Unified Theory of Team Movies

As a long time fan and student of comedy movies, I’ve seen so many off-beat team comedies that I absolutely love and adore. During a meeting of the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project, I realized just how intimately I know and understand these films, and thus I present to you my pretentiously titled unified theory of team movies.

Here are some examples of the greatest team comedies out there. Great is subjective, but I love them so, whatever. Here they are.

Dodgeball
Beerfest
Balls of Fury
The Ringer
Space Jam
The Longest Yard
Happy Gilmore
 
Some of these aren’t traditionally “team” as they are much more about one man preparing to face the big game, but they have a lot of people rallying around them that essentially function as the team in question.

While all of the ones that I’ve listed are sports comedies (including Beerfest, because drinking is a sport if you’re doing it right), this category of film applies to much more than just this type. It also heavily applies to heist films, and to some extent ensemble superhero pieces. They all focus on a group of people teaming up to prepare for one big game with one main character as the point of view and focus. In heist films, the big game is the heist. They’re no different!

Using the films on my list, I’ve come up with a unified theory of team movies. It includes the common character types that they all hold, the structure that they all follow, and the emotional journey that the hero must go on.
 
Note: This is not a mandatory guide to follow. It’s simply an analytical tool that breaks down these movies in a general sense. All of these break from the form in one way or another and those moments are what make them unique and memorable. Use this only to get yourself unstuck on the structure of your own piece, not as a plug and play guide.

Let’s dig in!



The Premise:

The common denominator of all of these films is the premise. You meet someone who could be totally incredible at what they do, but life has gotten in the way and now they’ve got a big problem that needs solved. The “big game” comes into their life as a solution to their big problem, but they’re initially reluctant to go on that journey.

Over the course you take them from washed up weirdo to realizing the potential that they always had inside of them, with a big team of people around them. It’s heartwarming stuff and has MAJOR comedic potential throughout with physical humor and emotional humor inherent in all of it.

What makes this premise work is the cast of characters that work around the main person with a problem.
 
The Players On Your Chess Board:

I know that saying “the team” would have been a more fitting title for this section given the sports of it all, but I like chess so sue me. The chess metaphor works better anyways because you have enemies in all of this! There are people working counter to the goals of the main character and the team as a whole, and they absolutely must be overcome. So badaboom…chess board.

When you boil down these movies they all have a very similar cast of characters that serve a super specific role in the plot. I’m listing them in order of their relevance to the plot in the hopes that if you read this list, you can understand the implied structure of it.

• The Main Character – We already said it. This is the potentially great special someone with a propensity for getting in their own way. Though they could be miraculous at the thing this movie focuses on, they’ve got a much larger problem that is much more important. Whether it’s a debt, some item they hope to obtain, the game is secondary to their problem.
  • Adam Sandler in every one of his movies, Vince Vaughn in Dodgeball who just wants to keep his gym, The pair of brothers in Beerfest who want to get their grandfather’s brewery back…etc. You know the main guys.

 

• The Golden Retriever/ Man With a Plan – This is the character with the point of view that your main character needs to come around to at the end. In the beginning they IDOLIZE the Main Character to a fault, and believe wholeheartedly in the power of the team. Usually this character is the one who realizes the actual plan of the big game being able to solve the problems of the Main Character. They’re the real emotional anchor of the team, and when the hero inevitably breaks their heart, they are the reason that the team keeps moving forward. They’ve got the plan, and they believe in it even when the hero doesn’t.
  • Justin Long in Dodgeball, Bugs in Space Jam, Fink the scientist in Beerfest.

 
 

• The Big Bad – This character serves two purposes. They are the catalyst for the “big game” moment. They’re the target of the heist, they’re the person to beat, or they’re the arbiter of the tournament. Whatever they are they serve as the goal of the movie. Second, they are constantly working counter to the goals of the main character. They’re doing everything they can to stop them from winning even if that means fighting dirty, which it usually does. They be evil.
  • Ben Stiller in Dodgeball, Christopher Walken in Balls of Fury, the Germans in Beerfest (it’s always the Germans!)

 

• The Love Interest – The object of love and lust for the main character. In most successful cases, they’re a bit of a fem fatale. They’re working on the side of the Big Bad at the start and only work with the Main Character in a professional capacity. They typically start out hating the fact that they work for the big bad, but they are going through the professional motions. Through their professional work with the Main Character, they’ll start to come around to the point of view of the Golden Retriever (usually more so than the main character does) and slowly fall in love with the MC. They’re the middle man and have so much control over the plot, it’s wild.
  • Christine Taylor in Dodgeball, Maggie Q in Balls of Fury

 

• The Unlikely Mentor – The king of all washed up weirdos, and a legend amongst them (infamous or famous). When all other training routes prove themselves useless, they must rely on the most unlikely mentor out there. They’re surprising and weird and usually awful, but their training methods work. And they’re weirdness becomes a reason that they are beloved by the team. They take the team from a bunch of misfit weirdos to a group with a shot, but they always do it weird.
  • Patches O’Houlihan in Dodgeball, Chubs in Happy Gilmore, Wong in Balls of Fury, Landfill in Beerfest. They’ve all got something else in common, but I’ll get to that later. You can probably guess it.

 

• The Snowflake – Not all of these movies have one. Sometimes this is also the Golden Retriever. This is the teammate who is just a little bit different. They’re an absolute weirdo that everyone loves dearly. Their quirks make them beloved, but their quirks are also caused by some sort of deep-seated pain. This is the person on the team that no one would ever be mean to for any reason. It’s like yelling at a puppy. No one wants to do that, and if you do, you’re a jerk. Which is why the Snowflake usually serves as a great punching bag later on during the film. When the Main Character explodes as things come to a head, the accidental source of their anger is the Snowflake…which immediately makes the rest of the team turn against the MC. The Snowflake is a great emotional timebomb.
  • Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball, Most of the team in the Ringer.

 
So that’s your chess board and all the pieces. I’ll now break down my theory of the structure in the shortest way possible.

1. Meet the Misfits
   1. Meet the main character and all of his problems. Also, meet the losers in the team. This whole section serves to show just how miserable everyone is in their stasis. It also leads into the big moment of discovering the Big Game.
   2. This is also where the bad guy is introduced as a physical manifestation of the Main Character’s deep seated issues. We usually meet the Love Interest at this moment too, serving the purposes of the Big Bad. The entire team sees how much all of this hurts the MC and so:
2. Meet the Big Game
   1. The golden retriever presents the big game as a solution to the Main Character’s problems because they’re just that good of a person. The main character is reluctant, but the entire team is so gung-ho for it, They can’t help but fold.
3. Training
   1. This serves as almost the entire Act 2A of the film. Pretty much four things happen in here:
      1. The team finds The Unlikely Mentor and get trained up together, going from total trainwreck of a team to a group with a shot.
      2. The Main Character slowly comes around to the Golden Retriever’s way of thinking. Remember, the hero was reluctant at the start. This could mean that they started out with the yips, and they’ve recovered throughout this section, or they hated the sport and they come to love it. However it’s done, the MC comes around here.
      3. The Love Interest ALSO comes around to the golden retriever. They see the good vibes of the team and come to love it, as well as seeing the wonder in the Main Character. Their relationship with the Big Bad slowly dissolves.
      4. The Big Bad does everything they can to stop the entire team. They’re working counter to every step of progress the team makes and they hate that it isn’t working. They escalate and escalate until:
4. The Paradigm Shift
   1. Something big and catastrophic happens right when the team realizes that they might actually be able to do this miraculous thing. They’ve got a real shot. Then this big thing happens that shakes everything and launches the story on a crash course. The paradigm shift is usually the same thing:
      1. Death of the Unlikely Mentor. Every single one of the mentors I listed as examples dies as a catalyst for the paradigm shift. RIP Chubs, Patches, Landfill, Wong, Chris Rock in the Longest Yard and even Phil Coulson in the Avengers. Either something that the team does to celebrate their mentor, or the work of the Big Bad culminates in this big, awful occurrence that both shakes the confidence of the MC and the team, and will ultimately bring them back together. You don’t have to kill the mentor, but damnit…it works.
5. The Rocky Shores
   1. Moving forward gets harder. The Main Character retreats backwards towards their original mindset and starts seeking out other solutions to their problem, always bad ones that the Love Interest has a hand in being able to make possible. The team is struggling to keep it all together and the Golden Retriever is indicative of that. The Love Interest becomes a middle man between the Main Character and the team, parroting the viewpoints of the Golden Retriever. The Big Bad gloats, thinking they’ve won. It’s all a rocky mess which leads to:
6. The Blowup
   1. The lies of the Main Character come to a head with the team. Things get heated, the Main Character is usually mean to the Snowflake and then the team breaks apart. It’s big and ugly, and the relationship with the Love Interest is brought into question. Big ugly crap that ultimately forces the Main Character into the decision to do the BAD solution to his problem and abandon the team entirely.
7. The Plan
   1. While the main character disappears to do their own bullshit, the Golden Retriever pulls the team back together. We don’t need that guy. We’re all special in our own right. We’ve got this. We can do it….right? RIGHT?!
8. The First Half of the Big Game
   1. This is a two-hander occurrence and everything that the film has been building towards
      
      1. At the big game, the team is getting absolutely destroyed without the Main Character, despite the relentless optimism of the Golden Retriever. The Love Interest usually abandons their own ideals and comes to help the team in this section, or in the second half of the big game. Your pick. The Big Bad is so cocky and confident in their victory that they don’t even notice the main character is missing, or they do and make fun of it.
         
      2. The Main Character is off doing their awful solution while having a complete and total existential crisis. They get so super close to finishing the bad option and then realize that the team needs them….and they need the team. BUT DON’T SHOW IF THEY FINISHED THE BAD OPTION OR NOT.
9. The Second Half of the Big Game.
   1. Oh goody, everyone is back together. The Main Character shows up just in the nick of time. They may be losing, but it’s not too late to pull out a win. Apologies are made, but they are tenuous. Over the course of the big game, the main character mends the relationships with all of the teammates and does stuff to emphasize their strength. It’s big and beautiful and funny until –
10. The Bait and Switch.
    1. The big game is over. One of two things happen:
       
       1. They won the big game. It’s great, but due to the bad solution of the Main Character, the Big Bad is still victorious. It seems like a big loss…until we get the explanation of what the Main Character did that we DIDN’T see. They did it! They saved the day! Screw that Big Bad. Kiss that Love Interest
          
       2. They lost the big game. It’s awful. It seems like a big loss and the Big Bad is gloating…until we get the explanation of what the Main Character did that we DIDN’T see. They did it! They saved the day! Screw that Big Bad. Kiss that Love Interest.
11. The Wrap Up
    1. A little glimpse at everyone’s lives and how different it is from the very start. It’s really sweet and lovely and often funny. Maybe a shot of how awful things are for the Big Bad. Just one big happy bow on the top of your big, beautiful team story.

 
That’s it! That’s all. That’s my entire Unified Theory of Team Movies. They all fit this mold with some variations. Heist films match it, superhero ensembles match it, and all of these wonderful sports comedies match it, with a decent bit of variation. They make changes to the expectations of all these scenes, they change up small bits of formatting, but this is what they all do to make it work.
 
I contest that any team movie at all could be viewed to fit this mold. Use it as you will for inspiration on your story beats, but do not use it as a hard and fast guide.
 
P.S. You’re Beautiful