In the same year, 1976, the German firm Neoplan sent an articulated double-decker touring bus across the USA, outfitted as a rolling hotel with room for 12 passengers. this was done to show what was possible with buses (not quite the Big Bus, but close).
I love how the roof at the front barely clears the top of the door in the building, but when we see it parked outside near the end, the rear of the bus has a big observation bubble that would never cleared it and was actually missing when it was driven out.
If you look closely at the roofline of the rear half of the bus as it exits the hangar, there is a slight dip after the second window, and there is an air scoop after the sixth window. The air scoop is present and correct on the top when the observation bubble is in place. So perhaps that section was retractable after all. They sure had it pop up pretty smartly, then, as soon as the bus was in the open air as we cut to the wide shot.
This was such a huge and expensive prop that I don't think there would have been two versions of the big bus. It must have been a retractable roof or it might have been a removable top somewhat like a big camper shell.
Nice entrance! The actual vehicle (according to April 1976 Motor Trend) was two International Harvester semis inside this plastic facade. There were two drivers (but the rear one couldn't see out and was directed by the front driver. The glass cab out front is just for show and display the actors who appear to drive the bus.
The distant shot at the beginning shows the official party, but one guy is lying down on a stretcher. He can't be moved because he has a St Christophers medal imbedded in his chest from an earlier sabotage explosion. Brilliant. The Big Bus has been my favourite spoof since I saw it in 1976 when I was 17y
I was a kid when I saw this movie on TV, and for some reason I thought I imagined seeing this. So glad to see it really existed. The movie was goofy as heck, even to me as a kid. But for some reason I thought the idea of this bus was cool.
The crazy thing I remember from the movie is that they always drove the Cyclops on twisty, two-lane highways. There must have been four-lane interstate highways to drive on in those days.
Well, after all these...Decades...I have no idea which road to nowhere that Big Old Thing took, but I Was there at Paramount when it was being made, and remember seeing various sections of the Bus around the lot! It was Always needing Work! You can Imagine! Good times....Simpler times! I Miss them! ^^X^^
I remember seeing this movie at the Theatre when I was a kid. I would have been 11 or 12. This was supposed to be a satire of all the "Disaster Movies" which were all the rage during the 1970's ("Airport", "Airport-75", "Earthquake", "The Posiedon Adventure", "The Towering Inferno"..) Now the movie characters could experience life-threatening danger on a "Big Bus." I remember enjoying it as a kid, but I remember very little about it. I assumed everyone was saved at the end...
They were, but-well, you'll just have to rent it from RU-vid and see it (if you don't remember the ending) because I'm _not_ going to be a dick and spoil said ending.
I have this on DVD and I can't explain why Harold Gould's line about the Coyote being painted on backwards is omitted from the home video release. I thought this bus was the coolest thing ever when I was 7, that is until Star Wars was released a year later.
I remember this movie as 'comedy gold' and only as an adult of today can see the practical applications of having a vehicle like this. Eastern Europe, Canada and South America already have vehicles this big on roads (mostly lumber and petrol transportation) so I don't see it as unusual to have something like this for passenger use.
For some inexplicable reason, the joke right after this moment was cut from the home video release, even though it was short and very funny. The music ends and Harold Gould yells -- Who put the coyote on backwards?!
That's it! I knew I wasn't going crazy! I remember hearing that line when I saw the movie on TV back around 1980. I can't explain why it is not on the DVD.
I am not a movie expert but it looks like it would be more dramatic to place the camera to the other side of the bus so the setting or rising sun would shine on the bus rather than the shadowy side,
I saw this movie several times at the theater as a kid. I was nine years old, so my standards probably weren't very high, but the goofiness of it appealed to me at the time. Elements of the story influenced, (or were possibly ripped off by), the makers of Airplane. I would love to see it again, but it is very hard to find.
Incredible ! Wow! I went wild ! When I saw this as a kid at 12 ! Yes old! I thought to my self , love to have this! But in reality now? Fuel consumption! 2 man drivers! I guess It has a switch to operate for one driver two? if the second driver is tired ? If ur bored u can change? Drivers seat ! If u want it l.h.d. or to r.h.d. ha ha ha ! How cool ! Is that ! Maintance fees? Tyres ? The cost ? Insurance? Tax ? So many questions! Lol 😁
I remember when this movie was released; saw it in late Autumn, 1976. It was a double-bill w/ Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" (we laughed a lot that evening...)
Same studio and same team that did the similiar, and boxoffice champ AIRPLANE! (1980), hich isaw then..my first expierence at multiple times seeing, and thereby, memorizaing a movie.
Probably had a squat valve :) Truckers used to tell rookies that if you pull the air horn, it would activate the squat valve to lower the truck in case if a low bridge or other low objects... :)
Is that cool. The movie with the bus is fantastic. :) i have seen 1978 (with 15 Years) in the cinema in germany and in the '80 on the tv. It's a great machine and a wonderful bus. Thanks for the pics. Best wishes from germany. Henning
The music is the opening to "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss (died 1945) You know him as the composer of Ariadne auf Naxos or Der Rosenkavalier.
It's on DVD, but in an (IMHO) inferior version from Warner Archive (I wish that this was on DVD and Blu-Ray from Olive Films instead, or on Blu-Ray from Paramount as part of the Paramount Presents collection.)
the same way they got it out of that hanger....magic! anybody else notice that the roof barely clears the doorway when it first rolls out, but if you look @ it once it's parked outside, the rear section is clearly higher than what the hanger door is. don't get me wrong, this movie was great (for what it was), but the things you miss when not looking @ the whole picture.......
all of the fanfare and hype as it is towed out of the "hanger" and only about five people to see its unveiling....did anyone happen to notice that the coyote was backwards? lol....
I have read that it was destroyed after the making of the movie. But a real-life Neoplan double-artic double-decker still exists for real, but not in running condition
@cliofilmtv; the name of the music is 'Also Sprach Zarathustra,' by Richard Strauss - NOT 'the 2001 movie music.' It really, REALLY helps people to STAY in SCHOOl - graduate frm HIGH SCHOOL , then go to UNIVERSITY (and NOT to party. People who do that end up not knowing simple things - like the title of this piece).
Yes, I understand that 2001 used no original music ant was borrowed from classical authors, like Strauss, but since this is a parody movie and it was using this music as a reference to 2001, I linked it to the movie that it originally parodied, as in this scene; it's an over the top technological advancement in transportation, so the reference was the sci-fi movie 2001 released eight years before. Now if anyone knows about 2001, then he can find that the sources of the music, but I thought referencing 2001 was more appropriate than referencing Strauss in this particular case. (sorry for my bad English anyhow).
The bus idea and design are marvelous, but The movies is selliest supposed to be a comedy movies ever, it's not only you can`t laugh at it, but it even makes you wanna cry from The beggening till The end
I stumbled on this video because I wanted to see exactly how uncomfortable my impending Megabus trip was going to be. I really hope Megabus is like this. It is isn't it?
It's ridiculous how the ground crews behave in such a formal military fashion for this momentous occasion yet there are only a few people there to witness said occasion. 5 ground crew members, 1 security guard, 2 drivers, and 5 spectators. You would think there'd be at least several hundred people in attendance such the engineers, scientists, technicians, fabricators, the media, and the public at large. I guess so much money was spent on the huge prop that there was none left for some extras.
"Look out, he's got a broken milk carton!" Anyone ever notice that when it emerges from the hanger it doesn't have the skylight third level yet it miraculously appears in the full shot? If I ever win the Powerball I would rebuild the Big Bus as my personal RV :-D
Apparently this vehicle was designed to send hundreds of people, hurtling to their deaths at 400 mph on a public road in a crash that would result in a 5 kiloton atomic explosion. FUCK YEAH. Now there's an ending that would top Silver Streak.
