History Film / CoolRunnings

--->'''Sanka''': You don't understand, I am Sanka Coffie, I am the best pushcart driver in all of Jamaica! I must drive! Do you dig where I'm coming from?
--->''' Irv''': Yeah, I dig where you're coming from.
--->'''Sanka''': Good.
--->''' Irv''': Now dig where I'm coming from. I'm coming from two gold medals. I'm coming from nine world records in both the two- and four-man events. I'm coming from ten years of intense competition with the best athletes in the world.
--->'''Sanka''': (beat) …That's a hell of a place to be coming from!

* CatchPhrase: Several phrases are repeated several times. Some of them are changed near the end, to indicate CharacterDevelopment. For example, "Sanka/Derice, you dead?" "Ya, mon." becomes [[spoiler: "No mon, I'm not dead. We have to finish the race... "]], while Grool's derisively calling the guys "Jamaica" becomes a term of respect/endearment at the end.
** Also, as Yul and Junior start to interact, Yul develops a habit of doing something nice for Junior and punctuating it with, "This doesn't mean I like you." The final time he says it, it's [[BlatantLies right after he's kissed Junior on the forehead and just before giving him a giant hug.]]

* PolarBearsAndPenguins: "You mean winter, as in Eskimos and igloos and penguins and ICE?"

-->'''Sanka:''' Listen here, rasta; I didn't come up here to forget who I am and where I come from.
-->'''Derice:''' And neither did I. I'm just trying to be the best I can be.
-->'''Sanka: So am I. And the best I can be is Jamaican.'''

--->'''Sanka''': Let me tell you somethin' Rasta, I didn't come up here to forget who I am and where I come from...If we look Jamaican, walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican and ''IS'' Jamaican, then we sure as hell better ''bobsled'' Jamaican.

* PrecisionFStrike: Actually Precision D-Strike. "Will ya shut up about the ''damn'' Swiss?"
* Yul describes Grool as "one of the biggest assholes in the world."

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The bobsled the team uses is [[TheAllegedCar a years-old practice sled given to them by one of Irv's old teammates]]. While they manage to make it look respectable with a new paint job, [[spoiler:the years of wear and tear eventually cause it to fall apart during the final run and cost the Jamaicans a medal.]]

'''Derice:''' Hey coach, how will I know if I'm enough?\\

** The Switzerland bobsleigh is shown as having "Schweiz"[[note]]the German name for Switzerland[[/note]] painted along the side, instead of "Suisse"[[note]]the French name[[/note]], the one the Swiss teams traditionally use.

** As there is no set length for a bobsleigh run, world records don't exist in the sport.
** The Jamaicans are portrayed as having a chance of a medal before crashing in their final run. In real life, in their final run they would have had to shatter the Olympic record by an unrealistic margin to win bronze. In thier first two events before the crash, they finished 24th and 25th out of 26 competitors.

** Derice states that he has run the 100m in 9.9. At the time, the only athlete to run 9.90 or faster was Ben Johnson (whose performances were later found to have been steroid assisted).

** Suffice to say that if there is a set qualifying time to make the Olympics in a trial race - that everyone else has ''already'' competed against - changing it arbitrarily for just one time would be blatantly impossible.

** After Irv declares how impressed he was with Ben Bannock's 100m dash in 10 seconds flat, Derice tells him, "I've run it in 9.9."

* BarBrawl: Yul, Junior and Sanka start one with the East German team in a famous cowboy bar after they insult Junior.

* BriefAccentImitation: When Irv is told that the Jamaicans' time for their qualifying run has been shortened more than it already has been, he responds with a Jamaican (and sarcastic) "No problem, mon."

** It's probably not a coincidence that everyone on the East German team is blonde haired or blue eyed, or both.

* HeroicBSOD: Yul, when Sanka and Junior inform him that the mansion Yul's always dreamed of earning is a photo of Buckingham Palace. Thankfully for Junior's support it does not last through the night.

* InsultOfEndearment: Yosef Grul's use of "Jamaica" for Derice evolves from dismissal to respect over the course of the movie.

* KeepItForeign: In the undubbed version, the Swiss bobsledders speak [[UsefulNotes/GermanDialects standard German (Hochdeutsch)]][[note]]This does not make any sense, as the only situations Swiss people speak standard German are in school, in parliament, on TV news or when speaking to outsiders whom they know not to speak Swiss German. And even then a Swiss tinge is audible. Could be excused if it were non-German speaking Swiss as they only learn Standard German in school (and no dialect) but why would they be speaking German in the first place?[[/note]]. In the German-dubbed version, the Swiss have a strong [[UsefulNotes/GermanDialects Swiss accent]], as does the Jamaicans imitating them.

[[caption-width-right:300: A ''Jamaican'' bobsled team?]]

** In real life, the team did not carry their bobsled across the finish line after the crash, but simply walked beside it while support staff pushed it across.

** The Jamaicans are portrayed as having a chance of a medal before crashing in their final run. In real life, in their final run they would have had to shatter the Olympic record by an unrealistic margin to win bronze.

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

Four years later, they returned to the Olympics...as equals.''

** Mr. Coolidge says "Let it go, Derice. You'll have another chance in four years." Everyone in the athletics world knows that four years is a hell of a time for an athlete to remain at peak, and that the Olympics isn't the only major competition. Mr. Coolidge would have said "Let it go, Derice. You'll have the Commonwealth Games in 1990."

--> '''Grool:''' Very good, Jamaica. We'll see you in four years, ''ja''?\\
'''Derice:''' Yah, mon.

** Also, as Yul and Junior start to interact, Yul develops a habit of doing something nice for Junior and punctuating it with, "This doesn't mean I like you." The final time he says it, it's [[BlatantLies after he's just given Junior a huge hug]].

[[TheHero Derice Bannock]] is a sprinter and wants to compete in the 1988 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames in athletics, hoping to live up to the legacy of his gold-winning father Ben. However, his competitor, Junior, trips and brings him down along with Yul Brenner (no, not [[Creator/YulBrynner that one]]) during the qualifying sprint race. The officials refuse to rerun the race, dashing the hopes of Derice and other competitors. Derice then has the idea to compete... at the ''Winter'' Olympics, in bobsledding.

Derice first convinces his friend Sanka to join him, then he finds [[Creator/JohnCandy Irving Blitzer]], a surly former bobsledder himself and old friend of his father, who reluctantly agrees to coach him and his team. Irv tries to get out of it by showing a film reel of nothing but sled crashes to a crowd of potential teammates, but 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, [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer the jeering and disbelief of the other teams,]] the internal struggles within the team, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the cold weather of Canada.]]

* WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon: At least, for the first act of the movie. Afterwards, we get the occasional shot of friends and family at home cheering their boys on.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* FreakierThanFiction: If the film were created in 1987, [[AluminumChristmasTrees how many people would believe it?]] Lampshaded throughout the film, as many of the characters don't believe it either.

** The Switzerland bobsleigh is shown has having "Schweiz"[[note]]the German name for Switzerland[[/note]] painted along the side, instead of "Suisse"[[note]]the French name[[/note]], the one the Swiss teams traditionally use.

--> '''Irv:''' ''(looks at his picture)'' Heh, would you look at me then? ''(sees his reflection)'' Oof, would you look at me ''now''?

** The four Jamaicans upon seeing their first Canadian winter. See UpToEleven.

* StealthHiBye: Taken UpToEleven during the recruitment meeting. After Irv has shown and discusses the injury and death potential of bobsledding, the lights come on to reveal that all the attendees have split.

* UpToEleven: When faced with the Calgary winter, Sanka puts on everything in his clothing bag. Then he puts on his clothing bag.