August 1985 at the Movies: Van Halen Hamburger Rocks BETTER OFF DEAD

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 Lane Myer's 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.

It's a fantasy sequence set in the hamburger joint where Lane 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,” writer/director Savage Steve 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.”

Initially opening across just 13 screens, the movie was released wide on October 11, 1985. It helped propel the film to best box office weekend of more than $2.5 million, making it the 7th biggest big-screen feature in the country that week, a chart position it maintained for two weeks in the row.

Relive the Van Halen hamburger magic below.