Dhruv Trivedi
‘Final Score’ is a 2018 action thriller that centers around a packed stadium that gets hijacked by terrorists. The protagonist is a highly trained former soldier named Michael Knox (Dave Bautista), who has come with a fallen comrade’s daughter to watch a football match on the fateful day. Knox finds himself in the heart of the action and against some pretty insurmountable odds when his young companion disappears. With no one to turn to, the former soldier is forced to take matters into his own hands.
The explosive action movie is directed by Scott Mann and maintains a blistering pace throughout. It also presents a pretty ominous situation with thirty-five thousand people trapped in a stadium at the mercy of terrorists. We got curious about whether the film had any real-world inspiration. Let’s take a look at whether ‘Final Score’ is based on a true story.
Is Final Score a True Story?
No, ‘Final Score’ is not based on a true story. The film is based on a script by The Brothers Lynch (David T. Lynch and Keith Lynch), with further input by Jonathan Frank, and directed by Scott Mann. Introduced as “Die Hard in a football stadium,” the film marks the feature writing debut for the Lynch brothers. The idea for the script actually seems to be inspired by a stadium that was scheduled for demolition and had the potential for hosting an explosive action film in the process.
According to an interview with the Lynch brothers, they were approached by the film’s producers with a request for a script that was essentially “Die Hard in a football stadium.” Being huge fans of the Bruce Willis action films, the brothers agreed to the request. However, there was a time constraint. The producers approached the writers in November 2015, and the old West Ham United football stadium, where the film was meant to be shot, was scheduled for demolition the following summer. And so, most of the film, or at least the scenes to be filmed in the stadium, had to be shot before that.
Thus, the writing process (as well as other aspects of the production) moved ahead at a blistering pace, and David and Keith had the first draft ready in a matter of weeks. After spending some more time on the second draft, the script was handed over to Jonathan Frank, who is director Scott Mann’s regular writer. In all, the Lynch brothers spent about two months on the project, including coming up with the original fictional story.
Ultimately, it seems that ‘Final Score’ is inspired, more than anything else, by the scheduled demolition of the football stadium where the film was shot. In fact, part of the demolition was actually undertaken during the production! For a particular sequence in the film, the crew actually blew up a section of the stands.
It is clear just how crucial the demolition of the stadium is to the plot of the film. Inspiration from the ‘Die Hard‘ films is also clearly visible in ‘Final Score’, especially in the “one-man-army” protagonist who must take on a group of terrorists single-handedly. The blistering action and the side characters, like the policeman who Knox is in contact with while inside the stadium, also feel quite similar to aspects found in the ‘Die Hard’ movies.
‘Final Score’ was seemingly written with a clear objective, which it fulfills through a narrative that centers around a hijacked stadium. The fact that the stadium in question was scheduled for demolition in real-life possibly prompted the making of the film but is not part of the story, keeping it completely fictional.
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