Current:Home > Scams'A victory for us': Watch an exclusive, stirring new scene from 'Rudy' director's cut -Zenith Profit Hub
'A victory for us': Watch an exclusive, stirring new scene from 'Rudy' director's cut
View
Date:2025-04-26 08:10:46
Break out a few extra hankies and get ready for some extended goosebumps: “Rudy” is rolling out new plays you haven’t seen before.
The classic 1993 underdog football movie, starring Sean Astin as real-life Notre Dame walk-on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, notched its 30th anniversary this year. To celebrate, a director’s cut is being released Tuesday (on 4K Blu-ray and digital platforms) with 13 extra minutes of never-before-seen footage. (USA TODAY has an exclusive peek at one of the new clips.) The bonus features include five deleted scenes, plus a commentary with director David Anspaugh and writer Angelo Pizzo, who first collaborated on the iconic 1986 hoops film “Hoosiers.”
Here are the highlights from what’s been added:
Ned Beatty gets a stirring speech in 'Rudy' director's cut
One of the reasons why Rudy is determined to attend Notre Dame and play football is because of his father, Daniel Sr. (Ned Beatty). And his dad opines on why it means so much to him in a new scene set at a Christmas church dinner. Asked why Notre Dame football is such a "big deal," Beatty's character tells a story about how his father would talk about how the "greatness of America" was represented by "poor Irish and Italian and Polish boys" who played in the middle of the country and would beat "the rich boys back East." When Daniel Sr. came to America during the Great Depression, he saw that Irish Catholic immigrants “faced a lot of hate. So every victory by Notre Dame is a victory for us."
In the commentary, Anspaugh calls it "a shame" the scene didn't make the theatrical cut and Pizzo adds that "it answers on a deeper level why Rudy is so drawn to Notre Dame."
'Rudy' turns 30:The 25 best football movies of all time, definitively ranked
A young Vince Vaughn gets more screen time
Vince Vaughn had his first credited screen role in “Rudy,” playing underachieving Notre Dame tailback Jamie O’Hara. Initially a jerk who ultimately comes around (by changing a key play in a game that allows Rudy to finally get on the field), Vaughn’s character appears in two new scenes. One’s set in the gym where Rudy (who’s not yet attending Notre Dame) tries to buddy up to Jamie, who’s not having it. “We might as well be friends, we’re going to be on the same team next year,” Rudy says, with Jamie snarling, “In your dreams.” In another new scene, Jamie runs into Rudy and his sportswriter friend Mary (Greta Lind) at the local bar, and Mary knows all of Jamie’s impressive high school stats.
“I hope Vince will take the time to check this cut out. His character really fills out the story,” Anspaugh says in the commentary. Adds Pizzo: “When (Jamie) does do that one gesture at the end of the movie for Rudy, we have more of a sense of who he is and who he used to be.”
Greta Lind’s sportswriter has most of her scenes added back, too
Nearly 10 minutes of Lind's screen time has been brought back in the director's cut, making Mary a more significant figure in Rudy's life. She’s one of the first people Rudy tells when he makes the team, she convinces him to let her write a story for the school paper (which is why the crowd chants his name in the big game), and Rudy asks her to light a candle and pray for him to dress for his last game, even though she says, “I don’t believe in that stuff.”
“When we had to cut all her material, we lost the female presence in the movie,” says Pizzo, who married and had two kids with Lind following the movie's release.
‘Rudy’ deleted scenes feature an inspirational alternate ending
The most interesting of the five deleted scenes is an alternate ending: The original movie finishes with Rudy being carried off the field by his teammates and a picture of the real Ruettiger, but a sequence included on the new director's cut shows a group of kids going outside to play football.
They’re picking teams, who’s going to be Notre Dame and who’s Georgia Tech – the two squads that tussled in the movie’s climax – and one smaller boy with a gold helmet says, “I have to be Rudy because I’m going to Notre Dame." It's a bookend to the film's opening, with kid Rudy playing with his brothers, and a nod to the true-life figure's inspirational journey.
25 best basketball movies, ranked:The hoops films you need to see
veryGood! (8721)
Related
- The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
- Tiger Woods commits to playing in 2023 Hero World Challenge
- How Snow Takes Center Stage in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- Romania clinches Euro 2024 spot with 2-1 victory over Israel
- 2 killed, 3 injured in shooting at makeshift club in Houston
- Gwyneth Paltrow's ski crash has inspired a musical opening in December in London
- Jada Pinkett Smith suggests Will Smith's Oscars slap brought them closer: I am going to be by his side always
- A disappearing island: 'The water is destroying us, one house at a time'
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- Israel shows photos of weapons and a tunnel shaft at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital as search for Hamas command center continues
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx reps say actor was hit in face by a glass at birthday dinner, needed stitches
- Syracuse coach Dino Babers fired after 8 years with school, just 2 winning seasons
- Russell Wilson's new chapter has helped spark Broncos' resurgence from early-season fiasco
- Pumped Storage Hydro Could be Key to the Clean Energy Transition. But Where Will the Water Come From?
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Appalachian State ends unbeaten run by James Madison 26-23 in overtime
- Argentine presidential candidate Milei goes to the opera — and meets both cheers and jeers
- The Final Drive: A look at the closing weeks of Pac-12 football
Recommendation
'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
Maldives new president makes an official request to India to withdraw military personnel
COMIC: What it's like living with an underactive thyroid
Kim Kardashian Brings Daughters North and Chicago West and Her Nieces to Mariah Carey Concert
What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
Former Disney star Mitchel Musso's charges dismissed after arrest for theft, intoxication
These Are The Best Holiday Decorations Under $25 Whatever Style You're After
How to Work Smarter, Not Harder for Your Body, According to Jennifer Aniston's Trainer Dani Coleman