Easy Rider(1969)

Plot Summary

• The protagonists are two freewheeling hippies: Wyatt, nicknamed "Captain America" (Peter Fonda), and Billy (Dennis Hopper). Their names are a reference to Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather, while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bush hat. Wyatt is appreciative of the help they receive and of others along the way while Billy is often hostile, unappreciative and paranoid.After smuggling drugs from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their drugs to "Connection", a man (Phil Spector) in a Rolls Royce. With the money from the sale stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-adorned fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward in an attempt to reach New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. At nights, they are forced to camp out in the fields, as no motel will lodge them on account of their hippie and biker appearance.During their trip, Wyatt and Billy meet and have a meal with a rancher, whom Wyatt admires for his simple, traditional farming lifestyle. Later, the duo pick up a hitchhiker (Luke Askew) and agree to take him to his commune, where they stay for a day. Life in the commune appears hard, with naive city hippies finding this impossible to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil. At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by one of the members: A chance "to make a stand," and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste." The commune also contains a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of free love is practiced, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), sharing the affections of the hitchhiker before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. As the bikers leave, the hitchhiker (known only as "stranger on highway" in the closing credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people, at the right time".While riding along with a parade in a small town in New Mexico, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in prison, where they befriend ACLU lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who helps them get out of prison and decides to go with them to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. George has a card for a whorehouse in New Orleans but states he has attempted to go in the past but never made it past the county line. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to attempt this ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but finally relents.While they attempt to eat in a rural Louisiana restaurant, the trio's hippie appearance attracts the attention of the redneck locals. However, a group of teenage girls are interested in the strangers and their appearance and want to meet and get a ride, the local men including the sheriff make mocking, racist, and homophobic remarks. One of them menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line." Wyatt, Billy and George leave without eating and make camp outside of town. The events of the day cause George to comment, "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a great deal about the value of freedom, but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits this.In the middle of the night, the local rednecks attack and brutally beat the trio with baseball bats while they're sleeping. Billy manages to scare off the attackers by pulling a switchblade on them. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries, but George is clubbed to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap up George's body in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.Wyatt and Bill continue on and finally arrive in New Orleans and find the brothel George had intended to visit. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy go outdoors and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a French Quarter cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD the hitchhiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a psychedelic bad trip infused with Catholic prayer, represented through quick edits, sound effects and over-exposed film. Making camp afterwards, Billy thinks they have made it and will retire rich in Florida but Wyatt declares, "We blew it." Billy doesn't know what he is talking about as Wyatt muses that they failed in their quest for freedom.The next morning, the two continue on their trip to Florida. While on a quiet local road somewhere in Alabama, two inbred-looking rednecks in a pickup spot them riding along and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun. As they pull up alongside Billy who is behind Wyatt, one of them lazily aims the shotgun at him and taunts him, asking, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy gives them the finger, the hillbilly fires the gun at Billy, who immediately crashes and is seriously wounded. As the truck roars off down the road past Wyatt, he races back to his fatally injured friend, who is covered in blood, and covers him with his flag adorned jacket before riding off for help. But the pickup truck has turned around and closes in on Wyatt as the rednecks don't want witnesses. The redneck fires at Wyatt as they pass him, the bike breaks apart and the bike's gas tank erupts into a fiery explosion. Wyatt is thrown off his bike and lands by the side of the road... dead.As the brutal country boys drive away, the film ends with an aerial shot of the flaming bike and the body on the deserted road, as the camera ascends to the sky. The duo's journey has ended into a terrible tragedy.

Storyline

• Netting a hefty profit from their latest drug deal, hippies Wyatt and Billy decide to outfit themselves with among other things motorbikes - Wyatt complete in what they call his Captain America gear and similar motif on the bike - and chucking any structure in their lives beyond the want to get there for the event, cycle from their home base of Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras in just over a week. They don't plan to spend their proceeds on this trip - they saving that for a more carefree life in Florida after the fact - they sleeping in the great outdoors along the way. While Wyatt is more easygoing, believing in the karmic nature and practicality of helping others when they can and in turn asking for help when they need it, Billy is a little more suspicious of the people they encounter, especially in hiding their wad of cash that is stuffed into the gas tank of Wyatt's bike, that money their future. They will find that not all counter-culturalists have the exact same mindset, while they will also find the spiritual and practical connections to others in perhaps the most unlikely of places and people. However, they will also ruffle some feathers just for being hippies, arguably in the fear not of them as people but what they represent. Through it all, Wyatt in particular evaluates if the trip ends up being what he expects or wants for his life. — Huggo In search of enlightenment, freedom, and, above all, an unattainable America, the pair of best friends and free-spirited hippies--Wyatt, aka Captain America, and Billy--set off on a long journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans after completing a lucrative cocaine deal. In high hopes of making it in time for Mardi Gras, the duo of motorcycle rebels zoom through the quiet United States heartland in their chromed custom-made Harley Davidson chopper bikes, as a vibrant tapestry of diverse people--friends and foes--and unparalleled landscapes unfold. Before the endless stretches of road and against the backdrop of the tireless motors' deep rumbling, Wyatt and Billy keep riding on, looking for that so-called independence, even though malicious animosity and senseless violence get in the way. Can the two easy riders beat the system and sail into the sunset? — Nick Riganas Two young "hippie" bikers, Wyatt and Billy, sell some cocaine in Southern California, stash their money away in their gas-tank, and set off for a trip across America on their own personal odyssey looking for a way to lead their lives. On the journey, they encounter bigotry and hatred from small-town communities who despise and fear their non-conformism. However, Wyatt and Billy also discover people attempting 'alternative lifestyles' who are resisting this narrow-mindedness, there is always a question mark over the future survival of these drop-out groups. The gentle hippie community who thank God for 'a place to stand' are living their own unreal dream. The rancher they encounter and his Mexican wife are hard-pushed to make ends meet. Even LSD turns sour on a bad trip. Death seems like the only freedom. When they arrive at a diner in a small town, they are insulted by the local rednecks as weirdo degenerates. They are arrested on some minor pretext by the local sheriff and thrown in prison where they meet George Hanson, a liberal alcoholic lawyer. He gets them out and decides to join them on their trip to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. — alfiehitchie