9 Must Watch Recent Moto-Centric Movies

Motorcycles and Movies Have a Long Relationship

Motorcycles are all about motion, so it makes sense that the motion pictures have featured them since the beginning. Motorcycles have been used in movies to convey danger, excitement, speed, and thrills forever, and they still are. Movie characters who ride bikes are always more interesting than the ones who don't. It may be a bit surprising to see Charlie Chaplin as the villain in Mabel At The Wheel, but his Thor motorcycle makes him much more interesting to Mabel than they other guy without a bike. Sometimes though, motorcycles are not just set dressing and character background. Sometimes motorcycles are essential to the movie's story. Sometimes the only story in the movie is a motorcycle trip. There are countless "biker films" that were made quickly and cheaply during the 1960s and 70s, and they can be fun, but they make us all look like jerks, for the most part. Instead here are 9 movies that portray riders in a good light, or at least don't make them the bad guys.

This list only covers fiction films, and doesn't include such non-fiction classics as On Any Sunday and Cycles South. There is a great thread discussing biker movies over on HDForums here: Favorite Biker Film?

1. The Wild Hogs (2007)

Now, don't go getting your black and orange H-D panties in a twist, this list is not in any particular order, nor can it possibly definitive. That being said, The Wild Hogs may be the best on-screen version of the life most riders live these days; middle aged, middle class guys, with jobs and families and responsibilities, who do their damnedest to get out and ride with their buddies whenever possible. Yes, this movie has some stupid jokes and sight gags in it, but it is in general a positive image of guys and their bikes. Bonus points for getting Peter Fonda in there with a cameo as an old biker. However, don't ride 4 abreast, on a 2-lane road, across the double yellow, the way they are in that picture, unless you have a Hollywood camera crew following you around directing traffic.

2. Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)

Perhaps the worst thing about Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is the title, speaking of which, shouldn't there be a hyphen in it? The plot is a convoluted twisting web involving crooked bankers, who are also secretly a drug cartel, and real estate developers. The good guys, of course, are our title characters, a biker and a cowboy (who also rides a motorcycle). By the way, there are also characters named Virginia Slim, Jack Daniels, and Indian, showing the writer may need some help in the name department. Even if you don't pay much attention to the plot or names, this is a good buddy action movie, and Mickey Rourke's "Black Death" custom FXR is a sweet chopper. If you ignore some of the plot, and the title that sounds like something stuck on it while they were thinking of a better one, this is a fun bike focused movie.

3. The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

Burt Munro was a biker with a singular goal: to make his 1920 Indian into the fastest bike on Earth. He may not have quite accomplished that, but some of his records, set with an overhead valve converted, streamlined, 1000cc Indian Scout stood for many years after his death. Anthony Hopkins deserved Oscar consideration for his spot on portrayal of this iconoclastic tinkerer and rider. There are few movies made about land speed racing, because the pure speed and desolate emptiness of the salt flats doesn't have the same effect on screen that it does in person. The World's Fastest Indian may best capture the challenge of building a bike, and going just as fast as you possibly can on it at Bonneville.

4. Stone Cold (1991)

Football player Brian Bosworth is not an actor, but he is a biker, and the custom FXR he rides in Stone Cold was actually his personal bike that he insisted on using in the movie. Unlike a lot of actors in movie and TV (the cast of Sons of Anarchy, for instance), The Boz looks right at home riding around in this movie, and even doing some of his own stunts. The bikers in Stone Cold are both the good and bad guys, with Bosworth as an undercover badass trying to bust open a club running drugs and guns, and possibly trying to overthrow the government. It is hard to tell, but at one point they fly a US Army Huey right down main street and siege a courthouse in order to bust out a member. The plot of Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is complicated, but this one is just ridiculous, so they make a good double bill.

5. Roadside Prophets (1992)

It really is a shame that Roadside Prophets did not get better distribution when it came out in 1992, because it really is a good film about people who ride motorcycles and the bond between them. John Doe from the band X plays a blue collar biker, who bonds with a new guy at work over their love of bikes, only to have the guy die in a freak accident. The rest of the movie is his quest to carry out the last wish of a guy he hardly knew, joined by Adam Horovitz from the Beastie Boys, as another biker who just had nothing better to do. There are cameos from David Carradine, Timothy Leary, Arlo Guthrie and more as the folks they meet along the way, who all have something to share from their lives lived on their own terms.

6. Hell Ride (2008)

Quentin Tarentino teamed up with 70s biker movie veteran Larry Bishop to make Hell Ride, a 21st century version of the classic biker movie. This movie also features plenty of guys you'll recognize from back in the day, like Bishop himself, Dennis Hopper, and David Carradine again. The plot is basically just the tale of revenge and a war between two rival gangs. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy what a biker film with better production values looks like, compared to the cheap and fast outlaw movies of the old days.

7. Beyond the Law (1993)

Beyond the Law has a similar plot to Stone Cold, but with Charlie Sheen as the undercover cop who infiltrates the biker club to expose their illegal activity. Luckily, with the help of a mechanic who knows the outlaw club scene, Sheen transforms into a real biker, or at least real enough to pass. Micheal Madsen, also in Hell Ride, is the main bad guy biker in this one, so he must really ride, at least occasionally. This TV movie is supposed to be based on a true story, and has the gang running drugs and guns, so that true story may also have inspired Stone Cold as well.

8. Running Cool (1993)

For a movie where the bikers are definitely the good guys, check out Running Cool. This low budget independent features has a few real bikers in it, and they are definitely the heroes of the story. The plot centers around some corrupt politicians and law enforcement out to steal the land of poor hardworking folks, and the riders who come to their rescue. Not great acting, or writing, but not a bad film nevertheless.

9. Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

No, the Ghost Rider films are no good, but they are enjoyable and entertaining, and the hero is a super powered flaming skeleton on a flaming motorcycle. Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) sells his soul to the devil, but gets double-crossed (as does everyone who makes this deal it seems). Years later, the devil needs a favor and grants him the power to turn into the supernatural Ghost Rider, in exchange for hunting down and capturing the devil's even more evil son. In the second film Johnny is trying to keep the devil from achieving human form, or something, by possessing a young boy. Batman and Captain America occasionally ride motorcycles, but Ghost Rider is the only motorcycle hero.

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