In the 1985 boxing classic, Rocky IV, there is a training montage that spans roughly eight minutes of the movie (not counting the brief conversation between Rocky Balboa and his wife in the middle). It depicts the intense workouts of both the American Balboa and the Russian Ivan Drago, highlighting the stark disparity between the technology available to each.
For Balboa, it’s a wooden shack in the frozen Russian tundra. He uses the barn for pull-ups and crunches. He pulls plows. He chops trees. He runs laps in the track cleared for the minimal traffic that comes through (mainly the black sedans of the agents watching him train).
For Drago, it’s all about the future. Doctors watch every crunch. Laps are run around a sterile track. He lifts only the heaviest and newest weights. There’s like a climbing device of some sort.
All throughout we’re serenaded with synth pop and “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty. It can only be described as art.
While the Rocky IV montage is perhaps the most ridiculous workout sequence in the series, they’ve become part of the franchise’s identity. In 2015’s Creed — the first of a now-trilogy with the release of Creed III on March 3 — the montage was reborn.
Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis Creed in the trilogy, the son of Rocky’s enemy-turned-friend (or frenemy if you will) that he is trying to avenge in the fight that required the aforementioned training. Creed’s montage starts in the hospital where Adonis is helping Balboa go through chemotherapy and ends in the oh-so-influential streets of Philadelphia.
It’s emotional. It’s impressive. It’s motivating. It shows that while this boxing match against “Pretty” Ricky Conlan is looming, it’s not the only thing important to him.
In 2018’s Creed II, Adonis goes back to the basics as they take a page out of Balboa’s book to beat a Drago (this time Ivan’s son, Viktor). Once again a Drago looks overly prepared with training, as our underdog has to overcome heat, exhaustion, ice baths and that moment of helplessness where it feels so pointless to continue.
So what exactly goes into making a sports montage — specifically one in the Creed series — the best possible?
“It has to kinda relate to what the character is going through in the story,” Jordan — who made his directorial debut with Creed III — said in an interview with For the Win. “What’s going on outside the ring, you have to tie that in somehow. What does he learn in the montage that he needs to learn about life? That he needs to learn about the fight?”
In Creed III, Creed must fight his former best friend and boxing idol, Dame Anderson (played by the remarkable Jonathan Majors), and his montage reflects his slow growth out of retirement. He’s surrounded by friends and family as he trains, in stark contrast to the lonely and clinical prep of Anderson.
Don’t fret, however. It’s not all feelings and growth in the most recent montage. He also pulls a small plane.
Creed III is out in theaters nationwide on Friday, March 3.