Hubs and I were flipping through the channels late last night and came across an old movie that us Simcoes have always held dear: Easy Rider. Its not that we especially loved that movie in particular, or the actors were our favorites (although you can't get much better than Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson). Its mostly because my parents were bikers, back in the day, and that is the quintessential, ultimate 'biker' movie. Heck, they named a biker magazine after it!
So when I saw that it was on, I made Tyler leave it there and watch it with me. We missed the first half of the movie, coming across it when it was at the part where they've picked up the hitchhiker, Jack Nicholson, and they're all around the campfire and Jack smokes a joint for the first time. He goes off on this tangent about aliens and how they live among us and the government knows all about it but doesn't tell us because it will "shock our antiquated beliefs". Such a classic scene.
I told Hubs about the one part later on in the movie where the guys drop acid with some chicks in a cemetery, and how trippy it gets. Man, that's a great movie.
So its nearing the end, I can tell by how long the movie's been on, and in one scene it shows the guys riding their bikes down a long country road. A truck with two rednecks drives by, they start lipping off the bikers, and suddenly the one hick pulls out a shotgun and blasts Dennis Hopper away!! What the....? I didn't remember that happening! The bike goes flying into the ditch, Dennis is laying there all bloody, shot in the gut. Peter Fonda whips his bike around and runs to him, telling him he'll go for help, then he gets on his bike and races away. Meanwhile, the rednecks had turned their truck around and as Peter nears them, riding hell-bent for help, the guy raises the gun again and shoots Peter Fonda! The camera pans away to show the bike in the ditch, exploding and on fire. The truck drives away and the camera keeps pulling back, an aerial view from the sky, two wrecked bikes in the ditch, bodies laying beside them.
What... the... HELL?!? I did NOT remember all that happening! What a way to end the movie! Oh, I was so mad. I was yelling at the tv screen, "You stupid rednecks! F*** you! Who the hell do you think you are!? Stupid pigs!" Ty was like, Babe, calm down, its just a movie. Just a movie? Hey, my dad was a biker! He went on road trips all the time with his biker buddies. This could've happened to him! Some redneck hillbilly a-hole could have done this to him! Holy crap, I was so pissed off.
I'd always thought that movie ended with them riding off into the sunset. It was like, "I've invested like an hour watching this movie, getting to know and love the characters, and this is how it ends? With them getting blown away?" I felt so betrayed.
Talk about your twist ending! M Night Shymalan could learn a thing or two from watching this. That film director was ahead of his time, for sure. The Sixth Sense ending has nothing on Easy Rider's. Ugh.
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