Rockstar Scientists & Stolen Dreams - Buckaroo Banzai (1984) & The City of Lost Children (1995)

Genius, chaos, and cinematic weirdness collide as Matt and James explore two of the strangest visions of mad science ever put to screen — The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and The City of Lost Children (1995). From rock ’n’ roll brain surgeons to dream-stealing scientists, this double bill dives into the eccentric, the surreal, and the gloriously over-designed worlds of 80s and 90s sci-fi. Expect talk of comic-book logic, baroque laboratories, and how imagination itself becomes the ultimate experiment.

“Some scientists break the laws of nature. These ones break the laws of cinema.”

Episode highlights

• Pulp science: How Buckaroo Banzai mashes up comics, kung fu, and quantum physics.

• Rock-star scientist: Peter Weller’s coolest brain surgeon in film history.

• John Lithgow unleashed: Dr. Lizardo and the art of overacting as mad genius.

• World-building excess: The joy of movies that assume you’re already in on the joke.

• From camp to craftsmanship: How City of Lost Children turns science into surreal art.

• Dreams for sale: The emotional cost of experimentation in Jeunet’s gothic world.

• Children, clones, and creators: Mad science as metaphor for artistic obsession.

• Visual invention: Comparing Hollywood pulp to French fantastique.

• Shared DNA: Why both films celebrate weirdness as a kind of intellectual freedom.

  
  

Chapter markers / timestamps

• 00:00:00 Cold open: snippets from both films’ wildest lines.

• 00:00:37 Welcome & setup — science goes surreal.

• 00:02:20 Buckaroo Banzai — pulp premise and chaotic genius.

• 00:06:04 The perfect B-movie cast: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum.

• 00:10:22 Tone & texture — parody, sincerity, and 80s world-building.

• 00:15:18 The 8th Dimension explained (sort of).

• 00:20:40 Why it flopped — marketing an in-joke to the masses.

• 00:26:24 Transition to The City of Lost Children.

• 00:27:50 Jeunet & Caro’s visual world — steampunk nightmares.

• 00:31:12 The mad scientist archetype — Krank and his quest to dream.

• 00:36:48 Dream theft & emotion extraction as pseudo-science.

• 00:42:00 From absurd to poetic — balancing tone in surreal sci-fi.

• 00:47:26 Performance highlights: Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Judith Vittet.

• 00:52:40 Comparing styles: chaos vs craft.

• 00:58:50 Final reflections — why weird science matters.

• 01:03:10 Outro & next-time tease.

Note: Timecodes approximate to final episode cut; minor drift possible.

Show notes & references mentioned

Films & TV

• The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

• The City of Lost Children (1995)

• Delicatessen (1991)

• Brazil (1985)

• The Fifth Element (1997)

• Doctor Who (1963– )

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

• Flash Gordon (1980)

People & concepts

• Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon

• Pulp comics, surrealism, and the aesthetics of over-design

• Mad science as creative rebellion

  
  

Pull quotes (for social / callouts)

• “Buckaroo Banzai is what happens when pulp fiction takes acid.”

• “Dreams, brains, clones — The City of Lost Children has it all bottled in one surreal lab.”

• “Science fiction should be weird. These films prove why.”

• “Both movies treat imagination as the ultimate experiment.”

• “Lithgow’s mad scientist deserves his own Nobel Prize for overacting.”

  
  

Listener links

• Subscribe & follow: Search Journey Through Sci-Fi on your podcast app.

• Patreon: patreon.com/journeythroughscifi

• Website: journeythroughscifi.com

• Reddit: r/ThroughSciFi

• Socials: @journeythroughscifi

  
  

Credits

Hosts: Matt & James

Series: Mad Science

Episode: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai (1984) & The City of Lost Children (1995)

Produced by: Journey Through Sci-Fi

Next time

We look at The Nutty Professor (1963) and Flubber (1997) — experiments in comedy, ego, and elasticity.