Summary

Tom Hardy’s
The Bikeriders
character Johnny finds inspiration in Marlon Brando’s movie
The Wild One
.
The Brando scene in
The Bikeriders
is inspired by an image in Danny Lyons’
Bikeriders
photobook.
Director Jeff Nichols transforms the moment into a defining one for the character.

Tom Hardy’s critical The Bikeriders scene, in which Johnny is set on the course to becoming a biker by watching Marlon Brando, came straight from the book that inspired the film. Danny Lyons’ 1968 photobook of the same name, a portrait of the lives of Chicago-area bikers, was the source for Jeff Nichols’ latest movie, starring Hardy as a family man who becomes the leader of a biker gang. A key moment in the film sees Hardy’s Bikeriders character watching Brando’s The Wild One, and finding his calling as a rebel of the open road.

Johnny finding inspiration in watching Brando’s iconic 1953 biker film was not a Nichols invention, it turns out, but was taken straight from Lyons’ original book, as Nichols explained in a recent interview with Little White Lies. The writer/director recalls how pulling that scene from the book proved to be a challenge as he sought to translate it into “not just an instigating moment” for Hardy’s character, but also “a defining moment”, as it ties into a key element of the overall story. See what Nichols explained below:

We’ve all done that. That was taken actually from the book. There’s a photograph of the real Johnny, his kind of family scrapbook of the club. And one of the pages was a TV Guide with Marlon Brando on it. So that actually happened. I think it was kind of up to me to then turn that into not just an instigating moment for the character, but also a defining moment because… And I think Tom certainly embraced this with his voice and everything else, but he’s just playing the part. He’s just acting like Brando, and it catches up with him in very dangerous ways. He’s not really part of that world. He has a house and a family and daughters, and he knows deep down he’s not really the guy on the screen.

How Brando’s The Wild One Inspired Hardy’s Johnny – And Others

1953’s The Wild One starred the legendary Brando as Johnny Strabler, a leather-clad rebel and leader of the troublemaking Black Rebels Motorcycle Club. Brando’s turn as the original outlaw biker, a casually rule-breaking, almost nihilistic character, was so powerful that the entire biker movie genre largely sprang from his performance generally, and specifically the iconic scene where, in answer to the question “What are you rebelling against?” he coolly replies, “What you got?”

Related 10 Best Movies Like The Bikeriders Since the 1950s, there have been some great motorcycle-themed, on-the-road films that pair perfectly with Austin Butler’s The Bikeriders.

The coolness of Brando was a major influence on the real-life person who inspired Hardy’s Johnny in The Bikeriders, as evidenced by the scrapbook image referenced by Nichols. But Hardy himself was inspired by Brando, giving a performance that has its own echoes of Johnny Strabler and his era-defining look and attitude. Hardy is in good company, as Brando’s Wild One performance also inspired everyone from Elvis Presley, who copied aspects of Brando’s look, to David Lynch, who paid homage to Brando with Michael Cera’s hilarious Twin Peaks character Wally Brando.

The Bikeriders
grossed $16 million worldwide in its first eight days of release.

The Bikeriders indeed serves as a reminder of how powerful, and deeply influential, Brando’s Wild One performance was in the 1950s and subsequent decades. Hardy’s own performance serves as a tribute to Brando, one of his direct acting fore-bearers. Nichols makes no bones about where Hardy’s performance comes from, giving The Bikeriders’ Johnny direct inspiration from Brando, and through that, giving Hardy the opportunity to do his own Brando-esque turn.

Source: Little White Lies

The Bikeriders The Bikeriders tells the story of a 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals. Through the eyes of Kathy, played by Jodie Comer, the film explores the club’s evolution from a group of local outsiders to a dangerous gang.Director Jeff Nichols Release Date June 21, 2024 Writers Jeff Nichols Runtime 116 Minutes Expand