Five motorcycle movies to watch over the holidays

The holiday period is a perfect time to chuck on your favourite flick, but there are only so many times you can watch Christmas classics like Love Actually or Home Alone. So why not watch something about motorcycles instead?

Fortunately, there is quite a history of two wheels on the silver screen. From Oscar-nominated docos and psychedelic counterculture adventures, to cyberpunk anime masterpieces and moving true stories, there is literally something for everyone.

And to save you an agonising doom scroll through Netflix, we’ve picked out five of our favourites that we recommend you check out.

Before there was Ewan and Charlie, there was Che Guevara. Well, it’s probably not fair to compare the stars of the Long Way series to a revolutionary Argentine guerrilla leader, but they are all bound by a thirst for adventure on two wheels.

The Motorcycle Diaries is an adaptation of Guevara’s posthumous memoir of the same name, which chronicled his 1952 motorcycle expedition across South America with friend Alberto Granado. His bike of choice was a single-cylinder 1939 Norton 500 that was dubbed La Poderosa (The Mighty One).

The trip came before his well-documented political and military career, with the book and film acting as something of a “coming-of-age” story of adventure and self-discovery. The film is directed by Brazil’s Walter Salles and stars Mexican actor Gael García Bernal.

Where to watch: Available to rent or buy (Amazon, Apple, YouTube, Google)

Another true story, but one with a distinct Kiwi flavour. Starring the legendary Anthony Hopkins and directed by Roger Donaldson, The World’s Fastest Indian tells the story of Burt Munro from Invercargill at the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.

As a bona fide motorcycle legend in New Zealand, Munro’s story is quite the epic tale, but the film centres around his attempts to break multiple land speed records aboard a modified 1920 Indian Scout at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

The film received positive reviews on its release and has become a heartwarming favourite amongst motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists alike.

Where to watch: Stan, SBS On Demand

You can’t have a list of motorcycle movies without Easy Rider. This iconic road trip film set in the 1960s counterculture follows a pair of freewheeling hippies as they ride their Harley-Davidson choppers across America.

With Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the starring roles (Hopper also directs), Easy Rider shone a light on both motorcycle culture and the societal and cultural landscape of the 1960s. That means lots of illicit substances, classic rock and folk music, and plenty of wild and colourful fashion.

The soundtrack is almost as iconic as the film, with Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, and the Band all featuring. Perhaps the most memorable tune of the film is the Steppenwolf classic, Born to Be Wild, which arguably sums the vibe in one song.

Where to watch: Netflix

The bizarre thing about this classic 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk film is that it was set in the dystopian future of 2019. Given everything that has happened between 2019 and now, the chaotic world of Akira is not so unbelievable.

But I digress. The film is based on a 1982 manga of the same name and tells the story of bosozoku biker gang leader Shotaro Kaneda, and his telekinetic friend Tetsuo Shima, whose abilities soon become a problem for the corrupt government of Neo-Tokyo.

I’ll leave the plot details there for now, but Akira was significant for the popularity of anime worldwide. One particularly interesting legacy of the film is the “Akira slide”, which sees Kaneda stop his bike with a high-speed sideways slide. The manoeuvre has been replicated in many films and television series, most recently in Tron: Ares, which we spotted being filmed in Vancouver in 2024. Just don’t try the Akira slide at home. 

Where to watch: If you can find it, let us know. Currently not streaming in Australia.

Arguably the most influential motorcycle film ever made, On Any Sunday is a documentary that shows the highs and lows of motorcycle sport in an incredibly endearing format.

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 1972 Academy Awards, On Any Sunday is directed by Bruce Brown (who also made surf classic The Endless Summer), and stars Mert Lawwill, Malcolm Smith, and Hollywood legend Steve McQueen.

Scenes of McQueen racing dirt bikes in the desert at the peak of his silver screen career (Le Mans was also released in 1971) are almost inconceivable in this day and age, but the film nevertheless played an important role in the actor’s legacy as the “King of Cool” and helped popularise motorcycle sport across the world.

Where to watch: Plex

The Bikeriders (2024), The Wild One (1953), Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), Stone (1974), Charm City Kings (2020), and TT: Closer to the Edge (2011) are all worth a watch too. And if you can’t get through a full film, you can always watch Sons of Anarchy.

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