Road movies were never the same after this. As laid-back as the machines straddled by Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in their search for "the real America", and as hip as a whole drop-out generation, this magical mystery tour of the USA has a casual conviction that outstrips Hopper's own on-the-run direction to touch a mythic nerve. Jack Nicholson's boozy lawyer successfully articulates the yearning of the alienated young. That the film ends in sullen and sudden death raises it to the power of allegory, and its success proved there was an audience and a need that the box-office pundits didn't even know existed. As a result, the studios tried desperately to repeat its low-budget magic, but failed. It just didn't equate with the usual Hollywood formula; it had created its own.

Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.