Air (the Nike / Air Jordan movie) - Spoilers

[Imzadi]

If you want a feel good, underdog gets a happy ending movie, this is one.

This is a fact-based story (with dramatic embellishments of course,) about a very un-cool, little sneaker company back in 1984, named Nike, that tried to get a bigger piece of the pie of the sneaker empire by trying to land a young, very new NBA basketball player named Michael Jordan to sign an endorsement deal with the company.

Unless one is rather young, you probably already know the place Air Jordans have in sports and cultural history and present day life. And if one is rather young, it's great learning about this story for the first time of "the little engine that could." There is no sex, violence, although there is some foul language now and then.

One does not have to be a basketball fan to watch the movie. (I'm certainly not.) To be clear: this is a movie about the five men at Nike (led by Matt Damon,) and their pivotal parts in this collaboration of getting this long shot dream into reality.

It is NOT about Michael Jordan. When Michael granted an interview with director/producer Ben Affleck, Michael said he didn't want to be in any movie, nor have any movie about him. He said something like, "If you want to make a movie, make one about my Mama and HER strength, vision, and as the driving force in my life, and I'll sign off on that movie." And he talked to no end about his mother's part in it. That's when Ben got the bright idea to re-tool the concept of the movie with first-time writer, Alex Convery, and then cast the indomitable Viola Davis as Michael's mother, and her real-life husband, actor Julius Tennon as Michael's father.

It was nice seeing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck acting together in another movie. Jason Bateman & Chris Tucker are no slouches in this.

For those who were around during the '80s, this movie is like opening a time capsule, seeing all the gadgets, memorabilia and culture of the time. The movie's song soundtrack is one of my favorite parts of the movie.

The movie is free on Amazon Prime. Or a Prime membership for one month is $14.99, the price of one movie ticket and the whole family can watch together. And it is in some movie theatres.

WARNING: Some people posted spoilers below.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

We’ve watched it twice now and we all really liked it. Loved the actors in this movie. Your summary is spot-on and I loved the 80s time capsule part of it and especially the music.

 

[starry_solo]

I should watch this, but I am watching Chuck (TV series from NBC) on Amazon Prime now. Going to put this on my "to watch" list

 

[Dan Murphy]

(I'm certainly not.)

What about the Knicks, @Imzadi?

I thought it was a very good movie also. Nice synopsis.

 

[SueInBoston]

This is a great movie! we saw it in a theater on a rainy afternoon with no expectations and knew nothing about it (I thought it was a basketball movie). We walked out exhiliated.

 

[Karin1984]

I didn't care about this movie at all. If I was more into sports, then maybe it was for me. I was so bored.

But my main issues were that I didn't care for any of the main characters, and it was too predictable.
It's like with the movie Titanic. When you know how the story ends before seeing it, you have to work really hard to make it interesting and to care about the people. That's why Titanic works, regardless that we know how it ends and who survives, because we care about Rose and Jack we keep watching.

The movie starts with a man with a gambling addiction, which contributes hardly to the story. If it was out, I wouldn't have missed it.

I was surprised by some weird things at the end. All the way at the end is an explanation where the name Nike comes from. As if it was an afterthought, that Nike had demanded this was somewhere in the movie. And I didn't need to know of ALL the characters what happened after the movie. Like the most interesting thing about the CEO was that he donated 2 million dollar to charity. This should have been only about the 3 main characters.

The best thing about it was Viola Davis and the decision not to show Michael Jordan, only from the back.
I would agree with Michael Jordan, a movie about his mother was probably a good idea.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Yes we watched that not long ago. We enjoyed it!

 

[EACarlson]

I watched it on a flight over the weekend and it was ok, it's not going to be a movie I go back and watch over and over again. Too many things that seemed like it should be important but never was returned to. Like the trip to Vegas on the way home from the showcase. It was three quarters of the way through the movie before the Jordan Cut was ever brought up. That was the biggest change in endorsement deals ever.

 

[LuvOrlando]

We loved it! The movie was really was really well done & watched because Matt Damon & Ben Affleck tend to tell really solid "outstanding normal people" stories as a team, seems to be their brand and we are fans. Loved that all artists involved told a good story about human beings without dragging pointless nudity into it, this story was about character. Loved that they showed Deloris Jordan as her son's advocate and protector, we don't see enough of that natural hero sort of business ability in women who catapult to the top. Michael Jordan is an icon but this movie made it plain he didn't get there by himself, his mamma is formidable and made sure her son wasn't exploited. Wonderful!

(hear that Britney's dad, the opposite of this - loser)

 

[Imzadi]

What about the Knicks, @Imzadi?

I thought it was a very good movie also. Nice synopsis.

@Dan Murphy The Knicks just are not a winning team.

 

[Mysterian]

I watched it last night and enjoyed it. Great job by the whole cast.
Even though we know Jordan's going to join with Nike, it's interesting to see what led up to this. And I never would have cared about this subject, but the movie does a good job of engaging you and putting the importance of the moment into context.

As for Sonny's gambling, I think the point of those early scenes was to establish his character as a guy who takes great risks in order to achieve his goals. That, and his sports gambling wins also show he has a good sense for who is a valuable player.

Same with the boardroom scene where the basketball department is deciding which players to go with. Sonny clearly shows he has the best understanding for ball players amongst his entire department. Even Rob (Bateman) doesn't see what Sonny sees on the Jordan game tape until he points out some subtle clues that reveal Jordan is more valuable that people assume.

So all that depicts Sonny's mindset throughout the movie. He was even told not to visit Jordan's parents, he did. He was told it was foolish to pay the entire 250K budget to one player, but he insisted. He knew the risk was being fired, Nike losing money, etc. He gambled every step of the way! Sonny gambles, but he's pretty passionate and insightful about what he's betting on. Hence his speech in the final boardroom, he knew what an influence Jordan could become.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I watched it last night and enjoyed it. Great job by the whole cast.
Even though we know Jordan's going to join with Nike, it's interesting to see what led up to this. And I never would have cared about this subject, but the movie does a good job of engaging you and putting the importance of the moment into context.

As for Sonny's gambling, I think the point of those early scenes was to establish his character as a guy who takes great risks in order to achieve his goals. That, and his sports gambling wins also show he has a good sense for who is a valuable player.

Same with the boardroom scene where the basketball department is deciding which players to go with. Sonny clearly shows he has the best understanding for ball players amongst his entire department. Even Rob (Bateman) doesn't see what Sonny sees on the Jordan game tape until he points out some subtle clues that reveal Jordan is more valuable that people assume.

So all that depicts Sonny's mindset throughout the movie. He was even told not to visit Jordan's parents, he did. He was told it was foolish to pay the entire 250K budget to one player, but he insisted. He knew the risk was being fired, Nike losing money, etc. He gambled every step of the way! Sonny gambles, but he's pretty passionate and insightful about what he's betting on. Hence his speech in the final boardroom, he knew what an influence Jordan could become.

I totally agree, the gambling and his skill with statistics showed he was a natural numbers guy who had a natural aptitude for Risk Analysis.

 

[China Expat]

Fabulous movie!!!!!!!

 

[katiebelle21]

Loved it! I thought it was well done and I enjoyed all the 80s nostalgia.

 

[bcla]

This is a fact-based story (with dramatic embellishments of course,) about a very un-cool, little sneaker company back in 1984, named Nike, that tried to get a bigger piece of the pie of the sneaker empire by trying to land a young, very new NBA basketball player named Michael Jordan to sign an endorsement deal with the company.

Nike was hardly little back in the mid-80s. They were close to a billion dollar company even back then, and I think Phil Knight was already a billionaire at the time depicted by the movie. I think they were the biggest athletic shoe company in the world and at least top 3. But in the movie Nike was referred to by detractors as "a running shoe company". They were huge in a market where people bought running shoes to wear for running or on weekends. They were huge at the 1984 Summer Olympics where the star (Carl Lewis) was sponsored by Nike.

The big deal with Nike was that they were small in the basketball market. They had a few prominent NBA players, but nowhere near that of Adidas or Converse. The movie does make it clear that Adidas had the clear advantage with Michael Jordan, although they do get details wrong, such as with Run DMC where "My Adidas" didn't come out until 1986. Still - it's hard to imagine now that Converse was a bigger player in the basketball shoe market.

They also broke all the rules, where they messed with different color schemes and weren't so worried about NBA rules on requirements for a certain amount of white in the shoes. And these days there isn't even a requirement for shoe color uniformity in a team, where there can be a massive color clash with players on the same team.

The real big thing about Michael Jordan signing with Nike was how much more basketball shoes became a fashion item as a result. Just trying to sell to high school kids and weekend warriors playing basketball and maybe some people in early hip hop culture didn't really make that much money until Air Jordans made it cool for everyone to wear basketball shoes everywhere. Maybe Chuck Taylor All Stars were popular in the punk scene, but at that time they weren't serious basketball shoes any more.