Miracle

Miracle, released by Disney on February 6, 2004, told the story behind the most famous call in American sports: the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's defeat of the four-time defending gold medalist Soviet Union at Lake Placid. Directed by Gavin O'Connor and written by Eric Guggenheim, it centered squarely on coach Herb Brooks — played by Kurt Russell in a career-highlight performance of tracksuits, plaid pants, and merciless conditioning drills — as he welds a roster of college rivals into a team, most famously in the post-exhibition 'bag skate' where he runs the players to exhaustion until captain Mike Eruzione announces that he plays for the United States.

The production's obsession was authenticity. Rather than teaching actors to skate, O'Connor cast real hockey players and taught them to act, holding on-ice tryouts in six cities; the film choreographed 133 distinct hockey plays, and the cast went through a six-week training camp to relearn the game in vintage equipment. The realism extended to the broadcast booth: Al Michaels and Ken Dryden re-recorded their commentary for the film, except the final 30 seconds of the Soviet game — including 'Do you believe in miracles?' — which is Michaels' original 1980 audio, because he didn't believe he could recreate the call.

Audiences turned out — $64.5 million on a $28 million budget — and critics praised Russell in particular. But the film carries a heavier weight: Herb Brooks died in a car accident shortly after principal photography, half a year before the movie reached theaters. The dedication before the credits became instantly famous: 'He never saw it. He lived it.'