The Bikeriders arrives on HBO Max on May 19, 2026. Directed by Jeff Nichols, the film reunites Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, and Norman Reedus for a story drawn from Danny Lyon's photographic book about a Midwest motorcycle club in the 1960s.
The Bikeriders
Film | 2024
Streaming on HBO Max starting May 19, 2026
Drama, action | Runtime: 1h56
From Jeff Nichols | Screenplay: Jeff Nichols | Starring Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Norman Reedus
Country: United States
Released in French cinemas on June 19, 2024, The Bikeriders tracks the birth and evolution of the Vandals, a fictional Chicago motorcycle club. Through Kathy’s perspective, the film follows the making of a crew, its myth of freedom, and how a marginalized community can gradually tilt.
Drawn inevitably from Easy Rider and Sons of Anarchy, the film deftly captures the surge of freedom coursing through 1960s American society, propelled by a soul and rock'n'roll soundtrack. The United States had not yet committed to the Vietnam War on a large scale, and society’s emancipation unfolds through culture and a taste for activities that were, until then, underground.
From its origins as a simple bike-race outfit born out of admiration for Marlon Brando in The Wild One, to the moral collapse of the Vandals, emboldened by a new generation scarred by war and not sharing their values, Jeff Nichols deftly captures this era when everything still felt possible. The American filmmaker chooses a female perspective to tell this epic, that of Kathy (Jodie Comer, superb as ever) who, willingly or not, steps into this testosterone-soaked world.
The introduction to the gang’s various members unfolds through fixed, face-on shots, with nods to Danny Lyon’s portrait clichés. Under Johnny’s command (Tom Hardy, particularly committed to the part), the Chicago Vandals are brought to life by a carefully chosen cast, among whom Michael Shannon marks his sixth collaboration with the director of Take Shelter, Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) in the role of a cheeky biker from a rival club, and Austin Butler, with that pale, angelic-blond look, brooding and mute, the right-hand man to Johnny.
They’re all brash to a fault, that’s for sure, and their thick Midwest drawl helps, but the film also highlights the cracks in these misfits who’ve been rejected by life, probing their masculinity and this need to belong to a gang. For the Vandals haven’t always been hard cases. In fact, The Bikeriders mostly tells the story of little boys starved for love who, in order to rebuild the family they never had, surround themselves with engines that roar.
The Bikeriders paints a portrait of an America in transition, between illusory freedom and collective disenchantment. A visceral and elegant work that further establishes Jeff Nichols as one of the great chroniclers of the American dream.
Official trailer for The Bikeriders:
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