The film's message (it might not be what you think)

What makes "Easy Rider" great is that it's more than just a road adventure with a modern Western garnish (i.e. cowboys on motorized "horses"). The film has depth that separates it from the typical biker flicks of that era. It's really about quest for freedom or the lack thereof. Wyatt and Billy certainly have some grasp of freedom – and they desperately pursue it – but they're ironically so shackled by their OWN carnal desires and growing addictions that the most they attain is a piece of it.

Wyatt laments near the end: "We blew it; we really blew it" as he realizes freedom has slipped through their fingers like water. Nicholson's character, George, has more of handle on what's going on, but he obviously has his own issues.

The hippies at the commune seem to have escaped society's shackles but to what end? There's a reason communes never really caught on in America, and the film shows why.

In an interview with Rolling Stone in the early 70s Fonda pointed out that Wyatt represented everybody who feels that freedom can be bought, that you can find freedom through other things, like riding motorcycles across the country or smoking pot. He confessed that "Easy Rider" is actually about the LACK of freedom in America and, by extension, modern Western Civilization. Wyatt and Billy are not right, they're wrong.

The only thing the writers (Fonda & Hopper) could do in the end was kill the characters. In a sense, committing self-destruction, which Fonda claimed America was doing. He said viewers often respond to the end by lamenting, "Look at those terrible rednecks, they killed those two free souls, blah, blah, blah." But "Easy Rider," he pointed out, is a Southern term for a whore's man, not a pimp, but the dude who lives with her. He's got the easy ride. And that's what he claims happened to America – liberty's become a whore, and we're all taking the easy ride.

So what's the answer? The answer's there and it's pretty clear, but I'm not going to hand-feed it to anyone. Seek (or, rather, watch) and you will find.