Cameron Cade gets a second chance at salvaging his football superstardom by training with fellow QB and G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time), Isaiah White. But Isaiah uses psychological manipulation and torture to get the “best” out of Cam. Dark and disturbing spirituality, gruesome violence, sexual content, nudity and foul language permeate this football horror flick that families will want to avoid.
Cameron Cade is Him.
Or, at least, he was.
The talented college quarterback was touted as pro football’s next superstar. Some believed that, considering Cam’s natural talent, he could even claim the title of gridiron G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) someday.
All he had to do was show out at the pre-draft combine, and the gates to football’s highest reaches would be opened to him.
But that was before he was attacked by a crazed, masked fan. The assailant left Cam with a head full of stitches and a traumatic brain injury. A doctor warns that another head injury like that could bring Cam’s football career to a premature end.
Cam can’t perform at the combine. His draft stock evaporates. Teams are scared off by his injury, and understandably so. In football, head trauma is an occupational hazard.
Everything Cam worked so hard for is falling apart.
Until he gets a call from Isaiah White, that is.
Isaiah White is Him, too. He’s played 20 years in the pros and has almost as many championship rings as he has fingers. Cam might become the G.O.A.T. of the future, but right now, Isaiah is the G.O.A.T.
And Isaiah is offering Cam an opportunity to train with him. If Cam performs well, he’s sure to make it to the pros.
Not only that, but rumor has it that Isaiah’s illustrious career might be winding down. If so, Isaiah’s team, the San Antonio Saviors, will need a new quarterback. Might Cam be the next man up?
So, Cam heads off to Isaiah’s compound to train with his idol.
But it’s not what he expected. The training regimen is less “how to make the right pre-snap reads,” and more of a cross between psychological manipulation and those ESPN “Jacked Up” segments from the early 2000s. Still, Cam is determined to stick it out. Isaiah is the G.O.A.T., after all. The man’s methods obviously work.
Cam tells his new mentor that he’s willing to sacrifice to be the best.
But as things take a darker turn, Cam might be surprised how much he must sacrifice, not just to be the best, but to simply make it out alive.
Cam’s mother and his girlfriend (though only briefly in the film) are both positive, supportive influences in his life. When Cam’s pro prospects are fading, his girlfriend tells him that there are other ways he can be great besides football.
A doctor says he originally got into his line of work to “help heal people.” And at one point, Cam tries to prevent someone from being injured.
During a quiet moment, Isaiah tells Cam, “Find your own way to greatness. Don’t be me, be better.” (It seems sincere, but given Isaiah’s penchant for psychological manipulation, it would be fair to question his motives.)
One of the prominent images being used to promote the movie Him is a shirtless, bloodied Cam in an outstretched, Christlike pose, holding a football in each hand. That gives you some sense of the themes behind this film—and with how much subtlety they’re delivered.
As mentioned, Isaiah’s team is called the San Antonio Saviors. He has a borderline cultish fan club who refer to him as the “Chosen One” and a “deity.” And Isaiah believes his own press, directly comparing himself to God and equating his quarterback play to “bring[ing] salvation to the people.”
Indeed, professional football is presented as something of an evolutionary step from the warlike, pagan religions of the past: The warriors of today (i.e., the players) are drafted and compete in a savage competition while the gods (i.e., the owners) preside over it all from luxury suites atop their corporate sponsored cathedrals full of ecstatic worshipers (i.e., the fans).
Several scenes have a dark spiritual tone, including perversions of Christian prayer and worship. A contract signing is reimagined as a Satanic ritual. Horned, demon-like figures appear. Blood rituals take place.
Isaiah mentions the phrase “God, family, football.” He shares that, for him, the order of priorities in that list are reversed, with football and family above God. He leads fellow players in a chant (“all the Saviors say amen”) while dancing around an injured individual.
Last Supper imagery is overtly used, with Cam positioned in the place of Christ. One character offers another a Faustian bargain.
The film is stuffed with religious language and imagery, both Christian and pagan (including occult symbols). We see a few crucifixes, including one Cam wears around his neck. Symbols from Freemasonry and Satanism are seen. Football paraphernalia is arranged to form a makeshift altar.
Someone misquotes Scripture. Blood is referred to as a “gift from the gods.” A man says a person’s blood would be considered holy by many religions. One character’s emergence from a tunnel, which includes a stone that has been rolled aside, could be read as an allusion to Christ exiting the tomb after his resurrection.
Cam’s mother says his deceased father is “here in spirit.” She speaks about her church group and prayer.
A few bacchanal scenes involve men and women dancing suggestively in various states of undress, and one of these moments includes breast nudity. A superfan propositions Isaiah for sex. Someone imitates a sexual act with a handgun.
Cam is often shirtless; in one instance, he is told to remove all his clothes for a physical exam; he reluctantly does so, and there is a glimpse of his bare backside.
A woman promotes a sexual stimulant. Pornographic websites are mentioned. Nude statues are seen. Cam and his girlfriend kiss.
Him is billed as psychological horror, and much of the film’s tension comes from Cam’s disturbing encounters (real or imagined) in Isaiah’s compound. But the film isn’t content to stay in that space—there’s plenty of physical violence depicted here, too. And boy, does it get bloody.
One scene devolves into a full-blown massacre, with a character killing at least six people. Characters are slashed, impaled or beheaded, accompanied by showers of blood. One person loses a hand, and we get a long look at the bloody stump. A woman accidentally stabs herself and bleeds profusely. A man begs for death before a demonic entity evidently causes him to explode. (We see a burst of dark blood.)
Two men fight to the death in a gladiatorial style brawl; someone’s arm is gruesomely broken, and we hear the bones crack. A football helmet is used to beat a person to death. Another man is decapitated, and his head is put on display. Someone murders a woman by smashing her head against a wall.
Characters shoot guns at a firing range. A mascot is placed on the range, and it appears there is a person inside that costume when someone shoots it.
Cam has disturbing hallucinations throughout the film. In one scene, a mascot murders him with a war pick. In another, a plastic bag is pulled over his head, causing him to suffocate.
Isaiah psychologically tortures Cam, ostensibly to mold him into a better quarterback. One instance involves a man being shot point blank in the face with a football passing machine when Cam makes a mistake while training. By the end of the session, the man is covered in blood, his nose broken, eye swollen and tooth dislodged.
Occasionally, the film will present its violent scenes in a way that looks like a stylized MRI scan, in order to show the internal damage being done by violence from football or otherwise. Through this lens, we see internal bleeding, brain damage and more.
As mentioned in the introduction, Cam is attacked and receives a head injury. Later, another crazed fan tries to kill him; he overpowers her and nearly strangles the woman. A powerful figure threatens to murder someone’s family. We hear that Cam’s dad died when he was young. (Later, we learn that he might have been murdered.) Cam’s stitches sometimes bleed. Stitches are removed and painfully replaced with new ones.
Isaiah suffered a gruesome leg injury earlier in his career (we briefly see it), and Cam’s dad forced him to watch it repeatedly as an example of “what real men do” to win.
A character is concussed and is shown in an unnatural “fencing” pose as a result. One man threatens another with a gun.
More than 70 f-words are used, along with 11 uses of the n-word. The s-word is used more than 20 times. Jesus’ name is abused twice, and there are five misuses of God’s name.
Additionally, characters utter “d—,” “h—,” “a–” and “b–ch.” Suggestive dialogue includes crude references to male and female anatomy. Other vulgarities are heard in the film’s soundtrack.
Someone uses a rude hand gesture.
An athlete engages in blood doping. Cam smokes marijuana. Partygoers drink alcohol. Someone consumes a drugged drink. A doctor distributes painkillers (and seems to abuse them himself). Toradol is referenced. We hear the phrase, “Back at it like a crack addict.”
Isaish tells Cam that when you “love something, it’s easy to sacrifice for it.” It’s clear he’s willing to sacrifice anything and everything to be the G.O.A.T. Later, though, he bemoans the fleeting nature of human glory. “What’s the use of it?” he says. “One day you have to give it all up.”
For his part, football is what helped Cam cope after his father died, saying, “The field was my safe place.”
Cam is Black, but very light-skinned, and Isaiah makes disparaging references to this characteristic on a few occasions.
A man vomits. There is talk of grooming a person, through manipulative actions, for a position.
What are you willing to sacrifice to be the best? Would you sell your soul for it?
Those turns of phrase are often used metaphorically, to emphasize a person’s (misplaced) desire for wealth or fame or power.
In Him, those questions are much more literal.
The film envisions professional football as the new American religion, a neo-paganism that revels in weekly bloodsport rituals and is propped up by an über-wealthy, demonically influenced, Illuminati-esque order.
Him sets up an intriguing commentary. Football is extremely popular in the United States: Nearly 40% of the country watched last year’s Super Bowl. The sport is perhaps the biggest piece of monoculture remaining in our country (at least, in terms of entertainment). As a fan, I can confirm the danger of obsessing too much over football.
And there is a particular fascination with the most important position on the football field: the quarterback. Isaiah tells Cam that “all the blame” and “all the glory” falls on his shoulders as quarterback. And it’s true.
But Him squanders the potential sharpness of its message in a muddled mess of gratuitous content. If the movie’s point was a football, it would be buried at the bottom of a pileup, lost amid a tangle of various ideas and content issues meant to shock or appear clever.
In the end, it’s confusing, and you only have a vague idea of where the football might be.
Add in gory, over-the-top violence, sexual content (including nudity) and vulgar language to an overload of dark spirituality, and you’ve got a film that wouldn’t even make the practice squad, much less be the star quarterback.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
