Can a young amateur named Rocky Balboa go the distance with heavyweight champion Apollo Creed? Can an inexperienced boxer named Maggie Fitzgerald become a million dollar baby?

It’s easy to root for an underdog when the underdog has optimism; their struggle to succeed matches our own desires to make something of ourselves and it gives us hope. When it comes to sports, watching the underdog triumph has been captivating moviegoers for decades. From Knute Rockne All American to Major League to Seabiscuit, the moviegoing audience has historically found inspiration in sports films both fictional and those inspired by true events. 

Will the 2022 Winter Olympics produce a new crop of underdogs who will deserve a movie made about their trials and triumphs? As we can learn from previous films based on Olympians, winning isn’t everything but heart, spirit, and the will to represent your country in the world’s biggest sporting event can mean more than taking home the gold. 

Here are three Winter Olympics-based films screenwriters can study when crafting their own underdog tale: 

'Eddie the Eagle' (2015) 

There are people who just don’t take no for an answer. In the 1980s, Eddie Edwards was one of those guys. Ever since he was a kid, he dreamed of being in the Olympics. His parents didn’t believe in him, no one thought he could do it. He had a leg brace, glasses, and nothing close to an athletic build.

What he did have was optimism and heart. When he discovered the sport of ski jumping and learned that England had not had an Olympic ski jumper since 1929, he made it his mission to be the representative of the sport. He became known as Eddie the Eagle.

Eddie’s (Taron Egerton) journey has many parallels to the famed hero’s journey. He has his call to adventure (Olympic ski jumper), finds himself a mentor (Bronson Peary, played by Hugh Jackman), meets several challenges, and hits rock bottom before redemption.

This is a journey we want to take with Eddie because he reminds the audience that an ordinary person can do extraordinary things. We want to know what it takes to be an Olympian and we’re eager to go on the ride with him.

The mentor in Winter Olympic films is often the coach — someone who has turned their back on the sport, likely burned a few bridges and is reluctant to help the eager young athlete(s). In Eddie the Eagle, Peary is the mentor who couldn’t cut it as a ski jumper and drank his troubles away. It takes Eddie’s persistence and fortitude to bring Peary on board.

Even as Eddie continues his training regimen (through montages, of course) and succeeds in getting closer to competing in the games, people still refuse to take him seriously; only himself and his coach think he can make it to the competition level.

Sports films are about impossible odds and refusing to bow out even when everyone else doubts you. Eddie the Eagle works because he’s a character we want to see succeed.

And success doesn’t necessarily mean winning, but rather proving to the world you could do what you set out to do.

Eddie placed last in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, but he won the hearts of viewers and broke records for British ski jumping.

Eddie the Eagle was written by Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton and directed by Dexter Fletcher.

'Cool Runnings' (1993)

The 1988 Olympic games not only produced an unlikely ski jumper from Britain, but showcased the country least likely to produce a Winter Olympics athlete: Jamaica, where the coldest month still sees average temperatures in the 80s.

Cool Runnings is based on the first Jamaican bobsled team (the 2022 Olympics have both male and female bobsled teams from Jamaica) and how they overcome impossible odds and several obstacles to find their place in the pantheon of Olympic glory.

How does a group of Jamaicans go from the Caribbean island to Calgary? That’s the journey the audience wants to take with a story that immediately holds intrigue. Jamaican bobsledders?

The heroes of the film are the optimistic group of Jamaicans who seek out the guidance of a former — and disgraced — Olympian. The bobsledding team is made up of Derice (Leon), who was a runner but was disqualified from the Summer Olympics; Sanka (Doug E. Doug), a pushcart racer; Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba), who wants to escape the island in hopes of a better life; and Junior (Rawle D. Lewis), the son of a wealthy Jamaican trying to carve his own path.

They are a team with little in common with one another but are convinced — thanks to Sanka’s insistence — that they can actually become bobsledders despite never having seen snow. What drives this desire is knowing that Irv (John Candy), that disgruntled former Olympian (who lives in Jamaica), is their best shot at training to become Olympians.

Just like Peary in Eddie the Eagle, Irv wants nothing to do with it; stating that it’s too hot outside, there’s no snow and there’s not enough time for them to even train. The reluctant mentor finally is worn down and even becomes a champion of their success.

In any good sports movie you need a montage (several, actually) that shows how the team is improving.

Cool Runnings offers fish-out-of-water comedy as the Jamaicans head to Calgary and face the frigid, snowy weather. Their journey is filled with crises of confidence, struggles to prove themselves, and using their unique style to warm the cold hearts of their detractors until Jamaica cheers them on as a country and even the sportscasters become fans.

What Cool Runnings does is create the feel-good story that shows anything is possible. And while the bobsledders don’t win, it’s the journey we’re glad we took.

For Cool Runnings and Eddie the Eagle, writers can see how the fool transforms into a hero; how real-life events of an everyperson with impossible dreams and their seemingly unwavering optimism creates a compelling Olympic film.

Of course, a surly mentor doesn’t hurt.

Cool Runnings was written by Lynn Siefert, Tommy Swerdlow and Michael Goldberg and directed by Jon Turteltaub.

'Miracle' (2004)

Miracle takes place at a time in America’s life when the country needed a win. Similar to Seabiscuit or 12 Mighty Orphans, which both took place during the Great Depression, the country was experiencing tumultuous times, as indicated in Miracle’s opening credits.

The United States was in the midst of a Cold War against the former Soviet Union, which produced athletes who were winning constantly at the Winter Olympics. There was also Watergate and the Nixon resignation, inflation, an oil crisis sparking long gas lines, a country-wide crisis of confidence, and then the Iran hostage crisis. Bottom line: the U.S. needed a miracle.

And hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics seemed to be a good place to start.

Unlike the previously mentioned films, Miracle isn’t about a single person or a team dreaming of Olympic glory. These hockey players have no trouble making it into the games — in fact, it’s expected.

What the film focuses on is the coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) and his building a team that not only competes at the highest level, but can win against the dominating Russians. 

In this case, the conflict doesn’t necessarily come from turning a dream into reality; but more from conflicts among team members, Olympic committee members, rules, and coach Brooks’ family members. This is a story of triumph culminating from a team coming together.

Montages, as always, show how the team members improve their abilities, become friendlier with one another, and their success playing against rivals. With each montage, the stakes are raised. Once they function as a team, they must now win at the Olympics — each new skate being harder than the previous.

It has similarities to Cool Runnings in that the team must work as a single entity as selfishness gets in the way of success. In one instance, coach Brooks asks for the players to announce their names, where they’re from, and what team they play for. Many of the players’ response to the third question is the college team they skate for. It’s not until a brutal post-game training session that it clicks.

One team member says his name, where he’s from and ends with, “And I play for the USA.” The switch is flipped; the first hurdle leapt.

The Olympics is about country: Eddie represents the U.K., the bobsledders represent Jamaica, and the hockey players had to represent the U.S. Part of the arcs of the characters is realizing they are doing something that’s bigger than themselves.

Miracle was written by Eric Guggenheim and directed by Gavin O'Connor.

Sports movies are about more than just the sport itself, even if they are based on true stories. A good film is about the characters and how they meet the moment. The sport should come second to who the characters are and what they’re trying to achieve.

Whether it’s the Avengers or the Jamaican bobsled team, the reason we want them to win is because of who they are.