Over the weekend I got the chance to see Gran Turismo, the movie based on the game franchise of the same name in commemoration of its 25th Anniversary. For over 25 years, Gran Turismo has been a staple due to the geniuses at Polyphony Digital and Kazunori Yamauchi, impacting the lives of millions and turning them into driving and racing fans. It is here that this becomes the focal point of the movie as it's incredibly obtuse to expect anyone to make a movie based on the game itself.
With over seven games in the series, each title features a player beginning with next to nothing as they build a career out of themselves. Working their way up the ranks as they earn licenses and win championships, players' garages will fill with prize cars as well as dream ones. Ultimately, the game ends once the player finishes the "Gran Turismo Championship," a grueling multi-race series where the player is pitted against some of the most intense A.I. in a racing game.
However, the Gran Turismo movie begins as the game ends. It was only the beginning for a young Jann Mardenborough over a decade ago, when he would become the youngest driver to graduate from GT Academy and kick off a successful professional driver career that began with Gran Turismo 5. The Gran Turismo movie's plot is "based on the true story" of Mardenborough's beginnings as well as the origins of GT Academy, Nissan's partnership with Polyphony Digital (and by extension Sony), and how this project shaped the world of motorsports.
Recent fans of Gran Turismo may witness how much the series prides on making "gamers into professional drivers," as this was the main reason for such a long gap between Gran Turismo 6 and Gran Turismo 7. Gran Turismo Sport was the result of GT Academy's early success and it was a large part of its continued relevancy leading up to twenty-five years. As such, my thoughts on the movie will be less on how it presented itself as a "video game movie." It proved to me that video games can be used as a narrative for a success story when done right.
First and foremost, Gran Turismo is a movie for car fans, as almost everyone who would watch this movie would play Gran Turismo for the plethora of cars. While actors like Orlando Bloom and Djimon Hounsou would feature in the movie as a GT driver and the father of the protagonist respectively, there are other cameo actors who are knowledgeable about cars.
One of Jann's rivals in the movie is played by an actual rally race car driver. Another one of the GT Academy students in the film, Leah Vega, is played by Emelia Hartford, a professional driver, car builder, and YouTube content creator. Hartford is best known for being the mastermind behind the Phoenix, a 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 that claimed one of the fastest times on the quarter mile and was once the fastest C8 in the world.
Throughout the movie, Jann's character struggles to deal with the racing world as he immediately realizes it's not exactly a 1:1 comparison to video games. Jann is no slouch here either as in his room he has a fully loaded Fanatec setup complete with a racing wheel, shifter, and seat. His father was a professional football player who didn't believe his son could make it in the racing world as it's "dangerous" compared to the video games he plays. Upon getting in a Nissan Skyline GT-R for the first time and feeling the g-forces come into play, there are differences but there are also similarities with being on the track.
The camera work here did a fantastic job of dramatically giving viewers what it feels like to be in a car going over two hundred miles per hour versus being in a simulation. The Real Driving Simulator may be Gran Turismo's timeline but it proves to be more than that. While it prepares Jann for the real world of motorsports, it's not enough. Variables including how to handle the press, deal with heated rivalries on and off the track, and deal with brushes of tragedy are skills Jann had to learn through his allies who have had a racing background. In a way, Jann and his peers learn from each other.
Being that this is a Sony movie, many Sony products become small plot points, like the Walkman. The mechanic listens to music from a very old 1990s-era Sony Walkman and Jann uses his prize money to buy his best bud a new Walkman, "teaching him new tricks" in the process. There are many parallels between the mechanic who gave up racing and the young sprightly Jann who is deterred when his life is at risk following a crash. The relationship between the two reminded me of the one between my boss and me, so it hit home in several aspects.
As a gamer, making it in the world of an industry that looks down on us is always a challenge. They don't expect us to make it to the starting grid much less the pit lane, but Gran Turismo had bred champions in the past. Almost all of the real-life cameos in Gran Turismo 7 had found success in FIA-sanctioned events from Gran Turismo Sport. GT Academy was created to prove that dedicated Gran Turismo players and fans can make it on the actual track with enough training and guidance. When GT Academy ended after the founder left Nissan, Sport rose from the ashes. This time, it was to prove to the world that eSports can co-exist with actual sports.
There were cute elements relating to Gran Turismo, such as the racing line, game HUD, and other familiar overlays superimposed during the actual racing going on. As we go through the mind of Jann, we see what he sees and that's through his "gamer eyes." The "chase cam" tried its best to emulate how it appears in the game, but at times I just felt it jarring. Fortunately, these camera shots were few in between although I would have loved a tad bit more racing.
But it was a motorsports drama that told the story of several underdogs who were able to make it into the world of motorsports. The catchphrase throughout the movie as told by the mechanic is "No champagne unless we podium." For every progress we make in our lives, the job is never finished. Whether you're a gamer, a gamer-turned-pro, or someone who does this as a hobby, Gran Turismo shows that despite opposition, one should never give up on their dreams.
As a video game movie, Gran Turismo is not the best as the game is used as a means to push the narrative of Jann Mardenborough. It's not just Jann's story, but the story of thousands of Gran Turismo fans who were also touched by this wonderful franchise and decided to take their passion for cars to real life. Whether it's tricking Corvettes or placing podium finishes in Le Mans, Gran Turismo truly lived up to "The Real Driving Simulator"