‘The Bikeriders’ Shares a Lot of Similarities With Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Bikeriders.

Jeff Nichols‘s newest film, The Bikeriders, has roared into theaters, starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy. The movie follows Comer as Kathy, a woman being interviewed by photojournalist Danny (Mike Faist) about her experience being married to a member of an outlaw biker club. With three great central performances, and a clever framing device that propels the story, The Bikeriders is a dark, tense character study that has a lot to offer. The film explores the claustrophobic nature of masculinity, depicting how men build walls around themselves to make up for their feelings of failure, disappointment, and vulnerability.The Bikeriders dives deep into the particular subculture of motorcycle clubs but operates as a more general look at the way that men compound their feelings of aimlessness and disillusionment into violence. Through its exploration of these themes, The Bikeriders ends up bearing a lot of resemblance to Martin Scorsese‘s classic gangster film, Goodfellas.

In ‘The Bikeriders,’ The Vandals Are Looking For Purpose in the Wrong Places

As with a great number of movies about men living outside the law, it all seems like a pretty good time until someone you know gets killed. There is a tangible “cool factor” that comes with joining a motorcycle club. Hardy’s character, Johnny, is inspired to start the club because of Marlon Brando‘s persona in The Wild One, and it plays as a funny note regarding the origins of the Vandals, but who among us did not seriously contemplate buying Ryan Gosling‘s scorpion jacket from Drive? Butler’s character, Benny, fits into this same, effortlessly cool archetype.

It is easy to imagine many viewers seeing Benny’s aesthetic and behavior as aspirational in the same way that people do with the Driver. It makes sense because Butler’s magnetic, handsome, effortlessly movie-star quality lends greater credibility to the Vandals. This is why Benny is so sought after by Johnny, and torn between his devotion to the club and his wife, Kathy. Benny being a Vandal makes all the Vandals seem cooler by association.

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This frames The Bikeriders as an exploration of what men do when they feel backed into a corner by life and the lengths they will go to shape themselves around an image they desire even if it is not exactly authentic. Johnny wanted a greater sense of camaraderie. Many of the men he recruited were lonely, coming from broken homes, or deemed outcasts. They come together because they don’t feel like they have anywhere else to go. These circumstances make them fairly sympathetic, but what they get out of being a part of the Vandals does not amount to much beyond trouble with the law, violence, and ruin.

‘The Bikeriders’ Takes the Glamor Out of Violence and Crime

When a bunch of men are lonely, susceptible, and desperate enough to take that extra step, it can be a surprisingly quick leap from “let’s get together and act like the tough guys from the movies” to somebody getting shot. The Vandals make an effort to stay organized with a system of rules, a code that each rider follows to ensure the group maintains order. But these rules are entirely arbitrary as they’ve been made up by Johnny on a whim. The cult-like devotion to this rigid way of life lends itself to the Vandals feeling secured by an artificial sense of honor. Like in Fight Club, when the Narrator is horrified by the death of Bob while the rest of the crew continues in drone-like fashion to adhere to the order of the club, the Vandals have an opportunity to cut their losses once they see how dangerous the world they’ve entered can be. But they double down, and Johnny gradually slips into a darker, more violent place. While more people get hurt, and more laws are broken, it becomes clearer and clearer how little order there is in this organization.

Johnny’s unraveling and eventual downfall goes to show how absurd the entire situation is. He puts his own life on the line to appeal to his club’s artificial sense of honor, and the ramifications prove how little it all matters in the end. Benny, who the group needed more than anybody, was the only one who eventually had the sense to hang it up before it was too late. Benny’s climactic breakdown in Kathy’s arms is the telling moment, as his emotional catharsis proves he understands the gravity of the choices these men have made. Benny no longer feels it is worth the risk, and finally makes a decision that will actually improve his life, instead of only appearing to make it more interesting on the surface.

‘The Bikeriders’ Shares a Lot of Similarities With ‘Goodfellas’

The Bikeriders borrows structural elements from Goodfellas and especially feels in conversation with Martin Scorsese’s film in how Kathy relates to the character of Karen, played by Lorraine Bracco. Both characters experience a push-and-pull between the allure of their spouse’s criminal lives and the pain and suffering that come with them. Karen is unable to ever bring Henry (Ray Liotta) back from the darkness, and they only recede into a “normal” life when he is forced into witness protection. Where The Bikeriders differs is that Kathy does eventually get Benny back, and although it is somewhat ambiguous how idyllic their new life together is, it still feels like a more sincerely happy ending.

The Bikeriders is sharply critical of the nature of masculinity and engages directly with the consequences of the violence sprung from men who can find nothing better to do. Benny offers some hope, as he illustrates the way men can escape the deadly cycle by acknowledging their emotions instead of building walls around them. His cathartic expression of grief is what grants him the courage to actually build a life for himself, and to find purpose that a life with the Vandals only promised and never delivered on.

The Bikeriders is playing in theaters in the U.S.

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