- Year
- 1966
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Director
- Roger Corman
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (26/100)
The Wild Angels
Corman starts the cycle. Peter Fonda, real Hells Angels, and a funeral.
The film that started the biker cycle. Roger Corman noticed the Hells Angels in the news and made this for around $360,000, and it took over $5 million, launching a whole genre. Peter Fonda leads a nihilistic gang whose funeral for a fallen member collapses into an orgy of desecration and violence.
Real Hells Angels appear as extras, the tone is bleak, and Fonda's closing line, that there is nowhere to go, captures the whole aimless mood. It is cruder than Easy Rider but shares its DNA and its star.
The template for the entire biker cycle, and a real 60s time capsule.
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