‘What are the stakes?’
United Artists Releasing
The training montage in Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” cross-cuts between Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) preparing for a major boxing match while Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), his trainer and mentor, undergoes treatment for his cancer. It’s a powerful sequence that serves to juxtapose the two characters and where they are at in their lives, capping off with a shot where Adonis joyfully realizes he’s ready for his fight. Meanwhile, Rocky cheers him on, having made it through the hardest part of his treatment.
Naturally, Steven Caple Jr.’s “Creed II” finds Adonis in a very different place. Throughout the film’s training montage, it cuts from Adonis working out to his rival Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) — the son of the man who killed Adonis’ father Apollo in the boxing ring — also preparing for their big fight, and clips of Adonis talking on the phone with his fiancée Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) and their newborn daughter. And while it climaxes with Adonis being in better shape than he’s even been, it also emphasizes what this fight is really about for him: making peace with the legacy of Apollo so that Adonis might focus on his family and future. In both cases, these montages firmly establish both the stakes and the characters’ progression to realizing their goals — the two things Jordan said he came to realize matter most while constructing the training montage for “Creed III” (along with filming “everything you can” in terms of any and all footage you think you either may need or want to use in post-production):
“What are the stakes? How is your character leaving the montage better than he was when he first started? I think that’s a good one to stick to.”
“Creed III” opens in theaters on March 3, 2023.
The Key Lessons Michael B. Jordan Had For Making A Rocky Training Montage
Warner Bros. Pictures
By Sandy Schaefer/Oct. 18, 2022 12:15 pm EST
“Creed III” finds star Michael B. Jordan directing himself in such a training montage for the first time, having previously only starred in the montages from the first two “Creed” movies. Speaking at a press conference attended by /Film’s Rafael Motamayor, Jordan offered some quick (montage-style?) insights into what it takes to make this type of sequence work, now that he’s called the shots on one himself.
‘What are the stakes?’
United Artists Releasing
The training montage in Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” cross-cuts between Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) preparing for a major boxing match while Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), his trainer and mentor, undergoes treatment for his cancer. It’s a powerful sequence that serves to juxtapose the two characters and where they are at in their lives, capping off with a shot where Adonis joyfully realizes he’s ready for his fight. Meanwhile, Rocky cheers him on, having made it through the hardest part of his treatment.
Naturally, Steven Caple Jr.’s “Creed II” finds Adonis in a very different place. Throughout the film’s training montage, it cuts from Adonis working out to his rival Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) — the son of the man who killed Adonis’ father Apollo in the boxing ring — also preparing for their big fight, and clips of Adonis talking on the phone with his fiancée Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) and their newborn daughter. And while it climaxes with Adonis being in better shape than he’s even been, it also emphasizes what this fight is really about for him: making peace with the legacy of Apollo so that Adonis might focus on his family and future. In both cases, these montages firmly establish both the stakes and the characters’ progression to realizing their goals — the two things Jordan said he came to realize matter most while constructing the training montage for “Creed III” (along with filming “everything you can” in terms of any and all footage you think you either may need or want to use in post-production):
“What are the stakes? How is your character leaving the montage better than he was when he first started? I think that’s a good one to stick to.”
“Creed III” opens in theaters on March 3, 2023.
Naturally, Steven Caple Jr.’s “Creed II” finds Adonis in a very different place. Throughout the film’s training montage, it cuts from Adonis working out to his rival Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) — the son of the man who killed Adonis’ father Apollo in the boxing ring — also preparing for their big fight, and clips of Adonis talking on the phone with his fiancée Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) and their newborn daughter. And while it climaxes with Adonis being in better shape than he’s even been, it also emphasizes what this fight is really about for him: making peace with the legacy of Apollo so that Adonis might focus on his family and future.
In both cases, these montages firmly establish both the stakes and the characters’ progression to realizing their goals — the two things Jordan said he came to realize matter most while constructing the training montage for “Creed III” (along with filming “everything you can” in terms of any and all footage you think you either may need or want to use in post-production):
“Creed III” opens in theaters on March 3, 2023.
“What are the stakes? How is your character leaving the montage better than he was when he first started? I think that’s a good one to stick to.”
