Cool Runnings (1993) on Netflix
PG19931h 38mAdventureComedyFamily
Jamaican sprinter Derice Bannock loses his Olympic chance when another runner stumbles into him at the trials. He asks Irving Blitzer, a disgraced bobsled champion, to coach a Jamaican team.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.0/10124,900 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes76%
Trailer
Plot summary
Derice Bannock trains for the 100 meters at the Seoul Olympics, but Junior Bevil stumbles in the trials and knocks him down along with Yul Brenner. The committee will not rerun the race. In its office, Derice spots a photograph of his father, Ben, next to another gold medalist, and learns the man is Irving Blitzer, a bobsled champion whose gold medal was taken away for cheating at the 1972 Winter Games. Derice finds Blitzer working as a bookie near his home and proposes a Jamaican bobsled team for Calgary. Blitzer agrees once he hears that Derice is Ben's son. Sanka Coffie, a pushcart derby champion, joins, and so do Junior and Yul. Coolidge refuses to fund a team he thinks will embarrass Jamaica.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cool Runnings (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lewis claimed that Disney executives wanted Kurt Russell for the role of Coach Blitzer, but John Candy personally insisted on portraying the coach and agreed to take a pay cut to do the movie.
- Turteltaub fought with Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg over the characters' accents: Turteltaub wanted them authentic to real Jamaican accents, Katzenberg worried American audiences would not understand, and Katzenberg threatened to replace him if he did not comply.
SPOILER
Real footage of the crash was used in the film but heavily edited, and none of the characters suffered injuries; Stokes called the run and the crash disorienting, realizing they had crashed only when his fiberglass helmet sustained friction-burn after the team hit 130 km/h and scraped the wall for 600 m.- Jamaica was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee for late entry into the competition, but pressure from several appeals, including one from Prince Albert of Monaco, who competed in the event himself, reversed the decision, rather than an appeal by their coach.
SPOILER
Presented in the film as a medal contender and record setter, Jamaica crashed on their third run and finished 24th, 25th and 26th out of 26, the only four-man team in the competition to post a time over one minute.- The film grossed $154.9 million worldwide, and its theme song, a cover of "I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff, reached number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
- Principal photography began in February 1993 and lasted until that March, with filming locations including Kingston, Discovery Bay and Calgary; the result was Candy's final film released in his lifetime, with a score composed by Hans Zimmer.
