Varsity Blues (1999) on Netflix
In West Canaan, Texas, football carries the town's hopes. When star quarterback Lance Harbor injures a knee, Coach Kilmer turns to Mox, a backup who wants to leave for Brown University.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.6/1053,978 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes43%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jonathan "Mox" Moxon is the backup quarterback for the West Canaan Coyotes, the high school team in the small Texas town of West Canaan. Mox is academically gifted and wants to leave Texas for Brown University, and he clashes with his football-obsessed father, Sam, a former Coyotes player. His girlfriend, Jules, is the younger sister of Lance Harbor, the Coyotes' star quarterback and Mox's best friend. Coach Bud Kilmer has run the team for 35 years and demands that his players win at any cost while he chases a 23rd district title. When Kilmer orders painkilling shots for Lance's injured knee, Lance damages the knee further during a game, and the Coyotes need a new quarterback. Kilmer reluctantly names Mox captain and starting quarterback.
Cast
- Tiffany C. Loveas Collette Harbor
- Eliel Swintonas Wendell Brown
- Jill Parker-Jonesas Mo Moxon (as Jill Parker Jones)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Varsity Blues (1999)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The ring name of the professional wrestler Jon Moxley stems from a mishearing of the name of the film's protagonist, Jonathan Moxon, with both also going by the nickname “Mox”.
- In December 2024 Van Der Beek announced the sale of autographed jerseys to support his colorectal cancer treatments, while celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the film's release.
- Ron Lester reprised his role of Billy Bob as a nearly identical character named Reggie Ray, and Ali Larter's whipped cream bikini scene was parodied; Larter liked the scene's “shock value” and it was her first scene in her first movie role.
- Varsity Blues has since gone on to become a cult film, inspiring other coming-of-age films and lending its name as the codename for a 2019 criminal investigation into U.S. college admissions.
- In January 2002 Nelvana and MTV announced a television series based on the film, with screenwriter Peter Iliff and producer Tova Leiter signed on and Sean Dwyer cast as Stick and Charlie Talbert as Billy Bob, but the project was ultimately scrapped.
- The film was also quoted in the 2004 film Mean Girls, where it is named as Regina George's favorite movie.
