25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

Adapted from the photo book by Danny Lyon, which chronicles the real-life Outlaws Motorcycle Club, Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders turns them into the Vandals and drafts in Tom Hardy and Austin Butler to play the gang’s leader Johnny Davis and prodigal son Benny Cross.

A tale of folly that spans the late 1960s and early '70s, we see the club flourish under Johnny’s leadership and then collapse under its own weight, fragmenting as new chapters form, becoming increasingly more violent and losing sight of the original vision, fraternity, and camaraderie that started the whole thing.

The defining final moment for the Vandals, and for the film, is Johnny’s death. Rogue element The Kid (Toby Wallace) challenges Johnny for leadership of the club in a car park knife fight. But Johnny is still playing by the old rules in a new and savage world, and after all the build-up to the fight, The Kid simply pulls a gun on him and shoots him dead.

It is a blunt and brutal ending, calling up a parallel with Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Raiders, but this time the bad guys win and honour is not just on hold but gone for good.