1 | GI Jane
A rare action heroine in a male-dominated genre. In Ridley Scott’s 1997 film, shaven-headed Demi Moore - 35 at the time - starred as Lieutenant Jordan O’Neill, the first woman to join the elite Navy Seals. Moore trained with a special forces instructor for the role and became convincingly ripped. In a punishing workout scene, dogtag rattling and torso glistening in the moonlight, she busts out sit-ups and pull-ups in increasingly impossible positions, before performing one-armed press-ups with apparent ease. There was no stunt double - all the shots were of Moore herself. Sadly, her sweat didn’t pay off. The film flopped and she was awarded a Razzie for worst actress.
2 | Run Fatboy Run
Who hasn’t returned to exercise after a long absence and realised with a disheartening jolt they’re nowhere near as fit as they thought they were? That’s the deal in Simon Pegg’s 2007 comedy, directed by David “Ross from Friends” Schwimmer. Out-of-shape loser Dennis Doyle vows to run the London marathon at the last minute, to impress the ex he regrets jilting at the altar (Thandie Newton) and beat her smug new fiance (Hank Azaria). His first training run is painful, all too short and gives him “scrotal rash”. His landlord tries to motivate him by spanking him with a spatula. He eventually completes the 26-mile course - in a mere 14 hours.
3 | Pumping Iron
This cult 1977 documentary not only put “Austrian oak” Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cinematic map but foreshadowed the 80s gym craze. The “condom full of walnuts” competed with the era’s other big bodybuilding icon, 6ft 5in Lou “Incredible Hulk” Ferrigno, for the title of Mr Olympia 1975. The pair had contrasting styles: shy, partially deaf Ferrigno trained with his father in a basement gym, while Arnie worked out at Muscle Beach surrounded by hangers-on and waged psychological warfare on his rivals. Ah-nuld won the contest for the sixth consecutive year and promptly retired from pro bodybuilding. He celebrated by smoking marijuana and eating fried chicken.
4 | Perfect
A film that tapped into the 80s workout craze, this 1985 drama was based on a Rolling Stone article chronicling the popularity of health clubs among young and fancy-free LA residents. John Travolta starred as the reporter dispatched to write a story that would be headlined “More sex than sweat”, revealing how “fitness clubs are the new singles bars”. At the Sport Connection gym, he meets aerobics instructor Jamie Lee Curtis and a romance develops that compromises his story. Curtis worked out constantly during filming and put on 10lb of muscle. Perfect flopped, temporarily derailed Travolta’s career and was nominated for three Razzies, but Quentin Tarantino later said, tongue in cheek, that it was “greatly under-appreciated due to Curtis’s very tight performance”.
5 | Bridget Jones’s Diary
The era-defining 2001 romcom provided one of the most realistic portrayals of a workout on film. After deciding she couldn’t work with her dastardly ex Daniel Cleaver any more at Pemberley Press publishers (“I’d rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein’s arse”), thirtysomething singleton Bridget is shaping up for her new career in TV. Renée Zellweger’s hapless heroine desperately tries to sweat off some pounds on a gym exercise bike. Pedalling like a demon, she wants it to work right now but deep down, knows it will take weeks of hard graft. To add insult to injury, she falls off when dismounting. It’s OK, she’s fine. Cue Chaka Khan’s I’m Every Woman.
6 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
“You stay classy, San Diego!” The cult 2004 comedy about a mustachioed, scotch-swilling, jazz flute-playing, mid-70s local newsreader (Will Ferrell in the role of his life) sees Ron and his cronies get hot under their suit collars when, in the interests of new-fangled “diversity”, their network hires - gasp! - a woman: glamorous blonde Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). Both threatened and infatuated, Ron asks her to stop by his office, where she finds him doing arm curls with a dumbbell. “1001... 1002... 1003… Oh, Miss Corningstone. I wasn’t expecting company. Just doing my workout. Tuesday’s arms and back. Oh, it’s the deep burn. I don’t know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand.”
7 | Bridesmaids
“Let’s go! Sit-ups! You look like pieces of bacon on a plate. Disgusting. I can smell the fat!” Why pay for a fitness bootcamp when you can work out near one? That’s the philosophy of Annie and Lillian (Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph). To save $12 apiece, they set up base behind a tree in the park, peering round to follow the instructions barked by scary drill sergeant Rodney. Except he spots them and yells: “Hey! If you wanna take this class, you’ve gotta pay for it like the rest of these bitches. Fucking freeloaders!” At first, they style it out by pretending they’re dancing. Then they make a run for it and go for cake instead. Far more sensible.
8 | Rocky
The Rocky series is the undisputed champ of the training montage. Witness the homoerotic frolicking with Apollo Creed in Rocky III or the Siberian wilderness sequence in Rocky IV. But the original and best was the film that started it all, a 1976 sleeper hit penned by its star, Sylvester Stallone, shot on a low budget in just 28 days - which went on to win three Oscars. Small-time semi-pro fighter Rocky “Italian Stallion” Balboa gets in shape for his shot at the world heavyweight title by punching beef carcasses in a meat-packing plant and running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art - inspired by the real-life regime of Joe Frazier, who makes a cameo in the film. “Getting strong now, gonna fly now.”
9 | American Beauty
“I need to shape up. Fast.” “Are you looking to just lose weight, or do you wanna have increased strength and flexibility as well?” “I want to look good naked.” Sam Mendes’s 1999 comedy-drama, which scooped five Oscars, starred Kevin Spacey as suburban dad Lester Burnham, in the throes of a midlife crisis after becoming infatuated with his teenage daughter’s best friend. When he overhears the flirtatious cheerleader saying that she’d find him attractive if he improved his physique, he starts working out in the garage next to his new car (“1970 Pontiac Firebird. The car I’ve always wanted and now I have it. I rule!”) while smoking pot and listening to the rock of his youth.
10 | The Karate Kid
Forget the the 2010 remake starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, it’s all about the 1984 original - directed by John G Avildsen and just as inspirational as his earlier Rocky. He’s supposed to be teaching bullied “Daniel-san” (Ralph Macchio) karate but, instead, eccentric handyman Mr Miyagi (Oscar-nominated Noriyuki “Pat” Morita) keeps giving him menial chores to do: cleaning his vintage cars, creosoting his fence, sanding his deck. “Remember deal! No questions!” Except, of course, Miyagi is actually secretly training Daniel in the ways of defensive blocks through muscle memory. “Wax on, wax off… Sand the floor… Paint the fence. Up, down… Breathe in through nose, out the mouth… Always look eye.”
