Five Iconic Kawasaki Motorcycles You’ll Recognize From The Big Screen

Not enough movies feature motorcycles. Sure, your main guy may fight off some faceless bike-riding goons in an action film, or a character might own a bike to show that they live dangerously or enjoy wrenching, but they’re rarely stars the way cars are — think about how infrequently bikes show up in the “Fast and Furious” movies compared to cars. Yet, in spite of how often films overlook two-wheeled conveyance in favor of four, there are a few movies that understand how hot your characters can look on bikes. Those films, too, often pick Kawasakis to film. 

It makes sense, Kawasaki is a long-running brand with plenty of different bikes in its roster to pick from. There are cruisers, dirt bikes, sportbikes, whatever you need for the look you want to portray on screen. They’re also reliable enough that you can actually get multiple takes without needing to top off oil in between, unlike some other brands famously associated with film. Today, we’ll delve into some of the most recognizable Kawasakis from the silver screen, and see how many you noticed. 

Johnny Tran generally prefers Hondas throughout the first ‘Fast and Furious’ film, but there’s a notable point where he picks a different marquee: The very end, where he saddles up on a Kawasaki KLR650 to go shoot Jesse outside Dom’s house. Spoiler warning. This is also the one time where Tran’s choice in vehicle leaves him for dead, which my roommate (and fellow “Fast” lover) Pomegranate swears is related. Her rule is, you betray Honda, you die. 

There’s been some debate in motorcycle-recognition circles around whether these bikes are actually intended to be KLR 650s, since they change so much during the chase scene. When Lance is thrown from his, and the bike lands on top of him, it’s clearly an entirely different two-stroke bike for that shot. The wides, though, tend to show KLRs, so I’m counting these. 

An appearance of another KLR in film doesn’t merit another slide, but I do need to shout out the KLR 650 from “Hackers.” It’s the bike that Acid Burn’s pre-Crash Override boyfriend rides, and it’s presented as such a cool thing — Burn slinks out of Cyberdelia in her oversized Suzuki leathers, whips on a helmet, and then takes off on the back of this bike. Yet, they cast an oversized lawn tractor as the bike. They really couldn’t get a Gixxer or something for that? I laugh at that scene every time, because you can clearly hear that 650 thumper sputtering away as it takes off from the cafe-slash-arcade-slash-roller rink. God, I wish Cyberdelia was real. 

Remember the first “Mad Max” film, long before “Fury Road” or even “Road Warrior”? Of course you don’t, almost nothing happens in it. Max only gets mad for the last 15 minutes or so out of a full 90-minute film — before that he’s just sort of vaguely a cop, with other cop friends, who has a wife and kid. You know the tropes, you know the wife and kid are going to die and send Max on a quest for revenge, but that doesn’t happen until the very end. You can tell the movie was made for about 25 Australian dollars.

Goose’s Kawasaki Z1000 gets featured plenty, with its silver-and-blue Main Force Patrol livery, but Toecutter’s gang largely ride Kawis too. Thinking about it, why was Goose’s bike silver and blue when the MFP cars are yellow and blue? Why was the Pursuit Special black? If MFP had been a little more organized, would the world have fallen at all? I’m starting to believe the theories that, in the Mad Max universe, it’s only Australia that’s like that. Everywhere else is fine. 

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, we can never get enough of you, can we? Many of us here at Jalopnik are big fans of “Top Gun” — it may be our favorite piece of military propaganda as a staff, beating out even the Blue Angels — and “Maverick” was a worthy sequel to a movie that absolutely didn’t need one. It’s the rare legacy film that’s actually worth the time you’ll spend watching it, and it even shows off all that musical talent that Miles Teller learned from Terence Fletcher. 

Mav rode a Kawasaki in the first film, so of course he had to ride another one in the film that bears his name. This time, though, he’s on the fastest bike out there — the Ninja H2, with 200 supercharged horsepower. the track-only R version of the bike makes an incredible 326 horsepower from the same engine, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mav had some bolt-ons on his street bike. I’d kind of be surprised if he didn’t, honestly. 

When The Bride arrives in Japan to hunt down the rest of the Deadly Vipers, she gets herself a new Kawasaki, all yellow and black, to ride out to meet them. Well, some of them, at least — there’s a whole “Vol. 2” with revelations like “more Vipers” and “The Bride’s name.” Later this year we’re supposed to get everything in one movie, “The Whole Bloody Affair,” which I may just have to see. Can’t say no to women with swords. 

The ZZ250 isn’t the most exciting bike on the list — it’s a 250cc two-cylinder with a relatively sport-touring rider triangle — but what an entrance it makes. The black and yellow, the shout-out to Bruce Lee in “Game of Death,” really works on bikes. Even more so on Kawasaki bikes. We here at Jalopnik will always love any bike that meets the description of Jenny’s. 

This isn’t a movie, but I wasn’t going to do a list of Kawasakis and not include “Bakuon!!” somewhere. A little slice of life anime about motorcycles, that features a pink Honda? With some real attention to detail as to the bikes, and how they operate? C’mon now. That’s extremely up my alley. 

Not only is Raimu Kawasaki named after her bike — at least on her fake ID — she’s effectively the Stig. Down to the brand of helmet she wears, the white Simpson, she’s an expy of “Top Gear”‘s tame racing driver. She also never talks, though she does help out the whole crew in her own way. Raimu is also not even really a student at the school that hosts this motorcycle school, but that’s fine. The principal knows what’s going on with her, and that everything’s totally above board. 

I mean, come on. This is the film Kawasaki of all film Kawasakis, the one that made the Ninja line into the shorthand for sportbikes that it stands as today. The GPZ900R was the first Ninja (in North America, at least) and it made such an impact in 1986’s top-grossing film that it even came back in the sequel. How much time did the Ninja even spend on-screen in “Top Gun”? A few minutes? And that’s all it took to be cemented in the minds of viewers, and in the world of motorcycling. 

“Top Gun” wouldn’t have been the same without the Ninja, but the Ninja wouldn’t have been the same without “Top Gun.” It may well be the most important movie motorcycle of all time, the most impactful, and for that reason it deserves a spot atop any list of silver-screen bikes. Making the list out of Kawasakis is almost cheating.