Do You Remember the 1982 Time Travel Western TIMERIDER: THE ADVENTURE OF LYLE SWANN?

I’ve been revisiting a lot of older films lately that I have vague memories of, and it’s been a lot of fun talking about them and sharing them with you. There are actually a lot more people than I thought that are familiar with some of these movies, which is cool! For those of you who haven’t seen these movies, then now you know to add them to your list of films to watch!

Today I’ve got a fun one for you. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but it’s a fun flick worth checking out! It’s a 1982 sci-fi time travel western called Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann. The movie was directed by William Dear (Harry and the Hendersons, Angels in the Outfield), and it stars Fred Ward (Escape From Alcatraz, Tremors) as Lyle Swann, a cross country dirt bike racer who travels back in time.

Motorcycle racer Lyle Swann is cruising through the Mexican desert when he accidentally stumbles into a time-travel experiment and finds himself transported back to the Old West of the 1870s. There he encounters an attractive local woman (Belinda Bauer) and a gang of criminals led by Porter Reese (Peter Coyote). Lyle's motorized bike is impressive in the past -- until it runs out of gas. Now Lyle must rely on his wits to take care of business and return to his own time.

The movie is pretty cheesy and absolutely ridiculous , but it’s still a ton of fun to watch. I can’t help but think that this movie inspired Back To The Future Part III, when Marty McFly travels back in time to the old west to save Doc Brown. Another interesting thing that it has in common with Back To The Future is that Lyle goes back in time to November 5th, 1877. The same "time travel arrival date" was used in Back to the Future which was November 5th, 1955.

At the same time, this is still different, and in the best possible way because Lyle doesn’t really try to fit in with the times. He keeps his motorcycle gear on and rides his bike around, which is one of the things I loved about the movie.

Lyle Swann is just such a great and likable character, and in certain ways he reminds me of Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams form the Evil Dead films.

I included a trailer for the film for you to watch below to remind you of this awesomely silly ‘80s masterpiece.

Trailer de 'Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann' (1982)

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