One teacher still believes in fighting for his students.
Here Comes the Boom is a 2012 sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci and co-written by, co-produced by and starring Kevin James, with Salma Hayek and Henry Winkler in supporting roles. The film was additionally produced in part by Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions.
The story follows Scott Voss (James), a disillusioned 42-year-old biology teacher at a failing high school. Budget cuts at the school have left its music program in jeopardy, which would result in music teacher Marty Streb (Winkler) being laid off.
Sympathetic to Marty and his students, Scott takes it upon himself to raise the money necessary to save the program, and winds up attempting to do so by becoming a Mixed Martial Arts fighter.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Despite repeatedly turning him down, Scott flirts with the school nurse Bella Flores repeatedly throughout the film.
- Absurdly Elderly Mother: The plot is set in motion because music teacher Marty's wife gets pregnant despite being in her mid-40s, causing Scott to take up MMA to raise money and save his school's music program and guarantee his friend's job and financial future. It's even lampshaded when Marty gets a text from his wife and asks Scott if that's possible.
- Acrofatic: Averted early in Scott's fight career, when he gets one-shotted by a fighter who is clearly in worse shape then he is. Scott visibly slims down over the course of the film, though with his stout build he eventually becomes this trope.
- All for Nothing: Late in the film, it's revealed everything Scott had earned for the school has been embezzled away by a corrupt administrator, meaning the only way to save the music department is to beat UFC powerhouse Ken Dietrich.
- Artistic License – Sports: Scott gets absolutely pummeled in his UFC fight against Ken Dietrich, landing essentially zero offense and being very close to being finished on multiple occasions through the first two rounds. Between rounds, Scott goes to the wrong corner, is clearly wobbly, and eventually stumbles into his own corner, nearly falling before he sits down. At the absolute least, a real UFC referee would have had the official doctor check on Scott to make sure he's still coherent enough to fight— at worst, the fight would have been stopped between rounds.
- As Himself: Bruce Buffer, Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg as UFC commentators and announcers. Mark DellaGrotte also appears as himself, taking the role of one of Scott's trainers.
- Author Appeal: Kevin James is an MMA fan himself.
- Battle in the Rain: Just because it starts raining, it doesn't mean the fight stops."This isn't baseball!"
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Not that he was all that pretty to begin with, but Scott looks pretty good at the end of the fight, black eye notwithstanding, and then it heals up perfectly a short time later.
- Breakout Character: A lot of critics reviews heaped praise on Bas Rutten as Niko.
- Bookends: The school's music class is in disarray in the beginning. By the end, Voss' efforts have paid off, and the music department is in much better shape.
- Casting Gag: Albeit an obscure, most likely unintentional one that the aforementioned Charice may have found to be funny. Salma Hayek's character is named Bella Flores, and while the character is of Hispanic origin, Bella Flores also happens to be the name of a Filipino actress known for playing physically-unattractive villains.
- Chekhov's Gun: Scott's brother is shown to hate his job as a painter, and to be a skilled, dedicated cook. This gives Scott a way to help Malia's father later, when his chef quits, thus making it possible for Malia to remain in the school's music club.
- Comically Missing the Point: Scott teaches a citizenship class at night to earn extra money, and the students are all foreigners with a tenuous grasp on the English language, creating humorous situations where they don't understand what Scott is saying. Miguel, for example, thinks that Scott stepping down with another teacher taking his place means that they're all citizens now— when the students actually achieve their citizenship at the end of the film, Miguel thinks he's a two-time US citizen.
- Consolation Prize: This is the impetus for Scott to take up mixed martial arts as his means of saving the school's programs, when he hears that the loser of a UFC fight gets 10 grand. He fights at much lower levels and thus doesn't make half of that in multiple fights, but he is still able to earn decent money despite not winning many fights.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Every one of Voss' fights are predicted to be lost as this.
- Determinator: Scott's other attribute, aside from his strength, is his ability to tank damage (to a reasonable degree) and refuses to give up during his fight with Ken Dietrich. He also refuses to stop fighting professionally until he raises the $48,000 the school needs, despite legitimately needing hospitalization at one point and carrying plenty of scars and bruises otherwise (and also being embarrassed on multiple occasions and mocked by his peers and his students).
- Epic Fail: Scott makes a bet with Bella, the attractive school nurse, that if he can dunk a basketball, she'll go out with him. He quickly grabs a trampoline from off screen, and she protests that he's cheating, but he's undeterred, leaps off the trampoline... and doesn't even come close to getting the ball over the rim, falling flat on his face.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- The intro spells out Scott's character in a number of ways. He at least has the appearance of a grizzled badass (but is also kind of a goofball), with his five o'clock shadow and the fact that he drives a motorcycle and wears a leather jacket, and his trophies for Division I NCAA wrestling are the very first thing we see as well, showing his aptitude for physical sports. He's also disillusioned with his career as a teacher and doesn't care much about it or the students, as seen when he shows up to school late (again) and ignores the kids entirely once the principal leaves, flat-out telling one of the only diligent students that nothing she would learn in the class is important.
- After the intro, Scott tries to use a vending machine, but the chips get stuck after he pays for them, at which point he blasts the machine with a standing shoulder strike that all but implodes it, showing his Stout Strength.
- Exact Words: Niko "used to teach MMA at a gym"; now, he teaches dance cardio, yoga, and spin classes.
- Fighting Irish: One of Voss's opponents, played by Jason "Mayhem" Miller, uses this as his theme, complete with green hair.
- Floorboard Failure: During one of Scott's matches, he gets tossed and smashes right through the floor of the fighting ring. His opponent and the ref have a moment to go "Oh, Crap!" before the ring collapses out from under them, too.
- Genius Ditz: Music teacher Marty Streb.
- Handshake Refusal: The MMA version features in Scott's UFC fight. When both fighters are given the chance to touch gloves as a show of sportsmanship before the bout begins, one or both fighters will sometimes refuse if there is bad blood on either end. In this case, Ken Dietrich chooses not to touch gloves when Scott offers— Dietrich is highly offended that his fight (due to an injured opponent) went from a contest against a Top-20 opponent in UFC to one against a 42-year-old schoolteacher. After Scott survives two brutally one-sided rounds, Dietrich offers a respectful glove touch to start the third round.
- How Much More Can He Take?: Scott's UFC fight. He gets absolutely pummeled for the first two rounds, landing zero offense while his opponent mauled him from pillar to post.
- Oh, Crap!: Dietrich has a pretty huge "oh, crap" look on his face after Scott defends his armbar and has him lifted off the mat.
- One-Hit KO:
- Scott's very first fight sees him knocked out cold by a standing knee to the head as Voss appeared to be attempting a takedown.
- Scott knocks out fictional fighter Patrick Murphy with a single overhand right hand.
- On the Money: $48,000 to save the school's extracurricular programs. Scott decides to raise the money by becoming a professional (low-level) mixed martial artist, after learning that at high levels, even the loser of the fight earns thousands of dollars for a single bout. After he finds out that a corrupt administrator had embezzled away all the money Scott earned, the only solution left is to ''win'' a fight against a legitimate UFC contender and get $50,000.
- Opposing Sports Team: Ken Dietrich, (fictional) UFC heavyweight stalwart and all-around super scary dude, is all that stands between Scott and reaching his goal of raising the $48,000, and Scott has to win because all the money he had raised prior was embezzled by one of the school's administrators, so the $50,000 purse for the victor is the only chance remaining, since he was already feeling severely worn down from fighting so much.
- Plot Time: 5-minute MMA rounds take all of 30 seconds of screen time.
- Product Placement: Once Mark DellaGrotte enters the film and training proceeds at his gym, Sityodtong
branding is prominently seen on the walls and on his clothing. - Reality Is Unrealistic: Upon release, the film was criticized for the ending of Scott's UFC fight, where he fights his way out of an armbar by hoisting his opponent and slamming him into the ground, winning by knockout. As this video clearly demonstrates, not only is slamming/power-bombing an opponent a valid defense against a variety of submission holds, but it is perfectly capable of knocking you out cold. As Joe Rogan points out in his commentary, getting slammed on your head and shoulders hurts. He likens it to a linebacker tackling a quarterback... but without a helmet for protection.
- Rousing Speech: During the final match where Scott has to win the $50,000 purse, he is taking a beating from his opponent in the first two rounds and is starting to lose hope, but Marty fires him back up by pointing to the students who have come to watch him and saying that he's succeeded in their ultimate role as teachers: to inspire their students. This gives Scott his Heroic Second Wind, and he starts retaliating in the third round.
- Spoiler Cover: When the film was on Netflix, the page for the movie featured a shot of Voss in the octagon, wearing UFC gloves, giving away the fact that he'd eventually get a fight in the UFC.
- Stout Strength: Scott starts the film a bit chubby, but through his training (re)develops his strength. This is what allows him to hoist Dietrich in the air and slam him down for the win.
- Team Power Walk: The crew does this in slow motion as they head to Scott's final fight. This turns into a desperate run (also in slow motion) once they realize they're about to miss their flight.
- They Stole Our Act: Voss faces this dilemma when one of his opponents comes in to his entrance music ("Boom" by P.O.D.). The replacement song Marty comes up with is "Holly Holy" by Neil Diamond.
- Training from Hell: Scott actually does little training for his first couple of fights, outside of drafting Marty to act as a training dummy to brush up on his Wrestling. Once Niko and Mark come into the picture, though, Scott gets a crash course in what it's really like for a 42-year old to train like an athlete.
- Training Montage: Of course.
- Triumphant Reprise: "Holly Holy." Used as an intro to a cage match? Lame. Played and sung by the very students he's fighting for? Inspiring.
- True Companions:
- Scott stands up for Marty's job and doesn't give up on the cause, all in the face of budget cuts, mockery from his peers and students, opposition from a principal who already doesn't like Scott, and embezzlement.
- Niko started as just a student at a citizenship-class night job that Scott taught, but eventually became Scott's MMA trainer, close friend, and confidante. Scott was ready to refuse a chance to fight in UFC and earn big money, all because Niko told him that he was jealous of Scott's success.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: Scott tries to buy a snack from a vending machine, but it gets stuck. He rams the vending machine, causing several snacks to fall out. A student sees him do this, and he tosses him one of the extra snacks, telling him to keep quiet.
