Generation Iron (2013) Movie Script

If it was easy,
everybody would be good at it.
I was told that
long time ago by a coach.
If you want something
you never had before,
you gotta be willing to do something
you've never done before.
That's what I live by.
I want to be two-time
Mr. Olympia.
I have to be willing to do
whatever it takes.
You know, the record
is eight Mr. Olympia titles
held by Lee Haney
and Ronnie Colman.
Arnold Schwarzenegger won seven,
Jay Cutler won four.
I think for me it's just, I'm
already the best at what I do.
I had to ask myself a serious question, which
was, can I get better than what I just did?
And it was like, the next day
at a photo shoot, I knew.
I don't like the way
I look right there.
People would say,
"Are you crazy?
You just beat everybody!
You won with a perfect score."
But in my heart, I knew,
I was like,
"Phil, this
is just the beginning."
Your legacy is not gonna to be
dictated on winning one Olympia,
it's going to be dictated
on how many.
For all bodybuilders,
the experience is similar.
They are an oddity,
stares, pointed fingers.
They're in a freak show with
no circus tent to hide away in.
For the 32-year-old champ,
it's an honor,
an honor that fuels
his drive to secure position
as the greatest bodybuilder
of his day,
to prove that
his win was no fluke.
- All right, take care.
- Thank you!
There's a lot of people out there wondering,
"Can he do it again?"
So it's my job to remind them
and the world that I am
the champion.
And I'm gonna be here
for awhile.
Never gonna stop
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I need
Falling down, knocked out
On my knees, a breakdown
But I'm holding on,
holding on, holding on
Pouring out my heart,
diggin' out my soul
As I'm holdin' on,
holdin' on, holdin' on
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I need
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I need
You know,
it's no pain, no gain
Go hard till the end
What's the use of playin' a game
if you ain't aimin' to win
My feet planted
in the concrete
We in this to the win
Quitters never finish
Finishers only win
Ain't no time
for no compromise,
ground to the top
Comin' from the bottom
where the sunshine stop
Where dreams get diminished
and the daytime's dark
And the only light we see
is what's believed in the heart
Against all odds,
all on God, mighta mentioned
Ambitions and wishes
bent on crushin' competition
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I need
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop,
till I get what I need
Please take the first-place
award, the Olympia Gold Metal,
the Sandow Bronze Award,
and the title
of 2011 Mr. Olympia
to our winner tonight...
Phil Heath!
Bodybuilding falls into this
unique category
of, you know, being a sport,
being entertainment,
being a way of life,
and being also art.
So you have to really
have a sense
of a sculptor to really
sculpt, to mold your body.
The only difference is that
we in bodybuilding
use a certain machine
to train the front deltoid,
if it's missing, or a certain
machines to train
the serratus
or the intercostals,
and an artist or a sculptor
uses a chisel and a hammer.
But it's all about what
is your vision about
the way you should look like
as a finished product
and how do you get it there.
You're trying to take your body
and sculpt it to where
everything is in proportion,
everything from right side
to the left side is equal,
and just being
a true work of art.
I think the main
motivation for me
with this whole bodybuilding
experience is knowing
that there's not such thing
as "the perfect body."
But I'm gonna chase it
as hard as I can.
Joe Weider was really
the father of fitness.
He created the Mr. Olympia
contest, and created
the International Federation
of Bodybuilders,
and the Mr. Olympia became
the Super Bowl of bodybuilding.
What does it mean to be
Mr. Olympia?
It means to be
the best of the best.
A great champion
is a lot of things.
You have to be a role model
to a lot of people.
You have to carry yourself
as a professional all the time.
You have to go in and have
to train at 100 percent.
You have to go to bed every
night and say,
"Am I fulfilling the task
of being the best at what I do?"
Like in any sport, you can win
it and relax a little bit,
or you can win it
and stay hungry.
Do you really want to, you know,
win it more that once?
But there's never a guarantee.
It comes down to the mind,
the will, the determination,
the discipline
and the motivation.
And you have that fierce drive
that nothing's gonna stop you.
That's what makes
you a champion.
When you are a champion, you never think
you're gonna lose.
This is you life,
and this is your job.
This is your number-one
responsibility,
your number-one priority
in life.
All you gotta do is continue
to do what you done before.
Let them follow you.
You don't have to follow them.
So, if I try to change up my
training system...
Why?
Why would I change?
I am who I am.
They are who they are.
They may try to change
to do what I'm doing,
because I have proven
that it worked.
I'm the leader, I'm the man.
Not you, me, and it's okay,
because I look good.
I think that Phil has the look,
the physique, the mindset.
I think he has the fire
in the belly to be a champion,
which is something he wants to
do for the next several years.
So I think we'll have
the next Ronnie Coleman.
Phil Heath, also known
as "The Gift,"
is the image of confidence.
The Olympia competition
is still weeks away.
Some of his contenders
have yet to qualify,
yet he has no qualms
about having a suit tailored
for his victory.
I'm not gonna lie,
I mean, I kinda like knowing
that when I win,
not only I outshine them on
stage, but then off stage.
Because I know
that I'm covering every angle
to be better than them.
If I go out on the town
with the missus,
or if I'm going out
with the guys,
I'm wearing button-downs, you know,
I'm wearin' the same stuff,
the guy would be like,
"How did you fit in that?"
I say,
"Well I got a tailor, bro."
There're always contenders
waiting to rise.
Waiting for the perfect moment
to take advantage
of a misstep...
an unseen weakness.
This is Kai Greene, his nemesis,
his enemy, studying every pose.
He has 11 weeks to prepare.
For me, winning the Olympia
is a celebration
for a lot of people that
at least can share in the idea
that well, you know,
maybe I wasn't
born with the best genetics,
or maybe I wasn't born
with the most
dashing good looks,
but there's something to be said
for hard work.
So, you know, we can say,
"Keep your gifts."
I work hard.
I know how to work real hard.
Even if I tear a bicep,
I'm still gonna stay
on my discipline.
Look at me from every angle,
and you're not gonna see
one piece of my body
that's undeveloped.
I'm gonna develop symmetry,
conditioning,
and I am going to whup
the ass of anyone
that stands there believing that
all it takes is genetics.
Hard work beats
talent all the time.
Well, that's what he's thinking.
He thinks that hard work
is gonna beat talent.
When talent
actually works hard, it's over.
There's nothing that that other
person can do about it.
That confidence has lead Phil
to achieve a greatness
few can dream of.
But pride and arrogance
have been the downfall
of many great men.
Kai never had a family.
His mother abandoned him
when he was a teenager.
And from that point on,
he was raised
by various foster parents,
moving from home to home.
Kai grew angry
and aggressive over time.
Before long, he found himself
in a juvenile detention facility.
His story would have ended there
if he hadn't discovered bodybuilding.
The feelings of being unsafe,
feeling unsafe,
constantly under threat.
I remember I was in the process
of being restrained while fighting,
my shirt had gotten torn
in the midst
of the whole demonstration,
I'm taking the rest of the shirt
and throwin' it off.
"Fuck that, what?"
You know, you go through this
whole display of "I'm powerful,
I'm angry, I don't care!"
You do this thing, and it was
some time after that
the teacher, I had bumped
into him again maybe
a week or so,
back in population.
He had said, "Hey, you know,
you got a physique on you!
How you'd like
to think about competing
against teenagers your own age?"
I thought it was a joke.
Back then, I never even used
to think that I would
probably ever even
get out of being
in institutional placement.
It's a lot easier for me to have
been identified as an animal.
Going to the gym and training,
it was probably
the single most important
therapeutic choice
I could make on my own.
And the people that were in my
life have long since moved on.
The one thing that's remained
consistent is still, you know,
your focus towards achieving
this ultimate goal.
Texas.
Wide plains.
Open spaces.
Scorching heat.
Branch Warren leads
a simple life
away from the hustle and bustle
of the city.
I tore my quadriceps tendon,
and it completely detached.
No one's ever come
back from injury,
you know, that injury,
especially that fast.
Most people,
it ends their career.
I did it in six months.
And that was an accident, right?
I was walking
in the parking lot...
in a thunderstorm.
And...
I slipped and fell.
So, you never know
what kind of curve ball
life's gonna throw
at you, right?
Some people cry and bitch
about it like little girls,
you know, and be babies
about it.
A man, he has issues.
He sets it aside,
he focuses on what he...
what his job is
and gets it done.
I put my faith in God.
You know, I learned
from a very young age
that no one owes you anything,
and there ain't nobody
gonna give you a damn thing.
But you can have anything
you want
if you work hard enough for it.
What's up?
Gotta take care
of business in the gym.
You're with the boys,
so you gotta do what you gotta do.
And when you come home,
you don't bring that home to your family.
Metroflex Gym.
Built inside an old warehouse.
Produced many of Texas'
greatest bodybuilders,
including the great
Ronnie Coleman,
eight-time Mr. Olympia.
Now it serves as a training
camp for Branch Warren
and his training partner,
Johnnie Jackson.
Yeah, baby!
One more, go!
Yeah!
Come on, get some.
Nobody beats you.
Huh?
I grew up in that gym.
I mean, from learning how to fight, to learn
how to train, to learn how to be a man.
I don't think there's one bodybuilder
on this planet that's competed...
or even dreamed of competing
that hasn't dreamed of being Mr. Olympia.
For 20 years, man, I go to bed at night
thinkin' about it, and I wake up
in the morning
thinkin' about it.
I think about it when I train.
I've accomplished everything in this sport
I set out to accomplish.
I've got one contest
left to win.
I'll eat dirt if I have
to eat dirt to win this, so...
I don't care.
You know, you're goin'
against the 15-20
best bodybuilders on the planet.
We all wanna win.
And I'm doing everything
in my power
to make sure I win.
Get out, move.
Out of my face.
Let's go.
Branch is one of those guys
who just,
I've never seen him do
anything right,
or efficiently, he just works
hard at everything.
You look at him train, you're like,
"Man, I don't know how you
still have any joints left."
And that's why
it's easy to pick on him.
There's just no intelligence.
There's no, like, it's pure work ethic, man,
which is great.
And that's probably nine
of the top 10s of guys in the IFBB,
is they're doing the same crap,
day in, day out,
year in, year out,
not gettin' any better,
but then they think the result
is gonna be better.
Well, news flash for ya,
it's not gonna happen.
Take a smarter approach,
take a different approach,
you know, get better at it,
which is why I need...
if I wanna compete with these
guys and beat these guys,
I need to take the most precise,
educated, scientific approach possible.
The great thing about
this machine
it's gonna give us,
you know, any ounce
of fat that he loses, any ounce of muscle
that he gains, it's gonna track it.
It's extremely sensitive.
Ben's faith in his scientific
approach to bodybuilding
is complete and unquestioning.
He has no shame in comparing
the failure
of his opponents'
training philosophies
to the efficiency of his own.
You ask him to push himself to a certain
level, and he finds a way to push past that.
And we're tryin' to kill
him in the gym,
you know, we're really trying
to push him mentally.
That's perfect.
That's perfect, right there.
Squeeze harder.
That's it, squeeze harder.
That's it, perfect!
That's exactly what
we want, man.
That... those last three,
four reps,
you were activating maximal
amount of muscle.
That's exactly what
we need for growth.
Bodybuilding is the most
fascinating sport
there is in the world.
And in fact, this whole laboratory is
dedicated to studying bodybuilding.
Even NFL linemen, they get big.
And they get a lot of muscle.
But how in the world
can you get massive
and get shredded
at the same time?
This is completely
counterintuitive
to even science.
So, to study how do you do that
is phenomenal.
I remember it clear as day,
Flex Magazine,
I was 15 years old
at the YMCA in Toronto.
And the guy sitting
at the front desk brought one in.
I looked at the cover of it, and I was like,
"Man, that's disgusting, that's gross.
Man, I never wanna look
like that."
For me, it was more
along the lines of,
well, I achieved my goal,
now, what's next?
And I achieved my goal,
and what's next?
So, first I wanna be
190 pounds with abs.
Did it.
Wanna be 210 with abs, did it.
And I just keep pushin',
and pushin', and pushin' it.
I guess I was just never content,
never happy with my body.
That's really, you know,
where it started for me.
Myself as a bodybuilder,
should be someone
constantly striving to be one
percent better every day,
you know, whether it be in your workouts,
in your approach to life,
in your mentality,
in your nutrition,
how meticulous you are
with nutrition.
Just being better and better.
Pushing your... every aspect
of your life.
Like, I've always known that Mr. Olympia
was something I could do.
If I want it, and I set my mind to it,
there's nothing that can stand in my way.
There you go, man, no pain.
- Come on, hit it, there you go!
- Drive it!
You think this is fancy,
let's go, hurry up!
Man, there's always somebody
trying to reinvent the wheel.
I don't care what kind
of scientific formulas,
or whatever it is you come
up with, or nutrition
or whatever.
There's no substitute
for hard, hard work.
And the pain
and the sacrifice, the sweat,
all the hard work, man,
when they announce you winner,
it's all worth it.
Heavy clouds loom
over Tampa, Florida.
Roelly Winklaar arrives
from Rotterdam, Holland,
with his trainer, Sibil Peeters.
In the industry,
she's known as Grandma.
But those who've trained with her know her
as the trainer from hell.
Ah, rattlesnakes.
I like snakes because
I like how they
eat the food, you know?
Kill them.
And then you eat them, you know?
The body's like this and they
eat like this, you know?
That's the way I like it.
They ask, "Where do
you come from?"
And I say, Curaao.
In the face, you can see that
they don't know
where it is, you know?
And I say, the Caribbean.
Then everybody know
the Caribbean.
The two always share
a bedroom during their travels,
the mobile kitchen and key ingredients
traveling along with them everywhere they go.
Sibil herself used to be
a professional bodybuilder.
Put the fish on it.
But after the tragic
death of her husband,
she dedicated her life
to training others.
Grandma, is my food finished?
Is my food finished?
Your food is finished.
In the Netherlands,
I trained like a week
with the guys.
My body grows fast, you know?
The owner asked me
if I want to do a contest...
I say, "No, I don't want to do that because
I don't like the string in your ass!
It's not my style.
And he says, "It's not string in your ass.
The name is posing trunks,
you know?"
I say, "No, I don't like it."
And he says, "I got one
option for you.
You go on stage, and you win,
you can train for nothing, and I'll give you
food and supplements."
I say, "But, I got one problem.
I got nobody, you know?"
Everybody told me to go
to that woman over there.
Grandma.
I say "Grandma?
Are you crazy, man?
Don't let me train
with a woman, man!"
"Really, she's good, she's good
"She's one of the best,
you know?"
I give her hand, but I say,
"Wow, you're a trainer?"
I say, "Hey come on, you can
talk to me
straight away, come on."
And then, I find out
that he was very, very shy.
In Holland, there
was an ugly word for him.
"Look out, he's lazy.
Lazy negro."
I say, "Come on, guys!"
I trained with him,
he's not lazy, the guy is...
Go, go, go, go!
He's like a machine.
In the gym, he's a machine,
nobody can stop him.
He is "The Beast."
My dream is to make a house
for my mother.
Before my father died,
my father wanted to buy
a big house for her.
But that's not happened.
What my father promised her,
I make her.
Tomorrow, in accordance
with the IFBB point system,
Roelly must place
first or second
in order to qualify
for the Olympia stage.
So Winklaar...
Are you nervous
for the competition?
No.
You're always nervous
before a contest.
It has to be you're nervous,
otherwise on stage, you're...
No, I'm not nervous because...
I know I'm gonna win, you know?
Okay.
Put down the telephone.
You want to put it down?
Put it down.
You sure?
Come on, we have to go to sleep!
For a long time,
I have been tired, OK?
Hidetada Yamagishi
has also yet to qualify.
Hide must place in the top two
in order to advance.
If he didn't have a tan,
you wouldn't see his definition on stage,
you wouldn't see his striations,
his vascularity, anything.
He would just wash out
under the bright lights.
You really gotta be dark
when you get on that stage.
When the guys have
to go on stage,
and they go white on stage,
their muscles look small.
When you're painting up, you can see
the muscles look very,
very good.
Ok, bend over
When we are finished,
we are all brown.
Seven.
I got nine, Jason.
Ten, Todd's here.
I got 11, I got 12, I got 13.
I got 14, I got 15.
I'm missing 16, Shawn?
The bodybuilder
takes the human form
to its utmost visual extreme.
The development of muscles isn't
just a game of measurements.
Perfect symmetry
is equally important.
I've been up, hit the ground
Chased the dirt,
hear the sound,
in my head, spinnin' 'round
But stand up
There's no place to go
No place to go
I've been up, hit the ground
Chased the dirt,
hear the sound,
in my head spinnin' 'round
But still, there's
no place to go
If I can have our top five
on stage at this time.
Some say
I'm lost and never
found my way
And it makes me wanna
lay here with you
But I'm always gone
Please take
the fourth-place award.
The check for $1,000...
to our fourth-place finisher.
Roelly Winklaar!
The road to success isn't always
straight or clear in this sport.
Another loss like Tampa would
mean months and years
of training have been wasted.
This means the loss of prize
money and perhaps even
a sponsor, the support line
for any bodybuilder.
Lonely nights,
familiar hotel rooms,
long-distance calls are the only
way to keep in touch
with loved ones.
At times when
the family can't be reached,
the trainer is the only person
to talk to.
Hey, bro, congratulations!
Second place,
and Olympia qualification.
I'm happy,
and I'm relieved, you know?
Yeah, me too.
I knew you were gonna do it,
but now it's official.
So, we got six weeks
to train hard.
Alright.
Okay, bro, keep in touch,
and thanks for calling.
Roelly has trouble
sleeping most nights.
Moments ago, he was told that he has
one more chance to qualify,
but he'll have to travel back to
Europe to compete at the Nordic Pro.
Winklaar.
You OK?
Yeah, Grandma.
It's time for your food.
Yes.
Unless he places first,
his journey will end
before it begins.
Victor Martinez
wasn't always an inmate.
He was a star,
a star bodybuilder on his way
to conquer the Olympia title.
He was incarcerated for an immigration charge
as a result of his arrest
for a controlled
substance years ago.
To actually be in jail
and want to live
or think of outside,
it just makes it all difficult.
I had to shut down,
there's no making up,
it's lost time, that's it.
I was disappearing.
His stint in jail has left him
far behind his competitors.
And mounting emotional and
financial problems won't make
his return any easier.
A six-month sentence
is a lifetime for a bodybuilder.
You're at war right now,
with other competitors.
And when you do what you have to
do from now to the Mr. Olympia,
you do what you have
to do to win.
And as long as you know you did
what you had to do to win,
nobody can ever say anything bad
about you ever, ever.
Because you know in your heart,
you gave it your all.
Coming back now,
preparing for the Olympia is...
I don't have
that feeling like I'm ready.
I can't say I walked in and had
the best workout.
The first time I went in,
it was horrible.
I'm touching the weights,
and it's...
there's no connection,
I didn't really eat in there,
Seven, 800 calories,
most of it was through bread
and you know, junk food,
Snickers bars.
I'd say right now,
every workout I do is important.
Between meals and training,
between court-ordered appointments,
between his separation
from his girlfriend,
between all these things,
he tries to maintain his sanity.
He tries to find time to be
a father to his four children.
Two boys, which are autistic,
and two young girls,
all from different mothers
I'm backed up on child support,
I still take care of my kids,
but, they freeze
your bank account,
they suspend your license
and yes, I'm driving
illegally right now.
So what, what can you do,
you know?
Let's warm up,
after this, we gotta pick it up.
I'm not mentally ready, it's...
it's bothersome
every single day.
It's bothering because
I'm working on it every day,
you know, preparing myself.
Pick up your spirit, let's go.
Come on, man!
We gotta do this.
Come on!
Great set.
I can't keep going like this.
I gotta try to pick it up, man.
I'm playing with
the big boys, man.
That's why we gotta push.
You'll get back there again.
Push it.
That's it.
Come on!
You can do this.
You're gonna do this, man.
You gotta stay focused.
I mean...
You want to be
on that stage again, right?
Yeah, of course.
My entire life is the fricking
stock market, man!
Right now, I'm in a recession.
Dennis Wolf wanders through
the halls of NBC networks.
This is a dream come true for the bodybuilder
from Germany.
A moment of classic
American celebrity,
an interview on the nationalized
television show.
This is his time,
his moment to grasp
a hold of fame.
Welcome back
to "The Morning Blend."
They're fit, they're strong,
but there can only be one!
The world's top bodybuilders
are competing to bring home
the coveted title
of Mr. Olympia.
I was a big fan
of Arnold Schwarzenegger,
and bodybuilding,
I fell in love right away,
when I walk out... you know,
walk in for the first time into the gym
and that was my thing.
People are going to America
to have success,
the first six months
was hard because people are,
"Oh, look at this guy,
he's probably just
lifting weights and that's it.
Dumb, stupid,"
because people have no idea
what is bodybuilding.
You need someone
who can push you,
and it's not easy to find
someone who can push me,
that's why I have Dennis.
Your know, every time we train
together, he finish me.
he's finishing me,
and, you know,
I'm sore for days.
Come on, one more, come on!
- Too big pump!
- Come on!
That's what we're here for!
We gonna pump the iron, come on!
Slow, Dennis, slow, slow, slow.
Slow!
That's good and three...
Let's go!
Hup, hup, hup!
Stand up
and move around a little.
You have to lose that one,
I'm really dizzy.
Anybody ready to break dance?
Almost drowned!
Germany, with its cold
and oppressive rain
stands in stark contrast
to Vegas' glaring sunshine
To him, America is the chance
to become one of the greats.
To become an Arnold.
To become a star.
Wolf's stepdaughter
visits him as often as she can.
Their relationship
is as strong as iron,
despite the lack of blood ties.
I saw him every day.
It's... yeah.
I didn't think he's big,
it's normal for me,
every day I saw him.
Everybody should place
where they deserve.
It's hard when you have
so many judges and you have
so many great athletes, where the standard
is so close, you could throw a coin.
You know, apples or oranges,
what do you like?
You know,
it is that close sometimes,
"He was great, wow, wow, wow."
How do you judge?
He has a better smile,
he has green eyes,
he has blue eyes,
he has brown eyes.
You know what I mean...
it's hard, it's not easy.
Every muscle part
must be completely perfect.
No weak points,
we get judged by weak points.
If you don't have
the better symmetry,
the better muscle maturity,
muscle quality,
as Mr. Olympia, you don't win.
Do the double biceps.
Try to open up,
pull up, pull up...
And bend the wrists
back a little bit.
"Oh, his hairstyle."
He's gotta be gay,
there's something wrong.
I just...
something's wrong with that guy,
he's just so different!
You'll never be a champion.
You might win a show but...
you'll never be Mr. Olympia!"
While others will celebrate,
you know,
achieving master's and Ph.D.s...
I won bodybuilding competitions.
And now I stand here,
at the top of this experience,
looking at winning
the highest...
title in the bodybuilding world.
Turn your wrist in,
pull it tight!
Flex your hamstrings,
pull tight!
Pull.
Pull it.
Pull it!
Roll it over a little more, Kai.
There we go,
pop your hamstring out.
Squeeze...
all the way down!
Bring this up... pull tight,
hamstring up a little.
Posing is a very valuable tool
to build a physique,
to build a physique
that is historically
the physique
that is bodybuilding.
It's not just enough
to go to the gym,
and just train,
and lift weights.
There's an internal connection
with the contractions
that your muscles make.
What I'm really talking about
is the presence of the artistic mind
that ultimately
sculpts the physique.
Lower your shoulders,
you're doing it wrong.
Let's do it again.
No, do it again.
Suck it in...
Legs, legs, legs.
You're forgetting
about your legs.
People always tell me,
"Hey, he's looking tired.
You let him do too much."
But he's always up late
on the internet,
coming in the gym
with a face like this.
That makes me angry!
It's not allowed... I respect you,
you have to respect me.
Don't come with a face like this
because you didn't sleep.
Go to your bed,
you have to rest.
Let me know
when you're finished.
You need your energy
on the stage,
when you don't have it on the stage,
you can lose everything.
- I know.
- In the off-season,
do what you want,
don't do it in the competition!
- What's up, champ?
- Dennis James,
a retired bodybuilder,
and mentor
in the eyes of most athletes,
doesn't sugarcoat criticism.
From posing,
to diet, to training,
his astute eye
can identify any problem.
So this time you have to really,
really go out there,
and you have to nail it...
and I talked to a judge
who said that you lose
two spots on his sheets
because of the way you pose,
you know what I mean?
So this is something
you can control.
You can work on that.
- You can show him.
- Yeah, of course.
You're here, please help.
Now pull it down,
like you do a lat pulldown,
and now open up...
there you go.
See, now he has
some movement going on.
The judge told me this was not coming out,
and that's why.
You know how you bring that out?
Just try this one time.
Instead of going
right into something like this,
try to go up, pull it down,
then open up, cause you create music.
This is the again what I'm saying,
you move, eyes on you.
Always start from the bottom,
legs, hamstrings, glutes.
Now arms, all the way,
straight up.
Just like... that's it,
just like that!
That's what I want him to do,
see the difference?
- You see that?
- Yeah.
Our third-place finalist,
representing Germany,
number two,
Ronny Rockel.
Let's take
the first runner-up award
and present that to...
by way of Poland, number eight,
Robert Piotrkowicz.
The first-place prize,
and moving on
to the Mr. Olympia contest...
Roelly Winklaar!
- Finally!
- Finally!
Nice job!
This what we worked so hard for!
Hey, finally...
Finally, we made it through.
Yes, finally.
We are...
up to the...
- Mr. O.
- O, nice!
The Martinez family moved
to Washington Heights, NY,
from the Dominican Republic
when Victor was six years old.
He grew up in a house
with seven sisters,
two brothers,
an overbearing mother,
and a strict,
unsupportive father.
That lack of support
and understanding
has plagued Victor's ambitions
his entire career.
Getting smaller, man!
What's up...
you're not working out, man!
Trying to,
I'm gonna get to the gym, man.
Good, good, good.
Get me a ticket or something,
I'll go!
Yeah, all right.
In 2009, Victor's sister,
Iridania, was murdered.
Iridania always cooked
meals for Victor
before his competitions.
Her absence affects him
to this day.
You say "Daddy"?
No...
So you want ice cream?
No?
I know you want...
Oh!
What was that kiss for?
That was all for me?
Victor loves returning
to his old neighborhood,
where everything seems
so familiar.
Familiar faces, familiar places.
This is a place he will always
call home in his heart,
mostly because of his daughter,
who still resides here
with her mother.
Quitting has not been a choice,
only because I cannot see myself
explaining this to my kids.
Right now,
I have to provide for my family.
I need bodybuilding to survive.
- Goddamn!
- All right, bro.
How are you doin', bro?
Fast!
Killing yourself down here,
already?
Yeah, I have to, man.
- The only way to go, bro!
- No doubt!
I'm very proud of you,
you hear me?
God bless you, bro!
My judgment day
will be seeing Steve Weinberger.
Seeing the judge,
and him telling me
if I'm ready
for the Olympia stage or not.
Yeah, look at your hamstrings.
I'm telling you, Victor,
you have a lot of work to do
before you see Steve.
Can I get two pounds?
- Two pounds?
- Yes, sir.
It's pretty intense.
It's always intense.
Somebody may ask you,
"Is it that serious?"
It's always that serious.
I'm a professional at what I do.
I'm not a fan,
I'm not a spectator,
I'm not the person at home,
I'm the man living this,
if I don't eat like this,
I don't make
conscious food choices
when it's time to make them,
every day, all day,
then the goods won't be there
when I need them to be.
This is the easy part.
If you can't do the easy stuff,
then what do you do
when life happens?
Things will come and test you.
A loved one goes
to the hospital.
It's abrupt.
You feel obligated or compelled
to want to be there.
You still gotta be in the gym
at six o'clock in the morning.
You still gotta
start your meals,
so for you to stay focused,
it's not a sacrifice,
it has to be a lifestyle.
When you're training for
the competition, it consumes
your whole day...
bodybuilders, by definition,
most of 'em will tell you are
very self-centered and selfish.
Even if you're not that type of person,
you become that kind of person,
because you never
get away from it,
because your nutrition,
when you dieting,
for Mr. Olympia,
you can't eat out,
because you have
to weigh your food,
you have to have so many carbs,
so much protein, so much water...
you have to control
what's in the food.
- What you got?
- We got beef, chicken,
turkey, beans,
potato salad and coleslaw.
Like a bunch of marinade
and things on it?
Not it's just...
salt.
Cool, man.
Damn, ain't gonna be getting
none of that today.
You can eat seven, eight times
a day, like some people.
I'm like, "Yeah, you gotta
eat a lot of clean food."
And then the mom will say,
"Yeah, my son eats,
he eats everything..."
yeah, he's eating everything.
That's why he's not lean.
Suppose to mix this in a drink,
but goes down fine
just like this, so why not?
Most other people, they go to the store,
they'll buy some product.
They just...
and hoping for the best.
They don't know
how that actually works.
They don't know the science
behind those supplements.
They don't care,
and they're not supposed to,
I get that...
but, yeah, we're the dumb-dumbs.
We're the people
that don't know anything,
but just bein' a box of rocks
with weights,
and all this other stuff,
we're the meatheads,
we're the idiots...
we're able to do something
that 99.8 percent of the people
on the Earth can do,
which is lose fat and gain
muscle, at the same time.
They don't know
that we eat seven, eight,
nine thousand calories a day.
They don't know that we're in the gym
two, three times a day, six days a week.
Right away, they want
to just diminish your work.
By going to that one
little thing and brush it off,
they're saying, "You know what,
it's because they're taking steroids."
The overall perception
of steroids, obviously,
is something that
cheaters only use.
We are realizing now
that the truth of the matter
is any athlete
at the professional
or world-class level...
is likely using some form
of performance-enhancing drugs.
Anabolic steroids don't make
what professional bodybuilders
do easier.
It simply allows them to take it
to that extreme level.
Anabolic steroids
are basically testosterone,
or testosterone derivatives.
So in the body,
when you take a synthetic form,
it basically gets into
the muscle cell,
attaches to receptors
that are in that cell,
and then that turns on genes
in the muscle cell
that produce more protein.
That's the way
it enhances muscle size.
Many of the athletes simply
refuse to talk on the subject.
It's taboo.
Others are willing
to engage in the conversation.
Because people...
take too much of this stuff,
and don't know how to use it,
that gives bodybuilding
a bad, bad name.
The media likes to portray it
as being very sensational
but steroids aren't addictive,
steroids never killed anybody.
There's no physiological proof,
it's never been shown,
it's all what the media
wants you to see.
Society's reaction to steroids
is often hypocritical
and judgmental.
I think it's a contradiction,
to be honest,
'cause most bodybuilders
that I know
and that I've met
are on steroids,
or have done steroids,
and for somebody who wants
to portray themselves
as a fit and healthy person,
that's not at all healthy.
People go, "Ahh, steroids,"
man...
Nobody can do that.
Like, it's not easy to do.
People don't respect it, they go, "Oh, I can
do that with steroids," no, you couldn't.
You couldn't do what I do!
They come to the gym,
never did a workout,
and then they find
on the internet...
steroids... They sell steroids
on the internet.
Children, 15, 16 years old,
they order it...
That's what I hate...
it's dangerous, very dangerous.
If you do something extreme,
you can't be healthy,
you gotta take some risks.
So it's like, you know,
like racing...
If you go Formula One,
you take the risk.
Any time that you're using
performance enhancers,
particularly when we haven't
studied them in the lab,
to the level
that they can be used,
certainly, there can be
negative side effects.
There is issues
with kidney damage,
There is, what we do know,
is that the heart size increases
because the heart is a muscle,
there's liver issues,
it's quite toxic,
especially the oral drugs,
that's why injectables
are one of the preferred drugs
for minimizing health risks.
I think the best answer
is to allow the athletes
to use the drugs,
but provide medical treatment.
Get a group of very competitive
athletes together,
everyone wants to win,
you've got large sums of money
up for grabs,
guys are going to do
whatever it takes to win.
The bodybuilders
and the professional sport
of bodybuilding
has gone the next step.
Where all of a sudden,
the body does not look
as acceptable,
simply because it's too big,
and it doesn't have
any talent behind it.
And the neck is 23 inches
and the calves are 18.
The proportion is gone.
The audience wants to see
a spectacle.
When they go to see a show,
they don't want to see
someone that looks like them,
they want to see
something extreme.
So we have to get huge.
We have to go to the next level.
You know,
is there a limit to growth?
Certainly, there's a limit, but
I don't know that we found it.
They ask the Olympic athletes,
if you could take a drug,
right now, that would kill you
in five years,
but guarantee you a gold medal,
would you take it?
More that 50 percent said "Yes!"
They would take it, even knowing
it would kill them five years later.
This is what these athletes do.
This this their lives.
This is their livelihood,
this is how they make money.
This is everything they know.
Do you really think you're gonna
convince them to stop?
As time progresses,
the science of bodybuilding
advances faster and faster,
and with it,
the size of the muscles.
One more major title this year.
One down.
One to go!
Three, four, five, six...
Come on, one way!
Eight, nine...
Ten!
Every rep count!
Every rep, come on!
Bring the pain!
- Six, seven, eight, nine...
- Fight it!
My physique that I bring
to the Olympia this year...
it's not the product of
three months of hard work,
it's the product of over
20 years of hard work.
I thought I'd be
retired by now, originally.
I thought by 36, 35-36,
I'd be...
I'd be retired, but...
You know, I think I've had so many injuries,
I've had four significant injuries,
since I've been pro,
and I think that set me back.
Due to the injuries,
Branch had to skip
the 2010 and 2011 Olympias.
Despite this, he continues
to live his life to the fullest.
Branch, a few competitors
said that, "If you're gonna keep working out
the way you're doing at the gym, you're going
to get injured before the big competition."
What do you think about that?
They're entitled
to their opinion.
But, you know,
I can imagine who that was,
and they ain't gonna
beat me anyway, so...
they don't really matter.
And the thing is,
the past two injuries I've had
weren't in the gym,
they were outside the gym.
So, I haven't been hurt
in the gym since...
C'mon.
Let's go!
Oh!
Goddamn!
Ouch!
Son of a bitch!
Goddamn, guys.
The filming stops.
Branch's hamstring is injured.
His future at the Olympia
is now uncertain.
I just know that the end
of a bodybuilding career
is one injury away... one major
injury and you're toast.
No matter how hard you work,
and how perfect you are,
one injury and you're done.
The days of being
in the dungeon,
training with your hoodie on,
you know, "grunt and cuss"
bodybuilder,
that eats, sleeps and trains...
that's all he does... are over.
You have to be able
to do other things.
I'm more focused
now on my career,
but of course I think about
the years after it
because,
I don't want to be like,
"Okay, now it is over,
so let's think about
what I can do now."
Of course, it would be nice
if I could get some
roles in the movies,
things like this.
I just I got a call
for a casting tomorrow
for an action film,
so we'll see...
They're gonna fly me in...
The movie star!
...with a private jet.
I don't want to waste my time
trying to be an actor
or something,
if I don't have
the talent for this.
There some that have
the personality.
When I started doing interviews
in the '70s,
the media always said,
"Finally there's someone
that loves to talk
about the sport,"
because for years
we tried to get interviews
and everyone just said,
"No, I'm not going to talk,"
because they were always
shy characters,
and they'd rather live
in a dungeon and work out,
and were very impressive,
but they didn't want to talk,
they felt too shy about it.
All these guys say
they want to be like Arnold,
and be in the movies,
and stuff like that.
Sometimes, it's like pulling teeth
to get these guys to talk.
So, imagine giving them a script
they actually have to read.
- Hi.
- Hi.
How you doing... oh!
Dennis, nice to meet you.
So, Emilio Ferrari
is directing this movie,
and we're gonna start
shooting it in October,
but it is a comedy,
and it's kinda like
"Private Benjamin" meets
"Legally Blonde."
So we can have fun with this,
and if you want
to try something new,
or have improv or anything,
don't feel that
you can't do that, okay?
- So, you are reading for Robert.
- Robert, right.
Hello, I'm Robert...
Hello, I'm Robert Starkey.
Wow, you really love
this country.
- So, here's what...
- Uh... the United States.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Let's try it again,
now there are some parts
where you are coughing
and mumbling,
you know like, you're...
So play that a little bit.
Hello, I'm Robert Starkey.
If you sign this right now,
I can't guarantee it...
I can't guarantee,
by this time tomorrow
you will be
in sunny Puerto Rico.
That was really good
and we're probably gonna have
callbacks, which I'm gonna
bring you back
to the director,
and that was funny.
So just take it and work on it,
and we'll see each other later.
Thank you very much,
it was great.
- It was nice meeting you.
- Nice meeting you, too.
- Thank you.
- All right, take care.
While playing basketball
in college,
Phil realized that he would
never play professionally,
but there was potential
in his genes,
potential that led him
to another sport.
That's right.
I would say quitting basketball,
I mean...
It wasn't really quitting,
I'll be honest,
I just wasn't good enough
to play at the next level.
Those dreams, as far as like,
playing in the NBA,
were just...
they were squashed.
- This is Phil Heath.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
Good to meet you.
At times, nostalgia kicks in.
He loved to play ball just as much
as he loves bodybuilding now.
When the opportunity
presents itself,
Phil enjoys to return
to the court
to shoot some hoops.
When I decided to be a
bodybuilder and quit basketball,
I actually marked down the date,
it was October 8th, 2002,
and then the rest is history...
I got bit by that bug,
and it was an amazing feeling
to know that,
coming from a team sport...
You know,
you're being more concerned
with not just yourself,
but your teammates all the time,
and going against
a different type of opposition.
Playing basketball,
as opposed to bodybuilding,
where it's really
all about my effort.
For me, as Mr. Olympia,
it's not about beating
your competition,
it's about crushing those dreams
of those other guys... and that's what I've
got to do, I've gotta crush their dreams.
It's a gloomy afternoon.
Victor travels to
the Bev Francis Powerhouse Gym
in Syosset, New York,
to see a legend,
his mentor, Steve Weinberger.
Today is his judgment day.
- Hey, what's goin' on, brother?
- 'Sup, Steve?
- How you doin'?
- Good, good, how you doin'?
I'm okay, how you feel?
I'm okay, I've felt better.
Yeah...
how's it coming along?
I don't feel confident.
Lemme close the door...
too much noise out there.
As soon as I got out,
I started training,
and getting back on my regimen...
the training's been good,
everything's been good,
no injuries, you know, and, uh...
Everything's good, it's just,
is it "Olympia good"?
Is it "Olympia ready"?
- Let's see what you look like.
- All right.
For Rikers Island,
you look great, Vic,
but for the Olympia...
I don't think you'll have enough time,
honestly, I'm sorry.
If I was you,
I would shut it down,
and just concentrate
on next year.
I don't think there's enough time,
I'm sorry.
How you feelin', Victor?
I just don't want to talk,
right now.
Please, c'mon.
Hey, V.
Yeah, I just saw Steve.
Yeah, I decided
I'm not doing the show.
He's a guy that's gotten no breaks,
with his sister getting murdered, and...
this is his second time in jail,
and...
just all these problems,
it just seems that...
You never know why some good
people never get breaks,
and some bad people get breaks.
And Victor is one of those good
guys that never get a break,
and I feel bad for him,
I really do.
Hide lives a solitary life in Venice,
California, near the beach.
When he looks across the water,
he sometimes imagines
he can see home.
Though he is married,
he spends most of his time
separate from his wife,
who often travels to Japan
to take care of his family...
a family that has never fully
accepted his life path,
nor fully understood it.
They don't watch my shows,
but they call me
and I call them.
It's a really hard sport.
For me, my thinking is that
they can't enjoy their life.
I was born, born
to be bodybuilder.
I'm a bodybuilder until I die.
I hope that one day
my family understands.
People thought that
it's just impossible
for Japanese or Asian people
to step on Olympia stage...
Because of their structure
or genetics, I don't know...
I wouldn't say I'm small
'cause I'm 5'5".
But I weigh 220,
which is pretty heavy.
Olympia.
Nice... are you gonna win?
- Say yes.
- Yeah, I will.
Yeah, say
"I'm gonna win the Olympia!"
Yes I will.
I'm still, you know,
challenging the title.
If I'm the champion, I would say
there will be a lot of pressure.
There's always that pressure...
you gotta be your best,
'cause you're only as good
as your last contest, in our sport...
No matter how well you placed at the
last show, if you do poorly at this one,
this is the one
everybody remembers...
I think that's why a lot of guys fail,
is because there's so much pressure.
Sponsors drop you.
I better be ready, you know.
I better be ready to bring it.
Here we go!
Fight!
Perfect!
Make 'em grow!
Here we go.
No pain, no pain.
Fight!
That's it!
You got this, man, no pain!
As a competition looms
in the near future,
the pressure builds.
Training and rigorous routines
take a toll on the body,
as well on the mind.
Each bodybuilder seeks out
different ways
to alleviate the stress.
Is there anybody that you're
worried about competing against?
There's probably two guys
in the world who, I think,
if they bring their best,
and I bring my best, they can beat me.
Other than that, nobody's gonna beat me,
so I just gotta come with my best.
I want everybody
to bring their A game,
and if somebody beats me,
I'll shake his hand,
'cause he outworked me,
but I don't see it happening.
I met Phil
at a mutual friend's restaurant
after his second
bodybuilding competition,
that he won his class,
but he didn't take the overall.
And I just knew, like,
I just saw the...
what he was working for,
that he was gonna become great,
and that everything
was gonna go for him.
And he's like "Really...
you really think
I'm gonna make it that big?"
and I said, "Absolutely,
I think you're gonna go
all the way."
I'm glad I have
a family that can go on
this journey with me,
I'm not going at this separate,
and them just watching.
They're there.
They'll be there.
I'll have the list
for tickets for you by tomorrow.
Did you spell my name right?
I'm just kidding.
So here's the thing with Phil and I,
we always got along, man...
I've never had a problem with him...
I was in Denver last year,
we went out to dinner, and then I leave,
and I hear he was talking shit...
and I was like,
"Okay, you're a scumbag...
you say one thing in my face
and something else to my back,"
that's fine.
And to me, that says
he's insecure and he's scared.
I don't respect his work ethic.
I don't respect him
as a person, with his attitude.
But he's become
an excellent bodybuilder.
He's not a very good role model
for the sport.
Is he as dominant
as everybody thinks he is?
No, he's not... but I've seen
him train and I'm like,
"Man, his back sucks,
his calves suck,
his hamstrings suck," man, that stuff, you
fix it like this, like, I can't build muscle
nearly as easily as that guy,
and yet I'm doing it, you know?
It ain't all talk
when you're on that stage, man.
Phil Heath has had
a lot of gifts.
He's a gift, he's "The Gift."
I don't represent gifts,
I really don't.
He's had a lot of help,
a lot of help.
It's not like I had people
handing me money and stuff.
When I first came into this sport,
I was working two jobs, unlike him.
I don't even know if he has a resume...
I don't even know if he knows what that is.
Easy, easy.
Guess what, Kai?
You've been bodybuilding
for 20 years.
I'm already better than you.
You know it, but now
you're making an excuse,
saying,
"He got this, he got that."
Each man's body
will represent years
of focus and concentration.
It'll be a great event.
You're one injury away
from your career being over.
I've fought too hard
to get where I'm at,
to slide back down.
I'm not one to lay down
and cry about it.
I'm gonna take this thing
by the horns,
I'm gonna overcome it... I'm doing
everything I can do, man, I'm 100 percent.
Have a dream.
Everybody need to have a dream.
Have a dream and go after it
with everything you got.
Time to make Phil
look small, Bro.
Come on!
Make 'em all look small.
Yup.
They're gonna announce my name,
crowd's gonna go crazy,
I'm gonna hit my front
double bicep, this and that.
Crowd's gonna go,
"Whoa!"
And I'm gonna just...
I'm gonna feel...
like a true Adonis, man,
like a god.
But this trophy is mine.
Come on, take your shirt off.
Yo, who do you think
was the best ever?
Best ever?
Arnold or Lee?
Arnold.
- Arnold is better than Lee Haney?
- Of course.
That's a big statement
to say on camera!
How many, how many, how many
Olympias has Arnold got?
Seven.
How many Lee got?
- Eight.
- Eight.
So who will be better?
Arnold, still Arnold!
Hold on, wait a minute,
so we go back...
Then you gotta go with what
century you was in or what...
It doesn't matter how many
Olympias he won.
- It doesn't matter?
- Doesn't matter.
Who's had the best, what year...
Who had the best
chill body ever?
- Ronnie Coleman.
- Ronnie Coleman?
He was a good one.
All right, big...
hold on, one thing!
Let's arm wrestle.
- You lost!
- Oh!
Olympia, a plain in Greece
in the western Peloponnese.
The ancient Olympic Games
were said to be played
on this stretch of ground,
and it held the chief sanctuary
of the supreme god, Zeus.
Now on a stage in Vegas,
the supreme man,
Mr. Olympia, will be crowned.
When I go back
and I think of the Olympia,
I go back and I think
of Arnold Schwarzenegger,
when the first prize money
was $1,000.
And then today,
in the 48th Olympia,
we're hoping to give out prize money
of one million dollars.
Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to Joe Weider's
Olympia fitness
and performance weekend 2012!
Just before the competition,
the contenders begin
their pre-show preparations.
The most agonizing
is dropping their water weight.
We always need to lose
a little bit of water
in the last couple of hours
before the show
because on stage,
with all those lights
and the tan and the oil,
you still look a little watery.
If you lose the water,
it makes you look
on stage much, much dryer
because all the cuts,
all the separation, coming though more
and more, you know?
Now I'll introduce
the 19 competitors here
to vie for the title
of Mr. Olympia.
Before Olympia,
a press conference is held
for the contenders.
For the first time,
but not the last,
they are on stage together.
What do you think about people
saying Phil can't be beat
at this year's Olympia
tomorrow night?
I don't give a damn
about what people say.
I think I'm a better poser
than Branch.
Well, I think I'm a better
bodybuilder than Dennis.
This is a bodybuilding contest,
not a dance contest, baby.
Going into tomorrow night,
I'm crossing my fingers,
praying to God
that I can be at my best,
because my best
will be good enough
to win another Sandow.
No question.
I'm happy I'm here,
I worked hard for it.
You'll see the best package
you've ever seen tomorrow night.
If you and Phil Heath
are 100 percent on game day,
who wins?
I expect to be
the last man standing this year.
A fallen warrior
arrives in Las Vegas.
It pains him to be a spectator,
for this sport
and its contenders
have been
his most constant family.
My phone used
to ring off the hook, you know?
Now it's a little quiet
and it's... damn, you know?
Am I taking it personal?
It's like you really can't,
you know?
It's what it is.
Remember, it's... it's a business
and if you're not producing,
they could just drop you,
and that's something
I might have to do as well,
go into my next show
without a sponsor, and that's gonna be
one of the biggest challenges of my life,
not just coming back from injury
or coming back from seven months
of being incarcerated,
it's gonna be
competing as a free agent.
That goes
into the whole question of,
"Does politics exist
in bodybuilding?"
It's alive and well.
The hypocrisy is part of the business,
it's part of it.
The makings of a champion
are elusive.
Is it in the genes?
Are some destined for greatness
while others doomed
to mediocrity?
Or is a warrior made,
forged out of steel,
honed from oak
and chiseled from the stone
of his skilled hands?
The Mr. Olympia Competition
has been sanctioned
by the IFBB since 1965.
It alone decides
who is the best in the world.
I mean, look at this.
This is what Mr. Olympia
should look like.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
I saw your wife yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, she told me.
Yeah, for sure, yeah, for sure.
My mom says she saw you too
and yeah, you know?
We're huge fans of yours,
trust me.
Come on, Branch.
I didn't even get to pump up!
Can someone bring me
some dumbbells or something?
We're back
at the 2012 Mr. Olympia.
I'm Lane Norton
with my co-host, Larry Pepe,
and Larry, we talked about...
is this the beginning
of a run for Phil?
If he hits it tonight,
do you think he starts
to put these guys
more in his rear view,
and start to build
on that momentum
and maybe get three, four,
five, six Mr. Olympias?
I think coming in, we thought
the question for Phil is:
Is this gonna be
that type of performance
where you just look up there, you see him
and you say, "It's him,"
and everybody else
kinda battling out for second.
I think we now feel
that it's him and Kai Greene.
Ladies and gentlemen,
as you know,
the Mr. Olympia final results
will be based
on a combination
of both tonight's
and tomorrow's scores.
The lights flash.
The pre-judging begins.
One by one,
the athletes pose on stage,
their bodies are exposed
and ridiculed for any failure
in symmetry and conditioning.
There's just something to be
said for the dude that can...
Man, he can...
He can run up in there
with an arm
tied behind his back
and still...
he's still a deadly dude.
Man, you still gotta watch out
for him!
And even with that,
this dude is still fighting
for his life.
And then...
slowly...
persuade the masses
to start to favor him.
When you line up
the best in the world,
it's so easy to judge.
When you're right there
in person,
you see everything.
Sometimes a photographer
will take a picture
and Phil's looking great,
Jay doesn't look great,
or Kai or Branch,
you need to see it all together
and also, it's not the clearest
of quality on the internet,
not like in living color.
Being there and seeing it,
it's pretty easy.
Phil Heath and Kai Greene,
right off the bat,
seem to separate themselves
from the pack.
Those two clearly,
Number One and Number Two.
If there was any question,
we answered that
in the final call-out
when they were the only two
brought back, center stage.
I think there's a lot of support
out there for Kai Greene,
there's a lot of people who think
that he's winning this contest.
Listen to me, you beat him
every freakin' shot.
Hands down.
Hands down, okay?
And the feeling was,
he was terrible.
He was picking
your best shots too,
side triceps,
Back double biceps,
you frickin' creamed him.
Do you really think that,
George?
You have the frickin' edge,
would I lie to you?
It's Mr. Olympia,
the best of the best.
You saw it.
Yeah, exa...
Once you start, you know?
That was getting close
with the whole Kai thing and...
Kai starts good, he started getting better
until he becomes great and then,
and then you shave it down
to the top guys
and those top guys
were Phil and Kai.
The drama came in there,
'cause first you go,
"Okay, yeah, you know, Phil's walking
away with this," then you look, you go,
"Wait a minute, this is getting
closer than I think."
The more you look,
the closer it got.
I mean, I don't know
how much tighter I can get.
I wouldn't try to get fuller
if I was you.
Thank you.
I mean, really.
There's no way I could be
any tighter than I was.
I mean, I lose room
all the way up past my hip.
What else can I do?
I mean, you tell me
where I can be tighter.
I think I was tighter
than last year,
easily, easily but...
I think what I presented
was good enough for the win.
But we'll wait and see.
- Want some water, champ?
- No, I'm good.
Not always gonna hear
what you want.
So that's when you exit.
Because you don't need
to hear negativity right now.
If anything,
I like to be the guy
that smiles,
plays nicely, you know?
But I'm trying
to take your head off
just like anybody else.
Don't sleep!
Okay, now I am starting
to get irritated,
like, I can't deal
with that shit right now.
You know what I'm saying?
I can't think
like that right now.
That shit has no importance
whatsoever
to me winning this show.
We won last year
with a perfect score.
It'd be nice to try
to do it again.
It would be nice, I mean,
I don't know that's Hany's goal.
That's mine.
It's always a goal
to try to win.
To win, perfect score.
I mean, this is definitely a hard focus
right now, there's no soft focus at all.
Like, this is definitely
very serious.
When you start stressing,
your body starts changing.
And just...
and a lot of people
who've done competitions
have looked absolutely amazing,
and then, all of a sudden,
the stress hormone kicks in,
and their bodies just kinda fade away
and they don't understand what happened.
This is not where you let off
the gas, either.
I'm gonna have to get going.
Catch your breath, that's right.
- Huh?
- Catch your breath.
Come on!
That's right.
Yeah, if you want.
I know I'm the champ.
I don't have to keep saying it.
They know I'm the champ, too.
My title is Mr. Olympia.
Theirs isn't,
and they're trying to get there?
They've gotta fight me all day.
There's no way I'm gonna lose.
The champ takes a moment
to drive
through the streets of Vegas
to clear his head.
The most important battle
of his life
lies here moments away.
The battle that will define him
as a competitor forever.
As you know,
it's Olympia weekend.
Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls,
bodybuilding fans
from around the world,
welcome to the 48th edition
of the fall classic,
the Mr. Olympia!
For those
that was here last night,
you saw one of the most exciting
pre-judgings in Olympia history.
Because once again, folks, only one person
can hold the Sandow and only one man
will be crowned Mr. Olympia.
Mr. Olympia is my dream,
my life dream.
I can't think of anything else
that will ever happen to me again in my life
that will mean as much to me,
because it was nothing
but sheer will, determination,
and stubbornness.
I knew from the time I was 18
what I wanted to do in life.
I set goals for myself.
I've accomplished every goal
I set out for myself,
except for one,
and that's win the Mr. Olympia.
I'm training for this title,
I want to win this title.
My daughter is my biggest fan,
she's always at the Olympia,
she always wants to be there
and I won my first show
where my wife and my daughter
were together there watching us,
and that was amazing,
you see the girls crying,
because they are so happy,
it's amazing.
You know, in Japan,
nobody really challenged it
before me.
I thought I was going to be
the first one really
to challenge the top.
I want to prove
that bodybuilding
is not all about size.
It's a dream
for every bodybuilder
to stand on the stage
for Mr. Olympia.
It was my dream.
It was my dream,
and I make it true.
Everybody can make it true
if you want it.
From Brooklyn, New York,
comes a predator.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Kai Greene!
When I was younger I'd leave
the cold institutional facility,
go to a bodybuilding show,
and I'd stand there on stage
with athletes, teenagers,
that had people at home
invested in seeing them succeed.
You'd hear
a very proud mom or pop,
sitting in the third
or fourth row
and then there was you,
no mom, no dad,
there's nobody gonna be sitting
in the audience,
proud of you,
but you were proud.
You took pleasure
in beating those guys that did.
He's your reigning
and current Mr. Olympia,
"The Gift," Phil Heath!
They only nitpick the best.
They only criticize the best.
They do!
In all sports, they do.
Because it's hard for someone to say, "He's
just perfect and we'll never talk about him"
They have to say something!
Did they announce it?
- Did they announce the Top 10?
- No.
I'm just gonna go.
As I call you out,
that means you're in the Top 10,
if you need to go see Pro Tan,
get greased up,
go down and do it,
then we'll get you up there.
In numeric order,
please, gentlemen,
Can I have Branch Warren,
Tony Freeman,
Johnnie Jackson,
Evan Centopani,
Lionel Beyeke,
Dexter Jackson,
Shawn Rhoden,
Dennis Wolf, Kai Greene,
and Phil Heath.
Once again, Branch, Tony,
Johnnie, Evan, Lionel,
Dexter, Shawn, Dennis,
Kai and Phil.
That's our Top 10,
thank you, gentlemen,
we should have you
on stage in roughly 20 minutes.
Roelly, sorry, brother.
Fuel for next year, baby!
Come back next year.
All right let's bring out
our Top 10 back on stage.
Gentlemen!
Hey, we've got one more call.
I need Phil and Kai back.
That's gonna be it, group.
Okay, now.
Quarter-turn to...
no, wait, hold on, stop it.
No, wait, stay back
on the line both of yous.
And do me a favor,
take two steps to your right.
Do me a favor, take a step
apart from each other,
there's plenty of room.
Gotta stay on the same side, come on,
a little bit of room between yous.
Come on, Phil, take one more...
yup, thank you!
Okay, now, front.
Front double bicep.
Come on now, front double bicep.
And relax.
Relax, front lat spread.
Okay, both, front lat spread.
And relax.
Either side for side chest.
And relax.
Back double bicep.
And relax.
Face forward.
Your favorite most muscular.
And relax... and relax.
Okay, thank yous very much.
This concludes
our confirmation round.
All right folks, here we go.
Are we ready for the awards?
Aileen, please take
the sixth-place award
to our sixth-place finisher.
Dennis "Big Bad" Wolf!
The fifth-place award,
Branch Warren!
The fourth-place award,
"The Blade," Dexter Jackson!
The third-place award,
"Flexatron," Shawn Rhoden.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
in Olympia tradition,
Kai Greene, Phil Heath,
center stage, please.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we had a one-point decision.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the next name I announce
will be the winner
of the 2012 Mr. Olympia!
Come on, baby!
When I did find myself
in institutional placement,
the cold, oppressive feeling
of, like...
Like you don't matter
and you may never,
ever, ever matter again.
I began to talk about competing
in the Olympia one day.
I really did not develop Plan B.
But I didn't, I didn't.
I didn't just talk about it,
it's like...
I really believed
that it was gonna happen.
Phil Heath!
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath!
I didn't get any sleep,
trust me,
over the past 48 hours, because I knew
that these guys were all champions
and I knew
they were bringing it.
Man, it feels freakin' good
to be king up in here, man.
I can't even lie.
Did you feel nervous
for a second, like it was close?
Did you feel
at any point nervous?
I think I was
more nervous yesterday.
'cause I felt that after
the first round,
I thought it was lights out,
and I kinda eased up
off the gas,
and that allowed allow Kai
to get more confidence
and to start making up
ground on me, and it showed.
I mean, I could tell.
And it was like the power
was going to him.
Well, today I realized
what his game plan was,
and I just figured, I gotta
let it all hang out.
This is my town,
this is my show,
this is my title,
this is my throne.
And I refuse to give it
to anybody.
They're gonna have
to fight me for it.
I know that I pushed him
to his best look,
and I knew I'm gonna
go against their biggest punch,
but like I said,
wait till I punch back.
What's next for Phil Heath?
What are you gonna do?
We're gonna party tonight, man.
We're gonna party.
The title was within his grasp.
A point away.
The smell of victory
teased his nostrils.
You know, no one's
gonna give you anything.
You gonna have to work for it.
I didn't come there
expecting gifts.
I came there willing
to work for it.
And I believe that any man
that is willing to work hard
and labor long
can attain the goal,
as long as it's realistic.
I've seen enough feedback
that lets me know
that this is not unrealistic,
it's not impossible.
We got a chance
to see the champ bleed.
And he bled.
He's still bleeding.
Whatever can be forced to bleed
against its own will
can be killed, it can die,
it can be beaten
and you know, um...
We got more work to do,
you know?
We got more work to do.
Never gonna stop
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop
till I get what I need
Falling down, knocked out
On my knees, I break down
But I'm holding on,
holding on, holding on
Pouring out my heart,
digging out my soul
As I'm holding on,
holding on, holding on
Never gonna stop
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop
till I get what I need
Never gonna stop
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop
till I get what I need
Shaking out myself,
listening to me
Breathing out,
breathing in, breathing out
Closing my eyes,
looking inside
To see again, to feel again
To live again
Never gonna stop
till I get what I want
Never gonna stop
till I get what I need
Never gonna stop
Never gonna,
never gonna stop
Never gonna stop
I've been up, hit the ground
Taste the dirt,
hear the sound
In my head spinning 'round
But still
there's no place to go
No place to go
I've been up, hit the ground
Taste the dirt,
hear the sound
In my head spinning 'round
But still,
there's no place to go
No place to go
Some say I'm lost
and never found my way
And it makes me want
to lay here with you
But I'm always gone
I pray
Take these demons far away
Put 'em in the ground,
will not be renowned
But they always stay
Always
I've been up, hit the ground
Taste the dirt,
hear the sound
In my head spinning 'round
But still,
there's no place to go
No place to go
I've gone to every one of the
vendors and I can't find it!
Can't find my T-shirt!
But when I find it,
I'm gonna put it on eBay
and some bodybuilder will pay
maybe a few dollars
for it for their collection.