Pain & Gain (2013) on Netflix
R20132h 9mActionComedyCrimeDrama
Daniel Lugo manages the Sun Gym in Miami and trains Victor Kershaw, whose earnings he envies. He recruits bodybuilder Adrian Doorbal and ex-convict Paul Doyle to extort Kershaw's assets.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.4/10243,176 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes49%
Trailer
Plot summary
John Mese, who owns the Sun Gym in Miami, hires recently released convict Daniel Lugo to increase membership, and Lugo befriends trainer Adrian Doorbal, a bodybuilder rendered impotent by steroids. Lugo trains Victor Kershaw and envies the earnings and lifestyle of the gym member. Inspired by motivational speaker Jonny Wu to be a doer, Lugo plans to extort Kershaw's assets by kidnapping him. He brings in Doorbal, who needs money for treatment, and Paul Doyle, a former convict and born-again Christian fighting a drug habit. An attempt to take Kershaw at his home fails; the gang grabs him outside his deli and holds him in a warehouse he owns.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pain & Gain (2013)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Marc Schiller, the real-life Victor Kershaw, was arrested immediately after testifying against the Sun Gym gang and charged with running a $14 million fraudulent Medicare scheme. Helped by the trial judge in the gang's case, he took a plea deal for 46 months and was freed in 2001.
- The real Sun Gym gang bought a gas-powered chainsaw from Home Depot to cut off body parts but forgot to add motor oil, so it broke the first time they started it. Daniel Lugo returned it to the store and demanded a refund.
- The producers of Pain & Gain were sued for defamation in the Southern District of New York in April 2014 by Marc Schiller, the Sun Gym gang victim the film calls Victor Kershaw.
- The film shows the Sun Gym gang as three men, Daniel Lugo, Adrian Doorbal and Paul Doyle, but the real gang was much larger: Lugo was of Puerto Rican descent, Doorbal was a native of Trinidad, and Doyle was a composite of several real men including Carl Weekes, Jorge Delgado and Stevenson Pierre.
- Director Michael Bay and stars Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg took no salaries for Pain & Gain, signing on instead for a share of the film's profits.
- The film's end credits say John Mese was sentenced to 15 years and died in prison; in reality he was sentenced to 56 years and died of a stroke in 2004.
- Pete Collins turned his three-part Miami New Times series, which inspired the film, into a consultancy for the screenwriting team, a 2013 book titled Pain & Gain - This Is a True Story, further articles and media appearances.
