Bring It On is a 2000 film about two competing high school cheerleading squads, starring Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, and Gabrielle Union. It was directed by Peyton Reed and written by Jessica Bendinger.
The film was followed by four direct-to-video sequels (none of whom contain any of the original cast members), 2004's Bring It On Again (which only shared producers with the original), 2006's Bring It On: All or Nothing, 2007's Bring It On: In It to Win It, and the upcoming Bring It On: Fight to the Finish.
Plot
The Rancho Carne High School cheerleading squad "The Toros" are aiming for their sixth consecutive national championship title. "Big Red", their team captain, is graduating and Torrance Shipman is elected to take her place.
The movie begins with Torrance Shipman entering a car with her boyfriend Aaron, who explains that the transition from high school to college is going to be a difficult one. Meanwhile, a new male student, Cliff Pantone, joins Torrance's class and takes a seat next to her. Although he is teased by two of the school's football players, he stands up for himself and Torrance immediately takes a liking to him.
During an after school practice for the Regionals, a girl injures herself and is taken to the hospital, forcing the team to hold auditions for a new member. All the applicants turn out to be complete failures, some even turning out to sing and do ballet. Whitney is positive her younger sister Jamie would be perfect for the team as she is light and can be thrown easily. When Jamie auditions, Whitney and her friend Courtney are impressed, but the others are less so.
When the next applicant, Missy, walks in, the girls don't appear to like her from her appearance and quickly find reasons to get her out of the gym. They say that tattoos are strictly forbidden but Missy reveals that the tattoo on her arm was drawn on when she was bored during fourth period. Missy explains that she's trying out because cheerleading is the closest thing she could find to gymnastics, since the school doesn't have a gymnastics team. Whitney attempts to make her to leave by telling her to complete a series of complicated gymnastics moves and Missy successfully executes them, amazing the rest of the crew. Torrance is especially impressed, but Courtney calls her an "über-dyke" which Missy interprets as an insult and leaves angrily.
Later, Torrance shows up at Missy's house. She is surprised when Cliff opens the door, and learns that Missy and Cliff are siblings. Eventually, Torrance convinces Missy to join the team and they soon become best friends while Torrance's feelings towards Cliff grow.
When Missy shows up to practice and watches and hears the routines, she storms out once again. Angry at the thought of her hand-picked candidate behaving unprofessionally, Torrance confronts her. Missy says that the cheers the Toros do were ripped off, but Torrance argues that that is not true. To prove otherwise, Missy then drives Torrance to a run-down part of Los Angeles, where Torrance is stunned to see another cheerleading squad, the East Compton Clovers, perform the exact same routine as theirs. When the Clovers, an African-American team, confront her and Missy, Torrance learns that Big Red has been coming regularly to the Clovers' performances and stealing all their moves.
Deciding to stick with the routines, they soon discover that the Clovers this time will not be ignored, when they show up at a Toros home game and perform the routine from the stands simultaneously with the cheerleaders, showing everyone in the stadium that the routines were stolen. The squad, with no options left, decides to change the routines.
The Toros need to put together a new routine quickly, but are struggling to come up with ideas. Torrance calls Aaron for support, but he doesn't pick up. When he does, it is revealed that he is cheating on Torrance without her knowing. He refers the team to a professional choreographer named Sparky Polastri, who teaches the team a new routine. Things take a turn for the worse at the Regionals competition, when the Toros find out that another team have exactly the same routine as theirs. After their copied routine, an official informs Torrance that Sparky was a scam artist who was teaching the same routine to various groups up and down the West Coast, but as the Toros are the current champions they are guaranteed a place in order to defend the title.
By this point, Torrance's personal problems have gotten to her, and she considers giving up cheerleading altogether. Cliff, however, upon seeing her like this, tells her that he believes in her and gives her encouragement. Torrance is visibly touched by this, and the duo come close to sharing a kiss, but are interrupted by Missy.
When Torrance walks into the gym the next day, Courtney and Whitney walk by her side and talk to her about stepping down from being captain. They announce to the group that they would pull out of this year's Nationals as they wouldn't be able to get a routine done in time. Torrance doesn't agree and convinces the team that they will do whatever it takes to win Nationals. She realizes that Aaron has sold her out and she confronts him at his dorm where she finds out that he is sleeping with another girl and breaks up with him.
Meanwhile, the Clovers have to pull out of Nationals as they couldn't raise enough money, but Torrance, who is determined to compete against them, gets her dad's company to sponsor them. However, the team leader of the Clovers, Isis, rips up the check saying she doesn't need Torrance's money and would rather the Clovers raise it themselves. They do end up raising it by appealing to a popular television talk show host who sponsors them as part of the 'Wish Day' portion of her show.
Nationals Day finally arrives but before the Clovers and the Toros complete their routines, Torrance approaches Isis to try and make up for things. In an effort to be helpful, she tells Isis to tell her team to not step out of bounds but Isis seems to ignore her. After a few seconds, Isis turns around and yells to her team to not go out of bounds, possibly realizing that her rival team has had more experience. Isis, returning the favor, also tells Torrance that one of her girls was half a second early on all her moves while practicing the routine. The Toros end up getting second place to the Clovers.
Torrance and Isis make up and end up becoming friends.
When Cliff walks up to Torrance and Missy, Missy leaves them alone and Torrance finally kisses Missy's brother.
Cast
Production
Locations
The movie was filmed at locations around San Diego.[citation needed] The field shots were filmed at Torrey Pines High School, in the Carmel Valley area of San Diego. The East Compton High School gym scenes were filmed at Kearny High School and the Rancho Carne High School gym scenes were filmed at Academy of Our Lady of Peace. The locker room and scoreboard scenes were shot at Mt. Carmel High School. The exterior shots of Rancho Carne High School were mainly filmed at San Diego State University. The stands and field at the Toros game was shot at Eastlake High School. The NCA's were shot in Oceanside, California next to the pier.[citation needed]
Reception
The film earned $17,362,105 in 2,380 theaters in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $68,379,000 in the United States and Canada and an additional $22,070,929 in other countries for a total gross of $90,449,929.
This movie ranked number 30 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[1]
Reviewer Roger Ebert hailed it as the "Citizen Kane of cheerleader movies".[2]
References
External links
