Many who watch the sports adventure drama ‘Arthur the King’ will find themselves rooting for the ragtag team led by adventure racer Michael Light. Reeling from the disappointment of a championship loss, Michael has to recalibrate his mindset and set out for a victory in the 2018 Adventure Racing World Championship event, but this time with unforeseen help from a canine friend. Before setting out on his journey, Michael seeks sponsorship from Broadrail in order to fund his team’s race. Broadrail is a fictional company created by screenwriter Michael Brandt, but a real company sponsored Mikael Lindnord and his team’s race in 2014, the year he met Arthur!
The Real Broadrail from Arthur’s Story
Broadrail stands in for Peak Performance, the real company that sponsored Mikael Lindnord, the adventure racer who inspired Michael Light. The scenes in the Broadrail boardroom are a pivotal point of discussion in the movie. Michael has to secure funding for his championship hopes and to do so, he has to convince them without any previous title wins to back him up. Because he is at a disadvantage, he gets the money, but in exchange for bringing Leo, a team member from the past with whom he doesn’t see eye-to-eye. Furthermore, the money is far less than what he initially hoped for.
While Broadrail is of U.S. origin, Mikael Lindnord’s Peak Performance is a Swedish company. With the timelines of the racing events changed, Michael’s Team Broadrail entered the championship event in 2018, but the actual race in which Mikael met Arthur happened in 2014. Michael and Mikael’s teams are also differently composed. Team Peak Performance consisted of Simon Niemi, Karen Lundgren, Staffan Björklund, and Mikael. Even his wife was part of the overall setup.
Hailing from Mikael’s home country, Peak Performance is a clothing company dedicated primarily to athletic and adventure-based themes. The company is tied to Sweden’s skiing obsession and has had multiple forays into adventure-based sporting events. They started with a line of skiwear and eventually made leaps and bounds by sponsoring sportsmen like Mikael, who had a passion for competing. Mikael himself had been a sponsored pro for 6 to 7 years in the world of adventure racing. Before being backed by the Swedish company in his 2014 championship, he was also sponsored by Reebok and AXA.
The major difference between Broadrail and Peak Performance is that the latter never had to doubt Mikael’s potential. The racer secured the real sponsorship after guiding his team to victory in an Adventure Racing World Series event held in Costa Rica. This particular detail was created by screenwriter Michael Brandt to increase the drama and stakes in the film. ‘Arthur the King’ makes it clear just how reliant people like Mikael are on sponsors like Broadrail or Peak Performance to fund their dreams. Even the measly sum of 50,000 dollars that Michael earns from them is a massive boost to his team’s chances of winning. It’s a difficult part of the business, and the film depicts it without any bells and whistles.
Read more: Arthur the King: Where Was Mark Wahlberg’s Movie Filmed?
