The Senior recounts the true story of Mike Flynt, a 59-year-old man who returned to college to finish playing his senior year of football. The story focuses on overcoming regrets, working through deep-rooted issues and putting in hard work to achieve dreams. The biggest content issues here are a few misuses of God’s name as well as a couple uses of “a–.” We also see some light violence, both on and off the football field.
Nothing keeps Mike Flynt up more than regretting that punch he threw 35 years ago.
Back then, he was a senior at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. He was also a middle linebacker and captain of the football team. But when another player spurred him on, Mike found his fist flying through the air—and himself out the door. Sul Ross State had had enough of his incessant altercations.
Still, the team was nice enough to invite Mike back to its 35-year reunion. And as Mike laments the loss of his final year, a team member reminds Mike that, technically, since he never finished college, he’s still eligible to play.
“The college rules say that as long as you’ve got that senior year, you can play it,” he tells Mike.
But doing so would require Mike to get his wife, Eileen, on board. It would require the 59-year-old man training hard enough to earn a spot against applicants a third of his age. And it’d require Mike to address some other regrets he’s been facing in his life.
On the other hand, if Mike does do it, it could make a decent story.
The Senior largely focuses on forgiving ourselves and relinquishing our regrets, which Mike states are what often define us. And while his main regret is about failing to finish his senior year of football, Mike likewise starts the process of dealing with his other regrets, too: including the way he’s raised his son, Micah.
Micah and Mike butt heads as a result of Mike’s hotheaded nature, itself a byproduct of the way his own father raised him. When Mike eventually realizes that he’s unintentionally passed along the poor parenting his own father gave him, he apologizes to Micah.
Mike likewise apologizes to Eileen when she helps him realize that he dragged his family along for this opportunity rather than consulting with them first. He learns to depend on others more, realizing that getting help is OK.
The football team largely accepts Mike as one of their own, poking fun at his age while still treating him as a fellow player; Mike, for his part, teaches a few of the players how to improve their game and encourages others when they lose heart. And Mike’s story encourages them (and us) that while everyone has dreams, only those who put in the work who can potentially make those dreams a reality.
At the reunion party, Mike and another player apologize to each other for their fight, both not realizing that the other guy felt just as much guilt for what happened.
Mike discovers his father’s well-worn Bible. He learns that his dad repented of his ways and came to faith late in life, writing “Lord, give me the strength to forgive others and myself” in his Bible. Mike resolves to follow his father’s example in that intention.
Mike encourages his team by stating he plans to leave his soul and spirit on the football field. A character who’s upset with Mike says, “It’s not my job to heal him of his sins.” A woman says that someone wants her to “dress like a nun” when men are near.
A narrator claims that Texas football is more than life, death and glory—it’s about “a shot at immortality.” Some folks clearly idolize football as something more than just a game.
Mike kisses his wife. When Eileen jokes about sending him off to college, Mike replies, “at least, this time, I got a hot roommate.” He also lightly flirts with her later.
We see shirtless men in the locker room. Someone compliments Mike for having the “stones” to play football at his age. A player jokes that Mike may be attracting college girls away from the rest of the team.
Mike gets into a few fistfights; in one, he leaves his opponent on the ground, and another man suffers a broken nose. Mike cleans blood off his fists. We see him as a young child in a flashback, bleeding from his nose as his father boxes with him. His dad also tells Mike that he must always win his fights, or else his dad will whup him.
We see general football impacts: tackles, sacks and other hits. One violent play puts a player in the hospital. Mike suffers a hard hit that forces him to undergo physical therapy to heal his injury.
Someone threatens to rip a man’s arm off and beat him with it.
We hear three misuses of God’s name. We also hear two instances of “a–” and one of “crap.”
Mike and others drink beer or liquor. A group of college freshmen drink, too. A player asks Mike if he takes any steroids, creatine or natural supplements to boost his performance.
A father mistreats his son, as mentioned above. Eileen threatens to abandon Mike at one point.
I think sport flicks, and football movies in particular, can sometimes come off feeling a lot like Hallmark stories: You know exactly what you’re gonna get.
For the most part, these movies touch just a little on faith; they’ll show someone overcoming a personal problem or sometimes multiple issues on the field; and whether they win the big game or not (though they usually do), viewers can be sure that feel-good lessons will be learned along the way.
To be sure, all of that happens in The Senior. But sometimes, it can be nice to watch one such movie—especially when it’s based on a true story.
The Senior recounts Mike Flynt’s story of returning to the football field as a 59-year-old man. It also notes how that experience shaped the ways he subsequently overcame other regrets in his life. And the story encourages us to think about how we might address our own failures, too.
Fortunately for a movie about regrets, viewers likely won’t experience many with this story: The worst hurdles viewers face here are a handful of light language issues and a few mild fistfights.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
