Oh my god it’s 15 years since Torrance, Missy and Cliff (?!) defined our teenage years – and phraseology – in Bring It On, clearly one of the best films ever made. Or certainly, one of the most quotable.Who didn’t spend lunchbreaks yelling, ‘THAT’S ALRIGHT, THAT’S OK, YOU'RE GONNA PUMP MY GAS SOMEDAY!’ and evenings wearing out the VHS tape by repeat viewings in order to really nail those dance moves. We all casually decided to start turning up at school football games in the hope that someone would start leading a cheer – but it’s not the same without bleachers and uniforms.
On repeat viewings, though, we missed a fair few things – from the questionable scene where the guy fingers a girl during a cheer routine (and she’s cool with it) to the fact that Cliff (again what is it with this name?!?) was a bit weird.
Here are some things you may have missed the first time round when you were too busy OOEEOOEEOO ICE ICE ICE-ing to notice…
**White cheerleaders are rich, black cheerleaders are from the ghetto **
Look, the rivals are from the inner-city school which obviously means they’re all black by default. However, it’s worth pointing out that they wipe the floor with the little rich white girls at the end (if you needed a spoiler alert, then why are you reading this article?), so that’s pretty cool. Despite the fact they’ve really hammered the ‘poor = black’ thing to death throughout the whole film.
Cliff was a bit weird
He brushes his teeth for ages, his last name is Pantone, Jesse Bradford who plays him actually dated Eliza Dushku (who played Missy, his sister, in the film) IRL, he has an alarmingly wonky mouth – basically, Cliff is very suspect.
**A cheerleader gets fingered during a cheer and is sort of fine with it **
The straight guy in the team ruins any progressiveness (hey, you don’t have to be gay to be a male cheerleader – except Torrance’s boyfriend, who is) by fingering the girls during cheer routine. One of the cheerleaders gets lifted and, from her facial expression (and his) it’s pretty clear that something’s gone amiss. In a sexual assault sort of way. Oh, and he also says afterwards that he ‘can’t help it if my digits slip occasionally’. So gross.
Sparky is very un-PC, anti-ass and still shocking(ish) now
Like the Mean Girls table for ‘girls who eat their feelings’, choice quotes from intentionally offensive choreographer Sparky include, ‘Darcy, you should stop eating. You see, when you skip a meal, your body feeds off its fat stores. And if you skip enough, maybe your body will eat your ass!’ And, ‘Ah, good tone and general musculature. Report those compliments to your ass before it gets so big it forms it’s own website!’
READ MORE: Remembering Robin Williams's Career Is A Nostalgic Trip Through Our Childhood
**The Clash is, like, a cool indie band **
‘Is that your band?’ Torrance asks Cliff, and he’s all ‘It’s The Clash’ as if the writers put down the first punk band that came into their heads. Apparently, this actually happened on set – a crew member was wearing a Clash T-shirt and Kirsten Dunst didn’t know who they were, so they put it in the film.
Torrance is not an acceptable name for a person
We all secretly wanted to be Torrance, and we all secretly accepted that Torrance is a normal name for someone who happens to be in a cheerleading squad called the Toros squad. But now, on rewatching it, that’s really weird – who is called the same as their school’s football team? Also, when Torrance introduced herself to people, why was nobody like, ‘That’s an unusual name,’ or, ‘Did you name your team after yourself?’ Or just, ‘I’m sorry, what?!’
They don’t say, ‘Bring it,’ as much as you think
Through the sands of time, it feels like every scene involved a ‘Hey, bring it!’ sequence featuring around 14 other ‘Bring it’s’, but that’s weirdly not the case. There are five total utterances of the words ‘Bring it’ and only three of them are said by the main cast – also, so disappointingly, the term ‘Bring it on’ is only said in the background of whooping and cheering, regardless of how much you were JUST ITCHING for Torrance to say it when confronting head of the opposition, Isis. Alright nerds, here’s the full list:
Like this? You might also be interested in...
So Rachel McAdams's Notebook Audition Is As Adorable As Expected
Follow Stevie on Twitter: @5tevieM
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.