Tag: Eddie the Eagle

It’s been 30 years since the feel-good movie Cool Runnings was released based on the true story of the Jamaican bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

If you’re yet to see the 1993 film, spoiler alert, the team loses.

But to former Miss Jamaica and former cultural ambassador for Jamaica Johnnel Smith, that takes nothing away from the impact the movie continues to have.

Ms Smith is a PhD candidate and a lecturer in tourism and business at Griffith University.

She’s seen Cool Runnings about half a dozen times.

“When I think of Cool Runnings, I think of real good Jamaican vibes,” Ms Smith said.

“The movie documented a significant aspect of our history that communicated the resilience of the Jamaican people, the can-do attitude of the Jamaican people.

“It showed that we literally had a country that was never exposed to winter, or cold, because Jamaica is a Caribbean country, very tropical, very warm. And so, there’s no snow in Jamaica and we were able to compete internationally in an Olympic sport that required us to go bobsledding down a snowy mountain.

“It spoke to what we are as a country, but more so the Jamaican spirit. It speaks to our resilience, it speaks to our creativity, it speaks to our ingenuity and our innovativeness, and how we can make something out of nothing.”

Ms Smith has lived in Australia for three years, and says whenever she meets someone new, she already knows what’s likely to come next.

“Whenever I introduce myself as a Jamaican, [there are] three things people bring up.

“They bring up Bob Marley, Usain Bolt and the Cool Runnings movie.

“That’s almost signature.”

Ms Smith worked in tourism marketing when she was in Jamaica and said Cool Runnings helped to set Jamaica apart. And Hollywood has continued to come knocking. 

“There’s been a lot of movies that focused on other cultural outputs that we have lended to the world on an international stage,” Ms Smith said.

“So, we do get a lot of interest from film producers all over the world to film in Jamaica.

“So, that’s something else I did as a part of my job in Jamaica. So, for instance, the recent James Bond movie No Time to Die that came out in 2021, a portion of it was actually filmed in Jamaica and I had to work to organise that.

“So, the James Bond crew came and they filmed in Port Antonio in Jamaica. 

“Also, the movie Cocktail starring Tom Cruise was filmed in Jamaica.

“How Stella Got Her Groove Back. There have been tonnes of movies with a lot of Hollywood heavyweights and superstars.

“I just think this one because of the storyline and how uncanny it was, you know, Jamaicans competing in a winter Olympic sport, that was just so ironical and it was really funny, we’ve become synonymous as a people with that movie.”

Thirty years on, she’d love for filmmakers to revisit the narrative.

“I’d love to see Cool Runnings, part two,” Ms Smith said.

“I’d really love to see a sequel to the movie Cool Runnings that features a more modern Jamaica.”

Why Cool Runnings captured the imagination of viewers

There’s a reason Cool Runnings did so well at the box office.

It made $243.4 million dollars globally and only cost $23.6 million to make.

Jo Coghlan, who is an associate professor of sociology and the co-founder of the Popular Culture Research Network at the University of New England, puts it down to the fact that Cool Runnings is “a bit of an outlier”.

“There are a whole lot of other films in this genre where they start off as that kind of underdog, [undergoing] adversity, but they ultimately win,” Dr Coghlan said providing a list of movies that match this description including Jerry Maguire, I, Tonya, The Blind Side and Any Given Sunday.

She said Cool Runnings is a clear departure from that narrative and is instead a celebration of the human spirit.

“It becomes a story about, what in Australia we might call, mateship,” Dr Coghlan said.

“It’s very inspirational. It’s about overcoming adversity, the lack of technical knowledge, the backgrounds of the coaches, and that kind of backstory in the film.

“The story of the athlete that was injured and he couldn’t be a sprinter. So, he’s had individual adversity.

“Yet it’s done with this good humour and good grace.

“And it’s inspiring and it’s a lovely uplifting film that does remind us that sport’s not about winning.

“And I think for adults, but also for younger audiences that’s a really important message and I think that’s what people gravitated to.

“Add to that, it’s got a great soundtrack. It’s got all those great popular culture elements.”

Dr Coghlan does think, however, that there aren’t many films like it because sport is big business.

“Modern sport is all about performance. It’s all about winning,” she said.

“And winning is celebrated and winning is rewarded.”

Among the films that are about more than just winning are the 2016 biographical sports film Eddie the Eagle about Michael David Edwards, the first competitor in 1988 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. He finished last in his events.

The upcoming Taika Waititi film Next Goal Wins follows the American Samoa soccer team, infamous for their brutal 31-0 FIFA loss in 2001.

That movie will hit Australian cinemas in January 2024.

And a movie is in the works on Eric Moussambani, nicknamed Eric the Eel by the media – the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who was selected in a wildcard program to compete at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Moussambani won his heat after his competitors recorded false starts and were disqualified, but he didn’t progress to the next round, because he had recorded the slowest time in Olympic history.

He did, however, finish the race setting a new personal best time and later becoming the national swim team coach in his home country, Equatorial Guinea.

As the world awaits these films, for those wanting a dose of nostalgia, Cool Runnings and Eddie the Eagle are available to stream on Disney+.