Starring: David Harbour, Orlando Bloom, Archie Madekwe, Djimon Hounsou, Darren Barnet, Geri Halliwell Horner, Daniel Puig, Josha Stradowski, Thomas Kretschmann
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Sports action drama directed by Neill Blomkamp. Based on a true story, Gran Turismo (2023) centers the ultimate wish fulfilment of Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.
Where to Watch:
Best Quotes
Persol: [to Jann] Dude, how many months of selling underwear did you have to do to afford the new wheel? Be honest.
Jann Mardenborough: Also, for your information, it only took me a month of saving up at the knickers store to afford the new wheel. Not months, plural. Month, singular.
Steve Mardenborough: [to Jann] Sooner or later, you’re going to have to leave this room, right?
Persol: Jeez, your dad’s not into your lifestyle, my bro.
Jann Mardenborough: God. Yeah, no s**t.
Danny Moore: They’d rather be on their phones in the back of an Uber than driving themselves. Car buyers today don’t dream of the open road. They don’t associate their cars with adventure. But Gran Turismo players do. This is an untapped demographic of buyers that we should be reaching.
Danny Moore: By creating a contest that offers the best video game players in the world a chance to compete in professional racing. If we can take one driver from the virtual world from behind their console and put them into a race car, onto a track and turn them into a champion, Nissan will reignite the dream to drive in eighty million others.
Akira Akiba: You really believe one of these players could compete?
Danny Moore: I do. Absolutely. Yeah. I’ve played the game, and it’s remarkable actually.
Akira Akiba: You understand, if we put them in our cars, and somebody was hurt, we would all be responsible.
Danny Moore: Yes, I understand.
Jack Salter: You really think that you’re going to put some kid who’s been playing a game in his bedroom into a two hundred mile an hour rocket? It’ll tear him to pieces.
Danny Moore: These players have clocked more track time than you have in your entire career.
Jack Salter: Oh, on, what do you call it, a console? Huh? You know that if you get in a wreck out here, you can’t hit reset, right?
Jack Salter: How many guys you go to before you went to me?
Danny Moore: A few.
Jack Salter: Yeah, “a few”.
Danny Moore: A lot. But nobody with your particular experience.
Danny Moore: These kids, they’re outsiders too. I know it’s unprecedented, but so was a kid from Iowa racing Le Mans.
Jack Salter: Yeah. Look how that turned out.
Danny Moore: Don’t you want to take racing back from these p**cks who think they can just buy it? I’m talking about a chance to compete again. Don’t you want one last shot?
Jack Salter: I think those days are in my rearview, friend.
Danny Moore: Then what are you doing here?
Danny Moore: Somewhere out there, there’s a kid who’s faster than all these a**holes that’s just never gotten a chance to show the world what they’re capable of. I’m going to find him!
Jann Mardenborough: I’m not going to be a waiter. I’ve got plans.
Coby Mardenborough: Says the dude who sells stockings at the department store.
Steve Mardenborough: Not again about the race cars.
Jann Mardenborough: Didn’t you say, “Always do something you love?”
Steve Mardenborough: Yes. Yes. I did. But I meant within the realm of reality.
'Always do something you love.' - Jann Mardenborough (Gran Turismo) Share on X
Jann Mardenborough: Well, I can start at the bottom. I can work in the pits, do car maintenance.
Steve Mardenborough: Yeah, but that’s not our world, son. You know what racing cars costs?
Jann Mardenborough: But it’s what I love. It’s what I’m good at.
Jack Salter: You’re a good driver, Nick. I don’t know how many times you need to hear that, but you get a little emotional. And when you get emotional…
Nicholas Capa: You’re a mechanic. If I want driving advice, I’ll talk to my team leader, not some flamed-out has-been who couldn’t back it up fifty years ago.
Jack Salter: [message to Danny] Hey, tell Nissan I’ll do it. I’m not spending another minute with this pretentious clown show. I’ll teach your gamer kids how to drive. They just got to prove to me that they can do it. If I feel like it’s unsafe, I’m going to walk. I’m not going to have blood on my hands.
Persol: I saw this message on the screen. It says that the account that was last logged in on this console got one of the fastest lap times in the UK. Dude, it was your account.
Jann Mardenborough: Wait. This is a joke.
Persol: No. It’s a contest. Press “play”, dude.
Danny Moore: If you’re one of the very, very few people getting this message, it means that you set the fastest lap time in Gran Turismo. There’s a virtual race happening tomorrow. Win it, and a once in a lifetime opportunity awaits you. We’ve created an academy to take the best SIM racers in the world and train them to race real race cars. We want to prove to the whole world that the impossible dream can happen.
Jann Mardenborough: Dude, this is real?
Persol: It’s as real as a ten-car pileup on the M4. Bad example. You need to practice now.
Audrey: I don’t know, do you ever just want to pack a bag and leave here and never look back?
Jann Mardenborough: All the time.
Audrey: What is it about racing that you love so much?
Jann Mardenborough: Well, sometimes when I’m driving, I can be going so fast, and everything else is moving so slow, and it’s like the rest of the world just falls away. It’s just you, and the car, and that’s it. It’s kind of magic.
Steve Mardenborough: [referring to the railyard job] You’re not here because you broke the mirror on the car, or because you took it without asking me.
Jann Mardenborough: Then why am I here?
Steve Mardenborough: Because this is where you end up when you don’t have a plan.
Steve Mardenborough: You think you’re going to play stupid video games about cars and you’re going to become a race car driver? Either you go back to school, and find something achievable, or you can join me here now. But there’s no future in racing.
Jann Mardenborough: I’m done.
'Sometimes when I'm driving, I can be going so fast, and everything else is moving so slow, and it's like the rest of the world just falls away. It's just you, and the car, and that's it. It's kind of magic.' - Jann Mardenborough Share on X
Steve Mardenborough: He’s off to race cars. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?
Jann Mardenborough: Dad, I’m sorry. You’re the one that said, “Go and do something real.” Now I am, and it’s too dangerous. Make up your mind.
Steve Mardenborough: Look, this has never been done before, Jann. It’s a gimmick. You’ve barely driven a real car.
Jann Mardenborough: Dad, I’ve raced thousands of hours.
Steve Mardenborough: But it’s not the same, son. Real drivers, they’re professional athletes.
Jann Mardenborough: [referring to when he was five] All I’ve wanted to do since then is be a racer. I am doing it. Whether you believe in me or not.
Danny Moore: The ten of you, hailing from eight different countries, are the best SIM racers in the world. You’ve overcome incredible odds to be here. Now you stand on this track with enormous opportunity. The winner will earn a seat on Team Nissan, and a place in racing history.
Jack Salter: [to the gamers] So, all these folks behind me are keen on y’all proving you can do the impossible. I’m here to prove that you can’t.
Jack Salter: Jann. Wow, you’re tall. Fit in a race car?
Jann Mardenborough: I don’t know. I guess in the game I do.
Jack Salter: This is not a game.
'You make your day, survive the night, you live to fight tomorrow.' - Jack Salter (Gran Turismo) Share on X
Jack Salter: Racing. It takes strength. It takes tremendous will, intelligence, sensitivity. There’s only a handful of people in the entire world who can do it at the level that you’re going to be asked to do it.
Jack Salter: When you’re in a race, the g-forces will be twice what an astronaut experiences upon liftoff. And it’s under these conditions that you’re going to be forced to make split-second decisions that could cost you your life. Or worse, you could kill someone else. These are incredible stakes. And if you’re not willing to risk it, I want you to walk away. There’s absolutely no shame. Because if you stay, I’m going to push you harder than you have ever been pushed, and I am going to prove that you don’t have what it takes. Because to take one look at any of you, I can already tell that you don’t. Welcome.
Danny Moore: Great pep talk, Churchill.
Jack Salter: Well, I think they got the point.
'Passing is the art of conviction.' - Jack Salter (Gran Turismo) Share on X
Danny Moore: This was my dream. To take SIM racers, put them into real cars, and have them race against professional drivers. Now is your chance to turn dreams into reality.
Reporter: What do you think about Jann?
Matty Davis: Jann is the same as any other driver on the track. Just another car to pass.
Danny Moore: Follow the kids around the track. Make some notes. Act like an engineer. Look cool.
Jack Salter: There’s no way I would evaluate race car drivers from a helicopter. It’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my whole life. I’m not getting in that thing.
[we then see him in the chopper]
'That crash is not going to define who you are. But how you respond to it will.' - Jack Salter (Gran Turismo) Share on X
Jack Salter: [training the gamers] Alright. Come on! Let’s go, you gamer kids. This must be a new experience for you. Last time you stretched your legs was to go get another packet of Hot Pockets from the freezer. You get tired, you get sloppy. You get sloppy, you get hurt. Then you lose races! Let’s go!
Klaus Hoffman: Jack thinks we just suck.
Jack Salter: You puked on my lawn. Goodbye, Henry.
Reporter: What’s your biggest fear?
Jann Mardenborough: I guess going home and proving everybody right. You know, that this, it was impossible and this wasn’t meant to be.
Jack Salter: You can’t be afraid in the car!
Jann Mardenborough: I wasn’t afraid. I braked. I don’t know what happened.
Jack Salter: Got to commit!
Antonio Cruz: Dude, you crashed a car with Jack inside. That was insane.
Jann Mardenborough: Terrifying.
Antonio Cruz: [mimicking Jack] Listen, you got to commit. You know, if you don’t commit in the turn, it’s our lives on the line.
Jann Mardenborough: Uncanny. I don’t know if I was more scared of the crash or of Jack.
Jann Mardenborough: I’ve been driving these cars for years.
Jack Salter: Okay. In a video game. We’re in real life now, okay? This is reality. If you’re not going to commit, if you’re not going to have conviction on that track, you make mistakes like that, next time, we might not be so lucky.
Jann Mardenborough: Why do you think we’re here? Because we know how these cars work. I know what I’m talking about. I’m not afraid.
Jack Salter: Come on, man. Been doing this for twenty-five years. I know when someone’s afraid. Best case scenario, that guy doesn’t win. And that’s what we got here. There’s no shame in that. It’s okay. It’s a small percentage of the population that can do this. Alright? I get it. But it’s time to quit. If those brakes don’t turn out to be glazed, you’re going home anyways.
