8) The Adventures of Wil Wheaton Across the 8th Dimension

Ladies and Gentlemen, we're almost through with our exploration of Wil Wheaton's sordid geeky past. Four more to go. Today, we discuss a little extra-dimensional travel Wil did in his younger days.

8) Wil Wheaton once visited the eighth dimension using his own home-made oscilation overthruster.

When The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension came out in 1984, a young Wil Wheaton found himself sitting in awe on a darkened movie house. How he longed for a jet car. How he longed for Buckaroo to invite him to join the Hong Kong Cavaliers. He even contemplated what his nickname would be and what he'd wear. More than all of that, however, he wanted to drive through a mountain.

Flash forward several years.

Stand By Me was a huge success. Star Trek: The Next Generation was a hit. Wil Wheaton had some liquid assets behind him. He discovered into GURPS, Warhammer, and Car Wars. But he still remembered the work of the Banzai Institute. Finally old enough to drive, Wil decided to make an oscillation overthruster and attach it to his first car. For weeks, months, he poured over the design in his trailer on the set. Finally, sometime later, he finished it. He hooked it up to a golf cart and began racing around the back lot, trying to find a good spot to use it. After considerable effort, a number of failures, and the chagrin of lot security, he did it. He entered the eigth dimension. And he was disappointed that the Lectroids didn't actually speak with Jamaican accents.

Historically, there are two important notes to be made:

1. Thisis the reason he always got in trouble for speeding around in and crashing golf carts. It took a few attempts to actually finally go through the wall rather than just through the wall.
2. Realizing the dream of turning one sci-fi dream into a reality directly resolved him to start his own AADA only a year later.

You have been informed.