The Wild One

Martha sees in Johnny the possibility of leaving her town behind forever and starting a new life on the road. In this scene, she expresses her dream of fleeing on the road with someone who would take her:

I used to think about it a lot after my mother died. Somebody would come here...stop at Uncle Frank's place....buy a cup of coffee or something. He'd like me right away and he'd take me with him.

Unlike Johnny, who can ride his motorcycle away from the town, Martha, as a woman, cannot think of escape on the road in her own terms, but only by going off with a man. She gives Johnny a hard look to see if he is the one who will take her away, but find s nothing in his stony gaze.

In opposition to Martha, who wants to leave, Johnny betrays some willingness to stay. "I'm gonna leave now...that's what you want me to do, isn't it?" he says, hoping Martha will give him a reason to hang around. Johnny is torn between the desire for the sense of place provided by the small town and for the sense of freedom provided by the open road. The ability to leave past and identity behind, and to pick up a new one every time you roll into a town is both the exhilarating aspect of the road and the p rice paid for its freedom. The movie drops hints, like in this scene, that on some level Johnny's restless drifting is really a quest to find a place to call home, a place where he does not have to be a rebel.