“Cool Runnings” is a movie loosely based on the Jamaican bobsled team’s creation and participation in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada.

The main protagonist is Derice Bannock, a Jamaican sprinter whose late father, Ben Bannock, was a gold medalist sprinter. Derice’s Definite Major Purpose (DMP) is to represent Jamaica in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea and win a gold medal.

He practices running daily to stay in shape and improve his chances to qualify for the Olympics. However, during the Olympics qualifying run Junior Bevil falls down and trips both Derice and Yul Brenner. All three lose their chance to qualify for the Summer Olympics.

Undeterred, Derice petitions the Olympics committee leader, Barrington Coolidge, to rerun the race. His request is denied. Derice spots a picture of his father on the wall, along with a man wearing a gold medal.

Derice asks about the gold medalist and is told the man is Irving Blitzer and he lives in Jamaica. Irving believed sprinters would make excellent bobsledders. Intrigued, Derice researches what is bobsledding and convinces his best friend, Sanka Coffie, a champion pushcart driver, to join his team.

Derice is determined to go to the Olympics. He changes his DMP to go to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada as a bobsledder instead of the Summer Olympics in 4 years as a sprinter. How will he achieve this?

He knows he has 3 months to acquire a bobsled coach, assemble a bobsled team, and practice bobsledding in a country that’s tropical not covered in ice and snow. Derice is relentless in pursuing Irving Blitzer to be his bobsled coach. He is persistent and refuses to take no for an answer.

Blitzer tells him, “Go away!”
Derice replies, “Maybe today’s a bad day.”
Blitzer responds, “Yeah.”
Derice tells Blitzer, “I’ll come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…”

Derice knows that to qualify for the Olympics his Plan of Action (POA) is to

1. Research what is involved in bobsledding
2. Get a bobsled coach
3. Convince 3 people to join the bobsled team
4. Get a bobsled
5. Fundraise at least $20,000 to go to the Olympics
6. Practice bobsledding daily, in a makeshift bobsled and later a real bobsled, so the team knows how to bobsled and do it quickly and efficiently
7. Exercise daily by running, weight training, and chin-ups
8. Learn to walk and run on ice wearing special shoes
9. Study the other bobsled teams, especially the Swiss team, and learn what to do to be a better team
10. Study and memorize every turn in the bobsled run
11. Stay focused on the goal and not party with the others

Throughout the movie Derice has a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). He does not let obstacles stop him from pursuing his goal. Whenever an obstacle blocks him from his goal he finds a way to overcome the obstacle. “Give up” is not in Derice’s vocabulary.

Derice is persistent even when people laughed at him when he was fundraising to go to the Olympics and when his Olympic peers laughed and bullied him.

Irving Blitzer reluctantly agrees to coach Derice’s Jamaican bobsled team. Junior Bevil and Yul Brenner join Derice and Sanka to form the first Jamaican bobsled team.

Blitzer tells the team the importance of each position the first time they get into the makeshift bobsled.

When Sanka insists he be the driver, Blitzer tells him that “The driver needs to be focused and works harder than everyone. He’s the last to leave. He is responsible for his teammates and their lives. He studies the bobsled run and memorizes every turn.” Sanka decides Derice should be the driver.

The team is unable to get funding from the Jamaican Olympics committee so the team fundraise to go to the Olympics. Derice approaches local business people to sponsor the Jamaican bobsled team. He does not get discouraged when they laugh at him.

Other fundraising the team tries include busking, arm wrestling, and a kissing booth. All this fundraising earns less than $200. The team is discouraged until Junior shows up with the money needed after selling his car. The team begins singing “…Jamaica we got a bobsled team!” (PMA)

Derice isn’t the only one who has dreams. Junior Bevil wants to be a runner, and later a bobsledder. He does not want to be a businessman like his father. Unbeknownst to his father, he sells his car to raise funds for the Olympics.

Then he leaves for the Olympics while his father believes he’s left for his new job in Miami. When his father goes to Calgary to bring Junior home, Junior refuses to go home and leave behind his dream and team.

Yul Brenner dreams of a life away from Jamaica. He’s willing to train as a bobsledder if it means he has an opportunity to leave the island. He tells Junior and Sanka he knows where he’s going and where he’s going to live.

He dreams of living in a big castle and carries a picture of Buckingham Palace with him. Sanka laughs at him when he sees the picture of Buckingham Palace and says several unkind things to Yul.

Junior tells both Sanka and Yul, “All he [Yul Brenner] has to do is know what he wants and work hard for it. If he wants it bad enough, he’ll get it. Believe me Sanka, the more Yul Brenners we got making it in this world the better off this world will be, especially for Jamaicans.” “Go on Yul Brenner. Go on and get your palace.” (DMP, PMA, Master Mind Alliance [MMA]).

The Jamaican team arrive in Calgary, Canada where it’s winter, cold, and full of snow and ice. Riding down the bobsled run in a bobsled for the first time is extremely fast and terrifying. However, with more practice they become more confident getting into the bobsled quickly and riding down the run faster so they qualify by doing the run in 59.46 seconds instead of the maximum time of one minute.

The Jamaican team’s rejoicing is short lived after Blitzer’s former coach and the rest of the Olympic committee disqualifies the team in retaliation to Blitzer cheating 20 years prior. They tell Blitzer they fear the Jamaican team will be an embarrassment to the sport and organization.

Blitzer admits he cheated 20 years ago, embarrassing his country, team, family, friends, and coach. He pleads for his team and tells the committee to punish him not his team. He tells the committee the Jamaicans earned the right to represent their country, march into the stadium, and wave their nation’s flag. This is the Spirit of the Olympics. The Jamaican team are reinstated to compete in the Olympics.

The Jamaican team’s Plan of Action (POA) includes waking up early to train; they run long distances, practice running on ice, and do leg and chin lifts. They also practice getting into the bobsled and down the bobsled run quickly. They practice shifting their bodies to lean left or right, depending on the turn, in the bath tub.

The team form a Master Mind Alliance (MMA) in several ways. They spend hours training together. They bounce ideas off each other, encourage and tease each other, and fight for each other. They repair and paint their bobsled together and name it “Cool Runnings”. Derice says “Cool Runnings” means Peace be the journey.

Sanka, Yul, and Junior bond over a bar fight with the East German team. Blitzer contacts a former teammate to procure an old practice bobsled. He also gets the team matching outfits so they look like a team. Blitzer tells the team “Sprinters make the best bobsledders.”

The team have a bonding moment when Blitzer “prays” “Our Father, who art Calgary, Bobsled be thy name. Thy kingdom come, gold medal is won, on earth as it is in turn 7…”

On the first day of the Olympics, Derice tries to psych his team by mimicking the Swiss team and hitting his teammates on their helmets and counting in German. This action unnerves the team so they have a horrible run. Sanka tells Derice they need to be the best they can be, which is Jamaican!

On the second day the team blare Calypso music as they reach the bobsled hill. Sanka leads a chant to psych the team. “Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme. Get on up, it’s bobsled time!” (PMA) The team are almost in sync and have a much better run.

At night Derice studies pictures of every turn on the bobsled run and practices which way he needs to lean in that turn. When he sees Blitzer he asks him why he cheated.

Blitzer: “Derice, a gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”
Derice: “Hey coach, how will I know if I’m enough?”
Blitzer: “When you cross the finish line, you’ll know.”

On the third day the Jamaican team’s run was excellent until one of the bobsled’s blades breaks off and causes the bobsled to flip and crash. Once the bobsled stops, Sanka asks Derice, “Derice, you dead?” “No, I’m not dead but I have to finish the race.”

The Jamaican team carry their bobsled the remainder of the bobsled run and across the finish line. The guys knew they had to complete the race to finish what they started. (DMP, PMA, POA).

The Jamaican bobsled team didn’t win any medals during the 1988 Winter Olympics but they won something more important: The respect of their peers and the pride of their country.