August 1985 at the Movies: Van Halen Hamburger Rocks "Better Off Dead"

HAN VALEN BURGER WELL DONE
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(Warner Bros)

It was on August 23, 1985, when a wild new teen comedy hit American movie theaters: Better Off Dead. Starring John Cusack, Diane Franklin and Curtis Armstrong, the flick about dumped high school student Layne Myers' wacky exploits on the ski slope has grown into a legit cult classic. Featuring a variety of classic gags ("I want my two dollars!"), the movie highlights rock legends Van Halen in its most famous scene.

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It's a fantasy sequence set in the hamburger joint where Layne works. The star of the sequence: a Van Halen hamburger, rocking out to the band's 1980 classic, "Everybody Wants Some."

“It was just so, so out there and stupid, that everybody was really worried about it,” Holland recalled of the studio’s response to the scene. “But it was the highest testing thing when we went to the test audience. They thought that was the greatest thing in the whole movie.” Relive the magic below.

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