5 Iconic Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Made Famous After Appearing On The Big Screen

Harley-Davidson and Hollywood have had an intangible connection because the invention of the silver screen. The brand’s cinematic legacy goes beyond product placement. Directors use Harley-Davidson motorcycles to precise power, revolt, and freedom. No other motorcycle comes near becoming an intangible a part of the film, and in some cases, as iconic because the movie’s hero itself. From the old-school chopper cruising across America in “Easy Rider,” to the burly Fat Boy and Arnold Schwarzenegger jumping right into a storm drain in “Terminator: Judgement Day,” these motorcycles helped shape popular culture. After all, the connection to movies helped turn enthusiasts toward the Harley showrooms. 

Some notable movies that featured Harley-Davidson motorcycles are “Pulp Fiction,” “Wild Hogs,” “Rocky III,” “Expendables II,” “Hobbs and Shaw,” “Green Hornet,” “X Men Origins: Wolverine,” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Harleys even featured in TV series akin to “Sons of Anarchy,” which revolved around biker gangs. We have now curated an inventory of films that give Harleys significant screen time and a task nearly as essential because the hero. We recommend cool biker movies across the pond as well, akin to “God Speed You! Black Emperor,” which is an interesting have a look at an actual Japanese biker gang. 

“The Wild One” revolves around a young Johnny Strabler (played by Marlon Brando), a leather-clad leader of the Black Rebels motorcycle club. It was a movie that introduced the Harley-Davison biker outlaw stereotype to the silver screen. Funnily enough, Johnny wasn’t chargeable for this. He rode a Triumph Thunderbird. It was the rival gang leader Chino – played by Lee Marvin — who rode a Harley-Davidson Hydra Glide and helped Harleys to be related to revolt and the outlaw image. It is usually certainly one of the ten most memorable Harley-Davidsons from movies and TV. “The Wild One” was the movie that helped give Harley-Davidson its first brand exposure. 

Harley-Davidson introduced the Hydra Glide in 1949 and, with it, introduced recent progressive hydraulic front forks on the motorcycle, in addition to a brand new front-end design language that remains to be in use today. The motorcycle featured a 74 cubic inch Panhead V-twin engine. A fun fact: Indian ceased production in 1953, the identical 12 months the Hydra Glide featured in “The Wild One”, leaving Harley-Davidson as the only surviving American motorcycle brand for some time.

“Easy Rider” made enthusiasts yearn for a custom cruiser and helped fuel the chopper craze of the ’70s. The movie is about two Harley riders travelling across America and offers a cultural view of the country within the ’60s. Interestingly, while they weren’t credited, African American bike builders Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy built the motorcycles utilized in the film. This was highly unusual on the time, as African American bike riders and builders faced discrimination and prejudice in each the movie industry and the bike scene. 

Of the 2 motorcycles, the one ridden by Wyatt “Captain America” (played by Peter Fonda) went on to be called the Captain America chopper and have become a cultural Icon. Based on a Nineteen Fifties Harley-Davidson Panhead, the custom motorcycle looked striking, with a star spangled banner paint job on the fuel tank (and an identical helmet), an impossibly long rake, chopped fenders, and chrome trimmings.

Introduced in 1948, the Panhead V-twin motor replaced the Knucklehead engine. These featured higher lubrication and more efficient cooling, because of massive fins on forged aluminum heads. As for the Panhead name, the nickname is because of the pan-shaped rocker covers. 4 old Harley-Davidson Panhead police bikes were procured and modified for the movie. 4 choppers (two of every) were made, certainly one of which was destroyed during filming, and the remainder were stolen during production. Interestingly, certainly one of the film’s actors, Dan Haggerty, restored a Captain America Chopper and sold it for a cool $1.35 million in an auction.

Make no mistake, “Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro Man” is a movie glorifying Harley-Davidson motorcycles (and cigarettes). The movie follows biker Harley-Davidson (played by Mickey Rourke), who enlists the assistance of his cowboy friend Marlboro Man (played by Don Johnson), to rob an armored truck to avoid wasting their friend’s bar. So far as ’90s motion flicks go, this one was unabashedly trashy, and while it bombed on the box office, it did elevate Harley-Davidson’s cult status. Actually, some would argue that the movie is an hour and a half long advert for Harley-Davidson bikes, especially the Softail and the FXR.

The FXR was introduced in 1982 to arise against the influx of Japanese motorcycles on American soil. The Harleys were no match for the handling and ride quality offered by these foreign bikes, however the FXR set out to alter all of that. It delivered the performance of a V-twin while offering higher handling as well.  

While Don Johnson rides a black Harley Softail within the movie, it’s Mickey Rourke’s silver FXR that stole the show. Referred to as Black Death, the motorcycle was heavily customized, featuring megaphone pipes, a raked out front end, and drag pipes. Interestingly, Mickey Rourke owned a custom FXR, and a duplicate was built for the movie stunt scenes. This one was an identical to Mickey’s motorcycle but had an S&S 80 cubic inch V-twin as an alternative of the unique 98 cubic inch motor.

It wasn’t the primary time a cyborg rode a Harley-Davidson. That honor goes to “RoboCop 2,” released a 12 months before, where RoboCop (played by Peter Weller) rides a 1986 Softail Custom. Nevertheless, that scene, though cool, is not as iconic because the Fat Boy’s jump scene in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.” The Terminator franchise put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Hollywood map and gave us certainly one of the best characters in moviedom. Wearing black leather and black sunglasses, and with a shotgun in a single hand, Arnold, as a T800 cyborg, was a menacing protagonist, but his look was incomplete without the black Harley-Davidson Fat Boy.

The Fat Boy underwent a number of testing and customer validation before it was introduced in 1990. Through the years, its thick headlight bezel, solid wheels and straight exhausts have grow to be iconic design elements that outline the Fat Boy. 

Back to the long-lasting jump scene, which has Arnie astride the Fat Boy, jumping off the Los Angeles freeway right into a dry storm drain. For the movie, director James Cameron insisted on using Harley-Davidson motorcycles, despite riders saying this Harley-Davidson is probably the most difficult to handle. Lead stuntman Peter Kent purchased five 1992 Fat Boys, two of which were modified to make them quicker. The jump scene has a 30-foot drop, and with the heavy motorcycle, it was unattainable to execute the jump without destroying the motorcycle and the rider’s spine. So, the bike was lowered into the storm drain with the assistance of steel cables, which were later digitally removed in post-production.

The “Captain America” franchise has had its fair proportion of Harley-Davidson motorcycle cameos. The movie franchise follows Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who’s was an excellent soldier to fight Nazis. During a World War II-era fight scene, Chris might be seen riding a WLA Liberator. It was a bike that helped America win the war. It was Harley’s wartime production model, featuring a stripped-down, tough construct and was used for patrolling, light artillery, transportation, and reconnaissance through the war. For the movie scene, a more modern Softail Cross Bones edition was used as a donor bike and heavily modified to appear like the Liberator.

Within the second movie of the “Captain America” franchise (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Steve is seen fleeing the bad guys in a contemporary Harley-Davidson Street 750, which, on the time, was only recently released. You may even see him briefly riding a black Harley Softail Slim in “The Avengers.”

Actually, you will note Harley-Davidson motorcycles peppered across the Marvel cinematic universe. Some notable examples are Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) riding a Harley LiveWire in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and the Street 750 ridden by the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) in “Captain America: Civil War.”