I Dreamed An Entire Coming-Of-Age Boxing Movie
Last night I dreamed an entire coming-of-age boxing movie. Start to end, complete with a plot arc and a humorous ending suitable for end-credits. The film was obviously very derivative of The Karate Kid, Never Back Down, School Ties, and Warrior, and was leaning more toward feel-good sentimental drama than comedy. It started to fade as soon as I woke up to the alarm and realized what was happening, but here is what I remember:
Two young men, let’s call them Protagonist and Antagonist, both live in some sort of group home or dormitory. For the usual reasons they become bitter rivals, enemies who scrap with each other on more than one occasion. This conflict culminates in some sort of dreamworld boxing competition held at a huge, multistory hotel that reminded me of the dormitories in the Harry Potter films crossed with a French manor house.
Sometime during their stay the boys abscond with the hotel caretaker’s beloved collection of garden and lawn gnomes, which they set up in some sort of Rube Goldberg tableau in the attic that results in the gnomes being elaborately, hilariously destroyed.
Protagonist and Antagonist punch each other viciously for what seems like endless rounds. Ultimately, they must admit that both are formidable opponents, and their fight ends in a draw, of sorts (I’m unclear on this). But regardless of winner or loser, the two have developed respect for each other, and for one another’s fighting spirit and tenacity.
The film ends as all of the young men board a bus to return to their group home or boarding school or whatever it is. As the credits roll over the bus departing, the furious caretaker, having discovered his shattered gnomes, comes running out of hte hotel and shouting after the bus, carrying the fragments of one or two gnomes in his hands.
The end.