Likely both films spawned hardcore punk bands named after the movies, and Rad the band is far superior to BMX Bandits. While BMX Bandits is pretty good, it can't even come close to Rad. Was it BMX Bandits or Rad? In my mind, there has never been a doubt. Thrashin was the cream of the crop to focus on skateboarding, but when it came to BMX there was a real debate. Like any fad, there were numerous exploitation movies based on it. It's not a small town anymore, and the small town feel is long gone, but when I watch Rad I see my hometown the way it was when I was a kid, and it makes me smile.īefore the huge X-Games explosion of the late 90s, there was another place where extreme sports thrived The 80s. For example, there's no longer an empty field opposite the sawmill, and the field Cru and Christian ride into on the hill above the town is now home to a huge subdivision of condos. Cochrane had a population explosion shortly after this movie was made, and has grown to the point that most people who've seen Rad would never recognize the town now. It was a real house, and it was actually the first house my parents lived in after they got married. Best of all in terms of hometown connection, the house that Cru's family lived in in the movie wasn't a set. The building in the background when Cru jumps the car during the parade even housed my mom's office. Lucky Penny Pizza was really Cochrane's best (and for a long time, only) pizza place. It's been also been a café, and a Chinese food restaurant over the years, but it's there. Cru's workplace, the Main Street Snack Bar, was real. The ice cream shop where Cru catches up to Christian is called McKay's and was Cochrane's one and only tourist attraction at the time. The school ended up converting the gym to a library and music room and building a new gym on the opposite side of the school, if I recall correctly thanks in part to the location fees paid. I remember the school freaking out over whether the movie crew would be able to pull off the BMX Boogie scene without permanently damaging the gym floors. The Cobra logo on the gym wall is the real Cochrane High logo (I graduated as a Cochrane Cobra, as did my dad before me). The high school in the movie really was pre-renovation Cochrane High. And the local kids really were into BMX biking I remember my godfather's son making a half-pipe as a shop project, and then not being able to get it through the shop door. In real life, the town is.you guessed it, Cochrane, which is just outside Calgary, Alberta. In the movie the town was called Cochrane, and was in some unknown state. It was filmed mostly in my hometown when I was a kid (all but Helltrack itself, which was set up in Bowness Park in Calgary), and re-watching it now brings me back to how excited everyone was at the time. There's an old saying that "you can't go home again", but thanks to the movie Rad, I can go home anytime I want to.
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