The Longest Yard Movie

Directed by
Peter Segal

Writing credits
(WGA)
Albert S. Ruddy (story)
Tracy Keenan Wynn (1974 screenplay)
Sheldon Turner (screenplay)

Release Date:
27 May 2005 (USA)

Genre:
Comedy | Drama | Sport

Cast :
Cons

* Adam Sandler – Paul Crewe
* Burt Reynolds – Nate Scarborough
* Chris Rock – Farrell "Caretaker"
* Nelly – Earl Meggett
* Michael Irvin – Deacon Moss
* Bill Goldberg – Joey Battle
* Terry Crews – Cheeseburger Eddy
* Bob Sapp – Switowski
* Nicholas Turturro – Brucie
* Dalip Singh Rana (aka The Great Khali) – Turley
* Lobo Sebastian – Torres
* Joey Diaz – Big Tony
* Steve Reevis – Silent Bob
* David Patrick Kelly – Unger
* Tracy Morgan - Ms. Tucker
* Edward Bunker - Skitchy Rivers

Guards

* William Fichtner – Capt. Knauer
* Bill Romanowski – Guard Lambert
* Kevin Nash – Sgt. Engleheart
* Stone Cold Steve Austin – Guard Dunham
* Brian Bosworth – Guard Garner
* Michael Papajohn - Guard Papajohn
* Conrad Goode - Guard Webster
* Brandon Molale – Guard Malloy
* Todd Holland - Guard Holland

* James Cromwell – Warden Hazen
* Cloris Leachman – Lynette
* Rob Schneider – Punky

Cameos

* Chris Berman - himself
* Courteney Cox – Lena (uncredited)
* Jim Rome - himself
* Lauren Sánchez - herself
* D-12 (excluding Eminem) - Basketball convicts

Original Sound Track :
1. Errtime - Nelly
2. Shorty Bounce - Lil Wayne
3. Bounce Like This - T.I.
4. Let 'Em Fight - Ali/Gipp
5. Stomp - Murphy Lee/King Jacob
6. So Fly - Akon
7. U Should Know - 21G
8. Whip Yo Ass - W.C./Nelly
9. Talkin' That Talk - Chamillionaire/David Banner
10. Datz on My Mama - Taylor Made/Nelly
11. Infultrate - Trillville
12. My Ballz - D12/Eminem
13. Fly Away - Nelly

Plot :
The film starts with Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), an ex-NFL player disgraced for shaving points in a big game, getting in an argument with his rich girlfriend Lena (Courteney Cox) regarding his failure. He locks her in a closet, gets drunk, and goes joy riding in her car throughout San Diego. After getting the car completely destroyed and disabling several police cruisers in the process, he gets arrested. He is found guilty of grand theft auto and is sentenced to three years in Allenville Penitentiary in Texas, as it was arranged by the prison's warden Hazen (James Cromwell).

In prison, the warden asks Paul to help with the prison guards' football team. After being roughed up a bit, Paul (under threat of an extra 5 years for blocking a guard's baton) decides to help him. He informs the warden that what his team needs is a tune-up game: a game where they play a team and "kick the living shit out of 'em, and get their spirits up". This gives the warden an idea: Paul, with the help of fellow immate Caretaker (Rock), will make a team out of the inmates for them to play as their tune-up game. He starts off with a poorly organized team before being noticed by another prisoner, former football player Nate Scarborough (Reynolds), and decides to help him by coaching the team.

Then Paul, Nate, and Caretaker find a rating system on the criminals (up to five stars, depending on how prone to violence they are). They all set out to find and recruit some five star inmates: linebacker Joey Battle (Goldberg); fullback Turley (Singh Rana); and at safety, Torres (Lobo Sebastian), a chain-smoking outsider. But after realizing their team is built on power and nastiness (primarily on defense) and there is no offensive threats on the team, Paul realizes he needs more players. Caretaker suggests that it is due to their lack of "brothers", as they only have one currently on their team: defensive lineman Switowsky (Sapp), an unintelligent, child-like, but large strongman.

They go to the black inmates and approach their leader Deacon Moss (Irvin), who declares that none of them want to play on his team because of Paul's point-shaving history. So Paul challenges them to a 1 on 1 basketball game where if Paul wins, the men will join the team. They play basketball and call their own fouls with Paul getting physically punished during the game. Despite Paul losing, one of the black immates, Earl Megget (Nelly), is impressed by Paul's resilience and joins the team. Megget becomes the team's running back in turn by impressing Paul with his running ability.

After a tip from Unger (David Patrick Kelly) that Paul and Megget are the only real offensive threats on the team, Captain Knauer (Fichtner), the guards' quarterback, decides that the guards should try to stop Megget by trying to get him to assault one of them and sticking them in solitary confinement. Three guards Dunham (Austin), Garner (Bosworth) and Engelheart (Nash) try to provoke Megget by using racial slurs and making him pick up books they dropped on the ground repeatedly. The guards give up on this after he stands through their harassment. Witnessing this was Moss and Cheeseburger Eddy (Crews), who align the rest of black inmates to join the football team. The warden and guards go to extreme lengths to stop Paul's squad, even flooding their field, but the team overcomes these obstacles.

Caretaker suggests that since the guards have been playing dirty that the inmates should start acting more like criminals, such as swapping Engelheart's anabolic steroids for estrogen pills, examining x-rays of guards with broken bones, and stealing tapes of the guards past games. The guards Garner, Engelheart, Holland and Lambert (Romanowski) then decide to do something about Paul, and have Unger plant a bomb, disguised as a radio, in his cell. After the final day of preparation for the big game, Caretaker leaves early and places a gift for Paul in his cell and accidentally sets the bomb (which was the radio) off, and is killed in the resulting explosion.

During game day, the immates (now calling themselves "Mean Machine" with gear provided by the late-Caretaker) overcome a rough start and end the first half with the score tied. The warden is angry, and informs Paul that if he doesn't lose then he would be framed for the murder of Caretaker (another 25 years). Paul says spitefully, "Fine, but you get a 2 touchdown lead and you coast". The warden agrees to Paul's face, but he tells the guards' quarterback to get ahead by three touchdowns and inflict as much pain as possible. After the guards score two touchdowns (and Paul steps out faking injury), they start injuring players before scoring a third touchdown. After the guards injure two of the players, Paul goes back in, but must regain the trust of the inmates. The inmates ignore Paul, letting him get sacked twice and forcing him to run the ball himself. After losing his helmet and still getting the first down, Paul admits his sabotage and they trust him again. They get back in it, but Megget gets hurt. Scarborough comes in for one play as replacement, and scores a touchdown off a trick play involving a fumble called a Fumblerooski. They decide to go for the two point conversion, and the win. They get up to the line and seem to be confused, and Paul and Coach start arguing. The play is really a trick, and then Moss gets the snap and passes it to Paul, who scores the winning conversion. Ultimately Captain Knauer respects Paul's move and lets him know he will testify that Paul had nothing to do with Caretaker's death.

The warden comes over and begins to admonish Captain Knauer for losing a fixed game and notices that Paul is heading towards the exit along with the fans. Pulling a sniper over, he demands that Paul be shot for attempting to escape. The sniper hesitates because of the numerous people near Paul, so the warden grabs the rifle and passes it to Knauer, demanding that he should take the shot. Knauer sights up Paul, but hesitates, calling out Paul's name several times to get him to stop. Paul does stop, but he was actually going to pick up the ball and head back. Knauer angrily hands the rifle back to the warden and leaves, while Paul gives the game ball to the warden, telling them to "Stick it in his trophy case." Paul and Scarborough head back towards the locker room and agree that they should tell the others where Unger is hiding.

As the warden watches them leave, Moss and Battle pour a cooler of Gatorade on Hazen in a mockery of a typical football game celebration. The Warden angrily shouts that they'll receive a week in the hotbox. Battle yells back "who gives a shit?"

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