How the Industrial Revolution caught up with Butch Cassidy and the Wild West
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were real people, notorious bank robbers, and the movie about them is widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made. The script by William Goldman, who also penned The Princess Bride, required study material by aspiring authors and screenwriters, myself included. I was surprised that the key moment in this Wild West movie is about the invention of the bicycle. In this movie, the bicycle becomes a metaphor for the movie’s thematic statement made by Butch: “Times are a-changing, and you have to change with them if you want to survive.”
By the way, I think the bicycle is one of the most important inventions in history. I talk more about that below.
In this scene, a bicycle salesman rolls onto a stage at the moment a marshal is trying to raise a posse. Order is being reasserted. The crowd is being asked to choose sides. And instead of a call to arms, they’re introduced to the novelty of a bicycle. The interruption appears comical and out of place, but it’s a clever way to showcase the existential crisis of Butch and the Sundance Kid.
Marshal to the crowd: Well, whaddaya say?
A bicycle salesman wheels a bicycle onto the stage, interrupting the Marshal: I say this, I say ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and enemies, meet the future.
Crowd member: The future what?
Salesman: The future mode of transportation for this weary Western world. Now I’m not gonna make a lot of extravagant claims for this little machine. Sure, it’ll change your whole life for the better, but that’s all.
Marshal: And just what in the hell do ya think you’re doing?
Salesman: Well, you got the crowd together. That’s half my job, so I just thought I’d do a little selling.
Marshal: Well, I’m trying to raise a posse here if you don’t mind?
Salesman to the marshal: I got a short presentation. [To the crowd.] The Horse Is Dead. [To the marshal.] You’ll see — this item sells itself.
Marshal: Now, are you going to listen to him or you going to come to me?
Etta: Butch, Fanny says to come into her party right now.
Salesman: No oats. No mess. No kicks. No running away. No stepping on your foot.
~ Henry Jones, Bike Salesman, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The story takes place during the late stages of the American frontier, when the effects of the Industrial Revolution were reaching even the most remote regions. Railroads reduced vast distances. Telegraphs turned days into minutes. Factories replaced artisans. Time became standardized. And governments, law enforcement, and institutions like the banking system became too big for any individual to outmaneuver for long. The bicycle was a product of this revolution and advances in technology like metallurgy and mass production.
When the salesman declares, “The Horse Is Dead,” he’s alluding to the romantic notion of the Wild West. It was a place of wild open spaces and personal freedom. The frontier forgave a person their mistakes. If you failed, you could ride off into the sunset and try again somewhere else. And for those more mischievous, the law was rarely close enough to look you in the eye. But now, time moved faster, distances shrank, and telegraphs could outrace you to your next destination.
The bicycle scene illustrates how progress arrives: not as a villain, but as a practical solution. Not as a moral argument, but as a better tool. The future doesn’t ask permission. It simply rolls in and interrupts the old story. It’s a dynamic that repeats whenever a new technology arrives.
Butch Cassidy is charming, clever and playful. These are qualities that guaranteed survival on the frontier, but now fail in the face of the new system.
Unlike Butch and the Sundance Kid, who were not able to adapt to the changing times, the bicycle was embraced by the suffragettes, like Helen Keller. (Read more bicycle quotes by the suffragettes.) The advent of the bicycle stirred sudden and profound changes in the social life of England, when even the working class could travel far, fast and cheap, and the idea of traveling for pleasure became a possibility for thousands of people for the first time. (H.G. Wells wrote a story about this.) This new freedom began to weaken the rigid English class structure, and it gave a powerful boost to the existing movement toward female emancipation.
The recent invention of artificial intelligence makes me feel like a Butch Cassidy. And I wonder if I will be able to adapt or if I’d rather ride into the sunset.
Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
Helen Keller, deaf and blind political activist. 1880–1968
