BMX Bandits (1983)

A 1983 australian crime comedy action film about three teenagers who discover a box of police-band walkie-talkies and sell them to local kids, unaware that a gang of bank robbers needs those same walkie-talkies to pull off a payroll heist. brian trenchard-smith directs with the spirit of the ealing comedies, filling sydney with cartoonish bmx chases and buffoonish criminals in pig masks. the film stars a 16-year-old nicole kidman as judy, in her first leading film role, alongside angelo d’angelo as p.j. and james lugton as goose.

What the film does

After a successful sydney bank robbery by crooks in pig masks, the boss orders a bigger payroll heist. his gang, whitey and moustache, need police-band walkie-talkies to monitor police traffic during the job. meanwhile, two bmx riders, p.j. and goose, and judy, a girl saving up for her own bike, stumble across the box of walkie-talkies floating in sydney harbour and sell them off. the crooks, realizing their gear has been stolen, go after the kids. what follows is a chase across sydney landmarks, through the warringah mall, a cemetery at night, and notably down the manly waterworks water slides on bmx bikes. the kids eventually rally the neighbourhood, ambush the heist, and chase the crooks into a crash. the police thank them by building a bmx track.

Why it is in the canon

Brian trenchard-smith is the most commercially successful director in australian cinema history and this is one of his signature films, a kids action comedy that does not condescend to its audience. the ealing comedy influence is real: the crooks are inept, the kids are resourceful, and the tone is playful even when the stakes are a million-dollar armed robbery. it is also the earliest film where you can see nicole kidman hold a frame. she is 16 and already fully formed as a screen presence. the bmx stunts are real and dangerous, shot over 41 days with a cast of mostly teenagers. there is nothing else quite like it: an australian bmx crime comedy with water slides, pig masks, and the future star of eyes wide shut on a bike.