Clint Eastwood stars as the cantankerous but well-meaning elderly boxing coach, Frankie Dunn. Hilary Swank plays Margaret “Maggie” Fitzgerald, an aspiring amateur boxer who Frankie agrees to train. Morgan Freeman stars as Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris. He’s Dunn’s gym assistant and a former boxer himself. Jay Baruchel plays Dangerous Dillard Fighting Bam-Bam Barch or “Danger”. Mike Colter plays “Big” Willie Little, who’s a boxer and has been training under Dunn for years. Lucia Rijker plays Billie “The Blue Bear” Osterman, a former sex worker and a brutal boxer. Brian F. O’Byrne plays Father Horvak, a priest at the church Dunn usually frequents. Anthony Mackie plays the overzealous boxer at Dunn’s gym. Margo Martindale plays Maggie’s mother, Michael Peña plays Omar, and Riki Lindhome plays Maggie’s sister Mardell Fitzgerald. The cast also includes Marcus Chait, Benito Martinez, and Grant L. Roberts.
What’s the Film About? Plot Synopsis
The plot follows Maggie, who is a waitress from the Ozarks. She goes to a rundown Los Angeles gym called Hit Pit, which is owned and operated by Frankie Dunn. He is an elderly and gruff Irish-American trainer. When Maggie approaches him to train her, he refuses right away, saying he doesn’t train women and she’s too old. However, Frankie’s gym assistant and friend Eddie encourages Maggie. When Frankie’s prized prospect signs on with another successful manager, he reluctantly agrees to train Maggie. As training begins and Maggie starts boxing, she shows tremendous determination and talent. She starts climbing up the ladder, picking fights, and knocking opponents out cold quickly. Because of her quick knockouts, Frankie has to bribe managers to put their boxers against her. When Frankie rejects several big offers for Maggie, Scrap decides to help her get some. He arranges a meeting with Mickey Mack for Maggie. However, out of loyalty to Frankie, she declines the offer. Frankie and Maggie travel to Europe, where Maggie continues her winning streak. Frankie gives Maggie a Gaelic nickname, Mo Chuisle. Meanwhile, Frankie also finally arranges a title fight for Maggie — a $1 million match in Las Vegas. It’s against the WBA women’s welterweight champion, Billie “The Blue Bear”. She is infamous for her vicious and dirty fighting style. During the match, Maggie manages to dominate the fight until Billie starts playing dirty. A sucker punch from behind causes Maggie to fall hard on her corner stool, leaving her quadriplegic. Now let’s take a look at the ending of Million Dollar Baby and what it entails.
Million Dollar Baby Ending Explained
After the fight with “The Blue Bear” leaves Maggie quadriplegic, she becomes a ventilator-dependent patient. Over time, she starts to develop bedsores which eventually leads to her infected leg getting amputated. Maggie asks Frankie for a favor: to help her die. She says that she got everything out of life that she wanted. However, Frankie refuses, which leads to Maggie biting her tongues every so often. She does that in order to die from blood loss. Frankie’s priest Father Horvak tells him that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he goes with Maggie’s request. But Frankie does accept her request eventually, giving her an adrenaline injection as Eddie watches from the shadows. Frank never visits the gym again, and we never see him. But before he administers an adrenaline injection to Maggie, he tells her the meaning of Mo Chuisle. He tells her that it means “my darling” and “my blood”. Another thing about Frankie during the end we learn is that he has two adrenaline infections. While he administered one for Maggie, it’s apparent that the other one for him. As the priest warned him, Frankie had fatherly feelings for Maggie. Estranged from her daughter, he started seeing Maggie as his daughter. It’s pretty clear that he won’t be able to live on with the fact that he helped her die. He never came back to the gym, so I think it suffices to say that he’s also killed himself. We also find out that the narration in the movie is actually Eddie writing a letter to Frankie’s daughter. Also Read: Army Of The Dead Review, Ending Explained
