Awesome / Cool Runnings

• Irv has Derice in mind as The Leader from the very start, and points out why to Sanka (who had protested he should be the driver on the basis of being "the best push-kart driver in all of Jamaica"):
  Irv: You see, Sanka, the driver has to work harder than anyone. He's the first to show up, and the last to leave. When his buddies are all out drinking beer, he's up in his room studying pictures of turns. You see, a driver must remain focused one hundred percent at all times. Not only is he responsible for knowing every inch of every course he races, he's also responsible for the lives of the other three people in the sled. Now, do you want that responsibility?
  Sanka: (without missing a beat) I say we make Derice the driver.
  Irv: So do I, Sanka. So do I.
  • Irv clearly had everyone on the team pegged from the start. Junior's a Nice Guy, but too soft and naive for a leadership role; Yul is borderline antisocial and only grudgingly on the team; and Sanka is a largely irresponsible layabout. Derice is the only one with the discipline, drive, and people skills to be the team's driver, both in and out of the sled.
• Irv confronting the Olympic committee, and his former coach Kurt, after the team is disqualified out of the blue. He correctly guesses that Kurt has moved to disqualify them out of lingering spite for the discovery during the 1972 Games that Irv had hidden weights in the sled, and the resulting scandal that led to the team being stripped of their gold medals. "The Reason You Suck" Speech that follows is what truly cements Irv's redemption from his past. This film was also one of John Candy’s last performances before his death, and he hit it out of the park in this scene:
  Irv: All right, sixteen years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life: I cheated. I was stupid. I embarrassed myself, my family, my teammates, my country, (points to Kurt) and my coach. If it’s revenge you want, take it. Go ahead! Disqualify me! Banish me! Do whatever you want, but do it to me! It was me who let you down, Kurt! It wasn’t my guys! They’ve done everything you’ve asked of them, and they did it with all of you laughing in their face. Hell, it doesn’t matter if they come in first or fiftieth! Those guys have earned the right to represent their country. They’ve earned the right to march into that stadium and wave their nation’s flag. That’s the single greatest honor an athlete could ever have! That’s what the Olympics are all about! Sixteen years ago, I forgot that. Don’t you go and do the same.
• Junior finally standing up to his father, on the heels of a pep talk from Yul.
  Junior: Father...when you look at me, what do you see?
  Junior's Father: I don't have time for games, Junior.
  Junior: Tell me what you see! Please.
  Junior's Father: All right, I'll tell you what I see. I see a lost little boy, who is lucky to have a father who knows what's best for him!
  Junior: No, no, no. You don't know what's best for me, Father. I am not a lost little boy, Father! I am a man - and I'm an Olympian! And I'm staying right here.
  • Followed by this approving comment from Yul, who's overheard the whole thing: "Hey, Junior Bevil. You're a bad-ass mother."
• Sanka's speech to Derice.
  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.
• The team's second run, which puts them in eighth place. Pretty damn impressive for a group that had only been training for a few months to beat teams that had likely been together for years.
  • The response of the entire bar full of friends and family back in Jamaica during that run.
    Announcer: Where did these guys come from?
    Everyone: JAMAICA!!!
  • Sanka kicking off the team's run with what becomes their signature countdown:
    Sanka: Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, it's bobsled time! (the team starts pushing the sled) COOL RUNNINGS!
    • It's this moment when you feel that something has changed from their disastrous first run. They're loose, they're in the groove, and they're focused.
• Their sleek black Olympic unitards and sled.
• Irv's quiet explanation to Derice about why he cheated and what it was that drove him to it. If the job of a teacher is to make their student better than themselves, this is the single most important lesson Irv teaches Derice in the entire film: winning is NOT everything.
  Derice: Ya had two gold medals. Ya had it all.
  Irv: Derice... A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.
• At the climax, after the bobsled crashes, the team indicates they don't need medical help, and carry the bobsled across the line. This actually happened in Real Life, except they didn't raise it to shoulder-height; they just pushed it along the ground.
  • Followed immediately by Josef Grool, the East German captain who had earlier belittled the team, shaking Derice's hand with genuine respect.
    Grool: Sehr gut, Jamaica. We'll see you in four years, ja?
    Derice: Yeah, man.
• The single "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue caption doubling as a heartwarming.
  The Jamaican bobsled team returned to their country as heroes.
  Four years later, they returned to the Olympics...as equals.