The Story Archive

Easy Rider

Dennis Hopper · 1969 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

Two bikers sell a load of cocaine at a Los Angeles airfield, stuff the cash into a fuel tank and ride east for Mardi Gras, stopping at a commune, a jail cell and a Louisiana brothel. A drunk small-town lawyer joins them and talks about what freedom does to people who do not have it. Made for a few hundred thousand dollars, it earned enough to convince the studios to hand pictures to young directors.

Open Easy Rider in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Attributes

Genre
AdventureTragedy
Theme
Freedom vs FateThe American DreamIndividual vs SocietyIsolation & Alienation
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
WandererRebel / OutlawAlly / Companion
Plot structure
EpisodicPicaresque
Symbol / motif
The JourneyThe HorizonThe Wilderness
Conflict
vs Society
Mode / tone
RealistElegiac
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues