Rad / Hell Track Ending Explained [SPOILER!]Rad (1986) Directed by Hal Needham Shown: Bill Allen

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!

A bicycle-motocrosser (Bill Allen) tries to enter a corrupt promoter’s nationally televised cash-prize race.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Rad / Hell Track Plot Summary and Synopsis

Cru Jones is an aggressive teenage BMX racer who lives in a small town with his younger sister Wesley and their mother. Cru is faced with a tough decision: qualify for Helltrack, or take the SAT in order to attend college. Winning Helltrack means $100,000, a new Chevrolet Corvette, and fame.

Cru chooses the former option, against his mother’s wishes.

The Helltrack race is endorsed by the city and by Duke Best, the duplicitous president of FAB (the Federation of American Bicyclists), who’s also the owner of Mongoose Racing.

Duke keeps adjusting the rules, in order to keep Cru out of the race, and also to ensure BMX star Bart Taylor has an easy road to victory thus providing a financial windfall for Mongoose Racing, Bart’s sponsor.

Numerous BMX racers show up for Helltrack. Cru meets Christian Hollings, who becomes his romantic interest. At Cru’s senior prom, he and Christian perform freestyle bike stunts on the dance floor to the awe of his classmates.

After being blocked from the race due to a last-minute rule-change on participant sponsorship, Cru is ready to give up Helltrack until Wesley customizes a shirt for him to wear at the event. It reads “Cru is RAD.” Inspired by this, Cru and his friends use the money he won from qualifying ($10,000) to found a small T-shirt business: “Rad Racing.”

However, a few days before the race, Duke changes the rules yet again claiming any company sponsoring a racer must be worth at least $50,000. When the townspeople hear about this, they rally around Cru; their contributions, particularly a generous donation from wealthy Mr. Timmer, provide Rad Racing with enough money for Cru to enter Helltrack.

During Helltrack, Duke bribes the Reynolds twins to take out Cru, but they fail.

In the final stretch of the race, Taylor and Cru face each other; Cru ultimately wins Helltrack, while Taylor is dropped from Mongoose Racing. Now aware of Duke’s true nature, the entire Mongoose team quits on him.

Rad / Hell Track Ending

Cru offers Taylor a spot in Rad Racing, while Duke is asked to resign from FAB.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Leave a Reply