< Cool Runnings

Cool Runnings/YMMV


  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: After the bobsled crashes, they indicate they don't need medical help, and carry the bobsled across the line. This actually happened in Real Life, except they didn't raise it to shoulder-height; they just pushed it along the ground.
    • Irv confronting the Olympic committee, and his former coach Kurt, after the team is disqualified out of the blue. He correctly guesses that Kurt has moved to disqualify them out of spite for the cheating scandal in the 1972 Games, which led to Kurt, Irv and his teammates being stripped of their gold medals. The speech that follows is what truly cements Irv's redemption from his past. This film was also one of John Candy’s last performances before his death, and he hit it out of the park in this scene:

Irv: If it’s revenge you want, take it! Go ahead! Disqualify me! Banish me! Do whatever you want, but do it to me! It was me who let you down, Kurt! It wasn’t my guys! They’ve done everything you’ve asked of them, and they did it with all of your laughing in their face. Hell, it doesn’t matter if they come in first or fiftieth! Those guys have earned the right to represent their country. They’ve earned the right to march into that stadium and wave their nation’s flag. That’s the single greatest honor an athlete could ever have! That’s what the Olympics are all about! Sixteen years ago I forgot that. Don’t you go and do the same.

Sanka Coffie: You don't understand, I am Sanka Coffie, I am the best pushcart driver in all of Jamaica! ...I must drive! Do you dig where I'm coming from?
Irv: Yeah, I dig where you're coming from.
Sanka Coffie: Good.
Irv: Now dig where I'm coming from. I'm coming from two gold medals. I'm coming from nine world records in both the two- and four-man events. I'm coming from ten years of intense competition with the best athletes in the world.
Sanka Coffie: That's a hell of a place to be coming from!
Irv: Y'see, Sanka, the driver has to work harder than anyone. He's the first to show up, and the last to leave. When his buddies are all out drinking beer, he's up in his room studying pictures of turns. Y'see, a driver must remain focused 100% at all times. Not only is he responsible for knowing every inch of every course he races, he's also responsible for the lives of the other men in the sled. Now do you want that responsibility?
Sanka: -I say we make Derice the driver.
Irv: So do I, Sanka. So do I.

Sanka: Derice, you dead?
Derice: No, mon. I'm not dead. We have to finish the race.

    • Junior's father standing at the finish line with a Jamaica shirt on, beaming from ear to ear.
    • The slow clap started by the East German who had been one of the rudest to the Jamaicans and capped off by the very official who had tried to get them disqualified:

Josef Grool: "Very good, Jamaica. We'll see you in four years, ja?"

  • Harsher in Hindsight: After the Jamaican team's third bobsled run at the Olympics, the East German team captain congratulates Derice with "Very good, Jamaica. See you in four years, ja?" Ironically, that wouldn't happen, because while Jamaica did return to compete in future winter Olympics, East Germany itself ceased to exist prior to the next Olympics in 1992.
    • Although if you lived in Germany at the time the country was reunited, this would count as a Funny Aneurysm Moment, and especially if you were an East German waiting ever so much to be reunited with West German relatives, this would be Hilarious in Hindsight.
  • Older Than They Think: Several non-winter countries, not just Jamaica, competed in bobsled in 1988, where they created an informal "Carribean Cup". Mexico competed in bobsled in 1928, the second Winter Olympics, making this Older Than Television.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Avoided with the Jamaican protagonists, but played uncomfortably straight with the bullying German team, who are excessively disciplined and abusive towards the Jamaicans, with some pretty heavily racist overtones.
    • What's equally unfortunate is that this is NOT how the other teams behaved in Real Life. They were actually very friendly and willing to share the use of their sleds and other equipment in order for the Jamaicans to prepare for the competition.
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