In 1965, Kathy Bauer meets Benny Cross, a hotheaded member of the
Chicago-based Vandals Motorcycle Club, and marries him just five weeks later. Photography student
Danny Lyon travels with and interviews the Vandals. He learns from Kathy that the founder, Johnny Davis, was inspired to create the club after watching
Marlon Brando in
The Wild One. Johnny's leadership is challenged when he rebuffs a Vandal's suggestion that new chapters be allowed to form. They engage in a fistfight which Johnny wins. He reestablishes his authority but grants permission to expand the club anyway. New chapters begin to form across the
Midwest. In 1969, Benny is attacked by two men in a bar for wearing his
colors. His foot is nearly severed by a shovel during the altercation. Johnny forces the owner to provide the names of the men and orders his men to burn down the bar. While Benny is recovering from surgery, Johnny pressures him to come to a
motorcycle rally before he is fully healed, to Kathy's objection. Johnny offers Benny leadership of the club when he eventually steps down, but Benny rejects it. A 20-year-old delinquent known as "the Kid" asks Johnny to allow him and his motorcycle club to join the Vandals. Johnny initially dismisses them but decides to test the Kid by allowing only him to join. When he expresses his willingness to abandon his friends, Johnny rejects him. The Kid attacks Johnny with a knife, but Johnny beats him and warns him not to come back. In 1973, Lyon interviews Kathy about the fate of the Vandals. She explains that Johnny became despondent after the death of his lieutenant Brucie in a vehicular accident, and the club grew increasingly violent after drug-addicted
Vietnam War veterans joined the ranks. At a party, longtime member Cockroach is beaten by new members when he drunkenly expresses a desire to leave the club to become a motorcycle cop. Kathy is nearly gang-raped while Benny is busy; she is narrowly rescued by Johnny. Furious, Kathy demands Benny quit the Vandals. Instead, he leaves her for several days. Cockroach, scared for his life, asks Johnny to help him. To allow Cockroach to safely leave the club, Johnny and Benny stage a break-in, where they shoot him non-fatally in the leg. Afterwards Johnny confides in Benny the club has become wild and violent and he can't control it anymore. Disturbed by the increasing violence of the club and again rejecting Johnny's offer of leadership, Benny quits and leaves Chicago for parts unknown. The Kid, now a member of the Vandals
Milwaukee chapter, challenges Johnny to a knife fight for leadership of the Vandals. In a parking lot, Johnny confronts the Kid who pulls a handgun and kills him. Kathy relays to Lyon that after the Kid took over the Vandals, they became a large
criminal gang involved in
drug trafficking and murder. The original members either fell in line, left to obtain legitimate jobs, or died. Benny returns home after learning of Johnny's death and Kathy comforts him. He and Kathy relocate to
Florida, where Benny works as a mechanic and has stopped riding motorcycles. Kathy tells Lyon that they are happy, and Benny doesn't miss the biker lifestyle. She looks out the window at Benny, who smiles as the sounds of motorcycles are heard. ==Cast==