''The Fire Inside'' is a 2024 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 ...

sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport or a sports-related topic is prominently featured or is a focus of the plot. D ...

Rachel Morrison Rachel Morrison (born April 27, 1978) is an American cinematographer and director. For her work on ''Mudbound'' (2017), Morrison became the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Morrison also made her featur ...

in her

feature directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. The film is about the early boxing career of Claressa "T-Rex" Shields, a fighter from

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city in Genesee County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Flint River (Michigan), Flint River northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the Central Michigan, Mid Michigan region. Flin ...

, including her competing at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Ryan Destiny Ryan Destiny (born January 8, 1995) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. Destiny is best known for her roles in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox TV musical drama ''Star (TV series), Star'', the Freeform (TV channel), Freeform sitcom ' ...

stars as the lead, alongside

Brian Tyree Henry Brian Tyree Henry (born March 31, 1982) is an American actor. He rose to prominence for his role as rapper Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles in the FX (TV channel), FX comedy-drama series ''Atlanta (TV series), Atlanta'' (2016–2022), for which he recei ...

and Adam Clark. Originally titled ''Flint Strong'' during development, ''The Fire Inside'' premiered in the Special Presentations section of the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on September 7, 2024, and was released in the United States by

Amazon MGM Studios Amazon MGM Studios is an American film and television production and distribution company owned by Amazon, and headquartered at the Culver Studios complex in Culver City, California. Launched on November 16, 2010, it took its current name on O ...

on December 25, 2024 to positive reviews but was a

box office bomb A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing only $8.1 million on a $12 million budget.

Plot

Cast

as Claressa "T-Rex" Shields *

as Jason Crutchfield *

Oluniké Adeliyi Oluniké Adeliyi (born January 5, 1977) is a Canadian actress. She appeared in the 2010 horror film ''Saw 3D'' and starred as Leah Kerns in the television series '' Flashpoint''. Early life Adeliyi was born in Brampton, Ontario, of Jamaican-Nig ...

as Jackie Shields *

De'Adre Aziza De'Adre Imani Aziza (; born June 14, 1977) is an African-American actress and singer. Early life and education Aziza was born in Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Donna L. Avery, retired part-time assista ...

as Mickey * Adam Clark as Clarence

Production

''The Fire Inside'' had a lengthy development and production history, including encountering multiple delays along the way. On October 7, 2016,

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

hired

Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film '' Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Inde ...

to adapt the 2015 documentary ''T-Rex'', about boxer

Claressa Shields Claressa Maria Shields (born March 17, 1995) is an American professional boxer and former professional Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in Quintuple champion#Boxing, five weight classes, includi ...

, for the big screen, with the possibility to direct the new film. On June 19, 2019,

was set to make her directorial debut on the film, which was to be titled ''Flint Strong''; Jenkins would produce with

Michael De Luca Michael De Luca (born August 13, 1965) is an American film studio executive, film producer and screenwriter. He is also the former president of production at both New Line Cinema and DreamWorks. De Luca has been nominated for three Academy Aw ...

and Elishia Holmes, while Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper, who worked on ''T-Rex'', would serve as executive producers. On November 13, 2019,

was cast as Claressa "T-Rex" Shields. On February 5, 2020,

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

was cast as Shields' coach, Jason Crutchfield.

Judy Greer Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress who has appeared in Judy Greer filmography, a wide variety of films. She rose to prominence for ...

was added on May 14 but for unknown reasons did not appear in the film. However, on October 29, 2021, it was reported that Cube had left the project after refusing to get vaccinated for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

to film ''Oh Hell No'' (later titled ''Stepdude'') for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, putting the film in turnaround.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began at

Cinespace Film Studios Cinespace Film Studios is a group of film studio facilities in the US and Canada. It was founded in 1988 by Greek-Canadian Nick Mirkopoulos. The studio started with a facility in Vaughan, a suburb of Toronto, which had been in operation since the ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

on March 11, 2020, but on March 13, production was halted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In an interview with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Shields stated that production on ''Flint Strong'' was set to resume in June 2021. However, the project entered another long delay due to being offloaded by Universal. It would be picked up by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

, and on May 25, 2022,

joined the cast to replace Ice Cube, and

joined to play Shields' mother, with filming resuming later that month. On July 6, 2022,

joined the cast as Mickey, Crutchfield's wife. In July 2022, filming took place in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

, where the

FirstOntario Centre Hamilton Arena (originally Copps Coliseum, later renamed FirstOntario Centre) is a sports and entertainment arena at the corner of Bay Street (Hamilton, Ontario), Bay Street North and York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Cana ...

was used as an Olympic boxing venue. In March 2024, it was announced that the project had been renamed from ''Flint Strong'' to ''The Fire Inside'', which ultimately would be the final title that the film was released under.

Music

Tamar-kali composed the

score SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

for ''The Fire Inside'', which was released on December 25, 2024, through

Lakeshore Records Lakeshore Village Entertainment, LLC was an American independent film production, finance, and former international sales and distribution company founded in 1994 by Tom Rosenberg and Ted Tannebaum. Lakeshore Entertainment is headquartered in Bev ...

, with "Build Up to Olympic Final / Final Round" released one day earlier. Tamar-kali used a combination of "strings, percussion, modern electronic sounds and brass" in scoring the film.

Release

In July 2024, ''The Fire Inside'' was announced as part of the Special Presentations section at the

scheduled for September 7, 2024. The film was theatrically released on December 25, 2024.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, ''The Fire Inside'' was released alongside ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' () is a 1922 silent film, silent German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who ...

'', '' Babygirl'', and ''

A Complete Unknown ''A Complete Unknown'' is a 2024 American biographical musical drama film directed by James Mangold, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Cocks, about American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Loosely based on the 2015 book ''Dylan Goes Electric!' ...

'', and was projected to gross around $5 million from 2,006 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. The film made $1.6 million on its first day and went on to debut to $2 million in its opening weekend (and a total of $4.3 million over the five days), finishing in 10th. It made $1.2 million in its second weekend.

Critical response

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 an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a fil ...

gave it a 86% overall positive score, with 62% saying they would "definitely recommend" it.

Accolades

References

External links

* *
Official Screenplay
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fire Inside (film), The 2024 biographical drama films 2024 directorial debut films 2024 independent films 2020s American films 2020s English-language films 2020s sports drama films Amazon MGM Studios films American biographical drama films American boxing films American sports drama films American independent films Biographical films about sportspeople Cultural depictions of boxers Film productions suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films about the 2012 Summer Olympics Films about women's sports Films scored by Tamar-kali Films set in 2012 Films set in 2016 Films set in London Films set in Michigan Films set in Rio de Janeiro (city) Films shot in Toronto English-language biographical drama films English-language sports drama films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films