Redbelt

Sondra Terry: You think it was noble? The code of the warrior. You think it's noble?
Mike Terry: No, I think it's correct.

Redbelt is a combination Martial Arts/Crime film written and directed by David Mamet and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor. Mamet called it an homage to the Samurai Films of Akira Kurosawa, though it is shot in a decidedly modern fashion. Considering Mamet's years of Jujitsu experience and the involvement of numerous martial artists, including Bruce Lee's successor Dan Inosanto and MMA legends Randy Couture and Pat Militech, the movie should have been an accurate portrayal of Mixed Martial Arts, but has been criticized for relying on ludicrous scenarios and cinematic maneuvers.

This was contrasted by the gritty realism of the crime story, particularly Ejiofor's portrayal of Warrior Poet Mike Terry, which garnered him a great deal of praise.

Tropes used in Redbelt include:

• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Mike Terry vs. the LAPD.
• Dan Browned: There were a number of experts consulted on the film, and this fact was touted in promotional materials, but they were mostly old-school MMA fighters, and they have little interaction with the modern version of the sport. Overall, the film gets very little right about MMA or the fight business.
  • There are a great many reasons why the marble gimmick could never catch on or be legally practiced in the United States. The most glaring reason is that no athletic commission would allow competitors to fight handicapped, with an arm tied down.
  • Chiwetel Ejiofor's character is offered on opportunity to make his MMA debut days before the event begins. There are numerous reasons why this would and could not happen.
  • Ejiofor is offered an outrageous sum of money for a debuting, unknown fighter on the undercard. The sum is also not divided into show/win purses. It's apparently a flat fee, whether or not he wins. Only on rare occasions do headliners work out special deals that do not include win purses, and it's usually in exchange for a percentage of the event's profits.
  • Given that Mamet is himself a Jujitsu purplebelt, you'd expect the pure BJJ portrayed in the film to be accurate, but it's not without implausible sections to the trained eye. When Ejiofor fights John Machado, the BJJ technical advisor for the film, his character goes for a rear naked choke from a standing position, which is a very poor tactic with a low chance of success.
• Did Not Do the Research: The portrayal of the modern Mixed Martial Arts business.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: features a very antiquated and ill-informed version of Mixed Martial Arts. The main character is offered a chance to fight on the undercard of an event for a flat $50,000, though real fight purses are divided into a "show purse" for fighting and a "win purse" awarded only if the fighter wins. Also, the plot revolves around the concept of implementing randomly-assigned handicaps before each bout, which would never fly in the real world. The promoters state that the whole point is to make the handicapped fighter lose, but if every fight was determined by a randomly-assigned handicap, no one would bother watching. It defeats the entire point of athletic competition. Also, a system that handicaps fighters would never get past any athletic commissions, which do not allow fighters who cannot defend themselves properly to compete.
• Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way: The main character (Terry) escapes a standing rear naked choke by running up a wall and doing a backflip. Technically this could work if the person applying the choke just stands there...but 5th degree black belt John Machado, applying the choke, would have in real life put his hooks in to stay on Terry's back.^[1]
• Martial Pacifist: Mike Terry, who refuses to fight for money, lest it sully his warrior spirit.
• No OSHA Compliance: The 'handicapped' matches.
• The Ending Changes Everything: After suddenly being snubbed and ripped off by some Hollwood types, the main character desperately tries to figure out what's going on. He finally discovers that it's all about a laughably impossible scheme to fix Mixed Martial Arts matches.
• Warrior Poet: Mike Terry

1. ↑ "Hooks" refer to hooking the inside of your opponent's legs with yours to immobilize them and keep you glued to their back. Note that the second step to escaping in the video link is to remove one or both hooks.