Riding motorcycles ("chopper"-style) emblazoned with insignia that announce their "freedom" and wearing the in-your-face attire of the 1960s hippie culture, Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) set off in Easy Rider to cross the U.S., taking the southern route from Los Angeles to New Orleans. Financing their pleasure-seeking and identify-giving odyssey with money they received from a cocaine deal, they feel rich and invulnerable. The two men encounter both friends and foes along the way: a Mexican family trying to make a home in the desert, a budding commune filled with idealistic counterculture youth, mean good ol' boys (brutally representing the bigotry of the southern states), and a slick and funny alcoholic lawyer named George (an astonishing, Oscar-nominated performance by Jack Nicholson). Marijuana and alcohol fuel their journey as profoundly as the gasoline with which they fill their tanks. After one gigantic misstep resulting in tragedy, they reach New Orleans at Mardi Gras and, accompanied by two women from an infamous brothel, live out their grandest fantasies. But is the country ready for such unapologetic, "radical" behavior? In the words of one of the protagonists, "They may talk about individual freedom, but if they see a free individual, it makes them scared...it makes them dangerous." His words prove to be prophetic.