Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a 2004 American sports comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller. The plot follows a group of misfits entering a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain. The film was theatrically released by 20th Century Fox on June 18, 2004. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $168.4 million on a $20 million budget.

Plot

Peter LaFleur owns Average Joe s, a small, dilapidated gym with only a few members. When he defaults on the gym s mortgage, the cocky White Goodman, who owns Globo Gym across the street, purchases it, planning to foreclose on Average Joe s and demolish it to build a new auxiliary parking structure for his members unless Peter can raise $50,000 in 30 days. Goodman attempts to seduce attorney Katherine Kate Veatch, who is handling his account; repulsed, she cites conflict of interest (COI) to rebuff his disturbing advances, telling him she does not date clients.

Peter, gym employees Dwight Baumgarten and Owen Dittman, and members Steve Pirate Cowan, Justin Redman, and Gordon Pibb, all band together to raise money. After a car wash suggested by Owen fails, Gordon suggests entering a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas with a $50,000 prize. After watching a 1950s-era training video obtained by Justin featuring Irish-American dodgeball legend Patches O Houlihan, the team takes part in the local qualifiers. In a match, they lose easily to Girl Scout Troop 417, who are later disqualified due to one member s use of three separate types of anabolic steroids and a low-grade beaver tranquilizer, effectively handing the win to Average Joe s by default.

Having spied on Average Joe s using a hidden camera, Goodman forms his own team, surprising Gordon by revealing he joined the tournament because of his friendship with the chancellor. After watching their confrontation, Patches, now a wheelchair-bound elderly man, approaches Peter, volunteering to coach the team. Patches unusual training regimen includes throwing wrenches at the team, having them dodge oncoming cars, and constantly insulting them. Kate demonstrates skill at the sport but declines to join the team, citing COI. Goodman shows up at Kate s house uninvited and announces that he misled her bosses about her drinking on the job, thus getting her fired from her law firm and freeing him to date her. Enraged, but now free of the COI, she rejects Goodman and joins the Average Joe s team.

At the tournament, the team suffers early setbacks but manages to advance to the final round against Globo Gym. The night before the match, a falling sign in the casino kills Patches. Demoralized, and anxious that the team will lose, Peter angrily tells Steve that he is not a pirate, causing Steve to leave the team. Returning to his room, Peter encounters Goodman, who greedily offers him $100,000 for the deed to Average Joe s. The day of the final round, Justin leaves to help his classmate Amber in a cheerleading competition, leaving Average Joe s short of players. Peter briefly encounters Lance Armstrong, who restores his morale, and rejoins his team, but he and Justin return too late; Average Joe s has already forfeited the match. Gordon finds a loophole in the rules: a majority of the judges can overturn the forfeiture. Chuck Norris casts the tie-breaking vote, allowing the team to play.

After an intense game, Peter and Goodman find themselves in a sudden-death match against each other. Inspired by Patches spirit, Peter blindfolds himself, successfully dodges Goodman s throw and strikes him in the face, winning the championship and the prize money. To nullify the victory, Goodman reveals that Peter sold Average Joe s to him the previous night, but Peter reveals that he used Goodman s $100,000 to bet on Average Joe s to win; with the odds against them at 50 to 1, he collects $5 million. Since Globo Gym is a publicly traded company, as Kate explains, Peter purchases a controlling interest in it, thus regaining Average Joe s, then publicly fires Goodman. Steve, now appearing more normal, returns and apologizes to Peter, but reverts to his pirate persona when Peter shows him their winnings. Peter is shocked when Joyce, who caught an earlier flight from Guam to witness the final match, arrives and kisses Kate passionately. Kate then reveals her bisexuality and kisses Peter similarly. Kate becomes Peter s girlfriend, Justin and Amber get married with a baby on the way, and Owen begins dating Fran Stalinovskovichdaviddivichski from the Globo Gym team. Later on, Peter opens youth dodgeball classes at a newly renovated Average Joe s, while Goodman becomes morbidly obese out of depression, blaming Norris for his plight.

During the credits, Goodman breaks the fourth wall and scolds the audience for being accepting towards a generic good guys win ending as opposed to an ending that makes you think , an obvious nod to the film s original ending. He then signs off by dancing to Milkshake by Kelis.

Cast

• Vince Vaughn as Peter Pete LaFleur
• Christine Taylor as Katherine Kate Veatch
• Ben Stiller as White Goodman
• Rip Torn as Patches O Houlihan Hank Azaria as young Patches
• Hank Azaria as young Patches
• Justin Long as Justin Redman
• Stephen Root as Gordon Pibb
• Alan Tudyk as Pirate Steve Cowan
• Joel David Moore as Owen Dittman
• Chris Williams as Dwight Baumgarten
• Missi Pyle as Fran Stalinovskovichdaviddivichski
• Jamal Duff as Me Shell Jones
• Gary Cole as Cotton McKnight
• Jason Bateman as Pepper Brooks
• Al Kaplon as The Referee
• William Shatner as The Dodgeball chancellor
• Julie Gonzalo as Amber
• Trever O Brien as Derek
• Rusty Joiner as Blade
• Kevin Porter as Lazer
• Brandon Molale as Blazer
• Curtis Armstrong as Mr. Ralph
• Scarlett Chorvat as Joyce
• Lori Beth Denberg as Martha Johnstone
• Cayden Boyd as Timmy
• Bob Cicherillo as Rory (uncredited)
• Patton Oswalt as Video Store Clerk (uncredited)

• Lance Armstrong as himself
• Chuck Norris as himself
• David Hasselhoff as himself, coach of the German team

Production

When the film was screened to test audiences, the original ending had Average Joe s lose to Globo Gym in the final match. After the ending was viewed negatively by the test audiences, the sudden death match and Average Joe s winning the dodgeball tournament were added alongside White going back to obesity.

Copyright lawsuit

In 2005, two New York City screenwriters, David Price and Ashoka Thomas, filed suit in federal court against Fox and Thurber, claiming copyright infringement of an unproduced screenplay they had written, Dodgeball: The Movie, by Thurber and Fox. They alleged there were a number of similarities in the plots of the two screenplays, and that Thurber may have had access to their screenplay, which was finished a month before his and submitted to an agent whose assistant he was acquainted with. Lawyers for the defendants dismissed some of the allegations as coincidental. They said that both screenplays were the work of writers who used common formulaic elements. Judge Shira Scheindlin denied the defense motion for summary judgment and ordered a jury trial. The suit was later settled out of court.

Reception

Box office

In its first week, the film grossed over $29 million, and would go on to a domestic gross of $114.3 million, and a worldwide total of $167.7 million.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 165 critics reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website s consensus reads, Proudly profane and splendidly silly, Dodgeball is a worthy spiritual successor to the goofball comedies of the 1980s. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 55 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale.

Slant Magazine dismissed the film as a less-than-one-joke film , while TV Guide remarked that Ben Stiller doesn t know when to stop . Other critics, such as The Boston Globe, praised Stiller s satirical take on male virility and praised the chemistry between Vince Vaughn and Christine Taylor. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal initially declined to review the film, believing it was not worthy of his time. However, after reviewing the DVD, he changed his view, writing, Mea culpa, mea culpa. Rawson Marshall Thurber s debut feature, starring Ben Stiller opposite Vince Vaughn, is erratic, imbecilic if not completely idiotic, inconsequential in even the small scheme of things, and thoroughly entertaining . Roger Ebert gave the film a three stars out of four rating in his Chicago Sun-Times review and writes in a miraculous gift to the audience, 20th Century-Fox does not reveal all of the best gags in its trailer.

Awards

• 2004 ESPY Awards Best Sports Movie – Nominated
• Best Sports Movie – Nominated
• 2005 BMI Awards Best Film Music, Theodore Shapiro – Won
• Best Film Music, Theodore Shapiro – Won
• 2005 MTV Movie Awards Best Comedic Performance, Ben Stiller – Nominated Best On-Screen Team (Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Justin Long, Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, Joel Moore and Chris Williams) – Nominated Best Villain, Ben Stiller – Won
• Best Comedic Performance, Ben Stiller – Nominated
• Best On-Screen Team (Vince Vaughn, Christine Taylor, Justin Long, Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, Joel Moore and Chris Williams) – Nominated
• Best Villain, Ben Stiller – Won
• 25th Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Actor, Ben Stiller (Also for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Along Came Polly, Envy, and Starsky & Hutch) – Nominated
• Worst Actor, Ben Stiller (Also for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Along Came Polly, Envy, and Starsky & Hutch) – Nominated

Legacy

Possible sequel

On April 22, 2013, it was announced that 20th Century Fox has started developing a sequel to the film, with Clay Tarver writing the script and Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn returning to star. However Ben Stiller has since stated that he wasn t aware a Dodgeball sequel was happening. A reunion video featuring the cast was released online in June 2017, announcing a competition to raise funds for the Stiller Foundation.

ESPN8: The Ocho

On August 8, 2017, ESPN paid homage to its lampooned portrayal in Dodgeball by airing a day-long ESPN8: The Ocho marathon on its college sports channel ESPNU. In the spirit of the programming depicted in the film, it consisted of lesser-known and unconventional sports and competitions—including trampoline dodgeball, darts, disc golf, kabaddi, and roller derby. The stunt was reprised the following two years on ESPN2, and also included airings of Dodgeball.

Due to a lack of live sports programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN announced on March 22, 2020, it would reprise the stunt earlier than scheduled on ESPN2. It did it on May 2, 2020, on ESPN, and then August 8, 2020 on ESPN2, as well as the Big Screen in Fortnite Party Royale. A collection of sports that were featured on ESPN8, as well as the ESPN8 broadcast on these said networks, were available on the ESPN app.

Home video

The DVD and Blu-ray releases all contain various outtakes and deleted scenes including an alternate ending as well as an infamous Easter Egg in the form of a spoof director s commentary.

The directors commentary track starts out in the traditional fashion with the director and co-stars but soon adds in extra characters and descends into a largely unrelated comedy experience. Halfway through a seemingly chaotic recording, it stops and is replaced by the directors commentary for There s Something About Mary.

Year	2004
ReleaseDate	2004-06-18
RuntimeMins	92
RuntimeStr	1h 32min
Plot	A group of misfits enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in order to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain.
Awards	Awards, 2 wins & 9 nominations
Directors	Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writers	Rawson Marshall Thurber
Stars	Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Vince Vaughn
Produced by	Stuart Cornfeld,Todd C. Guzze,Mary McLaglen,Rhoades Rader,Ben Stiller
Music by	Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography by	Jerzy Zielinski
Film Editing by	Alan Baumgarten,Peter Teschner
Casting By	Juel Bestrop,Blythe Cappello,Jeanne McCarthy
Production Design by	Maher Ahmad
Art Direction by	Andrew Max Cahn
Set Decoration by	Gene Serdena
Costume Design by	Carol Ramsey
Makeup Department	Elle Elliott,Linda D. Flowers,Shana Fruman,Lisa Layman,Douglas Noe,Denise Paulson,Deborah Ann Piper,Gabriella Pollino,Amy Schmiederer,Richard Snell,Cinzia Zanetti
Production Management	Monica Levinson,Deborah Liebling,Mary McLaglen,Patrick Esposito
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	George Bamber,Dusty Dukatz,Seth Edelstein,Deborah Greaney Donovan,Monica Kenyon,Steve Lonano,Bradley Morris,Raymond Prado,Paul Schneider,Jeffrey Wetzel,Darrell Woodard
Art Department	Sharon E. Alshams,Bryan Belair,Chris Buchinsky,Gloria Ciraolo,Larry Clark,Gregory Diggins,Giacomo G. Ghiazza,Michael Glynn,Austin Gorg,Joe Griffith,Laura Hopkins,Tim Jackson,Patrick Janicke,George Karnoff,Christian Kastner,Ricky Lewis Jr.,Sean Mannion,Ralph Mock,Lee Ross,Steve Salazar,Grant Samson,Thomas Spencer,Robert Stover
Sound Department	George H. Anderson,Brian Basham,Bill Burns,David V. Butler,Steve Cantamessa,Bryan Carrigan,Joe Dorn,Matthew T. Duncan,Stefan Fraticelli,Tanya Noel Hill,Mildred Iatrou,Jason W. Jennings,Jonathan Klein,Goro Koyama,Scott La Rue,Bruce Lacey,Gregg Landaker,Greg LaPlante,Darryl Linkow,Andy Malcolm,Anna Malkin,Ron Malligers,Steve Maslow,James Matheny,Chris Navarro,Joe Schiff,Cherie Tamai,Eric Thompson,Don White,Onofre Ortega,John Soukup
Special Effects by	Gary D Amico,Werner Hahnlein,Chris Jones,Michael Roundy,Ken Tarallo
Visual Effects by	Ryan Beadle,Bill Church,Brian Clawson,John Coats,Johannes Gamble,Anne Graham,David D. Johnson,Nina Kawasaki,Sean Kennedy,Peter Kleinsasser,Steve Koch,Craig Kuehne,Lori C. Miller,Karen M. Murphy,Greg Paddock
Stunts	Joey Box,Eddie Braun,Joe Bucaro III,Nathan Castle,Arnold Chon,Alex Daniels,Greg Fitzpatrick,Hubie Kerns Jr.,Steven Lambert,Todd Lester,Eddie Matthews,Matt Norklun,Hugh Aodh O Brien,R.C. Ormond,Peewee Piemonte,Casey Pieretti,Nicole Randall,Don Ruffin,Carolyn Sapp Daniels,Dennis Scott,Sven-Ole Thorsen,Jim Ramos Vickers,Spice Williams-Crosby,Jeff Wolfe,Harry Wowchuk,Greg Anderson,Cass Asher,Eddie Braun,Greg Fitzpatrick,Clyde Goins,Craig Jensen,Jeffrey Kennedy,Hubie Kerns Jr.,Eddie Matthews,Hugh Aodh O Brien,Peewee Piemonte,Hans Raith,Nicole Randall,Carolyn Sapp Daniels,Dennis Scott,Lori Seaman,Steven Stone,Harry Wowchuk,Henry T. Yamada
Camera and Electrical Department	Lloyd Ahern II,Robert Baek,Tracy Bennett,Shane Buttle,John S. Campbell,Fred Cooper,Tim Day,Danny Eccleston,Tom Fox,James Goldman,David Goldsmith,Rob Greenlea,Steve Irwin,Dan Jones,John Kairis,Chris Lombardi,Art Martin,Glenn E. Moran,Thom Owens,David L. Parrish,Paul V. Perkins,Barry Peterson,Joe-Joe Presson,Chris Rauch,Brian H. Reynolds,Scott Ronnow,Landon Ruddel,Joel A. Ruiz,Mark Sadler,Mark Santoni,Scott Sprague,Robert Stillman,James Viera,Roger Wall,Alfredo Denila III,Joe Hill
Casting Department	Nicole Abellera,Amy De Souza,Carol Grant,Christopher Gray,Joseph Hicks,Cash Oshman,Jocelyn E. Thomas,Christian Kaplan
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Marisa Aboitiz,Fran Allgood,Lois DeArmond,Ellen Falguiere,Scott R. Hankins,Robert Mata,Robin McMullan,Rhona Meyers,Muto-Little,Lizz Wolf
Editorial Department	Gary Burritt,Fred Chandler,Jamie Clarke,Vince Filippone,Joe Finley,Sean Lawrence,Dennis McNeill,Kristine McPherson,Nicholas Nikko Tsiotsias,Lonnie A. Mathes
Location Management	Caleb Duffy,Eric Hedayat,Eric Hooge,Salvy Maleki,Ann Murphy,Kenny Rummell,Susan Simone
Music Department	Pete Anthony,Bruce Babcock,Tom Brown,Bryan Carrigan,Sandy DeCrescent,George Doering,George Drakoulias,Chris Fogel,John Goux,Mark Graham,Tom Hardisty,Tanya Noel Hill,Jim Hoffman,The Hollywood Studio Symphony,Mike Knobloch,Robert Kraft,Jon Kull,Jason Lloyd,Stephanie Lowry,Tom MacDougall,Chris Montan,Michele Richards,Cassandra Richburg,John Rodd,Peter Rotter,Andrew Silver,Steven L. Smith,Tom Steel,Neil Stubenhaus,Bill Talbott,Booker White,Thomas Cavanaugh,Ellen Ginsburg
Script and Continuity Department	Marion Tumen
Transportation Department	Ted Basso,Michael J. Birnkrant,Audrey A. Conrad,Robert Garcia Jr.,Maxwell R. Johnson II,Rock LeRoy,Phil Strauss,Tommy Tancharoen,Tom Whelpey
Additional Crew	Natalie Alexander,Michael Altman,Valentina Aulisi,Julia Benaroya,Jason Benoit,Melissa Binder,Michelle Boehle,Jackamoe Buzzell,Tate Chalk,Sonja Christoph,Tim Clark,Crystal Colar,Paulette Dauber,Michael DeSantis,Jim Doyle,Dusty Dukatz,Kathy Edwards,Brent Ekstrand,Glen Evans,Sam S Fernandes,Carey Field,Gabe Gerber,Steven Gorel,Rick Granville,Seth Hansen,Michael Hendrickson,Marc Hyman,Nicki Johnson,Adam Jordan,Adam Karasick,John LaBrucherie,Ket Lamb,Alex Leimone,Sam Lembeck,Bridgette Lester,Brigette Lester,Thomas Longo,Harvey Malkin,Kanchan A. Mattoo,Christopher Mauldin,Ryan Murray,India Neilan,Kevin O Neil,Michelle Pinkney,Eartha Robinson,Gloria Rodriguez,Denyse Rossi,Kevin Roy,Stephanie J. Saenz,Phil Scalisi,Christopher Scull,Mary C. Snyder,Kim Soleau,Anthony Steinhart,Michelle Stevens,Sean Kevin Sweeney,Brian Taylor,Brian Taylor,Chris Withrow,Caleb Womble,Sarah Spencer Yerger,Marijan Zoric,Tyler Atkinson,Kelli Cardiff,Lauren Mary Kim,Stan Purdy
Thanks	Suzie Pollard
Genres	Comedy, Sport
Companies	Twentieth Century Fox, Mediastream Vierte Film GmbH & Co. Vermarktungs KG, Red Hour Films
Countries	Germany, USA
Languages	English, German
ContentRating	PG-13
ImDbRating	6.7
ImDbRatingVotes	249144
MetacriticRating	55
Keywords	gym,dodgeball,pirate,tournament,coach