Top 10 Movie Training Montages

Scenes that will make you want to run through walls. Or at least jog a little.

Jan 21, 2025

There’s nothing quite like a training montage: the sweat off the chin, the pulse-pounding run, raw determination colliding with grit. I love them, whether it’s athletes sprinting up concrete steps, superheroes mastering the shadows, or everyday folks proving their mettle. They’re cinematic moments that inspire us to push harder, dig deeper, and stay plucky.

As we hit the slog of midwinter and new year resolve begins to fade, it's the perfect time to revisit the ten greatest training montages in film history—which is to say, my personal favorites. These scenes will make you want to lace up, hit the streets, and chase your own moment of glory. Enjoy.

Rocky (1975) - Up the Steps

The gold standard. It’s cliché, but you can’t have a list of training montages without referencing the form’s cultural touchstone. Young Sylvester Stallone runs through Philly, finding fitness as his plodding gait accelerates into a high-stepping sprint up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.1

This isn’t just about training. Rocky is a metaphor for Philadelphia itself—a city laid low in the 1970s by factory closures, unemployment, and rising crime. The boxer’s celebration atop the museum steps—a skyline cast pinkish-orange in a haze of pre-EPA air pollution—embodies the resilience of the city.

Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) - The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei

Three-inch board breaks. In this memorable chapter of the Kill Bill duology, Beatrix Kiddo flashes back to her brutal training under the abrasive kung fu master Pai Mei. I’m including the introductory fight with Pai Mai as it’s hilarious and the overlaid Isaac Hayes’s title theme from Tough Guys is just chef’s kiss.

How many teenagers broke a knuckle trying to recreate this scene? Only Thurman could play young Kiddo so well, showing the steel that keeps her alive in Tarantino’s tale of revenge.

Cool Runnings (1993) - Dirt Bobsledding

Feel the rhythm. The 1990s were peak earnest, family-friendly sports movies: Rookie of the Year, The Mighty Ducks, The Big Green, among others. Maybe Hollywood realized an entire generation of children was being schlepped to soccer practice in minivans and saw an untapped market.

But Cool Runnings still stands out decades later. The film’s best scene features the ragtag Jamaican bobsled team cramming into a wheeled sled barreling down Jamaican fire roads. Ah, the ‘90s. Simpler times.

Chariots of Fire (1981) - Opening Beach Scene

The iconic running scene. Feet splash through surf’. Strides lope beneath tilting heads. Synthesizers wind ethereal.

Chariots of Fire’s stunning opening shot along the West Sands of St. Andrews has been parodied so much that the imitations were themselves stale by the time the Griswolds dashed for Wally World. But that mimicry has made the film recognizable across generations, cementing its place as one of the greatest sports movie introductions ever.

Million Dollar Baby (2004) - Frankie’s Gym

The grit-it-out fighter. Million Dollar Baby is a slower burn; its training scenes quietly awesome.

Maggie Fitzgerald, played by Hilary Swank, walks into an old-school boxing gym with nothing but raw determination and relentless drive. The montage itself isn’t flashy, but it doesn’t need to be: the rhythm of the speed bag, the rope skipping, the heavy bag work, and Maggie’s unwavering focus all pull you in.

Rocky IV (1985) - Nature vs. Machine

The training montage of training montages. If Rocky set the standard, its third sequel is the ur-text. It’s the sacred scroll of sports montage. Heck, 30% of Rocky IV’s runtime is montage.

Has the form ever been purer? I think not. The high-motivation factor alone gives this scene high marks with Drago’s high-tech workouts juxtaposed with Rocky’s unhinged Siberian wilderness training.2

My favorite bits:

Stallone, puffed up in steroid glory, doing the most batshit jump rope in a barn.
Vertical sit-up from a hay loft.
A core shattering isometric leg raise.
Some sort of janky-ass press-up featuring a wagon.

This is high art.

Rudy (1993) - Notre Dame Training Scene

The classic underdog. Is there anything better than a football tryout scene? Yes—a football tryout scene with french horns.

If I could, I’d pour this scene into a spoon and freebase it. We watch Rudy try to make the practice team—not even the actual lineup, but the cannon fodder Notre Dame uses for drills. The thuds of colliding pads will match the pounding of your heart. We’re in deep Dad Energy montage territory here. Grab a Bud Light and get ready to wipe the blood off your jersey.

Mulan (1998) - “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”

The animated fighter. To my knowledge, this is the only training montage within a musical. A Disney classic, Mulan transforms from an untrained recruit into a warrior.

I love how the pole climb bookends the scene, showing Mulan eventually outpacing even her instructor. The Donny Osmond power ballad is pretty rad too.

Whiplash (2014)- Neiman Practices

Time for more band-aids. A psychological drama about perfectionism and ambition, Whiplash follows an aspiring musician’s abusive relationship with his instructor.

The film has an incredible drum solo (seriously, you must watch). But there’s also a short, intense montage where Neiman grinds away at his kit until he’s literally bleeding onto the snare.

Want to win? Pack some band-aids.

Creed (2015) - Philly Redux

Probably the best training montage. Like the other Rocky films, Creed’s montage builds to a climatic sprint—this time through Philly streets flanked by dirt bikes and ATVs, a breathtaking reimagining of Rocky II’s running scene, rooted in the multiethnic pluralisms of today’s working class.

But this movie isn’t just about training, it’s about relationships. Adonis Creed’s workouts are interspersed with his care for Rocky as the former champ undergoes chemotherapy.

Creed is not the individual hero, facing down a hostile universe alone with chiseled jaw and broad shoulders. Rather his story is enmeshed with the obligations of community. Director Ryan Coogler renders sport in the way it actually occurs: amid the messy uncertainties of family, friendship, and lived experience.

This montage is a triumph.

What’s YOUR favorite training montage? Drop it in the comments.