Million Dollar Baby (2004)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
An underdog amateur boxer finds an unlikely mentor in a cantankerous trainer to pursue her dreams of professional success.
The story
Maggie Fitzgerald, a waitress from the Ozarks, enters the Hit Pit, a rundown boxing gym in Los Angeles operated by Frankie Dunn. Frankie is a cantankerous Irish-American trainer estranged from his daughter. Maggie asks Frankie to train her, but he refuses because he does not want to train women and believes Maggie is too old. Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris, Frankie's friend and the gym's handyman, allows her to train at the Hit Pit regardless. Frankie's prize prospect, "Big Willie" Little, signs with rival manager Mickey Mack after becoming impatient with Frankie rejecting offers for a championship bout, so Maggie gets her chance.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
With Frankie's coaching, Maggie fights her way up in the women's amateur boxing division. She earns a reputation for quick knockouts, and Frankie eventually secures her a $1 million match in Las Vegas against the WBA women's welterweight champion, Billie "The Blue Bear" Osterman. During the fight, Maggie is knocked out by an illegal sucker punch and left a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. While in the hospital, her family arrives only to demand her assets. Disgusted, she orders them to leave. As she develops complications, she asks Frankie to help her die. After a period of hesitation and internal conflict, Frankie eventually administers a fatal injection of adrenaline to end her suffering, telling her the meaning of her Gaelic nickname, "mo cuishle" (my darling, and my blood), before retiring from boxing.
- First release year
- 2004
- Runtime (minutes)
- 132
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Clint Eastwood
- Writers
- Paul Haggis · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Clint Eastwood · Frankie Dunn; Hilary Swank · Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald; Morgan Freeman · Scrap
- Genres
- sports drama; drama
- Themes
- American dream; sacrifice; determination
- Tone and mood
- serious; moving; pitch-dark
- Setting
- Los Angeles and Las Vegas, 2004.
- Premise and plot tags
- boxing; underdog; sports drama
- Source material / true-story basis
- Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole
- Reception
- The film received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, garnering several awards and being named among the best films of the 2000s and all-time.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 90% · scale: percentage · review count: 269; Metacritic · score: 86 · scale: 100 · review count: 39; CinemaScore · score: A · scale: A+ to F
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Picture · Win; Academy Award · Best Director · Win; Academy Award · Best Actress · Win; Academy Award · Best Supporting Actor · Win; Academy Award · Best Film Editing · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Adapted Screenplay · Nomination
- Production trivia
- The film was the first Best Picture winner released on high-definition optical disc format in the United States.; The phrase 'million dollar baby' was used as an insult during pre-fight publicity by Sonny Liston to Muhammad Ali.; Hilary Swank underwent extensive training and gained muscle for her role.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…