Plot
Jake Tyler has recently moved from Iowa to Orlando, Florida with his mother Margret and younger brother Charlie. The move is in furtherance of Charlie's budding tennis career.
Jake's father died in a drunk-driving car crash, which classmates have taunted him about. An internet video of Jake fighting with an opponent football player in Iowa who mocks him, is shared at his new school, giving him a reputation.
Initially Jake has trouble fitting in and, while walking, he sees Max Cooperman seemingly being beaten up by bullies. When he tries to intervene, Max and his friends tell him off as the "bullying" was actually a consensual mixed martial arts fight.
Later on, Jake is invited by classmate Baja Miller (whom he's interested in) to a party. There, he is unwillingly pulled into a fight with Ryan McCarthy, the school's MMA champion, and also Baja's boyfriend. Initially refusing to fight, Jake snaps when Ryan jokes about his father's death. Ryan easily defeats him, and he is humiliated by a video of it circulating the school.
Max befriends Jake, introduces him to MMA and connects him with instructor Jean Roqua. After passing Roqua's physical tests and impressing him with his willpower, he is accepted as his student. Roqua forewarns Jake that he mustn't fight outside the gym for any reason while under his instructorship. If he does, he will be thrown out of his gym. While Jake trains under Roqua, he initially has difficulty quelling his anger towards Ryan.
Baja apologizes to Jake for coercing him into the fight with Ryan, but he refuses to forgive her. When Ryan shows no remorse for the fight or his sadistic tendencies, Baja breaks up with him, to which he responds by aggressively grabbing her. Jake intervenes to protect her, so Ryan insults him about his father again and leaves.
At practice, still furious over what happened, Roqua tells him to leave until he cools off. Riding in Max's car, Jake gets into a road rage brawl which Max films. The video circulates around the school and raises Jake's social status, agitating Ryan enough to confront him.
After roughing Jake up privately, Ryan challenges him to compete in the Beatdown, an underground fighting tournament of which Ryan is the reigning champion. When Roqua discovers that Jake has fought outside the gym, he kicks him out and tells him to not return. Jake convinces him a short while later to take him back. Roqua puts him through more rigorous training which he uses as preparation for the Beatdown.
After a workout, Roqua confides in Jake that he is in self-imposed exile from Brazil. His brother was a skilled MMA fighter and had handily beaten a local troublemaker. The man later returned with a gun and murdered him. Their father blames him for the death.
Jake later on apologizes to Baja for not forgiving her and they start a relationship. He isn't interested in competing at the Beatdown as Ryan wants him to. However, he changes his mind after Ryan severely injures Max, leaving him on Jake's doorstep. After taking Max to the hospital, Jake talks to Roqua about participating in the Beatdown. Initially arguing, he eventually relents and reminds Jake to "control the outcome".
Jake arrives at the tournament and both he and Ryan make their way through each round, each emerging victorious. Jake makes it to the semifinals in spite of an injury he received in the previous match. Baja arrives to not only support him, but to tell him she understands why he insists on fighting: so that he would never have to fight again. After learning that Ryan was disqualified in his semifinal match due to an illegal eye gouge, Jake forfeits, seeing no reason to continue.
As Jake and Baja attempt to leave, Ryan confronts him and they finally fight, outside in the parking lot. Jake is limited by his injuries, so Ryan at first gains the upper hand, applying a choke on Jake. However he escapes and knocks him out using a Roqua combination. Eventually, Jake wins the respect of his fellow students, including Ryan; and Roqua returns to Brazil to reconcile with his father.
Reception
Box office
Never Back Down debuted in 2,729 theaters at #3 with $8,603,195 in the opening weekend. After 2 weeks in cinemas, it garnered $18,890,093; and after one month the film earned $37,676,991 worldwide. [1]
The film closed on June 5, 2008, after 84 days at the North American box office with $41,627,431 worldwide against a budget of $20 million.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22% based on 83 reviews, with an average score of 4.4/10. The site's consensus states: "Though not without its pleasures, Never Back Down faithfully adheres to every imaginable fight movie cliché". [3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100 based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [4]
Gregory Kirschling of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D, calling it "dopey. And with its emphasis on stupid violence, xylophone abs, and getting yourself on YouTube, it's yet another product that makes you feel bad about today's youth culture". [5] Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune gave the film two out of four stars, saying "[i]t's a little Karate Kid , a smidge of Fight Club (with none of the ironic ambivalence toward violence that David Fincher brought to that story), a lot of The O.C. (evil boy Gigandet played an evil boy on that series), and presto: probable hit". [6]
Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review: "I laughed so much at the litany of clichés that I finally had to admit I was entertained from start to finish by this cheesy knock-off". [7]
Movie historian Leonard Maltin cited the picture as "A wildly improbable and cliched, yet entertaining (particularly for fans of this genre), variation on The Karate Kid ...wherein Faris and Heard have the Ralph Macchio and (respectively) Elisabeth Shue roles, while Gigandet (who can glare with the best of them) is in William Zabka's...All in all, the film Showdown tried to be". [8]
Sequels
A 2011 sequel titled Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown was released with Evan Peters reprising his role as Max Cooperman. Directed by Michael Jai White in his directorial debut, the film stars White alongside Alex Meraz, Jillian Murray, MMA fighters Todd Duffee, Lyoto Machida, Scott Epstein and Australian actor-singer Dean Geyer. [11]
A second sequel, released in 2016, titled Never Back Down: No Surrender was again directed by White, who also reprises his role as Case Walker. The film also stars Josh Barnett, Gillian Waters, Steven Quardos, Nathan Jones and Esai Morales.
A third sequel, titled Never Back Down: Revolt, which is directed by Kellie Madison, was released in 2021. Revolt does not feature any returning cast members, and stars Olivia Popica, Michael Bisping, Brooke Johnston, Vanessa Campos, Diana Hoyos, Neetu Chandra and James Faulkner.
