8 Things We Still Love About ‘Bring It On’ 26 Years Later
By Alexus Mosley
Twenty-six years ago today, Bring It On cartwheeled into theaters and gave us cheer rivalries, endlessly quotable one-liners, Y2K fashion and a finale we’d gladly sit through all over again. Released on August 25, 2000, the teen comedy became much bigger than your average high school movie, spawning an entire franchise and earning its place in the Y2K pop culture canon.
And somehow, 26 years later, we’re still ready. Okay? Okay.
The Opening Cheer
Photo Credit: Everett Collection
“I’m sexy, I’m cute…” You know the rest.
Few movies introduce themselves quite like Bring It On. That opening dream sequence immediately tells you exactly what kind of movie you’re watching: campy, colorful, and completely committed to the bit.
The Clovers
The East Compton Clovers weren’t about to let anyone steal their shine.
Led by Isis, the Clovers brought attitude, talent and some of the movie’s best cheer sequences. More importantly, the movie allowed them to be far more than Torrance’s competition. Their storyline forced the Toros to confront where their championship-winning routines actually came from.
Torrance Shipman
Kirsten Dunst gave us the quintessential early-2000s teen movie heroine.
Torrance is bubbly, ambitious, occasionally clueless, and just messy enough to be interesting. Watching her realize that becoming captain means inheriting a few problems she definitely didn’t sign up for remains half the fun.
The Y2K Cheer Fashion
Tiny skirts, crop tops, platform flip-flops, and low-rise everything.
Even when nobody is in uniform, Bring It On looks unmistakably like the year 2000. It’s basically a Y2K mood board with pom-poms.
Missy Pantone
Before Wednesday Addams made being the brooding outsider fashionable again, there was Missy.
Eliza Dushku’s tattooed, skeptical gymnast walks into Rancho Carne, takes one look at the Toros and immediately realizes something isn’t right. We love a girl with instincts.
The Completely Unnecessary but Absolutely Necessary Toothbrush Scene
Torrance and Cliff brushing their teeth in adjoining bathrooms should not be one of the most memorable romantic scenes of the early 2000s.
And yet…
Sometimes chemistry really is that simple.
The Cheers We Somehow Still Remember
“Brr, it’s cold in here!”
Twenty-six years later and Bring It On remains dangerously quotable. You might not remember what you ate for lunch three Tuesdays ago, but somewhere in your brain is valuable real estate permanently occupied by cheerleading chants from 2000.
That It Was Actually About Something
Underneath the pom-poms, comedy and teen romance, Bring It On had something to say.
The Toros discover that the routines responsible for their success were stolen from the Clovers, raising questions about appropriation, privilege, recognition, and what happens when one group gets rewarded for another group’s creativity.
And importantly, the movie doesn’t end by having the Toros swoop in and save the day. The Clovers get to compete on their own terms and win.
Twenty-six years later, there are plenty of reasons we’re still cheering for Bring It On.
But if we’re being completely truthful, hearing “Brr, it’s cold in here” was probably enough.