Dude Perfect: The Hero Tour showcases trick-shotting group Dude Perfect as the group’s members compete in three live-event competitions (and a few other games) to crown the “Hero Tour Battle Champion.” The Christian quintet boldly shares their faith to the audience amidst the fun. Though a couple gags come across as bathroom humor, the movie stays quite family friendly.
For 16 years, Dude Perfect, a YouTube channel made up of Tyler Toney, Cody Jones, Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton and Garrett Hilbert, has provided family-friendly fun for viewers. Many of the group’s 65 million subscribers follow them for their impressive trick shots: the world’s highest basketball shot, the trick-shotting competitions, even the water-bottle flips.
The group’s fame is such that they decided to go on tour—the Hero Tour, to be specific. Dude Perfecttraveled across the country, entertaining live audiences with another trick-shotting competition. And this one will crown one Dude the Hero Tour Battle Champion.
Over the course of each event’s competition, they play elimination-style trick-shotting games to determine which Dude will win. They’ll also bring out several of their other well-known bits, too: Wheel Unfortunate, the Rage Monster, Cool or Not Cool, and Cake or Not all make appearances.
Dude Perfect: The Hero Tour allows moviegoers to live (or relive) that experience. The film also provides ample behind-the-scenes moments that add to the overall narrative here, too.
And, sure, we can’t guarantee that one of the Dudes will walk down your movie aisle, as they did at the live events. But, as we’re told at the start of the movie, audience participation—dancing, shouting out answers and cheering—is encouraged at this viewing.
Dude Perfect: The Hero Tour provides behind-the-scenes content that adds just enough additional substance to make the movie feel like more than just a recording of the Dudes’ tour. And their encouragement for moviegoers to actively participate adds another element of unique moviegoing fun.
Notably, the Dudes appear throughout the audience during their tour. One game even stars them chucking Vortex footballs from the nosebleed seats. While live events by other entertainers can easily feel as if only the highest-paying front-seaters get to see their favorite celebrities up close, the Dudes’ constant movement through the stadium provides additional joy for fans—especially kids—who are present.
In one scene, the Dudes surprise a mother and her child via a special reunion with the family’s husband and father, an active service member whom they believed was deployed elsewhere. The show takes a moment to thank soldiers for their service.
And even after 16 years, it’s evident that the Dudes continue to have a lot of love and support for one another. Additionally, they radiate positivity, and the guys make time to intentionally interact with their audience.
The Dudes pray backstage before the event starts, thanking the Lord for allowing them to do what they do. And at the end of the event, they discuss why their Christian faith is so important to them, and they credit their platform to Jesus:
“I know that there’s kids in this audience that probably look up to one of these guys on this stage,” Tyler says. “And my only ask would be that anything that you admire about us, we hope that you also recognize that we are five imperfect humans who adamantly admit our need for a Savior, and that’s Jesus. And what we have found in Him and the way that He’s changed each of our lives.”
Tyler also encourages Christian families that God has them where they are for a reason; after all, if God can use their basketball shots to make an impact for the kingdom, then He can use their circumstances, too. Cory also prays encouragement for believers and that unbelievers would come to know and love God, too.
The tour video ends with Forrest Frank’s song “CELEBRATION.”
Tyler hands out Golden Boy trophies to the audience. As he offers one to a girl, he asks, “Are you going to worship this golden idol?” And when she enthusiastically yells, “yes,” Tyler responds, “No, no, no, you can’t worship it; you can only cherish it!”
In one gag, the Dudes show off a box that “transforms” a body part into food. Cody jokes that he got Tyler’s backside while he was sleeping, revealing a rear-end-shaped slice of turkey.
We see Tyler shirtless at one point. And when he takes off an overcoat, the crowd cheers, causing Tyler to smirk and say, “Hey, easy, moms.”
Audiences get to see Tyler’s character, the “Rage Monster,” in action. He destroys a car, damages a home and breaks an above-ground pool open (all meant in good fun).
None.
None.
We see a couple of unfortunate punishments as a result of Dude Perfect’s “Wheel Unfortunate,” including a flashback punishment that involved drinking milk shot straight from a cow’s udder. In the live show, a girl licks a hamster.
When Tyler jokes that someone else “rips on the bus,” we hear a flatulence sound effect. Tyler, in disguise, pinches another Dude on the rear as he passes by.
Dude Perfect’s Hero Tour is the exact thing any fan of this group would want to attend if possible.
But parents know plenty of things can make attending difficult: You live too far from one of the cities in which they’re hosting the event; tickets just cost a little too much; all the good seats are already gone (if the venue isn’t already sold out).
But for fans who missed out, Dude Perfect: The Hero Tour might be an answer to those problems. In fact, the movie comes with plenty of backstage scenes that’ll provide something extra for viewers they wouldn’t have gotten at the event itself.
YouTube can be a difficult sea to navigate; where one channel generates content issues that threaten to scuttle the ship, another channel comes with clear waters and smooth sailing. As a whole, Dude Perfect is perhaps one of the best known in that latter category.
Their movie is no exception. In it, these five Christian dudes offer an experience that is both fun and relatively safe for kids. And, at the end of their time, they point straight back to their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.
Sure, the whole event may be based around a group who makes difficult trick shots. But for audiences, those positives may very well be a sure slam dunk.
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.”
