Few images are as inherently cinematic as the sight of a leather-clad biker on the back of a two-wheeled symbol of freedom, an endless horizon in front of them, and their checkered past behind them. It makes sense, then, that motorcycles would play a key role in some of Hollywood's biggest movies. In a way, the motorcycle is the modern equivalent of the old Western mode of transportation, the horse. After all, when Bon Jovi sang, "I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride," he was talking about a motorcycle. And, when it comes to managing a film's budget, motorcycles and gasoline are a lot easier and cheaper to maintain than a fleet of horses!
Harley-Davidson may be in financial trouble, but for this story, we're going to focus on movies that feature some of the coolest and most rugged motorbikes ever assembled. The revered brand has experienced its share of ups and downs, including ill-fated ownership by AMF and a decline in its modern market share. Yet Harley remains at the front and center of popular culture. We've got action movies, superhero fare, musicals, a few all-time classics, and even neo-cowboy cyberpunk adventures. Without further ado, let's take a look at the ten most memorable Harley-Davidsons from movies and TV.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show," one of the all-time great movie musicals, is filled with iconic imagery and delightful performances. While Tim Curry's Dr. Frank-N-Furter gets all the attention (as well he should!), every single character is perfectly cast in their role. Even so, few are as memorable as Eddie, the rock-and-roll delinquent played by Meat Loaf in his first credited film appearance.
Eddie only appears in a single scene, in which he smashes through a wall of ice while riding a Harley-Davidson WLA, sings the show-stopping song, "Hot Patootie," plays a rippin' saxophone solo ... and then gets axed to death by Dr. Frank-N-Furter. But don't weep for Eddie. Meat Loaf would go on to achieve superstardom for his collaborations with Jim Steinman, including 1977's "Bat Out of Hell," which went on to sell 14 million copies in the United States alone.
Eddie represents the 1950s-style rebellious biker, a rebel with love and hate tattooed across the knuckles of his hands, an awesome leather jacket, and a high-rise pompadour hairdo. It only makes sense that he'd ride a Harley-Davidson, but heaven knows how he managed to get his hands on the WLA, a military model produced during World War II. He probably stole it, the rascal!
After three successful films in the "X-Men" series, the producers decided to give anti-hero Logan his own prequel. The result, 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," is less than universally beloved, but it did introduce audiences to Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, and the pair would eventually star in a much more critically and commercially successful team-up film, 2024's "Deadpool & Wolverine."
For all the hate it gets, "X-Men Origins" is still a fun and fast-paced watch, with a great cast (Danny Huston! Liev Schreiber!), eye-popping production design, and some rad action sequences. The film's standout set piece sees Logan on the back of a Harley-Davidson Hydra Glide (though some sources list it as an FL Duo Glide), with which he outruns some military Humvees and even an attack helicopter. Even though the film is set in the 1970s, the Army didn't start using Humvees until 1985, but that's a different discussion. Ultimately, he discards the bike during the chase, choosing instead to literally punch a helicopter. Did we mention Wolverine's unbreakable adamantium claws?
"The Bikeriders," released in 2024 and directed by Jeff Nichols, is based on the real-life Outlaws Motorcycle Club, fictionalized here as the Vandals MC. The film stars Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy, and pulls no punches when it comes to its depiction of the tough-guy outlaw bikers of the 1960s. It also shows how Harley-Davidson bikes became inseparable from the rebel lifestyle, with the characters inspired to start the gang after seeing "The Wild One" and its own depiction of motorcycle riders (but more on that one later).
In an interview with Car and Driver, Norman Reedus referred to his character's particular bike, a vintage Harley-Davidson Panhead, as "a bit of a Frankenstein bike" due to its numerous modifications, including a 1940s front end and a 1950s overall frame. Unless you've got an extreme eye for detail, you probably won't notice the difference, though. Any way you cut it, if you're into Harley-Davidsons or biker culture in general, "The Bikeriders" is not to be missed.
While not held in the same regard as its predecessor, "Robocop 2" is still a worthwhile film. Directed by "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" veteran Irvin Kirshner, "Robocop 2" pushes the series in new directions and features some of the coolest action sequences in the entire series.
One memorable moment sees Robocop (Peter Weller) take on a biker gang. After, ahem, commandeering one of their vehicles, a 1986 Harley-Davidson FXSTC Softail Custom, Robo chases down a truck being driven by Cain, the kingpin behind the new designer drug, Nuke. The chase, while short, is a great showcase of the FXSTC Softail, and Robo looks downright awesome behind its handlebars. The chase ends in spectacular fashion, with Robo and Cain in a game of chicken. In any normal circumstances, the bike wouldn't stand a chance against a massive truck, but Robocop isn't normal. He launches himself off the bike and through Cain's windshield. Though the Harley-Davidson is crushed under the truck's wheels, Robo successfully apprehends the criminal mastermind.
If you haven't seen "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man," it's a film that almost defies description. It's a cyberpunk Western set in the not-too-distant future of 1996 starring Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson as characters named Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man. While Marlboro is just a nickname, it's entirely possible that Mickey Rourke's character is actually named Harley Davidson. Whatever the case may be, the result is one of the coolest (and sadly, most overlooked) movies of the early 1990s.
Given his name, it's only natural that Harley Davidson would ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Indeed, this turns out to be the case, as Mickey Rourke's character spends much of the movie on the saddle of a 1989 Harley-Davidson FXR Softail Custom. It's a big beast of a bike that's arguably more suited to looking cool than being comfy, but that's what makes it so photogenic for a movie with the core message that, as Harley Davidson tells us, it's "better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool."
As for Don Johnson's Marlboro Man, he doesn't spend the film riding around on a giant cigarette (though it wouldn't surprise me if that were in the cards at some point). Instead, he steals an HD FXR Low Rider with a candy-apple red color scheme, although he also drives a Kawasaki during the film.
If "The Bikeriders" charted the rise of biker culture in the 1960s, then the television series, "Sons of Anarchy," shows the endpoint of that trajectory in the modern day, with the gangs turning from freedom to capitalism by switching gears to organized crime in the guise of brotherhood and honor. Lead character Jax (Charlie Hunnam) spends most of the series riding a 2003 Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide. In the final season, for story reasons, he winds up switching to his father's bike, a vintage 1946 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead.
Following the conclusion of "Sons of Anarchy," creator Kurt Sutter (who cut his teeth on The Shield, another FX hit series) created the spin-off, "Mayans MC," which followed the exploits of the rival, Mexican biker gang featured throughout the series, with many of the surviving characters from "Sons of Anarchy" making appearances in the spin-off show. If you're a fan of "Sons of Anarchy" but haven't watched "Mayans MC", what are you waiting for? You haven't experienced the whole story yet!
Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, is the personification of WWII-era Americana. While there are plenty of whips we'd like to see Captain America drive, it's only natural that he would ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. In his debut appearance, "Captain America: The First Avenger," set during World War II, Cap rode a 2010 Harley-Davidson FLSTSB Softail Cross Bones in a notable action sequence. The anachronistic bike was modified to look like a WLA, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle used by the American military during the war. Unless you're a hardcore HD enthusiast, you probably won't notice the difference, and if you do, it can be chalked up to modifications.
In the sequel, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," which updates the setting to the present day, Steve Rogers has not lost his love for the Harley-Davidson brand. This time around, he drives a modern HD Street 750, which he uses during a daring escape from SHIELD headquarters. Thanks to his nimble driving and some clever use of his mighty shield, he takes down a SHIELD quinjet without breaking a sweat. First it was Wolverine, and now Captain America. That makes for two superheroes taking down enemy aircraft with nothing more than a Harley-Davidson motorbike and their own signature weapon.
When it comes to the greatest action movies of all time, few are held in the same high regard as "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." There's little in the way of dispute: "T2" is a perfect film, packed to the brim with tremendous acting and jaw-dropping action sequences. The film owes a large part of its aesthetic identity to biker culture. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his introduction by walking into a biker bar and telling the tallest, scariest biker these iconic words: "I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle." Following the inevitable brawl, filled with more than its fair share of bone-crunching stuntwork, he sets off on his greater mission, now armed with a great leather outfit and a 1991 Harley-Davidson FLSTF Fat Boy motorcycle.
The bike gets put through its paces during "T2's" iconic chase scene through the Los Angeles drainage system, despite the Fat Boy's reputation as a difficult Harley Davidson to handle. The scene features the Terminator, with John Connor in tow, being chased by Robert Patrick's T-1000, who is behind the wheel of a mammoth semi-truck. Arnold cocks his shotgun by spinning it around like he's Chuck Connors from "The Rifleman", and the whole sequence is so awesome and pulse-pounding, you don't even mind that Arnold's stunt double is clearly visible in multiple shots, to the point where subsequent Blu-Ray releases used digital face replacement to make it less noticeable.
If there's a seminal film of the 1960s counterculture movement, it's "Easy Rider." The film depicted motorcycles as the purest distillation of biker culture: The idea of being tied to no land, exploring the country, and seeing what one can see. The film stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as a pair of drug smugglers who encounter a series of adventures, some for good and some for ill, on the back roads of America on their way to Mardi Gras. The opening, set to Steppenwolf's classic hard rock song, "Born to Be Wild," is fondly remembered as one of the greatest music video sequences in cinema history.
Both protagonists drive Harley-Davidson motorcycles, but Peter Fonda's "Captain America" bike is the more iconic of the two. The bikes, Harley-Davidson FL Hydra-Glide models, were modified by chopper builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy. The unique aesthetics of the resulting bikes reflected the designs of African-American biker culture, which was comparatively less known to mainstream audiences at the time.
If there's a ground zero for the mainstreaming of biker culture, it's "The Wild One," though the film's most iconic image, of Marlon Brando on a bike with his legendary outfit (right down to the cute lil' hat), is actually on a Triumph motorcycle, not a Harley-Davidson. In fact, it was Brando's own Triumph Thunderbird. See, he was into biker culture even before his own movie made it cool!
In addition to the Triumph motorcycles, "The Wild One" features its fair share of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, including the Hydra Glide, the Knucklehead, and the WL, the civilian model of what would become the WWII-era WLA. These bikes are used by members of The Beetles (not to be confused with The Beatles, who rode around in a Yellow Submarine), including their leader, Chino, played by Lee Marvin. So, if you ever wanted to see Triumph and Harley-Davidson go toe-to-toe, look no further than "The Wild One." Then again, if you're into the biker scene and haven't seen "The Wild One" yet, you might want to keep that to yourself, lest you be laughed out of your local MC.