BMX has Rad (1986), and skateboarding has Gleaming the Cube (1986). Thirty-eight years later, roadracing has One Fast Move (2024), written and directed by Kelly Blatz. Action sports and motorsport are no strangers to the silver screen. In fact, they’re primed for it, with racing’s risks and rewards acting as an almost immediate dopamine hit for fans—jockeying for position at triple-digit speeds tends to lend itself to that kind of satisfaction. One Fast Move shares with the 1986 cult classics a cinematic embrace of a subculture that leads to real moments of two-wheeled authenticity. Beware, there are some spoilers ahead.
Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Blatz’s directorial debut rides into the world of club-level motorcycle racing with a cast comprised of KJ Apa (Riverdale), Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy), Maia Reficco (Pretty Little Liars), and Edward James Olmos (Blade Runner, American Me, Battlestar Galactica). One Fast Move tells the story of a struggling 20-something man who has set out on a journey to become a professional racer and reconnect with his estranged father.
Grounding the film for a broader, non-motorcycling audience is the inherent drama developed by exploring themes of desertion, regret, and parenting, creating believable real-world moments between characters—how our protagonists meet his love interest’s son is one of those moments.
Crucially, dealing with such subject matter casts a more serious tone setting, avoiding the goofy pitfalls of motorcycle-related cinematic disasters such as Biker Boyz (2003) and Torque (2004), which only redeem themselves in the sense that they’re highly quotable parodies.
Wading into these situations is Wes Neal (Apa), who, after being released from a six-month stint in jail for illegal street racing, chooses to right his ways and pursue his lifelong desire to race by tapping his deeply flawed club-racing veteran father, Dean Miller (Dane) as a riding coach.
The two develop a convincing on-screen father-son chemistry, with the plot layered by Wes’s love interest, Camila (Reficco). She is a single mother and local waitress. Local speed shop owner Able (Olmos) employs and mentors both male leads. The narrative, while compelling enough, is familiar ground for moviegoers and one that can lean into cliché from time to time.
Instead of using the motorcycles as an ignorable set dressing, the Director of One Fast Move achieves a recognizable depiction of the grubby, grassroots nature of club-level racing. When asked why he chose the decidedly unglamorous setting of club racing, Blatz said, “I love the world because there’s so much passion.” He continued, “Why isn’t there set in something in the world of roadracing? It’s fascinating. It’s not a world I’m in, but I’m a motorcycle rider, and I would love to create this love letter to motorcycles set in this arena while also telling a compelling drama.”
Blatz homed in on the vibe when developing the script by attending WERA motorcycle roadracing events at Willow Springs International Raceway and Buttonwillow Raceway Park. This paid off in an authentic representation of life at the races.
Subsequent mock race meets filmed at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta showed the low-budget nature of racing at this level, with pop-up canopies, hand-me-down gear, and well-worn bikes—an immediately identifiable atmosphere to any rider’s discerning eye.
Some of that accurately comes from familiar names, such as Hollywood stunt coordinator Gregg Smrz, a former AMA National race winner and the man responsible for the legendary motorcycle chase sequences in Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation. According to Blatz, a slew of active racers were tapped for advising roles and stunt riding. Two-time Daytona 200 winner and current MotoAmerica Superbike racer Brandon Paasch performs many riding sequences as Wes, while longtime Triumph associate and AMA Horizon Award winner Brian Stokes filled in as Dean Miller.
All too often, stunt scenes in sports dramas turn to CGI. Instead, Blatz wisely opted for practical stunts and riding that nets a sturdier foundation in realism—the film’s conclusion highlighting some of the best work.
Wes’s ascendance from a fledgling street rider to a bona fide club racer follows an accurate logic. He makes rookie mistakes during his first track outing by wadding his Suzuki GSX-R600 and trains on a Suzuki SV650—arguably the most time-honored converted track bike in history. Wes eventually begins racing in the Twins class—a common starting point for many newly minted racers. While Wes’s meteoric rise through to the Supersport 600 ranks is rushed, raising red flags due to my racer’s perspective, it did avoid resorting to a contrived montage.
The bikes become supporting cast members within this world, as they’re all quite accurately depicted. The SV650 is a true-blue clapped-out club racing machine, with the prior-gen Yamaha YZF-R6 representing an accurate step forward in Wes’ progression. Finally, the race-prepped Triumph Daytona Moto2 765 Limited Edition as his final stepping stone during the film’s conclusion. Most importantly, One Fast Move avoids the cardinal sin of making every motorcycle sound like a screaming inline-4 or American V-twin—twins sound like twins, triples sound like triples, as they should.
In that sense, the film passes the motorcyclist sniff test. Numerous elements add up to something recognizable, such as Abel’s perpetually struggling shop.
However, One Fast Move isn’t immune to criticism. A few familiar motorsport movie tropes slide in with unnecessary shifting via infinite-speed transmissions, a killswitch is hit in a Romano Fenati-esque move, and Wes commits the greatest of all racetrack offenses—riding the wrong on a live circuit, an act that would most certainly get you banned. Silly, sure, though the film is ultimately about redemption and growth.
Embracing a subculture to any accurate degree is an enormous task, and those who are part of that world will view any attempt to depict what they hold so dear through electron microscopes. One Fast Move, in specific ways, faithfully represents a niche part of motorcycling to a notable degree while lacing an entirely human drama into the mix for the average viewer. That’s fine, though it’s a rare occasion that a film takes the time to show roadracing. In that sense, it’s a movie for us, and I’m sure it will be quoted in paddocks for years to come. BMX has Rad. Skateboarding has Gleaming the Cube. Now, we’ve got One Fast Move.
