The Express
A talented African-American college football star becomes a trailblazer in the face of racism and discrimination as he fights to make his mark on the sport and society.
“He changed our country... one yard at a time.”
Synopsis
Ernie Davis was a college football hero and the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. His inspirational life and achievements left a lasting impact on the world of sports and beyond.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 23
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Padraic MckinleyShot by Kramer MorgenthauScored by Mark IshamDesigned by Nelson Coates
Box Office
2008 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$9.8M
Opening week (7-day): $6.0M
Peak 2,808 theaters
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Help complete this page
We’re missing mpaa rating. Sign in to add what you know.
Cast & Crew
23 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Rob Brown
as Ernie Davis
Dennis Quaid
as Ben Schwartzwalder
Clancy Brown
as Roy Simmons
Darrin Dewitt Henson
as Jim Brown
Omar Benson Miller
as Jack Buckley
Ned Schmidtke
as as Bill Clark
Nelsan Ellis
as Will Davis, Jr.
Charles S Dutton
as Willie 'Pops' Davis
Justin Martin
as Young Ernie
Justin Jones
as Young Will
Nicole Beharie
as Sarah Ward
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
8Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for The Express yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for The Express yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on The Express?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on The Express.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for The Express yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on The ExpressNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…