Genre: Comedy/Sports
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Mo Buck
Cast: Matt Damon, Patton Oswalt, Oscar Isaac, Evan Peters, Tony Hale, Miles Teller, Diogo Morgado, Stephan James, Jovan Adepo, Gaspard Ulliel, Sean Astin, Madisen Beaty
Plot : St. Louis, Missouri, 1904
James Edward Sullivan (Matt Damon) walks through a stadium where the finish line of the penultimate event of the 1904 Summer Olympics will be located. He brands the marathon has the biggest event and the one that embodies the most the International Olympic Committe’s motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius, latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger. He believes in the spectacle so much that he invited none other than the President himself to the event.
When Sullivan gets back in the Games’ headquarters, where he set his office, he’s asked about how the Games are going so far and he thinks it’s a resounding success. His right-hand man, Victor Green (Patton Oswald) says otherwise, pointing out the fact that most athletes had trouble getting to St. Louis due to the ongoing Russo-Japanese War, the proof is there, most atheletes are American and most medals won so far were by Americans. James denies these claims, saying it’s just that Americans are better than everyone else, period. It’s the best nation, end of the sentence. The marathon is this afternoon and Victor wants to review one last thing with Sullivan before he gives the go-ahead. He says it will get quite hot this afternoon and there’s only one water station during the race, about halfway and it’s only a dirty well, with no one there to give water to the contestants. Sullivan confirms his plans, he wants to take this occasion to conduct research on what he calls purposeful dehydration. Victor says dehydration can be fatal, but Sullivan says he has everything under control. He’s growing tired of Sullivan’s questions, so he leaves his office, disgruntled.
James poses for journalists at the Anthropology Days, an event he helped organized as part of St. Louis’ World Fair. He’s particularly proud of his human zoo. He answers a question from a reporter and he says that nearly three thousand indigenous people are displayed in their natural habitat to help the world understand them a little better. He poses next to American Indian students who successfully demonstrate their assimilation to American culture. He then invites everyone to the marathon this afternoon, it’s going to be spectacular!
Two human models from the zoo, Len Tau (Stephan James) and Jan Mashiani (Jovan Adepo), both of indigenous South African descent, overhear Sullivan talking about the marathon. They think it could be a fun thing to do, after all, they like to run. They leave their roles as part of the Boer War re-enactment to try and enlist for the marathon. During this time, Sullivan watches an baseball-throwing event between Americans and Indigenous people to determine if they are comparable to the ideal American man.
A couple of days earlier, a Cuban man named Andarin Carvajal (Oscar Isaac) works as a postman in Louisiana and he loves to run between two houses. A peculiar man indeed, Andarin often receives weird looks from the local people, but he doesn’t mind it. He enjoys his job as a postman and is friendly with everyone, even dogs love him! As he’s doing his daily run, Andarin sees a newspaper with James Sullivan on the cover, where he talks about the great marathon he’s organizing as part of the Olympics. He sits on the grass and reads the article, he learns that everyone is welcomed. He drops everything he’s doing, determined to reach St. Louis in time for the marathon. Andarin doesn’t have enough money to travel to St. Louis, so he decides to gamble the money he has with the hopes to win enough to cover his travel expenses. He doesn’t, instead, he completely ruins himself. In the end, he ends up hitchhiking in St. Louis’ direction.
Back at the stadium, Victor is helping to register runners in the marathon. A man, named Albert Corey (Gaspard Ulliel) is in front of him, but he says he forgot his registrations and he doesn’t have his passport with him. He speaks a broken English and doesn’t really understand what Victor is saying. He says he’s French and he’s here to compete in the marathon. He feels like he has a decent chance of winning, so he really wants to be in the race. Victor is registering him as French, but Sullivan taps on his shoulder and he says he should register him as an American, no one’s going to notice the difference until he speaks. Victor reluctantly gives him an American registration for the race and Albert, who can’t read English, thinks the American flags are supposed to represent the fact that the Games are set in the Unite States, so he doesn’t notice he’s registered under the wrong nationality.
Four American men register in the race, Thomas Hicks (Tony Hale), who’s supported by his team of trainers and a doctor, Arthur Newton (Miles Teller), the ever-serious competitor, Frederick Lorz (Evan Peters), the cocky youngster who loves to trash talk and William Garcia (Diogo Morgado), a Latin American who has a thick Spanish accent, but feels like he has a chance of winning. Just before the registration period is over, Len and Jan arrive, breathing heavily because they had to run to the stadium. They are relieved to be a part of the race. Unbeknown to them, they officially become the first African American to participate in the Olympic Games. They all wish each other the best of luck and they warm up before the race starts, in about an hour, but their training is cut short, because they need to get to the starting line.
55 minutes later
The packed crowd in the stadium cheers loudly as they see President Theodore Roosevelt (Sean Astin) accompanied by his daughter Alice (). They salute the crowd and sit in their box seat. Theodore notes that this race should be exiting. It will be “extraordinary” and a “must see” event according to Sullivan. In the center of the stadium, the athletes are stretching under the shining sun. In the comfort of his car, Victor notes the temperature, ninety two degrees Fahrenheit. The sun is shining bright and the athletes are already sweating. Sullivan is presented as the organiser of both this event and the Anthropology Days. The runners line up on the starting line and get mentally ready to start the race. The crowd is silent in anticipation. The silence is broken by a man dressed as a postman running. He reaches the starting line and he says he’s here to compete. Sullivan and Victor get off their car and meet him. It’s Andarin Carvajal and he’s here to win the marathon. Victor says he’s in no condition to run and Carvajal borrows Sullivan’s scissors and cuts his pants at knee lengths, essentially cutting them into shorts. He still has his long johns on. He completes his look with a buttoned up shirt, dress shoes, a cap and a tie. He says he’s ready now. Sullivan looks around and he sees that only 31 athletes are registered. To make this even more spectacular, he decides to sign up Carvajal under his Cuban nationality. Thomas Hicks looks at him and he says he’s in no condition to run dressed up like that and Carvajal challenges him. Hicks says he has his eyes fixed on William Garcia, a former marathon winner. Garcia nods, knowing that he can win this.
Following Carvajal’s unsuspected arrival, Sullivan checks on his watch and he grabs his pistol. He counts down… 3,2… 1 and he shoots. The runners start by running around the track for a couple of laps for the crowd’s enjoyment. During this time, Sullivan gets in his car and Green in another. The trainers are doctors are also getting on cars and they all wait for the runners to leave the stadium before taking off. In his box, President Roosevelt can’t wait for the real spectacle to begin, while Alice is amazed by the athleticism displayed. Green exchanges words with Sullivan as they wait. They say they were disappointed that not many athletes showed up, they had registered a lot. Green says it might be the temperature, it’s boiling out there. It’s more than a hundred degrees now. Sullivan brushes it off, saying that if they didn’t want to run in this temperature, then they weren’t worthy of participating in this grand event.
The runners are confident, and all remain in a tight formation. Fred Lorz gets to the front and salutes the crowd and smiles. He points in Alice Roosevelt’s direction and she blushes. Thomas Hicks won’t let him get an early lead and he gets to the front with him. Carvajal holds on, even if his tie is bothering him. They complete four laps around the track and they leave the stadium and run on the dirt roads surrounding the stadium. Sullivan and Green lead the way in their cars, which sends dirt in the air and directly into the runners face. Many start coughing when the trainers cars pass them and get to the front and most of them drop out right from the start. Back in the stadium, Theodore Roosevelt is wondering what’s happening now, but he soon finds out that he’ll have to wait until they come back to see something, to his utter disappointment. When informed that about a quarter of the athletes quit, Sullivan says it’s a good riddance, they didn’t have what it takes.
Arthur Newton is leading a group of contenders up front, composed of Fred Lorz, Thomas Hicks, William Garcia, Andarin Carvajal, Len Tau, Jan Mashiani, Albert Corey and himself. Len Tau and Mashiani are running barefoot, as they didn’t have any gear and their Anthropology Days outfits didn’t have any. They say they are used to running barefoot, just like they did in the Boer War, but this road is something else. Newton and Hicks are really competitive an trash talk one another and Lorz says Alice Roosevelt wants him to win, she saw it in her eyes. They say he doesn’t have what it takes to win a race like this. He’s just here to show off and he should let the professional handle it. Tau and Mashiani are already trailing behind and their feet are now bleeding due to the road’s poor condition. They stop to massage their feet while the others continue. A good portion of the participants have now given up.
A couple of miles later, the temperature is constantly rising and participants are sweating profusely. Sullivan begs them to continue and he encourages them. They ask for water, but instead of letting them drink some, he just pours some on them. Andarin deviates from his trajectory a little bit. He finds himself in an orchard. He leans on a tree and since he’s far away from all the noise of the race, he hears his stomach tumbling. He realises that he hasn’t eaten in more than 60 hours. He thinks it’s a nice coincidence that he’s currently in an orchard. He climbs up in a tree and starts eating apples. He thinks it tastes weird, but he keeps eating anyway. He suddenly feels the fatigue, he hasn’t slept much in the last couple of days and the sun shining on him makes him lie down under a tree. He falls asleep and he takes a nap.
Arthur Newton, Thomas Hicks and William Garcia remain ahead. They look around and they realise that Fred Lorz is gone. They think the arrogance finally got the best of him and say it’s a good riddance. But Fred Lorz didn’t give up. Moments earlier, when the race’s path was at an intersection, Lorz deviated from his trajectory and turned left instead of going straight ahead. The dust cloud created by the cars helped him get away with it unnoticed. He stops running and he meets with a couple of friends, who let him drink water. They get into a car and leave. While Hicks, Newton and Garcia keep running, Lorz is building a nice lead thanks to his friends. When they get too far ahead, they stop and sit down under a tree. They will play poker for a about two hours so it isn’t too suspicious.
Andarin wakes up from his nap and after he vomited the apples he previously ate, he feels hungry again. Not remembering that the apples were the reason for his sickness, he starts eating apples again, but from a different tree. Once again, he vomits them immediately and he decides to take another nap to recover under the apple tree.
James Sullivan is asked whether or not the runners should be given water or something to drink by Victor, since the temperature has now reached 135 degrees Fahrenheit with the heat index. He looks at Victor with a condescending look and he asks him how he’ll be able to study dehydration if he lets the runners drink. Victor agrees that it doesn’t make sense and he lets James do as he wants. James adds that they are getting closer to the well, where they’ll be able to drink as much as they want before finishing the race.
Len and Jan promised to one another that they won’t let the pain get the better of them. They run at a steady pace, hand in hand, trying not to think about their thirst or their pain. They are slowly catching up with the leading group and encourage themselves to continue. The few people who are lined up on the side of the road are hostile to them, but they try to forget about them. They both think the race is badly organised, complaining about the dust, the cars and the lack of water for them to drink.
Some miles further, a journalist entered James’ car and he asks him about the race’s organization. He says the 1904 St. Louis Olympics marathon is the best race ever organized. It’s the pinnacle of sports. The best event ever. You can’t plan a better race than that, even the President couldn’t miss it. The journalist congratulates him on a extraordinary event and leaves the car and has James’ car passes him an throws dirt in the air and in his face, he says that it would probably been better if it wasn’t on a dirt road.
The leading group sees the water station board saying it’s about a mile away and they start pushing themselves to see who could reach that first. William Garcia, Thomas Hicks, Albert Corey and Arthur Newton are all competing to be the first to get a drop of water. The dust lifted in the air by the cars isolates the runners. The bullying gets more intense and as everyone was a little frail from exhaustion, Garcia is pushed to the ground by someone and he tumbles and rolls on the ground due to his momentum and we lose sight of him. When the dust settles and everything becomes more clear, William Garcia has disappeared from the side of the road.
Andarin wakes up from his second nap and he suddenly remembers that he’s part of a race. He curses at himself for forgetting it. He starts to run again, not taking off any of his gear and getting residues of vomit of his face.
The decimated lead group, composed of Thomas Hicks, Albert Corey and Arthur Newton, has reached the water station and they start looking for it, perplexed, because there aren’t tables with cups of water, instead there’s just this farmer standing next to a well. They all start forming a line in front of him and he starts pumping the well to give them water. Hicks gets impatient and his team pushes the farmer down and start giving him water. He leaves the water station the first. The others don’t have the chance to have a team with them, so they help the farmer up and he starts giving them water happily, but slowly. Once he realises that Albert Corey isn’t an American, he refuses to help him. He gives Arthur water and once he leaves, Albert is left by himself to get some water. All three drank like idiots, perhaps too much, but at least they drank water.
James and Victor are now in the stadium where they set up the finish line. When President Roosevelt sees them arrive, he asks to speak to them. He can’t take it anymore, he was promised an exciting event, but nothing happens. His daughter is bored too. He feels like he lost his time and he’s an important man who doesn’t have a lot of time to lose. James says that, with all due respect, this is the biggest sporting event ever to take place on American soil and its leader should be there to witness it. Roosevelt says he understands that, but he hasn’t seen anything for a long time, it’s like watching paint dry. James says that the runners are out there running for their lives, trying to prove they are the best athlete of them all and it will all conclude in an epic finale here. They’re coming and it will end soon, an ultimate feat of athletic ability will end here. Roosevelt accepts to stay to see the winner, but not a minute more.
After their stop at the water station Arthur Newton and Albert Corey had a bad digestive response to the local water, as they are not used to it and they start having cramps and since they had so much because they couldn’t drink for the rest of the race, they are having terrible cramps that force them to stop for a while, but they don’t give up. Thomas Hicks is left all alone in front. His skin is pale, his eyes are different. He wants to give up, but his team encourages him to continue.
Len and Jan reach the water station and are happy to finally be able to drink. The farmer who is there to help them refuse to help them and he sets his dogs loose. Len and Tau run for their lives, trying not to be caught by the rabid dogs. They are chased off the course and both decide that they’ve had enough and give up, but they still have to outrun the dogs.
Not far away from there, Andarin complains that he’s thirsty, but due to the dust in the air and his troubled vision, he can’t see the water station board. When he passes in front of it, the farmer tries to tell him that it’s the water station, but Andarin doesn’t understand his accent and he just continues, thinking about the water station, because he really is thirsty.
Thomas Hicks is running at a really slow pace, his body can’t take it anymore. He gives up and stops running. He asks for water, but his team freezes. They don’t know if they’re allowed to give him any, or else he may be disqualified. They try to find James Sullivan, but he’s already at the finish line. They tell him to keep running and they’ll go and ask Sullivan. Hicks complains and starts jogging again. Once his team is out of sight, he looks to his left and he sees Fred Lorz, who just started running again, getting in front of him. He’s completely down by now and he refuses to run again until he has some water. Behind, Newton and Corey start running again, as they no longer suffer from cramps.
Back at the stadium, a member of Hicks’ team asks Sullivan if they can give him water and Sullivan doesn’t want to. They argue with him and he agrees to them pouring water over him, but not letting him drink any. They ask if they can give him bourbon and he says it’s a good idea. He sends Victor with them in case they want to cheat.
By the time they get back to him, they find Hicks on the ground as he refuses to run. They pour water all over him and let him drink a sip of bourbon. They help him back up and he starts running again, but not for long. He falls down again and they decide to inject strychnine (rat poison) in him, so it will stimulate his nervous system). Victor thinks it’s a dangerous practice, but they say it’s the only way he will finish the race.
By now, Fred Lorz can see the stadium in front of him. He runs at a fast pace and James looks at him with a telescope-like device. He announces the good news to Roosevelt who’s now asleep and he gets on his feet in anticipation. The crowd gets on its feet too. Lorz is welcomed as a hero and the crowd erupts when he crosses the finish line. Theodore and Alice Roosevelt went down to the track to congratulate him alongside Sullivan and they give him his gold medal. They all take a picture together and Alice allows him to kiss her on the cheek. Afterwards, he confesses that he cheated, but it was all worth it, because he got to kiss Alice Roosevelt. Sullivan is fuming, he takes his medal away and the Roosevelt’s leave, claiming they’ve seen enough.
Victor cringes as they inject strychnine in Thomas again. He’s white as a sheet and he doesn’t even look like himself anymore. It’s almost like his legs are running, but the rest of his body doesn’t want to. He hallucinates various things and he doesn’t run in a straight line anymore. They reach the stadium’s entrance and the remaining crowd, including Sullivan cheer for him, but he falls flat on his face before he crosses the finish line. The crowd goes silent. His team tries to wake him up, but they decide to carry him over the finish line. Sullivan says he needs to run across the finish line, so they go back and grab his legs and makes it look like he’s running. Sullivan allows it an his team immediately leave for the hospital. The crowd leaves, believing the event is over. Victor asks if Sullivan is still satisfied with how the event went and he says it only proves how a marathon is only meant for the best of the best.
Minutes later, as the crowd is leaving, Albert Corey and Arthur Newton cross the finish line and are congratulated by Sullivan, but they spit in his face, out of disgust. Sullivan asks Victor why did he do to deserve that and Victor says it’s pretty obvious, but Sullivan still thinks he planned the perfect race. He leaves out of frustration and he orders Victor to stay until the end.
The stadium is now empty. Victor is asleep on a seat and Andarin arrives. He crosses the finish line and he takes off his cap and replaces it on his head. He says this has been fun and leaves.
THE END
BASED ON TRUE EVENTS
Out of the 32 athletes who participated in the event, only fourteen managed to finish the race.
Fred Lorz was banned for a year for his cheating in the 1904 Olympics Marathon
Thomas Hicks lost 8 pounds during the race and it is believed that he would’ve died he had not been treated by a doctor immediately after he finished the race. He recovered without any damages and he outlived everyone who participated in that race.
William Garcia was found lying in a ditch with severe internal injuries caused by breathing the dust cloud kicked up by the race official’s cars.
Despite all that, James E. Sullivan remained a respected member of the sports community. The James E. Sullivan Award is awarded annually to the best amateur athlete in the United States. He was inducted in the National Track & Field Hall of Fame.
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