A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.
- Elmo
- (as J. C. Quinn)
- Kevin
- (as R. H. Thomson)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
But, for those that have, and for the friends and parents of those wrestlers, this movie is a solid 9/10 rating. The movie hits on every aspect of this sports tortuous rigor: losing weight every week, not eating, training, and the mental gymnastics involved with having to believe that you can beat anyone at anytime.
And most realistically, this movie also shows the hardships of doing what every other high school kid does, in combination with the rigors of the sport. They have love relationships, they have classmates, they have to deal with the teachers and coaches, as well as their own family, plus they have to deal with their own teammates each week who may want to take over the top position at their weight.
As one who had over 100 high school matches (15 years before the making of this movie), I can confirm that there is no better movie than this about high school wrestling. When you rate this movie you should not think about how good it is among all other movies, rather you should rate it solely based on its ability to achieve the objective of accurately portraying its subject.
I guess that some would think Louden is not a "team player", but wrestling is an individual sport, no matter how others would want to portray it (although if you win your team gets points). Now that this diatribe (which it might be to some) is about over, I will summarize as follows: Do not watch the movie if you don't care about seeing an exceptionally good story about high school wrestling, you won't like it!
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was Linda Fiorentino's very first audition straight out of drama school. She got the part, and it was her feature-film debut.
- GoofsIn the match between Loudon and Shute, the referee clearly says "no takedown" as they go out of bounds. Yet, when he brings them back to the line, Loudon takes the "down" position and the score is 2-0 in Shute's favor, indicating a takedown has been awarded.
- Quotes
Louden Swain: You never took a night off to see me wrestle before. They'll dock you for that.
Elmo: Hey, kid - money ain't everything.
Louden Swain: It's not that big a deal, Elmo. I mean, it's six lousy minutes on the mat, if that.
Elmo: You ever hear of Pele?
Louden Swain: Yeah, he's a, a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player.
[pause]
Elmo: I was in the room here one day... watchin' the Mexican channel on TV. I don't know nothin' about Pele. I'm watchin' what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in - upside down and backwards... the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pele gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around his head. Everybody's screaming in Spanish. I'm here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying.
[pause]
Elmo: That's right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute... let me tell ya, kid - it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain't the six minutes... it's what happens in that six minutes.
- ConnectionsFeatured in At the Movies: Vision Quest/Turk 182/Blood Simple/Mischief (1985)
- SoundtracksOnly The Young
(end title)
Performed by Journey
Written by Steve Perry, Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain
Produced by Mike Chapman
Scandal did indeed record a version of this song, but the soundtrack version is Journey.
Courtesy of Columbia Records
- How long is Vision Quest?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $12,993,175
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $2,651,665
- Feb 18, 1985
- Gross worldwide
- $12,993,175
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1