Carl Gilliard

Controversial basketball coach Ken Carter puts school before sports and benches his undefeated high school team for poor academic performance.

Based on an incredible true story, Coach Carter is the inspirational account of controversial basketball coach Ken Carter (Academy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson), who received both high praise and staunch criticism when he made national news for a gymnasium "lockout" of his entire undefeated team for poor academic performance. With the players, the parents, and the community rallying to get the team back on the court, Carter must overcome the obstacles of his environment and show the young men a future that stretches beyond gangs, drugs, prison and even basketball.

Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is a young woman with more than her share of anxieties about flying. However, when circumstances demand she go to Miami, she gathers her nerves and books a seat on a late-night flight. Sitting next to her is a handsome and charming man named Jackson (Cillian Murphy), whom she already met in the airport, but once their jet is safely in the air, Lisa discovers he's not the pleasant traveling companion she imagined. Jackson is part of a terrorist cell plotting to kill the head of Homeland Security, and he's decided to draft Lisa into helping him. While Lisa has no interest in abetting Jackson's plan, he soon reveals he's holding a trump card — his compatriots are holding Lisa's father hostage, and will kill him if she doesn't cooperate.

Samuel L. Jackson plays the controversial high school basketball coach who benched his undefeated team due to their collective poor academic record in 1999.