Diana Nyad was at her swimming peak in 1978. Perhaps the world’s foremost female marathon swimmer, the 28-year-old seemed to set world records wherever she dipped her toes in the water. In 1975, she’d swum around Manhattan Island—a distance of 28 miles—in less than eight hours, breaking a 45-year-old mark. Now, three years later, she was stronger, faster and ready to do something that no one had ever done before: swim from Cuba to Florida.
The distance? About 110 miles. The estimated time? About 60 hours. She’d swim in a cage towed by her support boat—a necessity in those shark-infested waters. Even so, most said the swim couldn’t be made. Even Nyad figured her chances were just 50-50.
After 42 hours, she was done. The strong winds and currents were pushing her away from Florida and toward Texas. Waves slammed into her with each stroke of her arms, each kick of her legs. Exhausted, Nyad was pulled from the water and promptly hospitalized.
That one defeat didn’t squelch her career or celebrity. She broke more records. She became an author, a motivational speaker and a television sports correspondent. For the next three decades, Diana made a nice life for herself, thanks.
But then she turns 60 and stumbles across a poem by Mary Oliver.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
A word, unbidden, comes in answer: Cuba. The swim she never finished.
Yeah, she’s 60. Sure, she hasn’t done much more than dog paddle in a few years. Granted, any 60-hour swim will come with vomiting and hallucinations and more pain than most people can imagine.
Her best friend, Bonnie, tells her that most experts “don’t believe Cuba to Florida is humanly possible. Especially for a woman. Especially for someone your age.”
But them’s fighting words for Diana (just as Bonnie knew they’d be). Tell Diana that she can’t do something? She’ll do it—or die trying.
Nyad is based on true events. And Diana Nyad’s determination—both in the movie and in real life—can’t be minimized. Her single-minded drive to complete this swim, despite all the obstacles she faces along the way, makes this an inspirational story.
But it’s only half of the story.
That single-minded drive makes Diana a hero, sure. But it also makes her a bit of a pill. Everything—in her mind, at least—is all about her. “Do you know how exhausting you can be as a friend?” Bonnie tells her.
And yet, several people, including Bonnie, brave Diana’s self-centered maelstrom to help her reach her goal.
Bonnie is the first to join, in fact—taking her habitual place at Diana’s side. She knows nothing about coaching a swimmer, and yet she agrees to coach, throwing herself into the job with gusto. When Diana rubs other team members the wrong way, it’s Bonnie, more often than not, who heals the rifts.
And when Diana plunges into the waters between Cuba and Florida, swimming for hours and even days on end, Bonnie’s still at her side—feeding her, monitoring her pace and cheering her on. Nyad isn’t just about its centerpiece character: It’s about a friendship that weathers its own share of stormy seas.
Other team members rally around Diana’s dream as well. Crusty navigator John Bartlett butts heads with her plenty, but he acknowledges that being a part of such a team—pulling, as he says, for the same goal—is a thrill that’s hard to duplicate. Others, from shark expert Luke Tipple to jellyfish guru Dr. Angel Yanagihara, do what they can to keep Diana alive and safe in hostile waters. Most, it seems, are volunteering their time for Diana’s swim.
Diana’s last name, Nyad, is also the name for a water nymph in Greek mythology. Aris Nyad, Diana’s adoptive father of Greek heritage, makes sure that Diana never forgets the meaning of her name. He also calls Cuba a land of magic.
Diana and Bonnie’s relationship is purely platonic. But both are lesbians, and Diana admits that the two dated for “about a second 200 years ago.” At Diana’s birthday party, Bonnie encourages Diana to talk with a younger woman who allegedly has an image of Diana tattooed on her rear. And while Diana does strike up a conversation, she undercuts any further relationship by talking solely about herself.
Later that night, Diana says that she doesn’t feel like she needs to date anyone—seemingly shoving that part of her life aside. (Bonnie also seems uninterested in romance.) In a flashback, a teenage Diana and a fellow swimmer clasp hands underwater and draw close. It’s an innocent gesture in context, but one seemingly designed to suggest Diana’s first attractions toward people of the same sex.
Naturally, Diana’s sexuality makes her something of a hero to the LGBT community, and we see plenty of support from that community along the beaches, with gay pride flags mingling with signs of support.
During the credits, we see a picture of the real Diana Nyad naked from the rear—a picture, it seems, less designed to titillate and more to show off the 60-something-year-old’s extreme tan lines. On the boat, Bonnie’s often wears a sports bra, revealing both cleavage and midriff. And, of course, we see plenty of modest swimsuits donned by men, women and girls.
We see several flashbacks to Diana’s teen years when she was a promising swimming prodigy. She seems to have a crush on her coach, Jack Nelson. During a meeting with her, he spies his name on her notebook—a heart drawn around it and a cupid-arrow going through.
That innocent schoolgirl crush takes a dark, disturbing turn after an important meet, when Coach Nelson assaults Diana when she’s lying down in a bedroom for a nap. In the most graphic scene, the 14-year-old’s body (completely clothed) rocks on the bed during the assault. Elsewhere, she leaves the coach’s office, and a fellow swimmer knowingly tries to fix Diana’s mussed shirt. (The other swimmer seems nervous about her own private chat with the coach, as well.) Diana jumps into a pool, fully clothed, and screams underwater because of the abuse.
And as an adult, the scars have clearly not healed. She confesses to Bonnie that she hates “all that victim s—,” but those instances of abuse come back to her during the dark moments in her long swims.
Those harsh memories aren’t the only dangerous thing she endures in the water. A box jellyfish stings both Diana and a medic during one of Diana’s Cuba attempts. (Diana sports a huge, whip-like welt on her face for the remainder of the attempt, and both Diana and the medic require urgent medical attention.) On her next attempt, Diana’s forced to don a protective suit and mask: If she’s stung again, a doctor tells her, she’ll likely die. And the doctor talks about someone who accidentally swallowed a jellyfish (and, of course, died). We hear of other jellyfish attacks elsewhere.
We’re told that the waters between Cuba and Florida are also home to some 57 species of sharks. And while a young Diana Nyad swam in a shark cage for her 1978 attempt, she eschews the cage in her 60s. Instead, Diana’s protected by a sort of electrical forcefield: Sharks are very sensitive to electricity, and Diana’s team uses a field of electrical pulses to repel the biters. The plan seems to work, which is good: The only other weapons the team wields against sharks are poles with tennis balls on the tips.
A flashback shows Diana’s adoptive father striking her mother. (We hear that Aris bullied both of them.) The possibility that Diana might die during her swim is referenced a few times. She and Bonnie painfully daub Vaseline on the bloody blisters on her neck and back.
One f-word and more than 20 s-words. We also hear “b–ch,” “d–n,” “h—” an “p-ssed.” God’s name is misused seven times (once with the word “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused thrice.
People drink wine and beer. There’s a reference to smoking a joint. In order to quell a headache during a swim, Diana takes a couple of pills handed to her by her medic. Alas, those pills were Ibuprofen—a drug that Diana’s allergic to.
Ridiculously long swims come with plenty of issues, including pain, hallucinations and vomiting.
We see Diana throw up repeatedly in a toilet. In real-world clips, footage records Diana Nyad tossing her cookies into the ocean. Vomiting is referenced several times.
We’re also told that Bonnie—in a sign of her dedication to Diana’s swim—urinates over the side of the boat instead of heading to the ship’s bathroom. Diana, speaking to a group of kids, alludes to the inability to go to a bathroom during the swim: She has to do all of her necessary business while swimming. And when one child asks how she accomplishes that, Diana says that she’ll get to that later.
The story we’re spoonfed in Nyad is inspirational, no question—even if the real story behind it comes with a few questions of its own. No governing body has ratified Nyad’s Cuba-to-Florida swim (with some speculating that she had help getting into her jellyfish-proof suit). And the movie itself even acknowledges the swimmer’s healthy ego and inclination to selfishness.
Naturally, most any film “based on a true story” will take certain liberties with history, carrying its viewers toward its intended conclusion as reliably as an ocean current might pull along a swimmer. But there are other issues to consider, too, before diving into this story.
Nyad openly acknowledges Diana’s same-sex preference, which will likely make it a no-go for many families. The language paddles right up to an R-rating without crossing into it. A nude photo of the swimmer during the end credits may pull the movie eve further down into the brine.
Nyad comes with those concerns and problems firmly in play. But it also inspires.
Helmed by two A-list actors (Annette Bening and two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster) working with a multilayered, upbeat script, Nyad stresses three important qualities: one, the importance of big dreams and audacious goals; two, the necessity of working like crazy to reach them; and three, the requisite value of a team to come alongside you in pursuit of such audacious goals.
I’ve never done any long-distance swimming. But I’ve done my share of long-distance running, and I understand just a bit of the dedication it might take. A slow-ish marathoner like me might spend months training for a four-hour run, dealing with pain and boredom and blisters. Nyad’s swim was the culmination of years of work. And four hours? Try 53. That’s right, two full days plus another five hours. No sleep. Your meals served through a straw. Your limbs constantly moving, your back blistering from the sun.
And then think about doing it all in your 60s.
Nyad has some issues to navigate. And the film’s focal point is no Christian hero. But Diana can still teach us plenty.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
