Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to come up with their favorite answer to a movie-related prompt tied to a recent release. This week, with the release of Challengers, we’re discussing some of our favorite fictional movie athletes! Let us know your favorites @SiftPop!
Ever since I first watched it as a little kid, A League of Their Own has been one of my favorite sports films. The story of a group of women recruited to play professional baseball while all the men are away fighting in WWII, there are several different athletes I could have chosen to write about for this list, from alcoholic former-star-turned-reluctant-manager Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) to spunky center fielder “All the Way” Mae Mordabito (Madonna). However, the choice for which is the film’s best athlete was clear to me: Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis), catcher and assistant manager of the Rockford Peaches. Dottie is not only an excellent ball player, with some great defensive highlights behind the plate and some clutch hits in big moments, but she is a consummate professional off the field as well. It is Dottie who helps Jimmy sober up and turn his life around, and Dottie who helps keep the team together amidst conflict and turmoil. Not only is she directly responsible for the Peaches success on the field, but without her efforts to help the team off of it everything else would likely have crumbled around her. (Jake Hjort)
What is the greatest, 100% made up sport in film that totally should be a real sport? The titular, ingenious game of BASEketball. This must be both the most fun and idiotic sport idea at the same time. Only the minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone could come up with something so wild and hilarious. But for a sport to truly soar, you need a star. Look no further than Parker himself as the legendary blonde bombshell of the BASEketball court, Joe Cooper. With a terrible haircut straight out of the ’90s, Cooper stands tall throughout the film, draining buckets and distracting his opponents like no one else. The film’s humor is low brow for sure, and the ensemble leans in on every single cringey and sophomoric laugh they can find, but it is still a hilarious experience. The film’s — and Cooper’s — biggest accomplishment, though, is its ability to sell us on such a wildly fun sport that should be played in real life. Who’s with me? (Shane Conto)
People the world over idolize sports stars, but what they adore even more is an underdog. Happy Gilmore follows Adam Sandler as a failed hockey player turned reluctant golfer trying to win enough money to help his grandmother from losing her home. Sports by their very nature are unpredictable and not scripted, which is why there exists a lot of terrible sports movies, but this sports movie succeeds because Happy is an easy-to-root-for, virtuous athlete — albeit one with a bit of an anger issue — and his pompous antagonist, Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), is an easy to hate foil on and off the green. Virgina Venit (Julie Bowen), Gilmore’s love interest and the tournament’s public relations manager, deems him “a publicist’s dream,” a breath of fresh air in the otherwise pretentious sport that is golf, and she’s right. Happy is an everyman who reacts to good and bad shots the way the average person would, and the way most professional golfers wish they could. Sandler does admittedly take his character’s aforementioned anger issue to absurd levels, even fist-fighting the beloved Bob Barker at one point, but it’s hilarious to watch, and he mines arguably the most frustrating sport in the world for all the comedy he can because its funny to watch someone flip their lid over something so trivial. The audience is privy to the fact that Happy is a ridiculous, angry person a lot of the time, but there’s good in him too, and he’s an exciting, relatable athlete to behold. (Jonathan Fedee)
There is no conceivable way that any NCAA Division I Basketball program should want Troy Bolton on their team. He is a 5’8” point guard who can’t go to his left and has a jumper that makes a shot putter cringe. Not to mention his commitment to the university drama program. Being a college athlete is a full-time job — he would not have time to galavant around a stage to Rogers and Hammerstein. Sure, he’s got a winning record and back-to-back championships, while balancing that duality in high school. But considering the size of East High, there’s no way he’s playing the biggest and best schools in New Mexico. And he’s only ever played for his father. What happens when another coach cusses him out for bricking a free throw? He’ll cry to Gabriella, who will be drifting away as she becomes even more pretentious as all thespians do in college. Any scout would take our lovely editor Robert Bouffard before recruiting Troy. That being said, Troy must be the greatest shooter known to mankind if he gets to play college basketball. We are talking Stephen Curry on steroids if a coach is willing to risk a scholarship on this basket case. (Sam Nichols)
You know that Adam Sandler basketball movie? No, not Uncut Gems; Hustle. Uncut Gems may objectively be the better movie, but it doesn’t have half the heart that Hustle does, and that’s in large part due to Juancho Hernangómez’s Bo Cruz, the prospect who Sandler’s NBA scout, Stanley Sugerman, picks to tout for the Philadelphia 76ers. Hernangómez was an actual NBA player who never amounted to much in real life, but you’d never know that watching him as Bo Cruz. It shows just how talented those players are, and how difficult it is to stay in the league. But beyond his basketball prowess, Hernangómez also has a soft side as a performer, allowing that aforementioned heart to shine through in the movie, as we root for his rags-to-riches story. (Also, a quick shoutout has to be given to Anthony Edwards, who plays a perfect sports movie antagonist; he’s also in the midst of his first playoff run for the Minnesota Timberwolves, showing he’s truly a nontraditional multi-hyphenate.) (Robert Bouffard)
He learned how to fight by waxing a deck and painting a fence, and his sensei didn’t even know the rules when he entered his first tournament. But against all the odds and badass fighters from Cobra Kai, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) won the day with a perfectly timed crane kick at the end of The Karate Kid. His fighting was at first just an outlet for a lot of frustration he was feeling after moving to Los Angeles, where he was struggling to make friends, coupled with being bullied by Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and his gang. Over the years, some have argued that Daniel is the real bully due to the number of unprovoked forms of abuse he gives Johnny, including dousing him with water in the school’s bathroom. This is addressed in the third season of the Netflix series, Cobra Kai,as Daniel explains that Johnny had something like that coming to him for weeks. It’s also good to see at the end of the tournament that he and Johnny seem to be okay with each other, with Johnny presenting the trophy to him and saying he is alright with him. Of course, things seem less okay years later at the start of Cobra Kai, but that’s another story. (John Tillyard)
You know a film is doing something right when it becomes shorthand in the sport itself. Every time someone hits a moonshot that damages stadium lights, The Natural, and more specifically Roy Hobbs, gets namechecked. The story checks a lot of boxes for what we like to see in a sports narrative — real or fictionalized. 1. Hobbs starts off as a hotshot prospect. We love nothing more than the next big star, and he could pitch and hit at a star level well before Shohei Ohtani. 2. After a tragedy, the comeback no one thought was possible. Everybody loves a comeback. 3. We get to root for a team of underdogs against the evil, greedy underdogs. 4. It leaves fans with one hell of a crowd-pleasing moment. That all makes Roy Hobbs’ story so easy to root for, and an all-timer when it comes to tales of movie athletes. Is it schmaltzy? Sure, but if there’s a sport that lends itself to allowing you to give into the schmaltz it’s baseball. (Jake Bourgeois)
Rocky is the quintessential sports movie that reminds all of us that against all odds, underdogs can rise above. Sylvester Stallone pulls double duty as writer and actor, creating a character who provides inspiration to people around the world. In the original Rocky, we see someone who is as low as one can get, but he rises from the ashes like a phoenix, looking to wreak havoc on Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Their fight is the stuff of legend — it would make any great boxer proud. Yet the main thing we learn from Rocky is that a champion is measured more by their heart than their strength. Rocky is one of the greatest sports movie of all time, sporting one of the best characters (not just athletes) that film lovers will ever witness. (Mike Hilty)
Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) had already reached the top of his sporting profession when an unfortunate crash and some imaginary flames sent him hurling back to the basics, unable to get behind the wheel of his Wonder Bread roadster. Athletes have all kinds of unique ways to get back into shape and mentally prepare for competitions, but only Ricky uses a cougar, cocaine, and a blindfold to regain his confidence and stage a comeback following his very public breakdown. With the help of his estranged father, Reese (Gary Cole), encouragement from his former assistant, Susan (Amy Adams), and a car pieced together by his eccentric pit crew, Ricky is able to overcome his fears, get back behind the wheel, and return to NASCAR. Along his road to recovery, Ricky realizes while he may have been great at “going fast,” he was a poor teammate and an even worse friend to his Dennit racing partner and best friend, Cal (John C. Reilly). Upon his return to racing, Ricky not only becomes a better driver, but a better sportsman, dominating the track and aiding Cal in a Talladega victory, proving there’s more to winning a race than coming in first. (Patrice Downing)