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Directed by Dexter Fletcher, Eddie the Eagle tells the story of Michael “Eddie” Edwards, who would find fifteen minutes of fame as an Olympic ski jumper for Great Britain at the 1988 Winter Games. Taron Egerton stars as Edwards, an awkward lad growing up with poor vision and a leg brace who dreamed a seemingly impossible dream of one day representing his country at the Olympics. Failing to be coordinated enough to master anything to do with track and field without busting up his ill-fitting glasses or nearby windows, Eddie’s eyes would shift from Summer Olympics to Winter, starting as a klutzy downhill skiier, finally settling in on ski jumping as the event he thought he’d have the best chance at, though Great Britain had given up supporting that event since the 1920s.
Starting in his early twenties in a sport that most who compete start when they’re just starting grade school, Eddie’s going to have his work cut out for him if he’s going to make a spot on the Olympic team heading to Calgary for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Practicing in Garsmisch, Germany, he’s destined for permanent injury on his own until he meets Bronson Peary, an alcoholic American former ski jumper who plows the snow at the German course, who ends up taking ‘the Eagle’ under his wing. However, naysayers and bullies offer little but discouragement, especially from the British Olympic Council that desires Eddie out of the games before he embarrasses not only himself, but the other athletes representing the proud country.
