Characters / The Boys in the Boat

Crew

Joe Rantz

Played by: Callum Turner (young); Ian McElhinney (elderly)

Position: 7 seat

A broke college student who takes up rowing so he can pay his tuition and have a place to sleep.

• Academic Athlete: Joe is a member of the UW rowing team and also studying engineering. After graduating, he worked for Boeing.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After being kicked off the team before the Poughkeepsie race due to not having his head in the game, Joe is initially too proud to ask for his seat back and decides he'll figure his own way back to Seattle. Roger and Pocock convince him to talk to Ulbrickson and after he explains why rowing is important to him, Joe is given his place on the team back.
• Asleep in Class: Joyce wakes him up just in time so their professor doesn't catch him. Roger isn't as lucky.
• Berserk Button: Being reminded of his poverty; Joe lashes out at fellow teammate Chuck when he jokingly calls him "hobo Joe" and has to be pulled away by the other boys.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Him and Joyce
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Joe meets his father again unexpectedly after being abandoned by him 5 years ago, his father offers him a job after seeing that Joe is struggling financially. Joe, still angry and hurt, walks away without a word.
• Homeless Hero: Joe is living out of a broken down car at the start of the film. The promise of a job and a place to live are what initially interest him in joining the rowing team.
• I Work Alone: Played with, in that Joe is not unsociable or unwilling to make friends with the other guys on the team, but having had to take care of himself since he was abandoned by his father at age 14, he has become highly independent and unwilling or unable to rely on others. The team doesn't fully reach their peak until Joe is able to swallow his pride and understand that to be a good rowing crew every team member has to work in sync with the others.
• Parental Abandonment: Joe's mother dies when he is a child and his father later picks up and leaves town when Joe's fourteen. Years later, he finds out his father has been back in the Seattle area and never bothered to inform his son.
• Pride: Joe's strongest character trait, which helps and harms him over the course of the story. Due to living his whole life in poverty and then struggling through his teenage years by himself, Joe is strong and resourceful, but also too used to taking care of himself and too proud to accept or ask for help when he needs it. As a result, he struggles to learn how to rely on others and be a team player. He is unwilling to even allow one of his teammates see him getting food at a soup kitchen or let Roger pay for a meal when he offers.
• Working-Class Hero: All the boys presumably come from similar lower-middle class backgrounds, given that the movie takes place during the Great Depression, but Joe's financial situation is the most focused on. At the start of the movie he is homeless, can't afford to eat at the school cafeteria, has holes in his shoes and clothing, and can't pay the rest of his tuition. ^{From the book}  In the book, Joe had to work multiple jobs each summer to save enough money for another year at school, sometimes traveling out to Eastern Washington to find work.

Bobby Moch

Played by: Luke Slattery

Position: Coxswain

A late addition to the team who joins as coxswain.

• Big Brother Instinct: While only barely alluded to in the movie when Bobby is affronted that he's being brought back to cox the JV boat (presumably assuming he would be on the varsity boat due to experience), in real life Bobby was two years older than the rest of the crew. He drives them hard on the water and isn't afraid to call them out on poor technique, but when Ulbrickson does the same Bobby tries to cover for them.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The smallest member compared to the rest of the team, on purpose. Since he doesn't actually row, the less he weighs, the better. Ulbrickson actually refers to him as "that little runt" at one point.
• The Gadfly: He has a mischievous side to him that manifests in riling the boys up to get them to row better, teasing Don at the party, and waving cheekily at another team as the UW crew passes them in a race.
• Noodle Incident: Bobby is brought in to cox the team after they fail to come together properly as a team in their initial training sessions. The dialogue between Bobby and Ulbrickson alludes to Bobby not following instructions in the past and being kicked off the team as a result, however whatever happened is never fully explained.
• The Strategist: As the coxswain, Bobby is the one calling the shots once the team is on the water, and decides when to slow or speed up the pace. He is ostensibly supposed to follow the strategies devised by the coaches, but is implied to have a history of going against the coaches' orders.
• Team Mom: It's not until Bobby joins and begins calling the strategy that the team really starts to find its groove, but he also shows concern for his teammates like trying to get Don to come out of his shell and encouraging him in Berlin.

Don Hume

Played by: Jack Mulhern

Position: Stroke

A quiet but steady rower.

• Cannot Talk to Women: Is unable to ask a girl sitting next to him to dance. Bobby tries to encourage him, without success.
• Delicate and Sickly: A rare male example. Physically he's as strong as the other rowers, but fumes from the pulp mill where he worked as child leave his lungs susceptible to respiratory illness. Right before the final in Berlin, he falls ill with a severe infection and races with a high fever and is fourteen pounds underweight.
• Determinator: Rows in the Olympic race with a serious infection and pushes through to help carry the team to victory
• Early-Bird Cameo: Don shows up in an early scene in the same crowd of men Joe is in when looking for work, but he and Joe only glance at each other and do not speak.
• Hidden Depths: A talented piano player
• Instant Illness: Appears perfectly healthy for the entire movie, then comes down with a serious bout of infection several days before the big race in Berlin.
• Perpetual Frowner: Don's default facial expression has his mouth turned down.
• Shrinking Violet: A tall, muscular young man, but also near-silent and almost cripplingly shy. At a post-race party the other boys talk up Don's piano skills to the crowd and have to literally drag him up to the stage to make him play.

George "Shorty" Hunt

Played by: Bruce Herbelin-Earle

Position: 6 seat

• The Baby of the Bunch: Shorty was the youngest member of the team, having graduated high school two years early. The book calls him by this trope almost word for word.
• Ironic Nickname: "Shorty" was 6'3".

Jim "Stub" Mcmillin

Played by: Wil Coban

Position: 6 seat

• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Played by an actor with a very prominent square jaw.

Johnny White

Played by: Tom Varey

Position: 4 seat

• Eagleland: Deliberately invokes this as a joke when the boys bump into the German rowing team before the Olympics. The Germans salute and say "Heil Hitler!" as a greeting. Johnny responds with "Remember the Alamo!", leaving the German team very confused.

Gordy Adam

Played by: Joel Phillimore

Position: 3 seat

Chuck Day

Played by: Thomas Elms

Position: 2 seat

• Custom Uniform: Wears a red shirt under his jersey in several scenes.
• More Insulting than Intended: On the train to New York, Chuck calls Joe "Hobo Joe" in a lighthearted tone, not realizing that being called out for being poor is Joe's Berserk Button.
• "Not So Different" Remark: While apologizing to Joe, Chuck tells him that he is no different from Joe, as he shoplifts all his nice clothes.

Roger Morris

Played by: Sam Strike

Position: Bow

• Asleep in Class: Gets busted by a professor for this after the first day of tryouts.
• Working-Class Hero: Like Joe, Roger is struggling for money at the start of the movie and makes mention of the fact that he checks the school bulletin boards every day looking for a job.

University of Washington Staff

Al Ulbrickson

Played by: Joel Edgerton

Head coach at the University of Washington.

• Happily Married
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He is tough but fair with his team, laying out his expectations clearly and expecting them to rise to the occasion. While he kicks Joe off the team right before the race in Berlin, he gives Joe his seat back after Joe asks for it and explains why he wants to row.
• So Proud of You: Says this to the team before the final in Berlin.
• Team Dad: Gruff with the team but is very invested in making sure they're successful and and goes out of his way to discuss the emotional labor of the sport as well. When Don falls ill, he's willing to miss the opening ceremony at the Olympics to stay with him in the dormitory (so Joe can walk in the ceremony as well).
• Tough Love: His coaching style.

Tom Bolles

Played by: James Wolk

Second rowing coach at the University of Washington.

George Pocock

Played by: Peter Guinness

A leading designer and builder of racing shells who builds the Husky Clipper, which the boys use in Berlin.

• Mentor Archetype: Takes Joe under his wing. After Joe quits the team, Pocock convinces him to stay.
• True Craftsman: Takes great pride in the boats he builds, and supplied most collegiate rowing programs with racing shells and oars. Justified, as his racing shells won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics as well.

Others

Joyce Simdars

Played by: Hadley Robinson

A childhood friend of Joe's who he begins a relationship with.

• Abusive Parents: Not shown, but an early line indicates that Joyce is attending UW not only for the education and job opportunities a degree will provide, but to escape an unhappy home life. ^{From the book} : Joyce's parents were emotionally distant, and she struggled to live under her mother's strict Christian Science beliefs.
• Childhood Friend Romance: She and Joe knew each other as children before meeting again at the University of Washington as college students. Joyce claims Joe had a crush on her even then, and kept a goodbye card he gave her just in case they ever met again.
• Genki Girl: Downplayed example. Joyce is upbeat, flirty, and peppy, contrasting with Joe's quiet, almost stoic demeanor. This may be a result of her being not as affected by the Depression as Joe (see Uptown Girl).
• Spirited Young Lady: Has no problem teasing Joe for his crush on her or sneaking him into her girls-only building for a romantic getaway.
• Uptown Girl: Appears this way, considering Joe's living in his car and wearing worn-out clothes. In contrast, Joyce has a comfortable dormitory on the university grounds and always looks put together. ^{From the book} : Joyce's family was not hit as hard by the depression, however after becoming a college student she worked as a live in maid for wealthier Seattle families for several years. This was likely her way of maintaining financial independence from her family.

Harry Rantz

Played by: Alec Newman

Joe Rantz's estranged father who left him when Joe was 14.

• Adaptational Jerkass: He is portrayed as much colder and unregretful of what he did to Joe. ^{From the book} : Joe's father did abandon him in Sequim and neglected to get in touch with Joe in Seattle, but when they did meet again the meeting was more cordial than portrayed in the film. After Joe's stepmother died, Harry made plans to build a house so Joe could live with his father and siblings again.
• Disappeared Dad: Left Joe alone when Joe was 14 due to needing to find work to support his second wife and other children. Joe later learns that his father has returned to Seattle but never tried to get in contact with him.
• Parents as People: He left Joe as a teenager in order to find work to support his second wife and remaining children. Joe learning that his father never tried to get in contact with him even after returning to Seattle clearly hurts, and Harry tells Joe outright that while Joe doesn't owe his father anything, he also does not owe Joe a thing, establishing that any familial bond between them is broken for good. However, Harry is later seen donating to the fund to send the boys to Berlin, and is listening to the race on the radio. He silently celebrates alone when they win.