Tron's Lightcycles, Top Gun’s Kawasaki, Dhoom’s Hayabusa, and more: 10 unforgettable motorbikes in movies

Tron used lightcycles to seduce you into the digital world and after that there were just neon lines and people crashing into one another’s colorful lines. Thankfully, motorbikes have had better marketing. These magnificent machines offer you freedom and help you make a statement against the system. Movies have shown us how perfect that spiel has been, literally as in The Great Escape, and metaphorically in The Wild One where Marlon Brando plays the original rebel.

Of course bike aficionados will be happy to know that the original Triumph TR6 which was modified to look like a BMW for the motorbike for the film The Great Escape is safe at the Triumph museum in the UK. Believe it or not, after the film, a farmer was using that iconic bike to herd sheep!

Let us look at some of the great motorcycling moments in movies! I am sure you have your own list!

The fun filled ride in Sholay

Basanti chatters away driving Jai and Veeru to Thakur’s home on the Dhanno tanga. Gabbar Singh and his dacoits ride horses. There’s also a train ride in the cult film Sholay. But this film gave us the most iconic motorbike ride in the movie. The song we grew up watching: Yeh Dosti from the film. They took a 1942 500 cc BSA WA motorbike, added the sidecar to it and sealed in our hearts everything we love about friendship. The long legged Amitabh Bachchan as Jai attempting to fit in that side car and Dharmendra as wicked Veeru still rule!

Hold on to your hearts, it’s Top Gun

Top Gun is a movie about fighter pilots competing against one another to be named the best, and the sequel Top Gun Maverick also makes our hearts race when we see the next gen fighter pilots fight to be number one. But if you are a true fan, the scene where Tom Cruise takes off the dust cover from his Kawasaki GPZ900R and rides to the station will forever have a special place in my heart. Oh yes, you cannot forget the unforgettable song, ‘Take My Breath Away’ from the film as Maverick goes to Charlie’s home and their love story…

Top Gun Maverick rides the Kawasaki Carbon H2 bike, but the bike from the original is still in the hangar (that’s brilliant continuity in any film!).

‘Come with me if you want to live!’

The Terminator bikes have a fan page of their own and some insist that they are roadworthy in real life too. But what remains memorable is the big bike In Terminator 2 Judgement Day. The Terminator rides a Harley Davidson Fat Boy bike and yanks young John Connor off his little XR 100 R to escape the big rig driven by the liquid terminator (Shudder!). The bike suits the massive frame of Arnold Schwarzenegger and your hearts will be in your mouths as you watch the motorbike take off and land…

Bad boys ride big bikes in Dhoom!

I bet you cannot say the name of the film without the song refrain playing in your head. This film is a veritable envy list of fabulous bikes ridden by real life bike lad with dimples that can be forgiven for all crimes: John Abraham.

While Kabir (John Abraham) rides the speed monster Suzuki GSX-1300R Hayabusa, Ali (Uday Chopra) rides the distinctive yellow Suzuki Bandit (1255 cc, 4 stroke 4 cylinder liquid cooled engine). In the later movies Abhishek Bachchan rides a Suzuki tourer and chases Hrithik Roshan who is on his Suzuki GSX R1000. Although Aamir Khan looked out of place on a motorbike, in Dhoom 3 Aamir rides a BMW S1000RR… But Dhoom belongs to John Abraham’s bike!

Martial Law Declared! Exploding Energy! Akira!

When an experiment on children fails and the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo, Kaneda the biker sets out to rescue his friend Tetsuo. When Tetsuo realises his supernatural power… The movie is one of the finest anime films ever made. And its unforgettable message: ‘The future is not a straight line. It is filled with many crossroads. There must be a future that we can choose for ourselves.’

Road trips are life changing for Dulquer and Sunny

When you say road trip, the one movie everyone will recommend is the very obvious Motorcycle Diaries, a life changing memoir from Ernesto Che Guevara, made immortal by Gael Garcia Bernal riding a Norton 500cc bike nicknamed the Penderosa (or the Immortal One). But when it comes to a road trip by bike movie, you will fall in love with a 2013 Malayalam movie titled Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi where two friends Kasi and Suni set out from Kerala to look for Kasi’s girlfriend who is in Nagaland… This road trip will make you believe in humanity and you will fall in love with our countryside.

The death defying chase on a Ducati in Matrix Reloaded

Trinity and the keymaker escape the Agents in Matrix reloaded and the chase on the highway is one of the most adrenaline-inducing bike rides you will experience in cinema. For the shoot, the film crew actually received permission to shut a mile of the highway! Clothes say that they actually built a mile and a half loop of a highway that was used in the film and actor Carrie Ann Moss who plays Trinity had to get over her fear of bikes to learn to ride the bike. Even though the dangerous parts were shot by stuntwoman double Debbie Evans, this scene remains among the best!

And yes, Tron lightcycles

Lightcycles create a wall and rival teams die when they enter the grid. The original film had Flynn defend his work from someone stealing it. Tron is the security program that saves Jeff Bridges when he jumps into the program. This cult science fiction film even had a wonderful sequel titled Tron: the Legacy which had even better special effects.

The new film Tron: Ares has really great special effects and a soundtrack that stays with you. But the story… Erm…Programs that come out into the real world to create havoc, searching for permanence seems like a good idea on paper but reminds you of the awful film Ra-One starring Shah Rukh Khan and Arjun Rampal where a video game has only three levels, where rogue robot Ra-One has to fight with the virtual version of the dead developer called G-One.

Batman’s bike, and lightcycles are being manufactured by Parker Brothers in Florida as well as Vardenchi in India. If you like motorbikes, but think USD2400 is too much to ride a lightcycle for real, then do yourself a favour, watch any of these other movies instead.