Easy Rider

Easy Rider, released in 1969, is an American road drama. Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star as two bikers who journey through the American Southwest and the South, using money they earned from a cocaine deal. The film was written by Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. The cast also includes Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Toni Basil. The movie’s success is credited with kickstarting the New Hollywood era of filmmaking in the early 1970s.

The film became a landmark of counterculture cinema, seen as a touchstone for its generation. It captured the national imagination and reflected the mood of the drug culture at the time. The story explores 1960s youth culture, including the hippie movement, drug use, and communal living. Real drugs were used in scenes depicting marijuana and other substances.

An independent production released by Columbia Pictures on July 14, 1969, it earned $60 million worldwide against a modest budget of $400,000. Critics praised its performances, direction, writing, soundtrack, and visuals. It received two Academy Award nominations: Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson. In 1998, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, citing its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

**Plot**

Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) are freewheeling motorcyclists. After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, they sell their haul for a large sum of money. They hide the cash in a plastic tube inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt’s chopper and ride eastward, aiming to reach New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

On their trip, they stop to repair a flat tire at an Arizona farmstead and share a meal with the farmer and his family. Later, Wyatt picks up a hippie hitchhiker, who invites them to his commune. There, “free love” appears to be practiced, with two women, Lisa and Sarah, seemingly sharing the affections of the hitchhiker before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitchhiker gives Wyatt LSD, telling him to share it with “the right people, at the right time.”

While riding alongside a parade in New Mexico, the pair are arrested for “parading without a permit” and thrown in jail. There, they befriend lawyer George Hanson (Nicholson), who spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. George, who has worked for the ACLU, helps them get out and decides to travel with them to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. An alcoholic and a “square,” George is reluctant at first, fearing addiction, but quickly relents.

Stopping at a small-town Louisiana diner, the trio attracts attention. The local girls find them exciting, but the men, including the sheriff, make taunts. They leave without fuss and camp outside town. In the middle of the night, a group of locals attacks them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife, and the attackers flee. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George is bludgeoned to death. They wrap his body in his sleeping bag and vow to return his belongings to his family.

They continue to New Orleans, finding a brothel George had mentioned. Taking prostitutes Karen and Mary with them, they wander the Mardi Gras streets. They end up in a French Quarter cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD. Later at their campsite, while Billy enthusiastically recounts their travels, Wyatt melancholically muses that they “blew it.”

The next morning, on a two-lane country road, two men in an older pickup truck overtake them. The passenger grabs a shotgun, saying he will scare them. As they pass Billy, the passenger fires, causing Billy to crash. Wyatt rides back to find Billy lying on the side of the road, covered in blood. Wyatt tells Billy he will get help and covers his wound with his leather jacket. Wyatt then rides toward the pickup as it makes a U-turn. As they pass, the passenger fires again through the driver’s-side window. Wyatt’s riderless motorcycle flies through the air, comes apart, and lands engulfed in flames. His body lies still in the background. The final shot shows the burning motorcycle as the credits roll.