Air, the new film from the heavy-hitting tandem of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, chronicles Nike’s rise to sneaker dominance through its partnership with Michael Jordan in the mid ‘80s. Starring Damon as Nike exec Sonny Vaccaro, Affleck as Phil Knight, and recent EGOT winner Viola Davis as Jordan’s mother, Deloris, Air seems poised to be the next great sports movie and the next banger from the formidable, newly reunited duo of Damon and Affleck, following 2021’s underrated The Last Duel.
Based off of the trailer, Air’s tone hews close to the rousing mood of Affleck’s Best Picture-winning Argo, albeit with more moments of levity and the winking dialog period pieces like this just can’t avoid. At one point, Vaccaro floats the name “Air Jordan” to Knight, who expresses some hesitancy, before offering, “Maybe it’ll grow on me,” while a character played by Marlon Wayans exclaims, “There’s nothing cool about Nike!” The stacked supporting cast is rounded out with Wayans, Jason Bateman, Chris Messina, and Chris Tucker. (The film must be good if it got the super-rich and work-averse Tucker to actually come out of his mansion.) The script comes from Alex Convery, a new name whose script, Air Jordan, appeared on the film industry’s touted Black List.
As teased in the trailer, the film follows an exasperated Vaccaro, who is trying desperately to grow Nike’s basketball footprint, but struggling to get support from the company’s higher-ups due to so. At one point, he tells Bateman’s character, “I can tell ‘em the one thing the other companies can’t compete with: our basketball divisions is terrible.” We next see him driving through North Carolina, showing up at the door of the Jordans’ home (in a novel bit of casting, Jordan’s father is played by Davis’ husband and production partner Julius Tennon.)
Air is being pushed in paradigm-shifting fashion by Amazon Studios. Per a February 3 Variety piece, the movie will receive a $7 million Super Bowl ad, and a lengthy theatrical release window in more than 3,000 screens, a far grander rollout than movies made by streamers usually receive. As Variety noted, this huge push around Air comes after Amazon brought in Sue Kroll to take over film marketing–she previously worked on Argo, which became an unconventional box office hit.
The trailer builds up to the Michael Jordan reveal, and the player is never explicitly shown–though his iconic silhouette that would become the Jordan logo does appear. Variety reports there is no actor playing Jordan in the film, though the actual player does appear in some archival footage. (In 1985, the NBA banned Jordans for being too colorful, which led to an uptick in public interest and Nike’s successful “Banned!” ad campaign.) Of course, these days Nike is the exclusive uniform and apparel provider for the NBA and WNBA, so it’s no spoiler warning to say Vaccaro’s bet paid off. With that kind of fist-pumping, success story on deck it might not be too early to wonder if Ben Affleck, director, has another Oscar contender on his hands. Air hits theaters April 5.