Rad (film)

This article is about the film Rad. For other usages of the term, see Rad.

Rad
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hal Needham
Written by	Sam Bernard Geoffery Edwards
Produced by	Sam Bernard, Mary Eilts, Robert L. Levy, Jack Schwartzman
Starring	Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, Ray Walston, Alfie Wise, Jack Weston
Cinematography	Richard Leiterman
Music by	James Di Pasquale
Distributed by	Columbia Tristar, Tristar Pictures
Release dates	March 21, 1986
Running time	91 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

Rad is a drama movie about BMX racing, first released in the USA in 1986. The film was written by Sam Bernard and Geoffrey Edwards. It stars Bill Allen and Lori Loughlin. While the film was critically lambasted, it has developed into a cult film classic.

Tagline: "At Helltrack...The Heat Is On."

Plot

The film's story focuses on Cru Jones (actor Bill Allen), a young BMX racer who lives in a small town with his mother (Talia Shire of Rocky and The Godfather fame) and sister. Cru is faced with a tough decision: the qualifying races for Helltrack are the same day as his SAT's, which he must take in order to attend college. However, winning Helltrack means a lucrative sponsorship deal and fame. Cru eventually decides to choose the latter option, against his mother's wishes.

The Helltrack race is endorsed by the city and a duplicitous Duke Best (Jack Weston). Best keeps adjusting the rules in order to keep Cru out of the race and to ensure BMX star Bart Taylor (1984 Olympic gymnastics champion Bart Conner) has an easy road to victory, thus providing a financial windfall for Mongoose racing, Bart's sponsor. Mongoose manipulates Best in order to see that their star has little competition from the local sensation, Cru.

Racers from all around come to this small town for the Helltrack and Cru meets Christian Hollings (Lori Loughlin), who becomes Cru's romantic interest. Christian and Cru have an interesting scene at the local high school dance where instead of dancing like the other couples, they perform freestyle bike stunts on the dance floor. After being blocked from the race due to a last minute rule change on participant sponsorship, Cru is ready to give up his dreams of winning Helltrack. Christian provides Cru with an idea for how he can still enter the race. After founding "Rad Racing," along with the financial backing of the one of the townsfolk, Mr. Timmer (Ray Walston), Cru is finally able to enter Helltrack for the movie's climactic final race. During the race at Helltrack, Cru does a backflip out of a sponsored bowl of Kix cereal.

Soundtracks and trivia

File:Rad 1.jpg

• The song "Send me an Angel" performed by Real Life was played in the school dance scene with Cru and Cristian performing a freestyle dance called the "bicycle boogie" with BMX bikes on the dance floor. Cochrane HS in Cochrane, AB was used for this scene. In the movie you can spot the Cochrane Cobra logo on the wall.

• The movie's soundtrack was performed mostly by John Farnham, including the film's signature songs "Break the Ice" and "Thunder in Your Heart".

• The opening credits include flatland and pipeline vert action from the big BMX freestylers of the day, some of whom make cameos at Helltrack as Cru's professional competition.

• The infamous "pipeline" (now destroyed) provides some valuable historical riding footage of real and famous BMX'ers before BMX's post 90's X Games revival. This track was created in Calgary's, Bowness Park.

• The character Bart Taylor was played by Olympic gymnast Bart Conner. He is the only male American gymnast to ever win gold medals at all levels in both national and international competitions.

• The BMX stunt riders were brought in from the USA and Canada. There was a large mix of BMX racers and BMX freestylers in the movie, hence the freestyle bikes being seen in the movie racing. Local Calgary pro's such as Scott Fleurie, Jeff Ingram, and Tyler Bolhorn can be seen in many of the scenes.

• RAD was filmed primarily in Cochrane and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

DVD Release

Rad was, unforunately, never released onto DVD, without any apparent reason at all; except that Embassy Entertainment, the production company, simply never decided to release it. Many fans of this movie have to either find copies of the 21 year old VHS online, or purchase bootleg versions on DVD.

DVD Petition

Fans of this film have had a petition online for the past 3 or 4 years, demanding the film's release onto DVD. As of September 7, 2007, there are over 17,420 signatures.

External links

• Rad at IMDb
• Rad at Google Video

• [1] The petition to put Rad onto DVD.