Air (2023) on Netflix
In 1984, Nike's basketball shoe division is nearly shut down over poor sales. Talent scout Sonny Vaccaro is tasked with finding the brand's next face, and he wants rookie Michael Jordan.
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- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.4/10198,973 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Nike's basketball shoe business is failing in 1984, and the company is prepared to close it. Marketing vice president Rob Strasser and co-founder Phil Knight ask talent scout Sonny Vaccaro to find a new athlete to represent the brand. Reviewing the players taken in the 1984 NBA draft, the executives consider third pick Michael Jordan out of reach, since he prefers Adidas and his price is beyond their small budget. After watching Jordan's highlights alongside an Arthur Ashe commercial, Vaccaro is convinced Nike should chase a player he sees as a generational talent. He asks George Raveling, Jordan's Olympic coach, for help, then flies to Wilmington, North Carolina, to persuade Jordan's mother Deloris that Nike would give her son more attention than Adidas and Converse. Jordan's agent David Falk calls to object to the contact with the family.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Air (2023)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michael Jordan was not involved in making Air, but he met Ben Affleck before production, gave the project his blessing and asked for four script changes; his request to add Nike executive Howard White led to Affleck casting Chris Tucker.
- Jordan asked for his parents' roles to be expanded, and it was his idea to cast Viola Davis as his mother, Deloris Jordan, who was instrumental in his decision to meet Nike and sign a deal.
- Amazon Studios had planned to premiere Air on Prime Video, but after strong test screenings it released the film in theaters first, the first Amazon title since Late Night (2019) to reach theaters without also premiering on Prime Video.
- In June 2023 Donald Trump used Air's monologue in a fundraising video for his 2024 presidential campaign on Truth Social, and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production company Artists Equity condemned the use as unauthorized.
- Ben Affleck built a Spotify playlist called 1984 with more than a hundred 1980s hits and sent it to music supervisor Andrea von Foerster to choose from; with little budget for music, she asked artists and publishers to trust the film's story.
- The marketing push for Air cost Amazon $40-50 million, including $7 million on one advertisement that aired during Super Bowl LVII.
