Never Back Down

Jake Tyler moves to Orlando with his family so his younger brother can pursue a tennis career. A former star athlete at his old school, Jake struggles to fit in, and when he accepts an invitation to a party from a classmate named Baja, he ends up in a fight with Ryan, a local bully connected to an underground mixed martial arts circuit. Beaten and humiliated in front of a crowd, Jake is introduced by a fellow student to Jean Roqua, a trainer who agrees to teach him MMA on the condition that he never use his skills for personal vengeance. Jake throws himself into training, learning discipline and control, though a rematch with Ryan becomes increasingly difficult to avoid.

Never Back Down was released in 2008 and runs 113 minutes. It is the second film directed by Jeff Wadlow, following Cry_Wolf in 2005, and was written by Chris Hauty. Sean Faris plays Jake, with Amber Heard as Baja, Cam Gigandet as Ryan, Djimon Hounsou as Jean Roqua, Evan Peters as Max Cooperman and Leslie Hope as Margot Tyler. Produced by Craig Baumgarten and David Zelon, it cost about 20 million dollars and took roughly 42 million dollars worldwide.

On IMDb it holds 6.6 from 111,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 from 2,559 votes. A critics' rating of 4.2 from 82 reviews places it well below those audience scores.