Without Limits (1998)

Actors: Robert Towne (director), Kyle Cooper (miscellaneous crew), Jonathan Sanger (producer), Jeremy Sisto (actor), Robert Towne (writer), Robert K. Lambert (editor), Matthew Lillard (actor), Tom Cruise (producer), William Friedkin (actor), Dean Norris (actor), William Mapother (actor), Donald Sutherland (actor), Billy Crudup (actor), Tim Monich (miscellaneous crew), Randy Miller (composer),

Plot: The film follows the life of famous 1970s runner Steve Prefontaine from his youth days in Oregon to the University of Oregon where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, later to Olympics in Munich and his early death at 24 in a car crash.

Keywords: airplane, american-flag, applause, archive-footage, athlete, athletic-field, athletics, auto-accident, bar, bartender
Genres: Biography, Drama, Sport,
Taglines: Pre-The Way he Competed...The Way he Lives his Life PRE. The way he competed. The way he lived his life. Believe in yourself.

Quotes:

Steve Prefontaine: I don't want to win unless I know I've done my best, and the only way I know how to do that is to run out front, flat out until I have nothing left. Winning any other way is chicken-shit.

Steve Prefontaine: I'd like to work it out so that at the end, it's a pure guts race. If it is, I'm the only one who can win it.

Steve Prefontaine: I can endure more pain than anyone you've ever met. That's why I can beat anyone I've ever met.

Steve Prefontaine: Bill, has it ever occurred to you that there's such a thing as overcoaching?::Bill Bowerman: Yeah... I'm against it.

Mary Marckx: You ran great in Munich.::Steve Prefontaine: No, Viren ran great, I was fourth.

Bill Bowerman: Know what your problem is, Pre? Vanity!::Steve Prefontaine: Vanity?::Bill Bowerman: Yes, vanity, Pre! Your belief that you have no talent is the ultimate vanity. If you have no talent then you have no limits, it's all an act of will. Your heart can probably pump more blood than anyone else's on earth, and that takes talent. The bones in your feet are so strong, it'd take a sledgehammer to break 'em. Be thankful for your limits, Pre, they're about as limitless as they get in this life.

Mary Marckx: Do you believe in God?::Steve Prefontaine: I believe in myself.

Bill Bowerman: All my life, man and boy, I've operated under the assumption that the main idea in running was to win the race. Naturally, when I became a coach I tried to teach people how to do that. Tried to teach Pre how to do that. Tried like hell to teach Pre to do that. And Pre taught me. Taught me I was wrong. Pre, you see, was troubled by knowing that a mediocre effort can win a race and a magnificent effort can lose one. Winning a race wouldn't necessarily demand that he give it everything he had from start to finish. He never ran any other way. I tried to get him to, God knows I tried... but... Pre was stubborn. He insisted on holding himself to a higher standard than victory. 'A race is a work of art'; that's what he said, that's what he believed and he was out to make it one every step of the way.::Bill Bowerman: Of course he wanted to win. Those who saw him compete and those who competed against him were never in any doubt how much he wanted to win. But how he won mattered to him more. Pre thought I was a hard case. But he finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test to the limits of the human heart. That he did... Nobody did it more often. Nobody did it better.

Steve Prefontaine: It's the hardest thing in the world to believe in something, if you do it's a miracle.

Steve Prefontaine: You know me Bill, I've always been sort of an Adidas freak.

Prefontaine (1997)

Actors: Michael Maxwell (miscellaneous crew), Jared Leto (actor), Lindsay Crouse (actress), Rena Hanover (miscellaneous crew), Tom Bronson (costume designer), Eric Keenleyside (actor), Ed O'Neill (actor), Breckin Meyer (actor), Mason Daring (composer), Kurtwood Smith (actor), R. Lee Ermey (actor), Elizabeth Maxwell (miscellaneous crew), Steve James (writer), Steve James (director), Barbara Tuss (miscellaneous crew),

Plot: Life and times of Steve Prefontaine, a young long-distance runner from Oregon who pursued the dream of Olympic gold in Munich and became one of the biggest, yet most tragic sport stars in America.

Keywords: 1960s, 1970s, airplane, airport, amateur-athlete, amateur-track-union, american-flag, american-football, anger, anti-war
Genres: Biography, Drama, Romance, Sport,
Taglines: He beat the odds... And became a legend!

Quotes:

Bill Bowerman: Nobody can coach desire, Pre.

Mac Wilkins: I live for the discus. I hate Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter - anything that breaks my routine.

[Referring to the Nike "swoosh."]::Steve Prefontaine: Looks like needless wind resistance to me.

Steve Prefontaine: So, what have I got going for me? [stands] Why does some kid from Coos Bay with one leg shorter than the other win races? [pauses] Let me tell you something, all of my life people have said to me, "You're too small, Pre. You're not fast enough, Pre. Give up your foolish dreams, Steve!" But you know what, they forgot something: I have to win. There's no fallback here, no great stride, no long legs--nothing! [sighs] I'm sorry. [puts head down]

[first lines]::Bill Bowerman: Pre turned distance running into a blood sport. You wanna know what he meant to folks around here? What was it [indecipherable] kids said back then? "You just had to be there."