Miracle | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Gavin O'Connor |
Written by | |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Dan Stoloff |
Edited by |
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Music by | Mark Isham |
Production companies | Walt Disney Pictures Mayhem Pictures |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 136 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $28 million [1] |
Box office | $64.5 million [1] |
Miracle is a 2004 American sports film directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Eric Guggenheim and Mike Rich. It is about the U.S. men's ice hockey team, whose gold medal victory in the 1980 Winter Olympics over the heavily favored Soviet team was dubbed the "Miracle on Ice". Kurt Russell stars as head coach Herb Brooks.
Miracle was released on February 6, 2004, and grossed $64.5 million on a $28 million budget. It received positive reviews, with Russell's performance garnering the most praise from critics.
Herb Brooks, head ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota, interviews with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for the national team coach's job, discussing his philosophy on how to beat the dominant Soviet team who have won the gold medal in the previous four Olympics, calling for changes to the practice schedule and strategy. The USOC is skeptical, but gives Brooks the job.
Brooks meets assistant coach Craig Patrick at the tryouts in Colorado Springs. Brooks selects a preliminary roster of 26, indifferent to the preferences of senior USOC hockey officials. USOC executive director Walter Bush believes Brooks has their best interests at heart, and reluctantly agrees to take the heat from the committee.
During the initial practice, tempers flare as forward Rob McClanahan and defenseman Jack O'Callahan get into a fight based on college rivalry. After the fight, Brooks tells all the players that they are to let go of old rivalries and start becoming a team. He has each player tell their name, hometown and which team they play for. As practices continue, Brooks uses unorthodox methods to reduce the roster to 20 players. The players themselves worry about being cut at any time, knowing that Brooks himself was the last player cut from the US squad that won the 1960 Olympic gold medal, so he will do anything to win.
During an exhibition game against Norway in Oslo that ends in a 3–3 tie, Brooks notices the players are not playing up to their potential. After the game, he orders them back on the ice for a bag skate –a relentless skate from one end of the ice to the other, continuing the drill even after the rink manager cuts the power. Exhausted, forward and team captain Mike Eruzione re-introduces himself, but this time says that he plays for the United States. Pleased, Brooks finally allows the team to go home.
With their roster finalized, the Americans play the Soviets in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden. The Soviets manhandle the young Americans, winning by a score of 10–3. During the game, O'Callahan suffers a knee injury that could keep him out of the entire Olympics and starting goaltender Jim Craig is told he may be benched in favor of backup Steve Janaszak. Brooks tells him that he hasn't been giving his very best, but decides to keep Craig as the starter for the Olympics.
As the 1980 Winter Olympics begin, the Americans trail Sweden 2–1 in the first game. Brooks fires up the team during intermission by throwing a table and accuses McClanahan, who suffered a relatively minor leg injury, of quitting. McClanahan plays injured, which inspires the team. Bill Baker scores a goal with only 27 seconds remaining in the third period for a dramatic 2–2 tie. They next earn a 7–3 win over heavily favored Czechoslovakia. As the Olympics continue, the team defeats minor opponents Norway, Romania, and West Germany to earn a spot in the medal round.
In the medal round, the Americans were overwhelming underdogs to the Soviets, who lost only a single Olympic game since 1964. The Soviets had scored the first goal before O'Callahan, having healed enough from his injury, enters the game for the first time. He heavily checks Vladimir Krutov on a play that leads to a goal by Buzz Schneider. The Soviets score again to retake the lead. Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak stops a long shot by Dave Christian, but Mark Johnson gets the rebound and ties the game to end the period.
During the first intermission, Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov replaces Tretiak with backup Vladimir Myshkin. In the second period, the Soviets score a goal to go up 3–2. Early in the third period, the Soviet team is penalized for slashing, and Johnson scores a power play goal just as the penalty is about to expire. With 10 minutes left, Eruzione puts them ahead 4–3. The Americans hold off the Soviets to win the game, completing one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Two days later, the team would go on to defeat Finland 4–2 to win the gold medal.
Actor | Role | Notes |
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Kurt Russell | Herb Brooks | U.S. Olympic hockey coach who leads the team to an Olympic gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. |
Patricia Clarkson | Patti Brooks | Wife of Brooks. |
Noah Emmerich | Craig Patrick | Assistant general manager and Assistant Coach under Brooks. |
Sean McCann | Walter Bush | General manager of the U.S. Olympic hockey team. |
Kenneth Welsh | Doc Nagobads | U.S Olympic team physician and long-time friend of Brooks. |
Eddie Cahill | Jim Craig | U.S. Olympic team's starting goaltender. Plays in every minute of every game. |
Patrick O'Brien Demsey | Mike Eruzione | Forward and captain of the U.S. Olympic team. Scores the game-winning goal against the Soviets. |
Michael Mantenuto | Jack O'Callahan | Defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team. Injures his knee in an exhibition game but returns against the Soviets and makes a key shot that leads to a U.S. goal. |
Nathan West | Rob McClanahan | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. Gets into a fight with O'Callahan in the first practice. |
Kenneth Mitchell | Ralph Cox | Last player cut from the team during tryouts because Brooks can only take twenty players. |
Eric Peter-Kaiser | Mark Johnson | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. Scores two out of the four goals in the victory over the Soviets. Known as the most skilled player on the team. MVP of the team. |
Bobby Hanson | Dave Silk | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team who receives a pair of silky underwear from the guys at Christmas. |
Joseph Cure | Mike Ramsey | Defenseman and youngest player on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Billy Schneider | Buzz Schneider | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team and part of the Conehead line. In real life, Billy is Buzz's son. |
Nate Miller | John Harrington | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team and part of the Conehead line. |
Chris Koch | Mark Pavelich | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team and part of the Conehead line. Assists Baker on the tying goal against Sweden and Eruzione on the game-winning goal against the Soviets. |
Kris Wilson | Phil Verchota | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Stephen Kovalcik | Dave Christian | Forward and defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team. Shoots the puck at Tretiak with very little time left during the first period against the Soviets. Johnson scores on the rebound. |
Sam Skoryna | Steve Janaszak | Expected to be the top goaltender of the U.S. Olympic team after winning a national championship in 1979 and taking home the tournament MVP, but is placed behind goaltender Craig and never plays during the Olympics. |
Pete Duffy | Bob Suter | Defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Nick Postle | Bill Baker | Defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team who scores the game-tying goal against Sweden in the opening game of the Olympics. |
Casey Burnette | Ken Morrow | Defenseman on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Scott Johnson | Steve Christoff | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Trevor Alto | Neal Broten | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Robbie MacGregor | Eric Strobel | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Joe Hemsworth | Mark Wells | Forward on the U.S. Olympic team. |
Zinaid Memišević | Viktor Tikhonov | Hockey coach for the Soviet team. |
Adam Knight | Tim Harrer | Forward brought in late to try out for the U.S. Olympic team, eventually cut. |
Al Michaels | Himself | Sportscaster who provided play–by–play for the Olympic hockey tournament (voice over and archive footage only) |
Ken Dryden | Himself | Former NHL goaltender who provided color commentary for the Olympic hockey tournament (voice over and archive footage only) |
Gavin O'Connor directed, and Mark Ciardi produced the movie. Both are drawn to inspirational stories, and they decided to take on the "Greatest Sports Moment of the 20th Century". [2] They chose to focus on the determination and focus of coach Herb Brooks. O'Connor knew from the beginning that he wanted to cast Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks because he needed someone with an athletic background and a fiery passion for sports. The casting of the team consisted of real hockey players to give the film a raw and accurate feel. O'Connor figured it would be easier to teach hockey players to act than to teach actors to play hockey. On-ice tryouts were held in New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Vancouver. Another tryout was held in Vancouver for the Soviet and European teams.
There are a total of 133 different hockey plays in the film. To accomplish this, the directors turned to ReelSports Solutions, who had helped with the producers on a previous movie, The Rookie . The ReelSports team referred to coach Herb Brooks for information on practices, plays, equipment, and uniform styles. Each fight and stunt scene was choreographed to ensure the actors' safety. Players went through a six-week training camp to relearn the game in older equipment. [3]
All the locations of the real life hockey games are replicated by hockey arenas in British Columbia. The team tryouts, set in Colorado Springs, were filmed at the Queen's Park Arena in New Westminster. The team practices were filmed at the M.S.A. Arena in Abbotsford. The exhibition game in which the USA team lost to the USSR team at Madison Square Garden was filmed at the Pacific Coliseum, former home of the Vancouver Canucks. The Exhibition against Norway, the subsequent bag skate, and all Olympic game scenes were filmed at the PNE Agrodome. [4] [5]
Al Michaels re-recorded most of his television commentary for the film. However, the last 30 seconds of the USA-Soviet game, including "Do you believe in miracles?" used the original audio, as Michaels didn't feel he could re-create the call effectively. [6]
Coach Brooks died in a car accident half a year before the movie was released. At the end, before the credits, it states, "This film is dedicated to the memory of Herb Brooks, who died shortly following principal photography. He never saw it. He lived it."
Miracle grossed $19,377,577 on its opening weekend, February 8, on 2,605 screens. It closed with a worldwide gross of $64,445,708. [8]
On Rotten Tomatoes, Miracle has an approval rating of 81% based on 166 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Kurt Russell's performance guides this cliche-ridden tale into the realm of inspirational, nostalgic goodness." [9] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. [11]
Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times stated that the movie "does a yeoman's job of recycling the day-old dough that passes for its story." [12] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times referred to the movie as "a classically well-made studio entertainment that, like The Rookie of a few years back, has the knack of being moving without shamelessly overdoing a sure thing." [13] O'Callahan said in an interview that while the fight between him and McClanahan was fictional, the film accurately portrayed the "pretty intense" rivalry between Boston Terriers and Minnesota Gophers players, and was overall "pretty darn close" to actual events. [14]
As of May 2023, Miracle was rated the number six sports movie of all time with a rating of 9.06 out of 10 at Sports In Movies, after maintaining the number one spot for several years. [15]
Miracle won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award for 2004. [16]
American Film Institute recognition
Herbert Paul Brooks was an American ice hockey player and coach. His most notable achievement came in 1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid. At the Games, Brooks' American team upset the heavily favored Soviet team in a match that came to be known as the "Miracle on Ice."
The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's hockey tournament. Though the Soviet Union was a four-time defending gold medalist and heavily favored, the United States upset them and won 4–3.
Michael Anthony Eruzione is an American former ice hockey player. He is best known as the captain of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous "Miracle on Ice" game, in which he scored the game-winning goal. He is the author, with Neal E. Boudette, of the national bestseller, The Making of a Miracle: The Untold Story of the Captain of The Gold Medal-Winning 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, published by HarperCollins.
Mark Einar Johnson is an American ice hockey coach for the University of Wisconsin–Madison women's ice hockey team. He is a former National Hockey League (NHL) player who appeared in 669 NHL regular season games between 1980 and 1990. He also played for the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team.
Robert Bruce McClanahan is an American former professional ice hockey player who played 224 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres, Hartford Whalers and New York Rangers between 1980 and 1983. McClanahan was a member of the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviet Union en route to a gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980.
Craig Patrick is an American former hockey player, coach and general manager, the son of Lynn Patrick and the grandson of Lester Patrick. During the 1980 Winter Olympics, Patrick was the Assistant General Manager and Assistant Coach under Herb Brooks for the United States men's national ice hockey team, which won the gold medal and defeated the Soviet Union in the "Miracle on Ice". From 1989 to 2006, Patrick was the General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins where he oversaw back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992, as well as the drafting and signing of some players that would later win a Stanley Cup title for the Penguins in 2009.
The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, United States, was the ninth Olympic Championship, also serving as the 27th World Championships and the 38th European Championships. The United States won its first Olympic gold medal and second World Championship. Canada, represented for the second time by the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, won the silver and Canada's ninth consecutive Olympic ice hockey medal. The Soviet Union won the bronze medal and its sixth European Championship. The tournament was held at the Blyth Arena, under the supervision of George Dudley on behalf of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
John J. "Jack" O'Callahan is an American former professional ice hockey player who played 390 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season games between 1982 and 1989 for the Chicago Blackhawks and New Jersey Devils. Before turning professional, he was a member of the 1980 Winter Olympics United States national team that upset the Soviet Union in the "Miracle on Ice" game.
William Conrad "Buzz" Schneider is an American former ice hockey player best remembered for his role on the US Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. He was also a member of the US Olympic hockey team at the 1976 Winter Olympics.
Kenneth Arlington Morrow is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman and a member of the 1980 USA Olympic Miracle on Ice hockey team. He is currently serving as the New York Islanders' director of pro scouting. A member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, he played 550 regular season games in the National Hockey League between 1980 and 1989.
Michael Allen Ramsey is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 1,070 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Detroit Red Wings between 1980 and 1997, after helping the United States men's national ice hockey team win the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Mark Thomas Pavelich was an American professional ice hockey forward who played 355 regular season games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, and San Jose Sharks between 1981 and 1991. Pavelich was a member of the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the gold medal.
David Mark Silk is an American former professional ice hockey player. His professional career, which spanned 13 years, included 249 NHL regular season games with the Boston Bruins, Winnipeg Jets, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers. Silk is arguably most famous for being a member of the 1980 US Men's hockey team that won the gold medal at the Olympics in Lake Placid. He is the cousin of former NHL and Boston Bruins player Mike Milbury.
Jack Parker is an American ice hockey coach, who previously served as the head coach of the Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey team. The 2012–13 hockey season was Parker's 40th and final season as head coach of the Terriers, and his 47th overall at the school as a player or coach.
The Boston University Terriers men’s ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team that represents Boston University. They played their first game in 1918 and have won five national championships, while making 24 appearances in the Frozen Four.
Michael Mantenuto was an American film actor, college ice hockey player, and Army non-commissioned officer, best known for his performance as Olympic ice hockey star Jack O'Callahan in the 2004 Disney film Miracle.
Miracle on Ice is a 1981 American sports docudrama about the United States men's national ice hockey team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, that won the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. The USA team's victory over the heavily favored Soviet team in the medal round was dubbed the "Miracle on Ice". The film premiered on March 1, 1981, as an installment of The ABC Sunday Night Movie.
The United States of America has sent athletes to every celebration of the Winter Olympic Games. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.
Visvaldis Georgs Nagobads was a Latvian-born American physician. He earned a medical degree from the University of Tübingen in Germany, then immigrated to the United States in 1951. He served 34 years as the team physician for Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey and was a part of three NCAA Division I championship teams. He also served as the physician for the US men's national team at five Winter Olympics and was on the Miracle on Ice team which won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Jack Allan Hayes Blatherwick is an American hockey training physiologist. Blatherwick helped Herb Brooks train the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team and then joined Brooks' staff on the New York Rangers. In 2019, Blatherwick was the recipient of the Lester Patrick Trophy "for outstanding service to hockey in the United States."
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