On this episode of the Cult Film Club hosts Shawn, Pax and Jaime feel the Thunder in our Hearts as we Break The Ice, and break out our BMX bikes doing bunny hops and frame jumps.
We’re talking about the classic 1986 sportsploitation flick Rad starring Bill Allen, Talia Shire, Lori Loughlin, Bart Connors, Jack Weston and Ray Walston. Directed by the legendary Hal Needham (Smokey & The Bandit, Cannonball Run, Megaforce), the movie centers on BMX junkie Cru Jones who only wants to get radical on his bike with friends Becky & Luke, challenge the local cop to races in a lumber yard, and get his morning paper route finished by 7:15am. All his mom wants is for him to go to take his SATs and get into college. But when Duke Best, head of the Mongoose bicycle company, partners with the local businesses to bring a professional BMX track called Helltrack to Cochrane, Cru sees and opportunity to do what he does best, which is riding his bike. But before he can race, Cru has to prove that he can qualify, which is easier said than done when Best, along with his stuck up hot shot riders Bart Taylor and Rod & Rex, the Reynolds Twins, keep putting up barriers he has to hurdle. Along the way he learns who his true friends are, as well as winning the heart of beautiful BMX champion Christian, but does he have enough thunder in his heart to beat Helltrack?
We talk about our favorite scenes, amazeballs dance sequences, the awesome soundtrack, and what makes this film still work after almost 30 years.
Listen now!
(Or right-click and save this file to download -> Cult Film Club, Episode #16: Rad)
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Finally!
Hope you dig this episode Cody, I had a blast taking point on the hosting duties. Totally went balls out!
GNARLY!
Seriously thinking about installing a giant Kix bowl in Jaime’s back yard. Maybe convert it into a hot tub or something…
Why stop there, make your own hell track!
When I move up to Baltimore that is going to be the first thing I suggest to the home owners association. Tear out the jungle gym and install Helltrack. You know, for the kids!
I made this for you Jaime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLJcnjrnvUU
That just made my day!
I’m still trying to figure out how Hal Needham managed to film Pax, Me and you dancing back in the 80s….
LOL! Again, I wish I had those unitard suits. AMAZING.
Sounds like something we might need to outsource to CT’s wife. Just saying, Christmas is coming…
ON IT.
Great episode! Shawn I can tell you love this flick. Admittedly I’m like Pax and Jamie, I’ve only seen a few scenes, but never all the way through. I’m going to check it out now though. Sadly I’m more familiar with the soundtrack…. which maybe isn’t much of a shock.
Yeah, I totally like like this movie. In fact, my perfect day would be watching this, Transformers: The Movie (1986) and The Monster Squad back to back to back.
At least this film is readily available via youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btMuEvjpAXA
Who do we have to go ass sliding with to get this movie a DVD release??
Lol, last I heard Talia Shire was campaigning to get the rights back, so maybe her and her nephew Nic Cage…
Looks like it`s available here along with RAD screen printed shirts. http://www.rad-dvd.com/
Yeah, still a bootleg there, but that’s still the best available right now. I actually just ordered the Rad Racing T-shirt…
I got to meet 2 riders who were in the beginning part(the skatepark riding) of rad. When i was younger at a camp that had bmxfreestyle one of my counselers was the guy who crashed a lot in the helltrack race(it’s hollywood mike miranda his second crash of the day”).
If you like rad you should check out “joe kid on a stingray”
http://vimeo.com/43059413
And one of my buddies had the orig soundtrack on cassette, we built a half pipe in my backyard and we would play it non stop on my boombox while riding.
Awesome!
Wow, this looks like it’s the BMX equivalent of the Powell Peralta Autobiography doc. I need to check this out…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCUstFvjIrM
For bmx there 2 cult classics rad and aggroman a bmxfreestlye film that came out in 1989 that starred legendary dave voelker and a rookie pro by the name of matt hoffman
Aggroman Start.wmv
Awesome, I’ve never seen this!
Radical!
Thanks! And now to eat some Kix and screenprint some shirts… 😉
I enjoyed watching the movie back in the 80s and got a BMX buzz right after watching it. The Garbage Truck scene seems a little dangerous and unnecessary looking at it now. John Farnham is indeed from Australia, he had many a hit song in the 80s but I don`t remember the RAD songs hitting the charts here. Radical movie and RAD podcast.
Thanks man! Yeah, some of the morning delivery stuff is ridiculous and dangerous, but I guess that’s half the fun in a way 😉
The timing of this review couldn’t be more perfect for me! I’ve been a coach at the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy for 6 years, and we just had an overnight lock-in with our Boys team watched this film. This was my favorite movie when I was a kid, so when I was hired on as a coach the first thing I did was told Bart how much I loved this movie.
Bart did win 2 gold medals in the 84 olympic games and was supposed to have a more active role in the film but broke his leg just before filming started, which is shy you only see below his knees twice. One time at the dance and the other time at the end of the movie when he is congratulating Cru. If you look closely you can see that one pant leg is bigger to hide his cast.
He says he still has people come up and talk to him about how much they loved this movie, the most interesting and probably tallest person was Shaq! Be on the lookout for an audio commentary hitting the internets with all the stars (except Lori Laughlin) they recorded a couple years ago and will release once they have all the legal and copyright issues cleared up.
In the mean time here’s the RAD poster I look at every time I go to the water fountain
Wow WM, that is really cool. I’ve checked out the Bart Connors school and it looks like you guys are doing some great work! Also, I’m so jealous of that poster!
Thanks for this. When I was 10 my mom, my sister, and I bumped into Bart Conner in a hotel elevator in Hawaii (he was very smiley and gracious as my mom asked him silly questions, if anyone wonders). This was summer of 1985 and he was in a wheelchair. Later, when Rad came out I asked myself, ‘I wonder if he broke his leg filming the movie?’ and it remained an unanswered question for the next 30 years. Not that I’ve been dwelling on it all that time (haha imagine!) but the thought literally just popped back into my mind—I’m not sure what triggered it—and I arrived at this web page by Googling ‘Bart Conners [sic] broke leg rad’. So you’ve answered my question about the relationship between the movie and the leg. It’s not what I hypothesized but I’m satisfied, so thanks again 🙂
Thanks for bringing this movie to my attention – wow.
The weird thing I was wondering about: What’s up with the redacted credits?!