Donning jerseys, foam fingers and face paint, rowdy fans of the fictitious San Antonio Saviors football team lined Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Sept. 17, intermittently chanting “Isaiah is the GOAT” and “Him! Him! Him!” The fanatical masses were there for the premiere of “Him,” a sports horror thriller about the Saviors’ greatest-of-all-time quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) and the dark deal he forges with his successor, Cam Cade (Tyriq Withers).
The film is directed by Justin Tipping and produced by Jordan Peele, Ian Cooper and Win Rosenfeld of Monkeypaw Productions alongside Jamal M. Watson. Tipping, who came up through television as a director on episodes of “The Chi” and “Dear White People,” says that the movie “explores that terrifying feeling that if you sacrifice so much of yourself, at some point you might not recognize yourself.”
The plot centers around the tension between the two footballers. When rising star Cade is up for a contract to overtake White as the San Antonio Saviors’ new starting quarterback, he goes to White’s desert compound for a week of intense training. White’s brutal tactics soon turn violent and nightmarish, as Cade’s reality begins to fracture, forcing him to question how badly he wants success.
Wayans says that White’s “ego is huge, and it drives him to a very insecure place that makes him feel threatened,” but that audiences will resonate with him because “everybody wants to be great, and everyone is willing to sacrifice up to a point.” In the movie, White is determined to take Cade to that point, and break him.
Withers adds that, beyond the thrills, the movie is also “about love, loss, grief and identity.” His character Cade deals with injury, the loss of a parent and the realization that his idol is not the hero he imagined, but a villain. Co-star Julia Fox, who plays White’s wife, sums up the film’s message by saying, “A lot of times when we meet our idols, we are disappointed, because it’s just a projection of our idea of perfection. So be careful who you’re putting on a pedestal.”
The film also stars Tim Heidecker, Indira G. Wilson, Jim Jefferies, Naomi Grossman, Don Benjamin, Guapdad 4000, Tierra Whack and Heather Lynn Harris. Tipping wrote the screenplay with Skip Bronkie and Zachary Akers, who penned the original draft on spec and made it onto the 2022 blacklist.