Character sheet for Cool Runnings.
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1988 Winter Olympic Games
The Jamaican Bobsled Team
In General
- Determinator: They push through no matter what gets in their way, be it their inexperience, people laughing at them, the cold weather of Canada or the hype over their Swiss adversaries.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: In the beginning. Naturally, they get better and become close by the end.
Derice Bannock
Played by: Leon Robinson
Dubbed by: Pascal N'Zonzi (European French)
The driver and leader of the team.
- The Captain: As the team's driver, his role is equivalent to the captain of any other sports team, as Irv lays out in his speech about why Derice is best suited for this role.
- The Chains of Commanding: Irv invokes this trope when assigning Derice as the leader of the team, also explaining why Sanka (who wanted the position) isn't cut out for leadership.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 teammates are all out drinking beer, he's up in his room studying pictures of turns. You see, a driver has to 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?
- The Determinator: Derice is determined to compete in the Olympics just like his father. After he loses out on a spot for the sprinting team, he decides to switch gears to the Winter Olympics so he doesn't have to wait another four years. At the end, when the team crashes, he tells the others they still have to finish and leads them in carrying the sled to the finish line.
- Generation Xerox: Derice's father, Ben Bannock, was an Olympic gold medal sprinter. Derice seems primed to follow in his father's footsteps, until Junior trips him during the qualifying race.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Irv's former teammate Larry tells Derice about Irv's cheating scandal, Derice shrugs it off as no big deal, not realizing that it caused Larry and everyone else to lose the gold medals they had worked very hard for.
Irving "Irv" Blitzer
Played by: John Candy
Dubbed by: Daniel Russo (European French)
The coach of the team.
- Adaptational Villainy: None of the coaches of the real-life Jamaican bobsled team were connected to any cheating scandal.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: He cheated in the '72 Winter Olympics, costing his team the gold medal and disgracing himself.
- Composite Character: The real-life Jamaican bobsled team had several coaches instead of just one.
- Deadpan Snarker: His primary mode until the team start to become proven contenders.
- Defrosting Ice King: Goes from very reluctant coach, to truly invested in the team.
- Glory Days: Derice's way of convincing Irv to coach his team - that his dream was once to turn Jamaican sprinters into bobsledders.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Downplayed. He just notes how much weight he's gained in sixteen years.
- My Greatest Failure: Cheating in the '72 Winter Olympics is this, particularly because doing so embarrassed the US, cost his innocent teammates their medals, and let down his coach.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: His former coach and US teammates when they see him again clearly haven't even started forgiving him for cheating.
- Save Our Team: Played with - when Derice finds him, he's a miserable drunk, spending his days betting on horse races in his bar (and not very lucky at it). He's still a master bobsledder, however, and has the team ready for the Olympics in a few months.
Sanka Coffie
Played by: Doug E. Doug
Played by: Pascal Légitimus (European French)
Derice's best friend, a champion pushcart driver, and the brakeman.
- Catchphrase: His pushcart chant, which he then repurposes for bobsledding."Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up! It's bobsled time! COOL RUNNINGS!"
- Good Luck Charm: His lucky egg (which somehow survives the crash at the end).
- Improbable Sports Skills: Sanka is shown to be able to keep up with three Olympic-level sprinters, despite having no similar training and struggling during the Training Montage. Possibly justified in the fact that none of them had any training in running while pushing something heavy, while Sanka did (pushcarts).
- Lazy Bum: He initially wants to be the team's driver, but relents when Irv explains just how much work and responsibility the job requires.
- Plucky Comic Relief: His Rousing Speech to Derice, however, is arguably what turns the team around on the second day of competition.
- Punny Name: Of Sanka coffee
, a popular decaffeinated instant coffee.
Whitby "Junior" Bevil, Jr.
Played by: Rawle D. Lewis
The final member of the team, a naive but good-hearted fellow sprinter.
- The Heart: Shares this role with Derice - he starts out as both The Load and the goat (due to tripping Derice and Yul at the beginning of the movie) but forges a close friendship with Yul over the course of the movie, who previously hated his guts.
- Newcomer Saves the Day: Junior sells his car, giving the team the funds they need to travel to Canada.
- Spoiled Sweet: A male version. His father is one of the richest men in Jamaica, but you wouldn't know unless Junior told you.
Yul Brenner
Played by: Malik Yoba
The third member of the team, a fellow sprinter.
- Aloof Ally: Insists at the beginning he's on the team but still 'nobody's teammate'.
- The Big Guy: Though does get beaten by a woman at arm-wrestling while the team were attempting to fundraise.
- Defrosting Ice King: Towards the entire team, especially Junior.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: During the bobsled recruitment scene, he admits that he is only joining the team (and possibly tried out for the Summer Olympics earlier) to get away from Jamaica. Later, inside the hotel room, Yul dismisses everyone in their country as a fool with no goals in life "and thrilled to death about it", while he himself talks about living in a palace. It's clear that Yul actually wants to make something of his life, and he sees the Olympics as his first step to achieving his goals.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Deep down, particularly in regards to his changing relationship with Junior.
- Named After Somebody Famous: His name sounds a lot like Yul Brynner's, just with an "e" replacing the "y".
- Not So Above It All: He may come across as an aloof and borderline antisocial tough guy, but he's snickering with Junior and Sanka while Derice chews them all out for starting a fight with the East Germans.
- Scary Black Man: At first, but shows himself to have one of the biggest hearts of the team.
- Small Town Boredom: His motivation for wanting to join the team even though he hates one member and barely tolerates the other two? He just wants to get out of Jamaica.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: In sharp contrast with his tough, aloof persona, he's mocked for expressing his wish to live in Buckingham Palace based on a photo, not knowing what it is or that the Queen of England lives there.
Other Olympic Contestants and Coaches
The Swiss Bobsled Team
- The Ace: What Derice considers them to be, and both in-universe and real life (they won gold in the real 1988 Calgary Olympics, and are second to only Germany in overall gold medals in both the four and two-man bobsled events).
Josef Grool
Played by: Peter Outerbridge
The captain of the East German team.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While pretty much everyone looks down on the Jamaicans, he goes out his way to insult them to their faces. But once he notices their determination at the end, he changes his tune.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Tries to hit Yul with a beer bottle during a bar fight, but gets hit by Junior instead, knocking him out.
Then Junior gets hit with one. - Pet the Dog: He eventually comes to respect the Jamaican team's determination and performance. After they crash, he congratulates them and tells them he hopes to see them at the next Olympics.
- Worthy Opponent: What he comes to see the Jamaicans as by the end of the movie.
Roger
Played by: Paul Coeur
Irv's former teammate and current coach for the USA team.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Roger is still loyal to Irv because Irv stood up for him when he was nearly cut from their team in 1968.
- Token Good Teammate: He's the only one of Irv's associates who is still on decent terms with him and helps him out by giving the Jamaicans their backup bobsled.
The Olympic Winter Games Alliance
In General
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Although after a major (and awesome) "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the council, they let the Jamaican team stay in Calgary. In the end, the team earns their respect.
Kurt Hemphill
Played by: Raymond J. Barry
One of the members of the Olympic Winter Games Alliance, and Irv's former coach.
- Big Bad: The closest thing the film has to one, as while everyone else is just dismissive towards the Jamaican team, Kurt has a personal vendetta with their coach.
- Jerkass to One: The only person he's really a jerk to is Irv, which is understandable considering what Irv did to him when he cheated all those years ago. The Jamaicans are just casualties by association. He does seem to warm up to the team by the end, however.
- Pet the Dog: He eventually joins in on the slow clap at the end.
- Revenge by Proxy: His beef really isn't with the bobsledders, but Irv, and they end up almost being casualties of it. Luckily, he comes around.
