Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
2004 film by Rawson Marshall Thurber
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (stylized as DodgeBall: a TRUE underdog story) is a 2004 sports comedy film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, in his directorial debut, and starring Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, and Rip Torn. The film follows a group of unlikely misfits who enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament, needing the prize money to save their cherished gym from being taken over by a corporate health fitness chain.
Theatrically released by 20th Century Fox on June 18, 2004, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $168.4 million on a $20 million budget.
As of 2023, a sequel was in development.
Plot
Peter LaFleur is the owner of Average Joe's, a small, dilapidated and understaffed gym. When he defaults on the gym's mortgage, his cocky and vindictive business rival White Goodman, who owns the high-end Globo Gym across the street, purchases it. Unless Peter can raise $50,000 in 30 days, Goodman will foreclose on and demolish Average Joe's to build a new auxiliary parking structure for his members. Goodman attempts to seduce attorney Kate Veatch, who is handling his account; disgusted, she cites conflict of interest (COI) to rebuff his disturbing advances.
Peter, gym employees Dwight Baumgarten and Owen Dittman, and members Steve "The Pirate" Cowan, Justin Redman and Gordon Pibb, all decide to raise the required money. After an impromptu car wash suggested by Owen fails, Gordon suggests entering a dodgeball tournament in Las Vegas with a $50,000 grand prize.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” is 2004 film by Rawson Marshall Thurber. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dodgeball, True and Underdog, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q908473. The first chronological checks are 2004 and 2023.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.