Plot
Haley Graham is a rebellious 17-year-old who has a run-in with the law when she and two friends stage an illegal bike race through a residential construction site in Plano, Texas. Arrested and brought before a judge, Haley agrees to a deal where she can avoid punishment if she returns to the world of professional gymnastics.
Haley was once considered one of the most talented and promising gymnasts in the U.S., known for her flair and raw power which enabled her to perform higher difficulty moves her fellow competitors couldn't, but in turn was not known for her consistency. One year earlier, she made it to the World Championships, but she walked out of the team all-around finals just before her final floor routine, costing the American team the gold medal, leaving her teammates in tears and simultaneously ruining both her reputation and her future prospects. Haley retired from the sport that day.
Haley enrolls in the elite Vickerman Gymnastics Academy (VGA) in Houston, her ultimate nightmare, run by legendary coach Burt Vickerman. Haley has a talk with Vickerman, who offers to handle her training until she can enter an upcoming invitational competition; she decides to use the prize money to settle the property damage claims she owes and then retire once again. Disliking the sport's rigid rules and intense training schedule, Haley is reluctant to come out of retirement. Her attitude toward her fellow gymnasts, as well as her past, causes conflicts, and only reluctantly agrees to ask Vickerman to teach her how to 'control her tricks', rather than always 'flooring it'.
At the invitational, Haley's talent shines and her return from gymnastics retirement seems for the better. But all is not what it seems in the scoring system. She starts to remember one of the many reasons why she retired to begin with: the flaws in judging. The panels do not look at the difficulty of the move nor do they look at the technique; they merely take deductions for unimportant minor errors. As Haley says, "It doesn't matter how well you do. It's how well you follow their rules."
In addition, Haley is severely stressed by her domineering mother, Alice, who has arrived to watch the meet. Her conduct at the World Championship ("Worlds") has not been forgotten by the other athletes or fans and they treat her with open hostility, including one fan tossing a full cup of soda at her, requiring her to buy a new leotard. After making a mistake in her balance beam routine, Haley finally breaks down and, in a repeat of the World Championships a year earlier, leaves the arena before completing the competition. However, before she leaves, she reveals to Vickerman the reason why she walked out of Worlds the first time: she had just learned of Alice's affair with her coach, leading to a divorce and Haley losing contact with her father.
Haley returns to the judge and states that she is ready to accept her punishment, but the judge tells Haley that someone (obviously Vickerman) has just paid off all of her debts, meaning she is no longer under any legal issues and having "jerks for parents" doesn't need to ruin her life.
Haley then approaches Vickerman, who reveals that he used money left to him by her father to pay for coaching. Vickerman persuades Haley to remain with the academy a while longer so she can continue with her training to reach Nationals. Although she did not complete the invitational, Haley continues to train and, through her dedication, successfully qualifies for the National Championships along with three of her teammates: Mina Hoyt, Wei Wei Yong, and Joanne Charis.
Despite giving what the commentators described as 'the performance of her life' in the all-around finals, the overly critical and harsh judging leaves her finishing in 7th place, but this does not keep her out of the individual event finals. In the first event final, vault, Mina executes an extremely difficult manoeuvre perfectly but inexplicably receives a large half-point deduction, resulting in a score of 9.500, indicating that had it not been for the deduction, she would have scored a perfect 10.000. When Vickerman questions the judges, he learns that Mina was penalized on the technicality of (unintentionally) showing a bra strap, leaving him and the crowd incensed. Haley is next up, and, finally losing patience with the judges, angrily tosses her tracksuit down in frustration. She deliberately shows both her bra straps to the judges and, instead of vaulting, jumps to stand on top of the vault, giving the judges a rock symbol salute, and forfeits her turn in disgust (otherwise known as a "scratch").
Haley's bold action sparks a movement. Joanne in turn shocks her mother by treating the run-up as a catwalk before showing her own bra straps, scratching as well. Showing solidarity with Mina, the other gymnasts in the vault final do the same, forcing the judges to award Mina the vault gold medal. Joanna realises that the gymnasts have the power to choose the "winner" of each event if they all agree to sabotage the competition by intentionally scratching. Realizing their shared feeling of frustrating at the scoring system, the other gymnasts agree to collaborate in forcing the judges to award the gold to the gymnasts of their choice. Nastia Liukin wins the uneven bars by being the only gymnast to complete any technical move, with no silver or bronze medal being awarded.
Before the balance beam final, the judges try to foil the movement by reinstating Tricia Skilken (Tarah Paige), a longtime judges' favorite and Haley's former teammate and best friend who had won the all-around final the day before. Tricia competes and ends up competing and winning the event, but the gymnasts' chosen "winner", Wei Wei, completely undermines the judges' scoring system by performing a breakdance inspired routine, leaving the crowd and her fellow gymnasts in awe. Although given a much lower score due to so many moves being considered non-standard, the judges have no choice but to award her the silver medal.
Before Haley's final floor routine, Vickerman approaches her and tells her how proud to be her coach he is and, going against his own coaching advice from earlier, says: 'don't you dare hold back, and floor it'. Haley performs a powerful, highly challenging routine in which her personality shines through, and receives a standing ovation from the crowd and her fellow gymnasts, but the judges still find 0.900 worth deduction. Finally realising what her fellow gymnasts were trying to say by scratching, Tricia stuns the rest of the arena by scratching herself, leaving Haley to win gold. What started out as a gymnastics competition turns into a small revolution for the rules and Haley learns that she has been offered several athletic scholarships to compete in NCAA gymnastics.
