Genre: Drama/Comedy/Historical
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Joshua Collins
Cast: Adam Driver, Kurt Russell, Peter Dinklage, Zoey Deutch, Carson Bolde, Liam Hemsworth, Katheryn Winnick
Plot: The film starts with Abraham Lincoln (Carson Bolde) as a boy no older or younger than 10 in the year 1819. Often the subject of ridicule by his school peers; they pick on him for being unusually taller than the rest of the kids, not having a mother (who died a year prior) and thinking that he’s better than them for not being in school as often as them (in reality, he helps out with his father’s farm chores) One of the kids plan to beat up Abe, and a circle of school children forms. Abe performs a different kind of skill that the children are not used to: Catch Wrestling, not a usual fist fight the kids were expecting, nor was his opponent, who got so confused he didn’t want a fight anymore, calling Abe a ‘freak’
Abe’s father, Thomas (Kurt Russell), and his soon-to-be-stepmother, Sarah (Katheryn Winnick) learn of the fight at school. Abe’s parents worry about him fighting at school and forbid him to “wrestle” other children. “If you need to fight, son, those hands will be all you’ll ever need.” Thomas Lincoln tells Abe.
While he appreciates what his father was trying to tell him, he doesn’t quite listen. In fact, some kids that witnessed Abe Lincoln’s wrestling continue to challenge him, and Abe beats them all. The kids eventually ask that he train them in his style of unique fighting.
In Abe’s mid teens, he gets a job as a shopkeeper to avoid having to work on his father’s farm anymore.
While running the shop as his day job, Abe (Adam Driver) dons a wrestling singlet and wrestled in several matches and winning all of them. People in Illinois were talking of the man who could not be beat, and several tough guys would line up to be humiliated and beaten by Abe. At the age of 21, we see him have a wrestling match where he wins a county championship. While celebrating the win, Thomas Lincoln disappointed, approaches his son and says, “This is what you’ve given to your life, Abraham?” as he affectively walks out on his son.
Abraham catches the attention of Anne Rutledge (Zoey Deutch). She a beautiful young woman, slightly younger than Abe. At first, she plays a little hard to get with Abe. Abe takes the bait, offering to take her on a date somewhere. She tells him she is going to be a contestant in a quilting bee (a competition for quilting, which is something she is good at). Even when Abe comes to the quilting bee, she toys with him by ignoring him. So he plays ball by making her jealous at the quilting bee: he was going to pay attention to one of the contestants in the bee. The contestant accidentally stuck a needle in her finger, and Abe pulled it out for her. The attention he paid to the lady upsets Anne so much she loses focus on her own quilting project and loses.
During the course of the film, Abe and Anne would have a Will-they won’t-they relationship. She supports his wrestling, while he is often fascinated by her need to keep her hands busy. Sewing, cleaning, and the like. He also enjoys her fondness for education.
After the Bee, a group of ruffians known as the Clary’s Grove Boys recognize Abe and start provoking him into a fight. Jack Armstrong, one of the ruffians, ends up being the recipient of Abe Lincoln’s chokeslam.
The next day while manning his shop, Abe is approached by a smooth talking out of towner, George Adams (Peter Dinklage). Adams tells Abe that he saw what he did to that ruffian the other day and wants to be his professional manager. He says he’s a promoter and thinks he could be a mega-star. Abe says he’s not interested in wrestling for the rest of his life and wants to become a lawyer and maybe even run the country someday.
George tells him, “Nobody is going to elect everyday attorney Abraham Lincoln as president. They WILL elect professional wrestling champion: Abraham Lincoln.”
This of course would lead to Abraham Lincoln having George Adams booking him in matches and billing him as “Honest Abe”. Abe starts seeing his life as a success. He gets to wrestle in his matches and be a lawyer and eventually a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives.
George has Abe use that chokeslam as a finisher. At first, Abe doesn’t want to use it, “I could have killed that guy,” he protests. George says “trust me, they will be fine, and the crowds are going to love it.”
Abe would go on to win 200 matches in his wrestling career, all while being a lawyer and being a part of the Illinois House of Representatives. Anne would succumb to an illness, before Abe got to truly show his love for her. This would in turn out Abe into a state of solitaire and depression. And after 200 matches, the crowds are starting to die as they are tired of seeing Abe Lincoln win. He told George he wanted out of wrestling, and George says he wants one more match out of Abe. “One more match, one more match, one more match,” Abe says in an angry fit at George.
George says he has an idea to have wrestling take over. He says he wants Abe to throw the next fight and lose. “But that goes against everything I stand for, George. Honest Abe lets another man win?” George tells Abe that sometimes the good guy has to die.”
After some soul searching, Abe decides to go along with the predetermined match result. There is a scene where the man to beat Abe Lincoln, Hank Thompson (Liam Hemsworth), is having a meeting with Abe and George, where he is pretty much laying out how the match should go.
George is standing in front of what appears to be a small outdoor seating area, set up around a wrestling ring. He is announcing to everyone in earshot to “step right up! Come and witness the retirement match of Honest Abe Lincoln against the dastardly Hank Thompson! Will Abe retire as champion, or will he suffer his first and only loss as a professional wrestler?
Hank and Abe have the match that comes to the thrilling conclusion of Abe taking his first loss after 12 years and 200 wrestling matches.
By the end of the match, Abe looks out into the crowd and sees the turnout to be bigger than he ever imagined. Many people had come to support Abe, knowing that it was his final match and they wanted to see if he would suffer his first loss or go completely undefeated.
As he stands up after being pinned, he looks out to the big crowd and hears an ovation, he looks around the ring and sees everyone, even new champion, Hank Thompson, cheer him on. George gets in the ring and consoles Abe, saying “I told you I was gonna make them love you again.”
The screen fades as George holds Abe Lincoln’s arm up.
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