
Hope comes alive
Plot outline
Cast
- Billy Bob Thornton
- Lucas Black
- Garrett Hedlund
- Derek Luke
- Jay Hernandez
- Lee Jackson
- Lee Thompson Young
- Tim McGraw
- Grover Coulson
- Connie Britton
- Connie Cooper
- Kasey Stevens
- Ryanne Duzich
- Amber Heard
- Morgan Farris
- Laine Kelly
- Gavin Grazer
- Turk Pipkin
- Carey Windler
- Tommy G. Kendrick
- Brad Leland
- Lillian Langford
- Christian Kane
- Buddy Hale
- Ken Farmer
- Marco Perella
- Eloise DeJoria
- Robert Weaver
- Katherine Willis
- Angie Bolling
- Charles Sanders
- Barry Sykes
- Clay Kennedy
- Lewis B. Johnson
- J.D. Hawkins
- Bob Thomas
- Wade L. Johnston
- Rick Herod
- Paul Wright
- Julius Tennon
- Dennis Hill
- Timothy Walter
- Robert Scott Smith
- Kenneth Plunk
- Josh Berry
- Branson Washburn
- David Johnson
- John Hayden
- Chris Palmer
- Kyle Scott Jackson
- C. Anthony Jackson
- Kippy Brown
- Cleveland 'Chick' Harris
- Billy Melvin Thomas
- Kam Hunt
- Roy Williams
- Gary Mack Griffin
- Randy Brinlee
- Dan Rankin
- Timothy F. Crowley
- Harvey L. Jeffries
- Tiki Davis
- Everett Smith
- Ty Law
- Christopher Dahlberg
- Peter Harrell Jr.
- Kevin Page
- Brady Coleman
- Stephen Bishop
- Bob Richardson
- J. Mark Donaldson
- Aisha Schliessler
- Evan Bernard
- Rutherford Cravens
- Wayne Hanawalt
- Brian Thornton
- Sam Austin
- Mark Nutter
- Jeff Gibbs
- Richard Dillard
- Robert Flores
- Terry Dale Parks
- Talon Smith
- Taylor Sawyers
- Bradley Lisman
- Richard Nance
- Aaron Babino
- Dean Baldwin
- Ben Bronson
- Sunny Byrd
- John Clark
- Bobby Doherty
- Chris Fisher
- Cedric Foster
- Corey Hargers
- Tavis Harvey
- Deshaun Hill
- Ryan Jacobs
- Nick Jester
- Mike Jones
- Tyrone Jones
- Mark Llewellyn
- Jon Luke
- O.J. McClintock
- Robert Van
- Joseph Norman
- Dewayne Patmon
- Everick Rawls
- Brett Robin
- Steven Rogers
- Ray Ross
- Chad L. Stevens
- Travis Thompson
- Matt Trissel
- Brandon Tully
- Darrick Wallace
- Gurie Sheffield
- Olivia Young
- Lance Aaron
- Charan Andreas
- Stacy Lynn Austin
- Crystal Brown-Tatum
- Dan Burkarth
- Gene Burns
- Joseph T. Campos
- Jason Carroll
- D.J. Castillo
- Robert M. Clark
- Erik Collins
- Catherine Cooper
- Colby Crain
- Kimberly Ensey
- Laura Evans
- Todd Falcon
- Mark Falvo
- Terry Funk
- Russell Wayne Groves
- Ashley Hallford
- Holly Hargrave
- Hiawatha Henry
- Nathaniel Holt
- Lee Irving
- Sharri Jones
- Tiffany Lang
- Tex Marshall
- Ric Mendoza
- Hugo Perez
- James Pollard
- Clint Quintero
- Hasaan Rasheed
- Angela Rawna
- James Edward Shippy
- Bobby Shue
- Cassandra L. Small
- Jason Starritt
- Gary Vaught
- C. Jo Vela
- Sonny Villarreal
- Stephen Weatherford
- Mark A. White
- Jimmy Willden
- John Wirt
- Jacqueline Wright
- Heath Young
- Terri Zee
Plots
Based on H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers.
Odessa, Texas, is a small, town in Texas. Racially divided and economically dying, there is one night that gives the town something to live for: Friday Night. The Permian Panthers have a big winning tradition in Texas high school football, led by QB Mike Winchell and superstar tailback Boobie Miles, but all is not well, as Boobie suffers a career-ending injury in the first game of the season. Hope is lost among citizens in Odessa, and for the team, but Coach Gary Gaines, who believes that "Perfection is being able to look your friends in the eye and know you did everything you could not to let them down", is somehow able to help the team rise up from the ashes and make a huge season comeback. Now on their way to state, the Panthers must go out and be perfect, because they may never matter this much for the rest of their lives.
A straight arrow coach leads his team to the 1988 Texas state semifinals in the west Texas city of Odessa, where high school football is king. Expectations of classmates, coaches, family, and community members exact a toll on the athletes central to the story. Economic and racial undertones pervade this adaptation of H.G. Bissinger's book by the same name.
Expectations are high for the 1988 football team at Permian "MOJO" High School in the blue-collar, football-crazy town of Odessa, Texas. MOJO is a traditional powerhouse in Texas high school football, and the community lets coach Gaines know in many not-so-subtle ways that nothing short of a state championship is a failure. But when the team loses its star tailback in the first game of the season, hopes seem dashed, and MOJO goes into an early tailspin. Everyone is ready to hang coach Gaines in effigy, and the team is left for dead. But miraculously, coach Gaines pulls the team together, and MOJO makes a now-unlikely run into the state playoffs.