That’s the motto governing the life of rising star quarterback and potential NFL draft pick Cameron “Cam” Cade (Tyriq Withers). Cam’s ascent into NFL stardom seems inevitable until an attack by a crazed fan leaves him with a debilitating head injury. When all seems lost, Cam receives an invitation to train with elusive football star Isaiah White (Marlan Wayans), an aging champion quarterback, who Cam grew up worshipping. But as Cam’s relentless training with Isaiah continues, Isaiah’s charisma begins to morph into something more sinister, and Cam must grapple with the question: Will he let his all-consuming need for success on the football field swallow him whole? Or will he become the Greatest Of All Time? (G.O.A.T)
This is the genesis of Him, a sports drama written by Black List duo Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie. Enter Justin Tipping (Kicks), who met with Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Tapping into Monkeypaw’s background in horror movies, including It and Get Out, Tipping infused the originally-titled G.O.A.T with his dreamlike sensibilities to refashion the project into a feverish sports/ horror hybrid depicting the commodification of athletes in the sports industrial complex.
Featuring a supporting cast of Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies, and Tierra Whack, HIM explores themes of masculinity, identity, and how much must be personally sacrificed in the pursuit of glory.
Justin Tipping, who co-wrote the original Black List screenplay with Akers and Bronkie, spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about how meeting Jordan Peele at an It networking event in 2017 led him to HIM.
Justin Tipping. Photo courtesy of Universal Studios
How the Script Reached Justin Tipping’s Desk
“During that networking evening, we discovered a shared obsession with sport‑driven narratives and a mutual fascination with the psychological toll of elite performance,” Tipping recalls.
Jordan and Tipping kept in touch after that event to exchange notes on each other’s favorite films and the “mechanics of tension” to see if their artistic sensibilities might align in the future.
Monkeypaw reached out to Tipping several months later with their script characterized by a peculiar blend of sports and horror.
When the script landed in Tipping’s inbox. The logline read like a sports‑drama pitch: “A star quarterback’s quest for greatness spirals into a nightmare of obsession.” Yet the attached treatment alluded to something far more creatively ambitious—a mythic exploration of the athlete as a modern‑day soldier. The script had already undergone several rewrites and the baton was passed to Justin Tipping. His mission was to give the story a “bigger scope.”
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“We were looking to build on the foundation of a much more contained story between these two guys.” Tipping continues. The filmmaker pitched an expanded mythology and lore and the implicit elements of the nature of elite sports players. He wanted to tap into the heart of the psychology of pro athletes who are treated as little more than performance vehicles. He also understood that the world of quarterbacks was “too niche and specific” for a mainstream audience.
In order to connect with a wider viewership, “I was looking for a more universal emotion to grab,” Tipping adds. He compares it to the amount of work artists put into their craft in the hope of success. How many birthdays and social events do dedicated folks miss in pursuit of greatness? Is becoming best in class worth the sacrifice? This is the thematic vein that runs through HIM.
Before onboarding HIM, Tipping admits that he had made the most money in his career, but he was also the most depressed.
Isaiah (Marlon Wayans) Photo courtesy of of Universal Studios.
The Evolution from Sports Drama to Sports/ Horror
Although G.O.A.T. had flashes of horror baked into its sports drama cake, and Monkeypaw had suggested several revisions, HIM was always going to be a challenge to pitch to studios due to its comparative lack of comparable films or any IP. This made Justin Tipping even more excited about the film because it was a seminal entry in the sports/ horror sub-genre. “It was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. If we can pull from both languages of the traditional sports drama and horror, we can do it.”
The key to the success of HIM was maintaining the structural backbone of G.O.A.T despite the genres being diametrically opposed to each other. He threaded that genre needle by examining the emotional arc of a main character in the sports world, where they need to unlock something to bring their game to the next level. This is counterintuitive to creating a more generalized sense of horror where the central character loses their moral compass to survive. Cam’s decline is pegged to a descent into madness as the athlete transforms into a metaphorical monster.
Tipping elaborates that this metamorphosis reflects the current ethos of American Football that is “rooted in militarism. He’s creating a monster, but it’s also akin to creating a soldier who knows what’s required.”
The filmmaker referenced films like Jacob’s Ladder, The Shining, and Nosferatu to support the characters’ emotional journeys. Tipping acknowledges that it’s not entirely clear who the monster is, since people make deliberate choices in their lives. All we know is that “something’s going wrong.” An insidious post-traumatic stress disorder of sorts.
In order to dive deeper into the psychological horror aspects of HIM, Tipping looked to Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria or Aronofsky’s Black Swan for inspiration. Tipping muses: “It’s body. It’s movement, but there’s some surreal fantasy.”
Photo courtesy of Parrish Lewis/ Universal Pictures
Creative Sensibilities Justin Tipping Brought to the Project
Justin Tipping ensured he enhanced Akers and Bronkie’s script rather than overhauling it. “The source material was its own beast and it worked on a more ground level as opposed to taking it over the top.”
The creator cites some pivotal scenes to illustrate his point. Tipping begins with the scene where Cam repeatedly gets smashed in the face with a football machine that fires an endless stream of footballs into his bloodied face. He wants to capture the “weird, eerie, and uncanny valley of behavior, but also masculinity pushed too far.”
Moreover, Isaiah demonstrates gaslighting in sports and the narcissistic, relationship displayed by extreme physical violence. Tipping also pays homage to the works of Jonathan Glazer’s Air Jordan ads as HIM shunts into a fine-art football aesthetic. He juxtaposes the dreamlike imagery of these ads with the stark, simple contrast of Michael Haneke’s Caché, where the main character enters a room and slits his own throat.
Character Dynamics: Cam and Isaiah
HIM leans into the exaggerated contradiction and absurdity of Cam and Isaiah’s relationship.
As Cam descends into “monster madness,” his pride takes over, he gets better at football, more competitive, and more insane.
Tipping refers to a sauna scene where Cam and Isaiah bond to discuss football and what it means to them. Isaiah poses the question: “If you were starving in prison and you were offered food or freedom, what would you take?”
This creates the false illusion of choice when a 19-year-old pro athlete is presented with an option of fame and fortune versus survival. A singular obsession with sports defines your personhood. Cam will pay the price of sacrifice to achieve his dreams. He’s made his Faustian deal.
Thematic Ladder – From Core to Peripheral
HIM covers an expansive thematic terrain. Justin Tipping describes the thematic ladder of HIM.
“I still believe that the underlying crux of it is when humans become the commodity within the institution. This is the symptom. This is the cycle. This is the machine we’re creating. Within that, also requires fans and fanaticism. And then that breeds parasocial relationships with celebrity and worship,” Tipping explains.
In the case of HIM, football is the institution – and the insidious nature of the business of football. Tipping expresses this with Felliniesque imagery.
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