Warrior
All team (54)
Short description
Warrior tells the story of two estranged brothers in Pittsburgh who are drawn back into each other's lives through mixed martial arts. Tommy, a former Marine, returns home after years away and asks his father, a recovering alcoholic and one-time boxer, to train him for a major tournament with a large prize. Brendan, the older brother, stayed in the city and built a life as a teacher with a wife and children. When financial trouble threatens his family, he returns to fighting as well. Both men enter the same competition, and their separate reasons for fighting put them on a path toward meeting in the ring.
Gavin O'Connor directed and co-wrote the film, which sits between Pride and Glory and Jane Got a Gun in his filmography. Joel Edgerton plays Brendan, Tom Hardy plays Tommy, and Nick Nolte plays their father Paddy, with Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo and Kevin Dunn in supporting roles.
Released in September 2011, the film had a budget of 25 million dollars and earned about 23 million worldwide, so it did not recover its costs at the box office. Its reputation has been stronger with viewers than that figure suggests. On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from more than 527,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 from over 5,000. A critics' rating of 7.3 from 191 reviews is close to the audience scores, indicating broadly favourable reception on both sides.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in Pittsburgh and Atlantic City.
- The character of Koba, played by Kurt Angle, is based on multiple-time world mixed martial arts champion Fedor Emelianenko. For this role, Kurt Angle studied all of Fedor Emelianenko's fight recordings, lost 14 kilograms, and spent three months learning Russian.
- Tom Hardy gained 12 kilograms of muscle mass for the role.
- The film's director, Gavin O'Connor, appeared as the tournament organizer J.J. Riley.
- During filming, Joel Edgerton tore his medial collateral ligament, resulting in a six-week delay in shooting the fight scenes. Tom Hardy broke his toe, ribs, and a finger on his hand.
- Screenwriters Anthony Tambakis and Gavin O’Connor wrote the role of Paddy specifically for Nick Nolte, whom they lived near in Malibu. The studio was initially opposed to Nolte’s casting, but the screenwriters insisted, and Nolte’s performance earned him critical acclaim.
- The scenes in Iraq were actually filmed in an abandoned parking lot on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, which was redesigned by production designer Dan Lee.
- Frank Grillo based his character’s persona on American MMA coach Greg Jackson. Before filming, Grillo and Joel Edgerton lived with Jackson and trained with him in New Mexico. Jackson suggested all of Grillo's lines in the scene where he corners Edgerton.
- The film contains a reference to Cary Kolat, an American wrestler and wrestling coach who won NCAA championships in 1996 and 1997 for his university, and was a member of the US freestyle wrestling team from 1997 to 2001.
- Greg Jackson, a multiple winner in the "MMA Trainer of the Year" category, served as a technical consultant for the film.
- Koba enters the ring for the semi-final to the song "Restless Horses" by Vladimir Vysotsky.
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