Originally envisaged as a sports drama, Jeremiah S. Chechik and Brian Gibson were attached to direct before dropping out, causing Turteltaub to be hired. Robinson was cast in 1989, followed by Doug and Yoba a year later. Lewis, who had little acting experience prior to the film and was first sought as a dialect coach, joined in November 1992. Principal photography began in February 1993 and lasted until that March, with filming locations including Kingston, Discovery Bay, and Calgary. Cool Runnings is Candy's final film released in his lifetime, while its score was composed by Hans Zimmer.
Cool Runnings was theatrically released in the United States on October 1, 1993, by Buena Vista Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its humor, tone, and cast performances. The film grossed $154.9 million worldwide and its theme song, "I Can See Clearly Now" by Jimmy Cliff, reached number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Plot
In November 1987, Jamaicansprinter Derice Bannock trains to qualify for the 100-meter dash in the forthcoming Summer Olympics in Seoul. He fails to advance in the trials when fellow runner Junior Bevil accidentally stumbles and falls, knocking down Derice and another competitor, Yul Brenner.
Derice petitions for the race to be rerun, but committee leader Barrington Coolidge denies the request, though he feels pity for Derice. He invites him to try again in four years or to try out for one of the only two other sports Jamaica competes in: boxing and cycling. Derice spots a photograph in Coolidge's office, which shows his late father, Ben, standing next to a fellow Olympic gold medalist. Coolidge identifies the man as disgraced American bobsled champion Irving Blitzer, who was disqualified for cheating in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo and now works as a bookie close to Derice's home. Derice realizes he could enter the upcoming Winter Olympics in Calgary by forming a bobsled team, recruiting his friend Sanka Coffie, a pushcart derby champion.
Derice and Sanka track down Blitzer, who initially refuses to help Derice but reluctantly agrees to coach the team after learning that he is Ben's son. A recruitment drive fails when only Derice and Sanka stay until the end of a preliminary meeting, but Junior and Yul arrive late, allowing Blitzer to form a four-man team. Junior, like Derice, cannot wait another four years to enter the Olympics, and Yul wants to get off the island. The team trains with Blitzer, though Coolidge refuses to provide the $20,000 needed to participate in the Olympics, believing the team's inexperience will bring shame to Jamaica. Derice tries and fails to find sponsors, and he, Sanka, and Yul have little success with a range of fund-raising ventures (Yul arm wrestles challengers, Sanka horribly sings in the street, and Derice runs a kissing booth, until being caught by his wife Joy). Ultimately, Junior sells his car to finance the trip.
Upon reaching Calgary, Blitzer registers the team and borrows a rundown bobsled from Roger, one of his past teammates. The Jamaicans struggle to adapt to the cold and race conditions but improve through exercise and hard work. Derice begins to copy the techniques of the very efficient Swiss team. The East German team and their captain, Josef Groole - the current bobsled world record holder - constantly heckle the Jamaicans during tryouts. Eventually, all the team members except Derice get into a bar fight with the East Germans, and Derice reprimands them severely afterward.
After weeks of training, the team successfully makes the finals, only to be disqualified by the Olympic committee as retribution for Blitzer's prior cheating scandal. Blitzer confronts Kurt Hemphill, his former coach, now a judge in the committee, asking him not to punish the Jamaicans, as they had nothing to do with his past actions. The team is reinstated, and Junior rebuffs his father's attempt to bring him home, firmly stating his intent to remain in Calgary and represent Jamaica.
The team's first day on the track is a disaster, finishing in last place. Sanka disapproves of Derice copying the Swiss team's methods and encourages them to find their own competition style. They significantly improve on the second day, finishing in eighth place. During their final race, one of the bobsled's blades detaches, causing it to flip over and crash. Determined to finish the race, the team picks up their bobsled and carries it across the finish line, earning the applause of the other teams and the spectators, including Junior's father, despite their loss. An epilogue explains that the team returned to Jamaica as heroes, then returned to the Olympics four years later to participate as equals.
Rawle D. Lewis as Junior Bevil, a shy, educated, young man from a wealthy family who is afraid to stand up for himself. Junior sells his expensive car and forgoes a high-paying brokerage job to compete.
Malik Yoba as Yul Brenner, a burly tough guy. Initially he hates Junior, as he blames him for the failure of his original Olympic campaign. But they become friends during the movie, as Junior defends Brenner when Sanka ridicules him, and Brenner teaches Junior to be more assertive.
According to Leon Robinson, "there were script problems.[2][3][4] It wasn't funny enough, the key elements were lacking, and it just wasn't working. It was meant to happen when it happened."[3] Leon, Doug and Yoba confirmed in an interview with Empire that it was originally meant to have been a sports drama film.[5][6][7] The film's working title was Blue Maaga.[8] Before Jon Turteltaub was officially hired, Jeremiah S. Chechik was slated to direct until he moved on to do Benny & Joon (1993) instead. Brian Gibson was also considered to direct, but he dropped out to do What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) instead.[2] Turteltaub used the actual ABC sports footage from the 1988 Olympics and incorporated it into the film.[8][9]
Casting
According to Robinson, "The script has been following me around for 31⁄2 years." Robinson signed on when Gibson was then the director at the time. Robinson told The Seattle Times, "I was signed more than a year before we actually started."[3][5] Doug got involved with the film in 1990: "I found Cool Runnings three years ago, when my agent had it on his desk. I knew about the actual event it's based on, the Jamaican bobsled team that went to the '88 Olympics, and even though it's based pretty loosely I thought it made a great yarn."[10] At the time of Doug's audition, Chechik was attached as the director.[6] Doug told The Baltimore Sun: "I got the offer to play Sanka, the guy I'd wanted to play from the very beginning."[10]
Lewis had very little experience and was not even allowed to audition at first. He told The Seattle Times, "I was hired to read lines to auditioning actors for just one day. That turned into three weeks. At first they told me they were looking for names, big stars, so I wouldn't be considered, but then they asked me to do a screen test."[3] He also told The Baltimore Sun, "I came in to this film at first to coach the players in the authentic accents."[10] Lewis was officially hired in November 1992.[3] When asked by Empire how he got involved with the film, Yoba was introduced to the casting director, Jackie Brown, by "a gentleman by the name of Jamal Joseph." At the time of Yoba's official casting, Gibson was still slated to direct.[7] Yoba later told Entertainment Weekly that he wrote the Jamaican bobsled song for his audition.[8] Lewis claimed that the executives at Disney wanted Kurt Russell for the role of Coach Blitzer. However, John Candy personally insisted on portraying the coach and agreed to take a pay cut to do the movie.[9][11][12] According to Yoba, Scott Glenn was also considered for the role.[7]Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeffrey Wright, and Eriq La Salle were each considered for a role as one of the four Jamaican bobsledders.[8][11]
Filming locations
The film was shot in Calgary and Jamaica in February and March 1993. The cast and crew filmed in Calgary first, to take advantage of the snow. Then they filmed in Jamaica at Discovery Bay and Kingston.[2]Dawn Steel was on the set every day in Calgary and Jamaica. According to Robinson, "(Steel) worked on the second unit for a while, and she said 'Never again. I never want to direct.'"[3]
Music
A soundtrack album with 11 tracks was released by Sony in 1993 on cassette and compact disc (Columbia Chaos OK 57553).
In some European countries, the soundtrack album was released by Sony with a 12th (bonus) track being "Rise Above It" performed by Lock Stock and Barrel (Columbia 474840 2).
Cool Runnings debuted at No. 3.[13] The film had total domestic earnings of $68,856,263 in the United States and Canada, and $86,000,000 internationally (with $416,771 earned in Jamaica), for a total of $154,856,263 worldwide.
Critical response
Cool Runnings received positive reviews, including one from Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times which referred to the film as "a sweet-natured, high-spirited comedy, that rare movie that plays effectively to all ages. Even rarer, it celebrates genuine sportsmanship, placing the emphasis back on how the game is played in the face of the winning-is-everything philosophy that permeates every aspect of contemporary life."[14]
Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote "a wholesome, engaging, frequently hilarious, ultimately inspirational film."[15]
Cool Runnings has received a rating of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 42 reviews. The site's consensus states "Cool Runnings rises above its formulaic sports-movie themes with charming performances, light humor, and uplifting tone."[16] On Metacritic it has a score of 60% based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.[18]
Historical differences
Competition
Jamaica was disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for late entry into the competition, but pressure from several appeals, including from Prince Albert of Monaco (who competed in the event himself),[19] led to the reversal of the decision, as opposed to an appeal by their coach.
Despite being presented as a medal contender and record setters in the film, Jamaica crashed on their third and penultimate scheduled run and struggled consistently in the competition: out of 26 contesants, they finished 24th, 25th, and 26th, with times of 58.04 seconds (24th), 59.37 seconds (25th), and 1:03 minutes (26th), becoming the only four-man team in the competition to post a time over one minute. They finished 26th overall, with a cumulative time of just over 3 minutes after three runs. If they had taken part in the final run, they would have had to complete a world-record shattering time under 48.00 seconds to win a medal.[20]
The film implies Jamaica as the only country from a tropical climate to compete in bobsleigh at the Olympics; while they were the only Caribbean country to feature in the four-man competition, Netherlands Antilles and two teams from the U.S. Virgin Islands competed in the 38-team two-man competition, who finished 29th, 35th, and 38th, respectively.[21] Two members of the Jamaican team (Dudley Stokes and Michael White) also competed in the two-man sled competition, completing all four runs and finishing in 30th place;[22] Stokes and White were set to compete in two-man bobsleigh event only, with the four-man team entered to compete after the two-man event had already been completed.[19]
Crash
In the film, the team crashes due to mechanical and structural failures in the front left blade of their bobsleigh on their third and final run.
In reality, the crash occurred on their penultimate run and was deemed to occur due to driver inexperience, excess speed, and regressing the turn too high, which caused the sled to become unstable and top-heavy, leading it to topple onto its left side.
Real footage of the crash was used in the film but was heavily edited, and none of the characters suffered injuries; Stokes described the run and the crash as "disorienting", failing to recall the incident and only realizing they crashed after his fiberglass helmet sustained friction-burn on the ice.[23] The team reached speeds of 130 km/h (81 mph) and their helmets scraped against the wall for 600 m (2,000 ft) until they came to a stop.[24] The film depicts the team carrying the sled to the finish line to a slow-building standing ovation: in reality, the team walked next to it and received some sporadic applause.[25][24]
Home media
On November 11, 1994, the film was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States. On August 24, 1999, the film was released on DVD by Walt Disney Home Video in the United States in Region 1. On September 1, 2000, the film was released on VHS by Walt Disney Studios in the United Kingdom. On January 22, 2001, the film was released on DVD by Walt Disney Studios in the United Kingdom in Region 2.[26][27] On March 28, 2017, the film was released on region free Blu-ray as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive title.
The film was made available for streaming on Disney+ on January 1, 2020.
