Cool Runnings
Short description
A Jamaican sprinter named Derice Bannock sees his Olympic hopes ended when he is disqualified at the trials. Rather than give up on the Games, he sets his sights on a different event, and with three other Jamaicans he forms the island's first bobsled team. The four have no experience of snow or ice, so they recruit Irv, a disgraced former American champion, to coach them. Training in the tropical heat, then travelling to Calgary for the Winter Olympics, the men work to qualify and compete among athletes far better prepared than they are.
The film is a comedy drama directed by Jon Turteltaub, following his debut with 3 Ninjas in 1992. Lynn Siefert, Tommy Swerdlow and Michael Goldberg wrote the screenplay, and Dawn Steel produced it for Walt Disney Pictures and Steel Pictures. Leon leads as Derice, with Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis and Malik Yoba as his teammates, John Candy as the coach Irv, and Raymond J. Barry as Kurt Hemphill. Thirty-seven cast members and fifty-seven crew are credited.
Made for about 14 million dollars, the film took roughly 155 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. It runs 98 minutes. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 123,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from 2,362 votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 out of 10 from 40 reviews sits below those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Contrary to what was shown in the film, the international bobsleigh teams welcomed the Jamaican team warmly and with open arms. Members of one of the international teams even lent the Jamaican athletes spare bobsleds so they could participate in the qualifying run.
- In luge, it is permissible to weigh down the sleds. In fact, sometimes it becomes one of the safety measures. Weight limits are established for sleds (both two-person and four-person). The weight of the sled is calculated together with the weight of the athletes. If the fully loaded sled (i.e., the sled together with the athletes) does not reach the minimum weight, it can be weighted down to the required weight.
- The crash scene at the end of the film was not staged (except for close-ups). The filmmakers used footage of a real crash involving the Jamaican national bobsleigh team during the 1988 Olympic Games.
- Contrary to what is shown in the film, the crash was not caused by a mechanical failure, but because the bobsleigh team lost control of the sled at high speed.
- The team from the USSR is present among the participants, but the flag of the USSR is not shown; instead, there is the flag of Russia (the tricolor).
- The film includes documentary footage of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary (Canada) shot by ABC.
- The film is based on true events.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
