Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic is a Serbian Americanhigh schooldefensive back who is gifted in both sports and academics. He is seeking a college football scholarship to escape the economically depressed small westernPennsylvania town of Ampipe and a dead-end job and life working at the mill like his father and brother Greg. He dreams of becoming an engineer right after he graduates from college. Ampipe is a company town whose economy is dominated by the town's main employer, American Pipe & Steel, a steel mill struggling through the downturn of the early 1980s recession. Stef gets through his days with the love of his girlfriend, Lisa Lietzke, and his strong bond with his teammates. Most of the film takes place after the big football game against undefeated Walnut Heights High School. Ampipe appears headed to win the game, when a fumbled handoff in the closing seconds—as well as Stefen's pass interference penalty earlier in the game—leads to a Walnut Heights victory. Following the game, Coach Burt Nickerson lambastes the fumbler in the locker room, telling him he "quit" the game. When Stefen retorts that the coach himself quit, the coach kicks him off the team. In the aftermath, disgruntled Ampipe fans vandalize Coach Nickerson's house and yard. Stefen is present and is a reluctant participant, but is nonetheless seen by Nickerson as the vandals flee. From there, Stefen deals with personal battles, including dealing with the coach blackballing him among colleges because of his attitude and participation in the desecration of Nickerson's yard and house. Stefen gets in an argument with Lisa, and his best friend Brian declines a scholarship offer to USC and plans to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Frustrated by what Nickerson did, Stefan angrily confronts his former coach which ends in a shouting match out in the street. But Lisa decides to talk to Nickerson's wife to try and help. In the end, Nickerson realizes he was wrong for blackballing Stefan. He has accepted a coaching position on the West Coast at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and offers Stefen a full scholarship to play football there, which he accepts.
The film was produced by Stephen Deutsch, with Phillip Goldfarb as co-producer. Gary Morton of Lucille Ball Productions was executive producer. The production was filmed over seven weeks in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the early spring The recently closed sixty-year-old high school, the former campus of Greater Johnstown High School, was used as the location of the film, along with Actress Thompson was inserted as a new student at Ferndale Area High School for three days prior to Cruise was similarly inserted into Greater Johnstown High School, but was recognized immediately.
Reception
The film was released to mixed reviews and has a score of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews, and a score of a generally favorable 62% on Metacritic based on 7 reviews. Jay Carr from The Boston Globe stated "Cruise is believable as an athlete," and Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a well-made but sugar-coated working-class fable about a football star." Locally, Ed Blank of the Pittsburgh Press saw it as flawed, but captured the look of and Marylynn Urucchio of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette rated it as elementary Among the unfavorable reviews, TV Guide called the movie "cliche-riddled" and Richard Corliss of Time called it a "naive little movie hopes to prove itself the Flashdance of football." In 2018, Thompson stated she initially did not want the part, as the script required her to participate in two nude scenes, but Cruise persuaded the producers to drop one of the scenes.
