9 Memorable Moments from “Better Off Dead”

1. Everybody Wants Some!

Perhaps one of my favorite Van Halen songs specially made for this movie was “Everybody Wants Some”. Lane was dreaming about the slogan from the restaurant he was working at, “Everybody wants some” where a clay form of a cheeseburger rocked out on the guitar. The music video is from the scene where Lane made a large patty, put it on a plate and pulled the chain that would raise it to the roof. After it was struck by lightning, the burger became alive and started to sing and play the guitar.

Where they got the idea to bring a cheeseburger to life and sing a record-breaking song by Van Halen, I have no idea, but it definitely tops my list for being a memorable moment!

2. The French Dinner

French fries, french dressing and french bread were all that was served to welcome the neighbor’s foreign exchange student, Monique, from France. The cliché of these American foods is just hilarious as Monique had never heard of these foods before!

Lane’s father then asked Monique three times if she was “enjoying your stay in our town?” each time louder than the last. Then Mrs. Smith went on to say that she only needed the language of love as she tried to set her up with her loser son, Ricky.

But the best part was when Mrs. Smith drank what she thought was liquor that Lane’s mom, Jenny Meyer, made. But it was actually primer that Lane used in his last attempt to kill himself. So when Mrs. Smith lit her cigarette…BOOM! Explosion.

3. Two Dollars

And yet another amazing scene when the paperboy, Johnny, raced to the Meyers’ home in attempts to break their window by throwing a newspaper through it. Lane’s father, Al, immediately wakes up and hears Johnny coming up with his bike. As he races out of bed to the garage to open the door (you can see the other windows Johnny broke), Johnny barely misses the window with the paper and hits the door instead.

Then another scene when Johnny rings the doorbell and asks for two dollars for his monthly payment, as if it’s a large sum of money. As Lane tries to tell him he doesn’t have the money, Johnny stops the door as its being closed and repeats, “Two dollars…cash” as he flips out a comb like a pocket knife and slickly brushes his hair back. Desperate, Lane told him he was going through a family crisis and asked him to come back later before slamming the door in Johnny’s face.

4. Two Dollars (Cont.)

In a later scene, as Lane is walking home from the high school dance at night, he’s confronted by not only Paperboy Johnny, but all his friends on their bikes. As they chase him down the street to his car, he screams, “KEEEEEEEYS!!!!” as he fumbles for them. Finally, he’s able to get away. Until…

Lane is driving his car down the street until he notices a big thump! on his car and sees the kid sliding down his windshield. But again, he’s able to lose the menace by driving through a car wash.

Then in another scene just after Lane learns to ski down the snowy mountain, he finds his ski is busted after Monique runs over it with her skis. Then at the perfect moment, Johnny emerges from the trees, still on his bike with its own skis. To finally make his getaway, Lane had to ski down the mountain on one ski.

At the same time, the big ski race against Roy was about to start. Lane was given a head start, and just after Roy started, Johnny was following them. But Roy didn’t put up with it; he pushed Johnny down the side of the mountain, showing the hundred foot drop of what should have killed him. But he was just dazed.

And then finally, at the closing scene where Lane was kissing Monique in the baseball stadium with his black Camaro, Johnny came out yet again and cornered them on his bike.

5. Math Class

One of my favorite scenes, Lane’s math class was so intent on learning the three cardinal trapezoidal formations. Unlike the realistic classroom in the 80s where students were secretly passing notes as their attention spans were no longer than a few seconds, I was at first confused by their focus, smiles and awws at the teacher.

The only two who didn’t seem so engaged were Lane and Charles de Mar, who seemed to be focused on his…species growing in a jar. But as the teacher asked to see their homework on how they solved some ridiculously complex math problem, everyone pulled out large binders, suitcases and portable filing folders. Lane on the other hand, had nothing but a folded up piece of paper with gum in the middle that read, “Do Homework.” THAT sounds a little familiar.

Of course, Lane is called up to the front to show the work that he didn’t do, and ends up daydreaming of him and his ex-girlfriend gettin’ down in the back of his station wagon at night. When she jumps up, claiming to hear something, Lane reassures her that they’re “totally alone”, when in fact, they were surrounded by pranksters taking off the wheels of his car.

Before the couple could realize what happened to the car, Lane discovered his condom broke. When he told Beth, she freaked out and he offered to put on a new one. She screamed that she didn’t want a new one and asked if he knew what it meant.

That was when Lane woke from his daydream and yelled out, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” in front of the entire class as they gawked in disgust at what he had drawn: a pregnant stick figure with an almost perfect circle as her belly with the word “baby” pointing to it.

Just afterwards, Lane was saved by the bell and class was over, much to everyone else’s disappointment. But just before they left, the teacher told everyone to memorize pages 39 – 110 before the following day, which seemed to lighten the mood.

6. “It’s Got Raisins In It. You Like Raisins”

As nasty as the green goo that Jenny Meyer made for dinner that night, I still want to try it. Not just because it had raisins, but to see what else she used. I’m not opposed to trying anything new!

So what happened was Jenny got a Ladies Home Journal book with recipes in the mail, only the rain drenched the book and made the pages stick together. So what she couldn’t read, she improvised…and let’s just say I love her creativity.

As she’s serving the green goo, Lane’s dad, Al Meyer starts up the conversation about Lane’s Camaro. But how could you pay attention when there’s green goo hanging off the spoon?

Then as Jenny tries to tell Lane to meet Monique across the street, he pokes at the goo that hardens into a rock and starts moving by itself off the table! Where do they come up with this stuff?!

7. Badger and the Trashy Women

Just as Lane makes it back home from the school dance and after being chased by Johnny and his gang of paperboys for two dollars, he passes by his little brother Badger’s room when he hears a bunch of women’s voices. He turns around and opens the door to find Badger surrounded with five beautiful, skanky women.

They all turn to face him, including Badger, with a sly look on his face. Neither of them act shocked more like a “what?” look on their faces, but Lane just greets them with a “Happy New Year” and closes the door again as the camera films him from underneath one girl’s legs.

If there’s anyone who has mastered the art of being self-taught, it’s Badger as he was able to reel them in after reading a book called How to Pick Up Trashy Women. How do his parents let him get away with that?

Even later in the movie, he launches a rocket out of his garage after Lane finds the box that says “How to Build Your Own Space Shuttle” in the living room the previous day.

8. Camaro Race Scene

Just after Monique finishes fixing the Camaro that’s been sitting dead on the driveway for months, the pair take it for a drive. They pull up to the two brothers at the stoplight for the third race as the song “Bad to the Bone” starts playing.

Only this time, the brothers have women in the car with them with Chinese food, just before they see Lane roll down his window with sunglasses on. When the light turns green, the Camaro takes off, leaving the exhaust to carry into the brothers’ car as all four of them start coughing on the fumes.

The girls then get out, disgusted with their dates as the brothers start fighting and tackling each other in the car. I would probably do the same thing if I were them.

9. Lunch Room Scene

This scene first starts off with Ricky and Monique in the lunchroom. After watching him suck his red jello through a straw, let’s just say she wasn’t interested. She then looks over to Charles de Mar on her left, who was also snorting the stuff into his nose before taking some and rubbing it onto his gums. As though he didn’t want to be rude, he offered it first to her, and then to another group of kids on his left side as they stared at him in disgust.

The camera then moves over to Lane drawing a cartoon of Roy failing to woo his ex-girlfriend Beth with his guitar with a monster behind them.

Meanwhile, she and Roy are sitting behind him as Roy serenades the love of Lane’s life. He imagines the monster swallowing up Roy, much to his amusement. Beth then criticizes Lane for being sick, to which he refutes, “Sick? Beth I love you. How could you dump me for him?” She then starts explaining how immature and irresponsible he is as she and the monster are in sync when making the gestures.

But Lane nervously refuses to believe what she says, claiming, “Any girl would be overwhelmed with sweat just to go out with me.” Just then, the basketball team walks by with Kris Kremmins sitting down with them as the cartoon Beth scoffs, “Ha! You haven’t got a chance. Kris Kremmins only dates the basketball team. Not just the certain members of the team, Lane, the whole team! You so much as talk to her and you’re dead! So let’s just say you give it up.”

The monster then spits Roy out with his hair messed up, “Yeah Oscar Meyer. I think that’s a fine idea.”

This outrages Lane as he grabs the paper, crumples it up and yells in front of everyone, “I will not give it up, Beth! You will be sorry! Some day you’ll want me back!” He then embarrassingly realizes he’s being watched talking to a crumpled piece of paper, apologizes and then sits back down.

Kris Kremmins then gets up from the table and informs the basketball team she’s getting milk. They all immediately stand up and grunt, concerned, to which she immediately reassures them she’ll be fine as she skates into the kitchen.

This was Lane’s opportunity as he gets up, grabs a pair of skates from someone and skates into the kitchen. Because he doesn’t know how to skate, he bumps into Kris, almost shoving her before apologizing. Meanwhile, the team grunts again and looks around for her.

Lane then used skating as a way to point out they have something in common. But she only cut him off, calling him a jerk and skating away.

But as he fumbles out of the kitchen, he makes another feeble attempt to talk to her. Only when the lunch bell rings, he falls and quickly reaches out for her uniform to catch himself. But instead, it rips off of her, exposing just her underwear to everyone as she lets out a high-pitched scream. Then from Lane’s point of view, the basketball team immediately comes in to grab him as their hands all move toward the camera before it blacks out.

What Was Your Favorite Moment?

Again I have no idea how they fit all that creativity into one movie. The humor just never ended; each moment was just hilarious. But if I had to pick the best scene, it was the everybody wants some scene, simply because I love Van Halen.

What was your favorite scene from Better Off Dead? How many times did you watch it back then? If you haven’t seen it, you definitely need to! I promise you won’t be disappointed.