Cool Runnings
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Cool Runnings is a 1993 comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub. It is based on the exploits of the Jamaican Bobsled Team at Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the 1988 Winter Olympics. It stars Leon, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba, Rawle D. Lewis and John Candy.
Plot
Irving Blitzer (Candy), an American bobsled double gold medallist at the 1968 Winter Olympics who finished first in two events again in 1972 but was disqualified for cheating and retired in disgrace to Jamaica where he now leads a destitute borderline legal life, is co-opted into organising a Jamaican bobsled team by top 100m runner Derice Bannock (Leon), the son of Ben Bannock, a sprinter that Blitzer wanted to make into a Bobsledder, and two fellow sprinters (Yoba and Lewis), who, along with Derice, had lost their chance to go to the 1988 Summer Olympics, and a fourth member, ne'er-do-well pushcart driving champion Sanka (Doug).
The first half of the movie centres on Jamaica and assembling and training the team. The second half of the movie is the drama of the Olympics, and the fish-out-of-water scenario of the laid-back tropical Reggae Jamaicans in both the white-dominated sport and the wintry Calgarian Country Music culture.
The movie was made entirely in the actual locations. Irving Blitzer is a fictional character; the real team had several trainers, none connected to any cheating scandal. The bobsledders portrayed in the film are also fictional, although the people who conceived the idea of a Jamaican bobsled team were inspired by pushcart races and tried to recruit track sprinters. The bobsled team also couldn't have been formed by sprinters after failing to qualify for the Summer Games, as the 1988 Winter Olympics actually preceded the Summer Olympic trials. A fictional sports governing body, the "International Alliance of Winter Sports" appears in the film (in reality, every winter sport has its own separate governing body).
Box office
US Gross Domestic Takings: $68,856,263+ Other International Takings: $86,000,000
Gross Worldwide Takings: $154,856,263
- John Candy - Irving 'Irv' Blitzer
- Leon Robinson - Derice Bannock
- Doug E. Doug - Sanka Coffie
- Malik Yoba - Yul Brenner
- Rawle D. Lewis - Junior Bevil
Quotes
- Irv - Our Father, who art in Calgary, Bobsled be thy name. Thy kingdom come, gold medals won, on Earth as it is in Turn Seven. With Liberty and Justice for Jamaica and Haile Selassie. Amen.
- Yul - How 'bout I beat your butt right now?
Sanka - How 'bout I draw a line down the middle of your head so it looks like a butt?
- Sanka - "The key elements to a successful sled team are a steady driver, and three strong runners to push the sled down the ice." ICE? Ice?
Derice - Well, it's kind of a winter sport, you know.
Sanka - You mean winter, as in ice?
Derice - Maybe.
Sanka - You mean winter, as in Eskimos and igloos and penguins and ICE?
Derice - Possibly.
Sanka - See you.
- Derice - Sanka, you dead?
Sanka - Ya man.
- Sanka - I'm freezing my royal Rastafarian nay-nays off!
- British Alliance Member - We must also be concerned about the potential for embarrassment.
Irv - Oh, pardon me. I didn't realize that four black guys in a bobsled could make you blush.
- Sanka - Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! COOL RUNNINGS!
- Sanka - So what should we call her?
Junior - How about Tallulah.
Sanka - Tallulah, sounds like a 2 dollar hooker. Where did you come up with that.
Junior - It's my mother's name.
- Derice (Derice sees Sanka's breath in the cold Calgary air) - Sanka mon, whatcha smoking?
Sanka - I'm not smoking, I'm breathing!
- Sanka - So, let's talk about this bill-sled team.
Derice - No, Bobsled team.
Sanka - Whoever.
- Junior - I see pride, I see power, I see a bad ass mudda who don't take no crap off of nobody.
Trivia
Two of the characters names are inside jokes:- Sanka's full name is Sanka Coffie. Sanka is a brand of coffee.
- Yul Brynner was an Academy Award-winning actor best known for his portrayal of the Siamese king in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I as well as Ramesses II in The Ten Commandments. Brynner was famous for his bald head; in the film, Yul Brenner is bald.
External links
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