Tough Ain't Enough
- We open on a black and white Warner Bros logo, and a black and white Lakeshore Entertainment logo.
- Hang on, just a sec. Nobody told us this movie's in black and white.
- Cut to a boxing match, and two dudes duking it out in the ring. In color.
- That's more like it.
- The round ends, and we're immediately introduced to two things: aging "cut man" Frankie Dunn, and the voice-over narration of Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris. Is there anything Morgan Freeman can't narrate?
- What's a cut man? That's the person whose job it is to quickly manage a boxer's injuries so he or she can keep fighting. Like stopping a cut from bleeding, for example.
- Frankie may be old and gray, but he's still got mad cut man skills. In fact, Scrap says Frankie's the best in the business, and the only man Scrap would never want to fight.
- Frankie's trying to patch up a nasty cut under the eye of one the boxers, Big Willie Little. The laceration won't stop bleeding, and if it doesn't stop shooting blood all over the place, then Big Willie will have to call it quits.
- Here's the problem: They need more time for Frankie's patch job to set, which will stop the bleeding. Frankie's solution? He tells Big Willie to let the other guy wail on him; his punches will get the patch job to set.
- Would you look at that? It works.
- Up in the concourse, Maggie Fitzgerald emerges from a shadowy hallway and watches the fighters pummeling each other in the ring below. She spots Frankie, too. He's shadowboxing along with the fight.
- After the fight, Maggie ambushes Frankie in the hallway. She fought on the undercard that night, and won her fight. Way to go, Mags.
- Frankie's less impressed. When Maggie asks him if he'd like to train her, his answer is a firm "no." He doesn't train girls.
- Out in the parking lot, on his way to meet Frankie at the car, Big Willie passes a mystery man who tells him, "It's a mistake." Um, okay. Thanks?
- The car can't go in reverse. As Big Willie helps Frankie push it back out of its parking spot, Frankie tells Big Willie that he turned down an offer for Big Willie to fight in a title match. So maybe that's what the whole "mistake" business was about.
- Frankie tells Big Willie he'll be ready for a shot at the title after two or three more fights. Big Willie tells Frankie that he makes that "two or three more fights" claim a lot, but he begrudgingly complies.
- We get a quick shot of Maggie riding the city bus. Hello, depressing, fluorescent public transportation lights.
- Cut to Frankie at home, kneeling beside his bed to pray. He asks the Lord to protect Katy and Annie, and then says that, other than that, God knows what he wants, so there's no use in repeating himself. Well, that's all kinds of mysterious.