''Chasing Mavericks'' is a 2012 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

about the life of American surfer Jay Moriarity (portrayed by Jonny Weston). It was directed by

Curtis Hanson Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Reno, Nevada, Hanson grew up in Los Angeles. After dropping out of high school, Hanson worked as photographer and edito ...

and

Michael Apted Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...

, and stars Gerard Butler,

Elisabeth Shue Elisabeth Shue (born October 6, 1963) is an American actress. She has starred in films such as '' The Karate Kid'' (1984), '' Adventures in Babysitting'' (1987), ''Cocktail'' (1988), ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989), '' Back to the Future P ...

, Abigail Spencer, and Leven Rambin. Filming took place in October 2011. While Hanson began production, Apted was brought in to finish the final 15 days of shooting and post due to Hanson's failing health. It was the final film directed by Hanson before his death in 2016, and the second-to-last film directed by Apted before his death in 2021. ''Chasing Mavericks'' was released in the United States on October 26, 2012, received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $7 million against its $20 million budget.

Plot

In 1987, an 8-year-old boy in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish language, Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the largest city and the county seat of Santa Cruz County, California, Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city population ...

, named Jay Moriarity is saved from drowning by his next door neighbor, surfer Frosty Hesson ( Gerard Butler). This ignites his passion for the sport. One morning, Jay ( Jonny Weston), now 15, sees Frosty leaving early and hitches a ride on his van. He sees Frosty and three of his friends riding a gigantic swell known as Mavericks which, with

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

coming in, will be at its height in three months' time. Reluctantly, Frosty agrees to teach Jay how to surf Mavericks, but insists that he learn about the "foundation pillars of surfing". This involves learning to paddle board 36 miles across

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...

(from Santa Cruz to Monterey), treading water for 40 minutes and being able to hold his breath for four minutes. While training, Frosty encourages Jay to write essays to focus on the task. His first essay is about Kim ( Leven Rambin), his crush, whose dog he saved when he was 8, which caused him to nearly drown. Jay gets closer to Kim as he trains, partially encouraged by Frosty's wife, Brenda ( Abigail Spencer). A few weeks before the biggest swell of the season hits Mavericks, Brenda has a stroke and dies. A few days later, distraught from Brenda's death, Frosty paddles out into the bay. Jay follows him, and using the knowledge from his training, he gets Frosty back to shore. Frosty realizes that Jay is ready to ride Mavericks. Frosty takes Jay to Mavericks at

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Immediately north of Half Mo ...

and watches with his three friends as Jay treads water against the tide. The group agrees that Jay is ready to ride with them. On Jay's 16th birthday on June 15, 1994, his mother (

) gives him a radio to listen to weather broadcasts and track the swell. Frosty gives him a custom-made "big wave gun" (a long surfboard especially designed for riding big waves). Kim reveals her feelings and they share a kiss. Frosty had wanted to keep Mavericks a secret, but Jay's notebook that he had been using for preparation ends up in the hands of his rival Sonny ( Taylor Handley). When Jay and Frosty go to Half Moon Bay, there is a large crowd and boats taking surfers out. Many of the newcomers wipe out before getting to surf Mavericks. Jay wipes out at first, but then retrieves his board and successfully rides Mavericks. A title card reveals that he married Kim and died at age 22 while

free-diving Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving, is a mode of underwater diving that relies on apnea, breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba set, scuba gear. Besides the ...

in the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

. The film ends with Frosty, Kim, and an assemblage of others holding a surfers' memorial service for Jay.

Cast

* Jonny Weston as Jay Moriarity * Gerard Butler as Richard 'Frosty' Hesson *

as Kristy Moriarity * Abigail Spencer as Brenda Hesson * Leven Rambin as Kim * Greg Long as Magnificent 1 * Peter Mel as Magnificent 2 * Zach Wormhoudt as Magnificent 3 * Devin Crittenden as Blond * Taylor Handley as Sonny * Cooper Timberline as Young Jay * Keegan Boos as Young Sonny * Gary Griffis as Young Blond * Harley Graham as Young Kim * Scott Eastwood as Gordy (uncredited) * Colter Sanders as Alexander (uncredited) * Patrick and Asher Tesler as Infant Lake Hesson (uncredited)

Production

The film went into production in October 2011 around

and

. On December 19, Gerard Butler was hospitalized briefly after being injured during a surfing stunt. Gerard Butler was mentored by big-wave surfer Grant Washburn.

received director credit alongside

after he took over as director during the last 15 days of principal photography, while Hanson recovered from complications arising from recent heart surgery.

Soundtrack

;Other songs used in the film *

The Offspring The Offspring is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Garden Grove, California, in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band currently consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Dexter Holland, Bryan "Dexter" Holland, ...

– " Come Out and Play" * Jules Larson – "Honey Baby"

Reception

Box office

''Chasing Mavericks'' grossed $6 million in the United States, and $1.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $7.9 million. The film was released on October 26, 2012 in 2,002 theaters, grossing $2.3 million in its opening weekend and finishing 13th at the box office;

Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray ...

called the figure "dreadful." It was the 11th-worst debut for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters. It made $1.2 million in its second weekend then lost 1,571 theaters and grossed $448,648 in its third.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

it has an approval rating of 32% based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The site's consensus states: "It's sweet, gentle, and affably modest, but ''Chasing Mavericks'' is ultimately pulled under by an unconvincing script and a puzzling lack of energy." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

it has a score of 45 out 100 based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

praised the film, saying that "''Chasing Mavericks'' is made with more care and intelligence than many another film starting with its template might have been. It's better than most movies targeted at teens. And the cinematography of the big Mavericks scene by Oliver Euclid and Bill Pope is so frightening that you sort of understand why Frosty stays on the shore, watching Jay with binoculars."

Home media

''Chasing Mavericks'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

on February 26, 2013.

Book

In October 2012, Frosty Hesson published ''Making Mavericks'' with Zola Books. The book is a memoir filled with Hesson's life-affirming lessons and described his experience mentoring Jay Moriarity.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chasing Mavericks 2012 films 2012 biographical drama films 2010s buddy drama films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s sports drama films 20th Century Fox films American buddy drama films American coming-of-age drama films American biographical drama films American sports drama films Biographical films about sportspeople Coming-of-age drama films based on actual events Dune Entertainment films 2010s English-language films English-language biographical drama films English-language sports drama films Films scored by Chad Fischer Films directed by Curtis Hanson Films directed by Michael Apted Films shot in California Films set in 1987 Films set in 1994 Films set in 2001 Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area American surfing films Walden Media films 2012 drama films Mavericks, California 2010s American films English-language buddy drama films