After the sad news of champ Muhammad Ali's death last friday, I rewatched Rocky 1 and Creed. It is no secret that Apollo Creed's character was based on Ali and this made it even a better experience to watch the movie. In a sense, I think that Creed benefits from the large backstory. All the great heroe's stories have a rich background behind them (stories about their parents, etc). This is the case with Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Aragorn, Jon Snow and many more. Addonis 'Donnie' Creed has to live up to the legends of Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa, and this is no easy task. I imagined a story for Donnie's journey to earn the boxing world lightweight title. This is it.
Creed II
The movie opens 1 year after the first film with a montage of Donnie's fights. He is at the height of his career, winning fame and having fun. We see that his relationship with Bianca is doing great and that Rocky is doing well in his fight with cancer. He wants to fight the current world champion (played by Chadwick Boseman), but Rocky insists he is not ready since the new champion is even deadlier than the previous one (from the first movie), who left Donnie very hurt. Creed is currently being sponsored by his local 'Front Street Gym', which he promotes in his fights, but after he wins a big fight, a representative of a big multinational gym approaches him and offers him a sponsorship deal that will bring him a lot of money and fame. Donnie is very happy about this.
But all of this stops when he recieves a call and is told that his mother has died of a heart attack. From here, his life goes downhill. His lawyer tricks him in some way or something goes wrong with his papers and he ends up losing his family's fortune. (I'm not sure how this could play out but I think it would be really interesting for the character). Creed just loses it and beats up his lawyer/accountant and starts breaking stuff, getting himself arrested. He spends a night in jail. The world champion (Boseman) is asked abouth his thoughts on Creed getting arrested but he just belittles Donnie saying that 'he is only famous because of his surname' etc. The camera focuses on Creed's face and you can see the anger and hate and you can see its on.
Creed, contrary to Rocky's advice, wants to fight ASAP. He doesn't train much and insists that he will win because he is Apollo Creed's son. Bianca doesn't want him to fight but he ignores her. They fight ans she leaves him saying fame has made him arrogant (what is true). He tells himself that he has to do this. The day of the fight comes, but Creed is troubled because of Bianca and his mother. He is just too angry and can't focus, and eventually loses the fight.
This leaves Creed devastated. He goes back home having lost everything, starting some kind of emotional journey to rediscover himself. In this part, we get to know more about his relationship with his neighborhood and his local gym 'Front Street'. He starts talking more to the people of the gym and learns that the gym is going through financial trouble and may have to close. He gets to know how it is to live with no money. He even considers leaving box. One night, he goes to a bar to drink some beer and meets a barman who tells him some inspiring story about his father, about how it was not all just about being the best fighter physically but also in life. He tells Donnie about Apollo's fight for human rights, peace and standing his ground (borrowing a little of Muhammad Ali's life). That night, Donnie (kind of drunk), breaks into his 'Front Street Gym', where there is a big wallpaper of Apollo Creed. Donnie just stares at it, reflecting on his life, and decides to make it right.
The following morning, Donnie wakes Rocky up with the same music with which Rocky woke Donnie up in the first movie and says its time to train. This marks the final act of the movie. He visits his girlfriend who is giving a concert and eventually gets her back. We get to see the never-missing training montage, and the final lesson to be learned: that Donnie has to be his own man. He understands that he is not and will never be his father, but he has to live up to his father's ideal of fighting for what he wants. He doesn't have to beat the champion to take revenge for his insults, he has to win because he wants to bring hope to his neighborhood. He trains for weeks and eventually challenges the champion. The fight is intense, and Donnie thinks about his mother, Bianca, Rocky and his father. He ultimately wins, and becomes the new world champion. He refuses the big gym's sponsorhip deal and donates all the money to his local gym. Proving to himself that he is not just doing this for glory, but for bringing true pride and hope for those who need it.
Now, there are many things that I wanted to include but just couldn't fit, like Rocky's death and Bianca going deaf. I would also like to see Creed's fights go overseas, to Europe or South America. But all of these could come up on part 3! Please comment your thoughts below, and if you liked this check out my other articles!