Current:Home > Markets'A victory for us': Watch an exclusive, stirring new scene from 'Rudy' director's cut -Blueprint Wealth Network
'A victory for us': Watch an exclusive, stirring new scene from 'Rudy' director's cut
View
Date:2025-04-16 13:36:14
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! (496)
Related
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- Coach Erik Spoelstra reaches record-setting extension with Miami Heat, per report
- Florida mom of 10 year old who shot, killed neighbor to stand trial for manslaughter
- 'A sense of relief:' Victims' families get justice as police identify VA. man in 80s slayings
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers deal prompts California controller to ask Congress to cap deferred payments
- A judge has temporarily halted enforcement of an Ohio law limiting kids’ use of social media
- Kim calls South Korea a principal enemy as his rhetoric sharpens in a US election year
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- UN to vote on a resolution demanding a halt to attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen’s rebels
Ranking
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, known for quirky speeches, will give final one before US Senate run
- China says foreign consultancy boss caught spying for U.K.'s MI6 intelligence agency
- Nebraska upsets No. 1 Purdue, which falls in early Big Ten standings hole
- Who are the most valuable sports franchises? Forbes releases new list of top 50 teams
- Massachusetts family killed as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, police say
- Hundreds of UK postal workers wrongly accused of fraud will have their convictions overturned
- Whaddya Hear, Whaddya Say You Check Out These Secrets About The Sopranos?
Recommendation
Travis Hunter, the 2
County official Richardson says she’ll challenge US Rep. McBath in Democratic primary in Georgia
X Corp. has slashed 30% of trust and safety staff, an Australian online safety watchdog says
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, known for quirky speeches, will give final one before US Senate run
Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
Cesarean deliveries surge in Puerto Rico, reaching a record rate in the US territory, report says
Musk's X signs content deals with Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard and Jim Rome
John Mulaney and Olivia Munn Make Their Red Carpet Debut After 3 Years Together