelievable. He's a true hero, and more than able to take on the most peculiar and dangerous situations.
Background/History:
Buckaroo Banzai is pretty much the perfect hero. He's extremely driven and adaptable, and can fearlessly turn any situation to his advantage. He's extremely intelligent, courageous and charismatic, and it's nearly impossible not to like him.
Buckaroo Banzai is a mysterious man who sprang from nowhere in order to defend the Earth from any kind of threat. He's a self-made man, who amassed knowledge in numerous universities and institutes of technology accross the world. His skills and charisma allowed him to build various high-level teams of agent, and to command a fortune supplementing the money he made with his patent. This puts impressive means at his disposal. He has access to practically every database in the world, knows everything about the strangest cases that have occured in the last 30 years, and has personnally derailed many a threat against the world or parts of it.
While it was not mentioned in the movie, it's obvious to me that he's Patricia Savage's son. That would give him the following known relatives : Patricia Savage (mother), Alexander Savage (grandfather), Clark Savage Sr. (uncle), Clark "Doc" Savage Jr. (cousin). This would explain the great similarities between Doc Savage and Buckaroo Banzai.
Few details are known about Banzai. He was born in 1950 in London, and his parents were killed when he was five in their jetcar attempt, a death that was apparently engineered by the villain known as Hanoi Xan. He was partly raised in Denver, where he learned many cowboy skills.
Buckaroo Banzai's best known case occured when he, the Cavaliers and Professor Hikita perfected the oscillation overthruster, a device that allows him to travel through solid matter by using the eighth dimension. However, Professor Hikita's original partner, the brilliant Dr Emilio Lizardo, had been possessed by Lord John Warfin. Warfin is the psychopathic leader of the Red Lectroids from Planet 10. They were the evil oppressors of Planet 10 until they were banished to the Eight Dimension by John Endal and the Black Lectroids. Buckaroo and the Hong Kong Cavaliers, blackmailed by Endal who threatened to start a nuclear war on Earth, managed to stop Lord Warfin from stealing the oscillation overthruster, freeing the rest of his followers from the Eight Dimension and returning to planet to once again conquer the Black Lectroids with the help of Terran weapons.
The Hong Kong Cavaliers
(Following are notes from Mrs. Johnson which were distributed with the original Buckaroo Banzai press kit; included here with additions and corrections by ye humble editor Chris. Additions are marked by *WW1*)
"One last serving of information, not about Buckaroo but about the men around him. Since it's true that you can tell an awful lot about people from the company they keep, I'm including a few brief, sketchy biographies of some of the current Hong King Cavaliers, gathered from the usual sources. Although these men lack the distinction of rank in the military sense, there is a discernible infrastructure to the group, and the chain of command is probably the following:
RAWHIDE: real name unknown, of Western United States origin, straight as an arrow, owns no more than he can carry on his horse. Has known Buckaroo longer than any of the others. Believed to have a piece of bottom land in Wyoming, possible dependents, several brothers, one of whom may once have operated on the other side of the law, holds several advanced degrees in psychology, anthropology and entomology that belie his easygoing Zen-like manner. Interests: the human mind, the piano, all life-forms and cultures. Own once-stated belief: "the study of crime is the study of mankind in its truest form."
(*WW1* Fancies a BBI intern named Big Norse, a blue-eyed, blonde on a fellowship studying experimental physics. A wiz at math, she has trouble with music. In the novel, it is Big Norse who first discovers the existence of the Lectroids in space following Team Banzai.)
RENO: real name unknown, of Latin extraction. Dark, moody, dangerous, although possessing an easy grin and a quirky artistic streak. Fond of bright, flashy colors. Executes bold pencil sketches of Buckaroo and the Cavaliers which he sells to national magazines. The real force behind the many Buckaroo Banzai cottage industries (comic books, male action figures, dime novels, "hanks o' hair" collectibles). To quote an unnamed source: "slim with small feet and hands. His features are regular and pleasing, and his tiny black mustache (since shaved off) gives him the appearance of a modest bank clerk or accountant, but the eyes strike a jarring discord, their gaze always producing that sudden tightening of the spinal nerves which the unexpected appearance of a deadly reptile causes."
The same report adds, "he has three speeds; gun, knife and rope." Has postulated the existence of a new layer of atmosphere between the troposphere and the stratosphere, calling it the flatusphere, an accumulation of methane gas derived from the world's constant farting and politicians' bullshit. Intensely loyal to Buckaroo. Has played the saxophone since childhood.
(*WW1* Reno was a member of a Government "Think Tank" when he submitted his application to the Banzai Institute. In the adventure "Bastardy Proves A Spur", Reno and Pecos declare their love for each other and promise to marry. The Flatusphere was in actuality proposed by Perfect Tommy, as reported in the Novel, on page 134.)
PERFECT TOMMY: real name unknown, believed to have met Buckaroo at Phillips Exeter, but may be only self-taught with a grade-school education acquired in the South. Young, handsome, of good family. Vain, pleasure-loving, heartless, sordid, callous and sentimental, he can be brave to excess or cringingly cowardly. An enigma. A chameleon. Changes his mind as fast as he changes his hair color. A product of broken dreams. Told Buckaroo upon his induction to the Hong Kong Cavaliers, "I'm Perfect Tommy. Find Me." Nicknamed by Buckaroo "Knight of the Lesser Boulevards." Accepted to a special program at MIT where he could have coordinated material testing in cryogenic propellants to determine compatibility of various chemical gasses and fluids associated with rocket propulsion and laser systems, but a woman and a scandal forced him to leave Cambridge for a time. Went to Egypt and there taught himself the rhythm guitar; was involved in an opium bust for which he received a prison term; escaped and (posing as a Belgian) joined the Foreign Legion. Served in Africa and survived, a better man for it. It was his design for the Jet Car's suspension that convinced Buckaroo that the promise of the Oscillation Overthruster might at last be realized.
PECOS: real name unknown, believed to be Kim or Yee. Oriental, born in San Francisco. Ran with the "Love Jones," a Chinese gang, although she herself thought to be a Korean. Recipient of a Buckaroo Banzai Minority Scholarship. Percussionist. Following graduation from the University of Washington, she joined the Cavaliers after the deaths of the Swede and the Seminal Kid.
(*WW1* s/b Seminole Kid, who was with Pecos and the Argentine on the Calypso during the events of the Movie/Novel.)
NEW JERSEY: real name Sidney Zweibel, medical colleague of Buckaroo's from Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons. Son of hard-working bourgeoisie, he has all the tools but lacks the inner confidence to be a great surgeon. Plays a mean piano but needs to test himself physically to learn what he's really made of.
(*WW1* At Columbia P & S, New Jersey and B. Banzai shared Thornburg's histology and an enzymology class.)
PENNY PRIDDY : Banzai's girlfriend, althought I remember her being the twin of his ex-wife or something like that?
"Just remember -- no matter where you go, there you are."
-- Buckaroo Banzai
Background and history written by Sebastien Andrivet.
