Kids on bikes versus Bad Guys
September 15, 2016 3:36 PM Subscribe
Kids on bikes escaping / racing a bunch of none-too-friendly adults. Looking for examples of this in movies / tv. Question inspired by Stranger Things and ET. (probably BMX Bandits, too, though I have only hazy memories of it) If someone knows what this falls under on TV Tropes, that works too. Bad Guys could be government, could be criminals.
I think the ur-example of this is the 80's TV show Whiz Kids.
Witness the last 5 seconds of the opening credits.
posted by GuyZero at 3:53 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Witness the last 5 seconds of the opening credits.
posted by GuyZero at 3:53 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Goonies has a scene like this, as does Jumanji.
posted by cnc at 3:55 PM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by cnc at 3:55 PM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
Does the scene in the Goonies where Our Heroes disable the Teenage Guardian's bike before riding off on their own count?
posted by sparklemotion at 3:57 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sparklemotion at 3:57 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
I vaguely remember a scene like this in the trailer for a 90s "Patrick Stewart and a prep school under siege by terrorists" film -- might have been "Dangerous Minds," but I'm not sure. The kids are riding a 4-wheeler ATV through a drainage pipe.
posted by Alterscape at 3:57 PM on September 15, 2016
posted by Alterscape at 3:57 PM on September 15, 2016
I am unbelievably frustrated by how many movies that TOTAL SHOULD have a scene like this don't seem to thave one. Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, Flight of the Navigator, Cloak and Dagger, all seem to be duds. Blank Check seems like it might, but I'm not going to review the whole movie to find it.
The Hero Stole My Bike TV Trope might point you in the right direction?
posted by sparklemotion at 4:07 PM on September 15, 2016
The Hero Stole My Bike TV Trope might point you in the right direction?
posted by sparklemotion at 4:07 PM on September 15, 2016
Earth to Echo has lots of this.
Same with Super 8.
There's some bikes in ParaNorman.
And I also replied in that previous thread with two comments and a huge list that might have more than I'm thinking of.
posted by Crystalinne at 4:12 PM on September 15, 2016
Same with Super 8.
There's some bikes in ParaNorman.
And I also replied in that previous thread with two comments and a huge list that might have more than I'm thinking of.
posted by Crystalinne at 4:12 PM on September 15, 2016
Turbo Kid (YT Trailer) is a new movie that was pretty well designed to tap into that exact vein. It's loaded with comically over-the-top gore, though. Its premise is not unlike that of The Road Warrior, and Michael Ironsides is still the champion of brilliant scenery-chewing.
By its existence, it conspicuously indicates the lack of bikes in every other apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movie/TV show.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:27 PM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
By its existence, it conspicuously indicates the lack of bikes in every other apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic movie/TV show.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:27 PM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is a major image in the Joe Hill (son of Stephen King) novel NOS4A2. It's not a move or a TV show yet, but it probably will be in the future.
Videogames: Earthbound, Bully/Canis Canem Edit.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:35 PM on September 15, 2016
Videogames: Earthbound, Bully/Canis Canem Edit.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:35 PM on September 15, 2016
Not a real bicycle, but Terminator 2 has a chase scene with young John Connor trying to escape from killer robots on his dirt bike.
posted by contraption at 4:37 PM on September 15, 2016
posted by contraption at 4:37 PM on September 15, 2016
> a 90s "Patrick Stewart and a prep school under siege by terrorists" film
Masterminds. I dont' see any bikes in the trailer (YTL), just skateboards and ATVs. (Including a giveaway at the end, geez.)
This made me think of the other, similar movie, "Toy Soldiers," with another ST:TNG alum, but that also does not have any bike scenes in memory.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:40 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Masterminds. I dont' see any bikes in the trailer (YTL), just skateboards and ATVs. (Including a giveaway at the end, geez.)
This made me think of the other, similar movie, "Toy Soldiers," with another ST:TNG alum, but that also does not have any bike scenes in memory.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:40 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
If motors and/or magic counts, The Dirt Bike Kid is... definitely a movie that was made.
Does Quicksilver count? I feel like Quicksilver should count.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 4:43 PM on September 15, 2016
Does Quicksilver count? I feel like Quicksilver should count.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 4:43 PM on September 15, 2016
If Quicksilver counts, then so could Premium Rush, a more recent movie about urban bike messengers.
Heck, that opens the door for Dark Angel, about a bike messenger in post-collapse Seattle who just happens to be a genetically-enhanced would-be super-soldier, escaped from a government lab as a young woman and living in anonymity. Breakout role for Michael Weatherly, whose character had wheels of his own.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:52 PM on September 15, 2016
Heck, that opens the door for Dark Angel, about a bike messenger in post-collapse Seattle who just happens to be a genetically-enhanced would-be super-soldier, escaped from a government lab as a young woman and living in anonymity. Breakout role for Michael Weatherly, whose character had wheels of his own.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:52 PM on September 15, 2016
Rad features an alarmingly credulous motorcycle cop chasing some BMX punks around a lumberyard.
posted by contraption at 4:55 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by contraption at 4:55 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
It happens in "Dope" and I think in "Stick It!" though in both cases with teenagers.
posted by c'mon sea legs at 5:08 PM on September 15, 2016
posted by c'mon sea legs at 5:08 PM on September 15, 2016
I don't know if he counts as a "kid" or not, but PeeWee's Big Adventure.
posted by LionIndex at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by LionIndex at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
The music video for Titanium by David Guetta featuring Sia. The whole video is strangely like a 2011 promo for Stranger Things.
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by BusyBusyBusy at 5:15 PM on September 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
The Final Sacrifice (of MST3K fame)
posted by a strong female character at 5:39 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by a strong female character at 5:39 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Does it have to be multiple kids? I think there is a scene in Free Willy like this.
posted by aetg at 6:16 PM on September 15, 2016
posted by aetg at 6:16 PM on September 15, 2016
Bad Guys could be government, could be criminals.
If it could also include invisible STD demons, there's also a small bit of BMX-ing to a park in It Follows, most likely as an intentional nod to this trope in 80s films.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:34 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
If it could also include invisible STD demons, there's also a small bit of BMX-ing to a park in It Follows, most likely as an intentional nod to this trope in 80s films.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:34 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
The movie "Over the Edge" where teens shot at a police car from an overpass with a BB gun, then tore off on their bikes. A very young Matt Dillon played the character who got mistaken for one of the culprits.
posted by forthright at 6:54 PM on September 15, 2016
posted by forthright at 6:54 PM on September 15, 2016
Parodied in Mitchell & Webb's "Angel Summoner & BMX Bandit".
posted by Pinback at 8:04 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Pinback at 8:04 PM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
sparklemotion, Amazon Prime has a new trailer for the old movie Blank Check and it does indeed have a chase scene between lots of gangsters and the kid on a bike.
posted by eye of newt at 12:38 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by eye of newt at 12:38 AM on September 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Red Hand Gang is a series which revolves around this trope (and which I loved as a kid).
posted by beniamino at 6:53 AM on September 16, 2016
posted by beniamino at 6:53 AM on September 16, 2016
Ask Max wasn't a great movie, but it meets the criteria.
posted by Wild_Eep at 1:43 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by Wild_Eep at 1:43 PM on September 16, 2016
E. T. ?
posted by doctor_negative at 4:08 PM on September 16, 2016
posted by doctor_negative at 4:08 PM on September 16, 2016
Just lately I saw The Last Boys, and it fits the bill. The main characters, played by Jason Patric (a high school about or thereabouts) and Corey Haim (freshman of younger), have different little, and while Jason Patric hangs with vampires on motorcycles, the younger brother hangs with two boys his age, and they do have at least one scene of urgent bike travel.
The movie has final problems partly because the script called for younger kids originally, and I think the bike stuff would've been out in force in the original. Movie holds up fine, I think, at least as well as it ever did.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:41 PM on December 4, 2016
The movie has final problems partly because the script called for younger kids originally, and I think the bike stuff would've been out in force in the original. Movie holds up fine, I think, at least as well as it ever did.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:41 PM on December 4, 2016
Found another one. The Dirt Bike Kid from '85. But he's on a dirt-bike. It stars Peter Billingsley, who would go on to play Ralphie in "The Christmas Story." YT Trailer here.
Can't vouch for the quality, but I see that youtube also has the entire 91-minute movie.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:06 PM on December 24, 2016
Can't vouch for the quality, but I see that youtube also has the entire 91-minute movie.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:06 PM on December 24, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mykescipark at 3:45 PM on September 15, 2016