Trailer
Plot summary
Evel Knievel, the motorcycle stunt rider, performs his own jumps and slips into a boys' orphanage at night to leave action figures for the children. Will Atkins, his chief mechanic, was a stunt rider himself until his wife died and he turned to drink. Photojournalist Kate Morgan is sent to photograph the next jump, on the reasoning that a fatal crash would make a great story. Evel crashes and is badly injured, and he announces his retirement. While he recuperates he refuses the attempts to bring him back to performing. Jessie, a former protégé, arrives with backers who want Evel to jump in Mexico, and Will's estranged son Tommy comes from boarding school asking to join the tour.
Cast
- Eric Olsonas Tommy Atkins
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Viva Knievel! (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Three months after release, on September 21, 1977, Knievel and his associates attacked a promoter with an aluminum baseball bat; he lost most of his sponsorship and marketing deals from the bad publicity, and after his conviction the film opened in only four further international markets.
SPOILER
The footage used in the film for Jessie's failed jump was not staged: it is actually footage of Knievel's own May 1975 crash at Wembley Stadium.
