- A former track coach decides to train a student with natural athletic talent. Tragedy strikes, forcing the student to confront everything that has been holding him back.
- 4 Minute Mile is the inspirational story of a high school track star who falls on hard times. A new coach puts him on the right path but his resolve is threatened as tragedy strikes and forces him to confront everything that has been holding him back.
- A teen track runner Drew Jacobs (Kelly Blatz) is struggling on the track as well as at home. He accepts an offer from his reclusive neighbor Coleman (Richard Jenkins) to train him and the two form a bond.
The movie 4 Minute Mile tells the inspirational story of Drew, a high school student struggling to overcome the inner-city surroundings that threaten to imprison him. Drew gets manipulated by his own brother, Wes, into running drug payments to a local dealer Eli. Drew has nowhere to turn in a family with a deadbeat older brother and an overwhelmed single mom. Drew's brother is a parolee himself & constantly looks down upon Drew. Drew finds that Wes had taken a package of drugs from Eli without paying for it & now Eli wanted payment, quickly.
His only outlet is track practice, but that is taken from him as he continues down the path of his sibling; even the affections of a girl, Lisa, at school can't set him straight. He is kicked off the school track team after repeated run-ins with the fellow team members & his problem with accepting the authority of his team coach.
Just as it seems hopeless, an ex-track coach Coleman, with his own demons (Coleman's kid was a spectacular football athlete trained by his own father & had a promising professional future in American football but died in a freak car accident) witnesses Drew's speed and athleticism and decides to train him to reach for more than he ever imagined possible.
Together they work towards finding solace in each other. Coleman takes Drew under his wings & trains him harder than Drew has ever been pushed before. Drew wants to run the 400 m race, but Coleman encourages him & pushes him to train for the mile race.
Wes takes Drew to collect money from his customers, as he needs that to pay Eli. This cat and mouse game goes on for a while with Drew balancing his training with the increasingly dangerous life that Wes is leading & warping Drew into it. Wes gets Drew to make the final payment to Eli, but Eli goes back on his word & hands another bag of drugs to Drew for Wes to sell. Eli wants Drew & Wes to work for him permanently.
To inspire Drew to run the mile, Coleman agrees to a bet that if he beat the current 400 school champ, then Drew can run the 400 else he has to run the mile. Drew loses and agrees to work with Coleman on the mile, if Coleman can train him to run the mile in 4 minutes & get him a scholarship to UC Berkley.
On Coleman's suggestion, Drew rekindles his relationship with Lisa. Coleman makes Drew watch the current mile champ Charles St James, who is running it in well under 4 minutes and says that he has to beat him at regional competitions if he has to make it to the state & qualify for the scholarship. But Drew's resolve is threatened as tragedy strikes right before the biggest race of his life and forces him to confront everything that has been holding him back.
The night before the regional meet, Wes forces Drew to take the money to Eli, but the money is only half of what is due to Eli. Eli is angry. Drew runs the race but loses to Charles St James. Drew is angry with Wes for making him go to Eli, when there was a good chance that Eli would have killed Drew. Coleman refuses to train Drew anymore.
The next time Wes asks Drew to do a run for him, Drew refuses & confronts Wes head on, who wants Drew to give up his "pathetic" dream & join Wes full time. After this Drew realizes that he can run past through his pain. He approaches Coleman again & asks him to train him, which he does.
Eli comes by challenging Wes, but Coleman intervenes & in the ensuing scuffle Wes shoots Coleman (when he was intending to shoot Eli). Coleman dies & Wes is arrested. On the day of the state championship, Drew runs a parallel, solo run-on Coleman's favorite practice track, witnessed by the high school's official coach (the same guy who kicked Drew out & Coleman's good friend) & manages to run it in 3:57. He gets the letter of recommendation & gets admission to UC Berkley & runs in the collegiate championships the next year.
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