With the Tour de France about to kick off, it got me in the mood to watch a movie about cycling; something like 1985’s American Flyers or going back just a little for something from before the ‘80s, 1979’s Breaking Away. There were a lot of movies about biking in the ‘80s in general, but none on the 2025 movie schedule. These days, despite cycling being as popular as ever on the streets of American cities, there is a dearth of movies about it.
The 1980s Had It All When It Came To Bikes
American Flyers, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Grey, among others, remains the quintessential American cycling movie. It even has a race very much like the Tour de France called “Hell in the West,” which features lots of mountain cycling, like the Tour. The heart-pounding action makes it a really good sports movie, and the family relationships make it a great drama as well. It may not be at the top of Costner’s best movie list, but it’s the perfect movie for a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Another movie perfect for a rainy day is 1979’s Breaking Away, starring Dennis Christopher as a recent high school graduate who dreams of competing in professional cycling in Europe. It’s a true feel-good movie with the right about humor, drama, and even romance (at least at the end). With a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s weird that this movie isn’t talked about much anymore.
1987’s Quicksilver isn’t about professional cycling, but it is about hardcore bike messengers on road bikes in New York City, and it definitely fits right in with those other movies. If I’m honest, the Kevin Bacon-led film has a pretty ridiculous plot and is far from Bacon’s best movie, but the cycling sequences are exhilarating.
It Wasn’t Just Road Bikes
If you grew up in the 1980s, you know it wasn’t just about 10-speeds and skinny tires. Rad, about BMX trick riders, is a Gen X classic. It doesn’t exactly hold up as a great film, but that doesn’t matter. The bike stunts are still super fun to watch, and it’s great to reminisce about putting “pegs” on your bike and coming home with skinned elbows after completely failing to do even one trick… or maybe that was just me.
A couple of years before Rad, we also got BMX Bendits. It was a completely insane Australian movie that gained traction with me and my friends when it was released on VHS in the States. Today, it’s mostly only remembered for being one of Nicole Kidman’s first starring roles. She didn’t perform any of the stunts, though, which is too bad because it would be so cool if the Aussie star is a secret BMX master.
Cycling’s popularity at the time translated to video games too, notably the legendary game Paperboy. Now that’s the kind of video game movie I could get behind. Who do I have to talk to get that movie greenlit?
