Cool Runnings

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Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time! COOL RUNNINGS!

Cool Runnings is a live-action Disney film Very Loosely Based on a True Story about the Jamaican bobsled team.

Derice is a sprinter and wants to compete in the 1988 Olympic Games in athletics. However, his competitor, Junior, trips and brings him down along with Yul Brenner (no, not that one) during the qualifying sprint race. The officials refuse to rerun the race, dashing the hopes of Derice and other competitors. The only chance he has to go to the Olympics is to compete in the Winter Olympics in bobsledding. Derice first convinces his friend Sanka to join him, then he finds Irving Blitzer, a former bobsledder himself, who reluctantly agrees coach him and his team. Coach does try to get out of it by showing a film of nothing but sled crashes to a crowd of people trying out, but in the end, all this does is bring Junior and Yul to the team. The rest of the film is about working to overcome their lack of experience, the opposition of the Olympic Committee, the jeering and disbelief of the other teams, the internal struggles within the team, and the cold weather of Canada.

The film is as funny as it is serious, and manages do both well.

Tropes used in Cool Runnings include:

• The Alleged Car: the bobsled
• All Germans Are Nazis: A debatable example, but the East German team don't exactly welcome the newcomers with open arms.
  • Which is definitely a departure from what actually happened, in what's probably a case of demonizing the mostly white teams to make the Jamaican team look better. In reality, all the teams were quite polite to the Jamaican team, and actually helped them with contributions of practice time and gear.
• Bar Brawl set in a famous cowboy bar.
• Bring My Yellow Pants:

[after being told to "hold it" by his coach before a run, the team has crashed on the course] Derice: Well, at least you can pee now. Sanka:...nnn, too late.

• Catch Phrase: Several phrases are repeated several times. Some of them are changed near the end, to indicate Character Development. For example, "Sanka/Derice, you dead?" "Ya, mon." becomes "No mon, I'm not dead. We have to finish the race... ".
• Cerebus Callback: See Catch Phrase
• Character Development
  • Derice overcomes self-doubt (Trying to imitate the Swiss, wanting to know why Irv cheated, and wondering what is "good enough")
  • Yul Brenner overcomes his anger at Junior.
  • Junior gets more self-confident.
  • Irv banishes the demons of his past.
  • Sanka overcomes the cold.
• Completely Different Title: According to Google Translate, foreign titles translate as Rasta Rockett, The Apprentice Champions, Jamaica Below Zero, Reggae on Ice, Running Below Zero, Coconuts on Ice and Ice Trek.
• Crazy Enough to Work
• Did You Die?

Derice: Sanka... you dead? Sanka: Ya, mon.

• Does This Remind You of Anything?

Junior: Seemin' to you nobody likes us? Yul Brynner: We're different. People are always afraid of what's different.

• Dreadlock Rasta: Sanka
• Five-Man Band
  • Derice as The Hero
  • Junior as The Smart Guy
  • Yul as The Big Guy
  • Sanka as The Chick (Kid Appeal Character)
  • Irv as The Lancer (The Mentor)
• Freakier Than Fiction: If the film were created in 1987, how many people would believe it? Lampshaded throughout the film, as many of the characters don't believe it either.
• Germanic Efficiency: The Swiss bobsled team.
• Improvised Training
• Keep It Foreign: In the undubbed version, the Swiss bobsledders speak standard German (Hochdeutsch). In the German-dubbed version, the Swiss have a strong Swiss accent, as does the Jamaicans imitating them.
• National Stereotypes: Jamaicans are cool, while German-speaking competitors are disciplined.
• No OSHA Compliance: Irv runs a clip about bobsledding, which happens to demonstrate just how dangerous it is.
• One-Sided Arm Wrestling
• Opposing Sports Team: "You have no business here, Jamaica!"
• Polar Bears and Penguins: "You mean winter, as in Eskimos and igloos and penguins and ICE?"
• Revenge by Proxy: Blitzer notices this, and prevents it from going ahead.
• Running Gag: "Sanka... You dead?"
  • "Greetings, Sled God!"
• Scary Black Man: Yul
• Slow Clap: started by East Germany's bobsledder near the ending.
• Stock Footage: The real team's footage was used in the Olympic competition scenes and the crash scene was the real crash.
• Teach Him Anger: "I see PRIDE! I see POWER! I see a badass mutha who don't take no crap off of NOBODY!"
• Title Drop: They name the bobsled Cool Runnings, which Derice explains means "peace be the journey."
• Training Montage: One when they're practicing the push start while in Jamaica, and one when they're training in Calgary.
• Travelling Salesman Montage: Trying to get corporate sponsorship, everyone just laughs at them. In Real Life, a beer company supported them.
• Trick Dialogue: Junior practicing talking to his father … with his dog.
• Truth in Television: Jamaica's team has at times held the push record for bobsled, they beat major competitors in 1994, and Jamaican-born Lascalles Brown is an Olympic medallist for Canada.
• Under Crank: used for comedic effect.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Averted. They transcended the need to win. (And a pretty unique way of being underdogs too)
• Up to Eleven: When faced with the Calgary winter, Sanka puts on everything in his clothing bag. Then he puts on his clothing bag.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Junior