A possibly unanswerable question: would a news-breaker ruin this tape-delayed game in 2020 by announcing "USA wins 4-3"? (ASR "Woge"/"Walsh").
A top five Russell movies list is deferred to Probably Unanswerable Questions.
A Ralph Cox sequel would be watched, perhaps as season two where he becomes super successful.
Asked where this ranks, one list is hedged as "six or seven, maybe five": Escape from New York one, The Thing two, Tombstone three, Tango & Cash four, Miracle five; Big Trouble in Little China is loved less by one host than the other.
Russell is also really good in Silkwood and great in Death Proof and The Hateful Eight; a "Silkwood shower" line once made the other host laugh hard.
Is this the greatest motivational speech in sports movie history? It was forgotten for Apex Mountain; top three are this, Friday Night Lights and Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, with Pacino first.
The chef's Pele story in Vision Quest must be mentioned; Friday Night Lights is good but Pacino is still the apex; Vanderbeek at halftime in Varsity Blues is a good bad one.
The through-line: coaches say nothing matters more than winning, then say they will love the players anyway, like Hackman in Hoosiers.

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:27:04Read transcript

Ebert gave the movie two stars.
The speaker was still disappointed in the score, thought it was at least a two and a half, and notes Ebert was not a hockey guy.
Ebert wrote that Miracle is a sports movie more about the coach and the team, and that is a miracle too.
Ebert has some thoughts on the wife; the speaker clarifies it is the wife character itself, not Ebert's thoughts, that is saved for the aged-worst discussion.

Casting What-Ifs

No casting what-if selection

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:54:09Read transcript

O'Connor was focused on Kurt Russell the whole time, so there was no casting what-if.
Buzz Schneider is played by his son Billy, which they did not realize until after casting; 4,000 people auditioned for the 20 roles, all real hockey players.
The actor who played O.C., Michael Mantonuto, got into a fight at tryouts, apologized, and O'Connor cast him because he was the first to drop the gloves.
Gavin O'Connor has a cameo draping the flag on Jim Craig; a director should try to appear in his own movie like Scorsese in Taxi Driver.

Recasting Couch

Ryan Gosling; Taylor Kitsch as McClanahan

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 00:57:47Read transcript

The 2004-era actor class is floated to add to the roster; Josh Hartnett is a little old.
Get Gosling in here: he could have played somebody and would have learned to skate.
Paul Dano and Josh Hartnett are also listed, along with the two Riggins, Taylor Kitch and Garrett Headland.
Taylor Kitch, from Canada and basically a hockey player, should have been in it; not as O.C., but maybe as McClanahan.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Russell's pay cut for extras' meals; Russell playing left-handed; the Vancouver arena shared with Rocky IV; other Dream On uses; Michael Mantenuto's later life; Jim Craig's 39 saves; Jim Craig's DUI

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 00:58:47Read transcript

Russell took a pay cut so the 800 to 1,000 extras playing fans could get a full hot meal instead of a brown-bag lunch.
Russell, right-handed, used his left hand in the movie; Herb Brooks was a lefty.
The Soviet game was filmed in Vancouver at the P&E Agrodome, which also hosted the Rocky-Drago fight for Rocky 4, the Cold War sports mecca.
Dream On has also appeared in a live orchestrated Last Action Hero, The Virgin Suicides, Cold Case episode 49 and Glee.
Michael Mantonuto, who played O.C., left acting, joined the Army, served with the Green Berets, came home and died by suicide; he was good enough to have been an actor.
Jim Craig really did stop 39 shots, 39 to 16 in shots, and the movie seems to show all of them.
Jim Craig had a DUI in the 80s that the speaker thinks was a manslaughter; he has rebuilt to some degree.

Picking Nits

Soviet coach benching Tretiak; undersized Lake Placid crowd; skipped Finland game and podium; missing "take this to your graves" speech; runtime

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:05:30Read transcript

The Soviet coach benching Trediak is like Mahomes throwing a first-quarter pick in a playoff game and being benched for Chad Henne for the rest of the game, but in the Super Bowl; they panicked because no one had ever hit them with a haymaker.
The small, packed 8,500-seat Lake Placid crowd is not captured: the 800 to 1,000 extras are shoehorned into close-ups, and some wear 2004 outfits.
Al Michaels noting the most expensive face-value ticket was $67 is an inflation aside.
The movie skips the Finland game and Eruzione calling everyone onto the podium, and Brooks' between-periods line that losing it would go with them to their graves.
At two hours 17 minutes it is too long, like many Disney sports movies; cut the wife rather than the Finland material, though ending with the Russia game is the right move.

Producer review

Up there among sports movies

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:15:47Read transcript

The invited producer was not alive for the 1980 game, was 10 when the movie came out, and has seen it a couple of times.
The floor for sports movies is really high, and with a story this good the movie is really up there among sports movies.
Remember the Titans remains the favorite, with the Will Patton speech.
The filming of the real hits into the boards is unbelievable, raising how it was planned; the reply is that liberties were few, such as a slashing penalty.
The Joey Pants award needs a younger-generation version, since picks like Noah Emmerich are that guys to people in their 20s and 30s; it is called a really fair point.