Real Steel Secretly Predicted The Future Of Blockbusters
Before there was Deadpool & Wolverine, there was Atom & Charlie.
You can often see a director’s future in their early work. Early Wes Anderson immediately established his style, Peter Jackson’s fantasy interludes in Heavenly Creatures could be pulled directly from Lord of the Rings, and you can even see echoes of Superman in James Gunn’s screenplay for Scooby-Doo. But some movies are more influential than others, and in 2011 we got a sci-fi dystopian thriller that predicted some of the greatest stars of the age — and the story we would see again and again.
Real Steel came out in 2011, but you wouldn’t know that from watching it. The gritty worldbuilding of backlot, state-fair-style robot boxing was originally based on a 1956 story by Richard Matheson, but this movie takes a much different approach than the previous adaptation in an episode of The Twilight Zone.
The movie follows Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), a former boxer living in a world where boxing between humans has been replaced with bouts between robots. His life changes when two big events happen in quick succession: his fighting robot is destroyed in a match, and he’s told he’s now in charge of an 11-year-old son he had no idea about. What follows is a delightfully familiar story of human spirit, monster boxers, and high-stakes action.
Shawn Levy’s signature style rings out in every corner of this film, including the dependence on physical special effects and Hugh Jackman’s reluctant dad character — more than five years before he would play that role yet again in Logan. In fact, much of this movie predicted much of cinema history. For example, the supporting cast includes Anthony Mackie and Evangeline Lilly, who would both go on to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shawn Levy and Hugh Jackman, of course, would reunite in Deadpool & Wolverine, and now he’s a part of the MCU himself.
Real Steel may have premiered 15 years ago and be based on a story that’s even older, but it still holds up to scrutiny.
At the time, Real Steel was put down because of its predictable story — but that’s actually its greatest strength. Dan Gilroy, the writer behind six episodes of Andor, wrote the first version of the screenplay, and he still has a “Story By” credit on the final version. His story expands from the original short story and fleshes out the entire world into a dystopian world where the robots have taken over in a seemingly minor way, but the human will still triumphs.
Real Steel isn’t formulaic, it’s reliable. This is the story of a hero up against a villain who gets the edge just by having more gumption and perseverance. It’s an old story, but it’s popular for a reason — and that’s not a liability, that’s an asset. Once the MCU made movies like this a beloved subgenre, Real Steel gained a cult following, with rumors swirling of a possible sequel. Shawn Levy told Inverse that this wasn’t in development back in 2021, but everything can change in a few years.
