A Black cycling prodigy fights to be crowned the fastest man alive at the height of the Jim Crow era—only to discover that no amount of endurance can earn him the one thing he deserves and desires: equality.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1908, inside a smoke-choked French velodrome, an exhausted, almost mythic cyclist hurtles toward a finish line he seems unable—or unwilling—to see. The crowd roars as if witnessing not sport, but ritual. This is Marshall W. “Major” Taylor at the end of his journey—body broken, mind fractured, still riding.

Sixteen years earlier in Indianapolis, a teenage Major glides through crowded streets with uncanny grace, chasing a feeling he can barely articulate—a fleeting sense of freedom and transcendence found only on a bicycle. Discovered by opportunistic shop owner Tom Hay, Major is thrust into his first race against local favorite Walter Marmon, a privileged and openly racist rival who will shadow his life. Against all odds, Major wins. But even in victory, he glimpses a painful truth: no triumph can force a white world to see him as equal.

Enter Louis “Birdie” Munger, a sharp-eyed former racer turned promoter who recognizes Major’s rare talent—and its commercial potential. Birdie offers Major a path forward: dominate the sport so completely that recognition becomes unavoidable. But his philosophy comes with a cost—perfection, endurance, and total sacrifice.

As Major rises through the ranks, enduring brutal road races and escalating violence from competitors determined to see him fail, he becomes both a spectacle and a threat. In one harrowing endurance race, he is chased, assaulted, and nearly killed, yet refuses to quit—driven by the belief that suffering is the price of being seen.

At Madison Square Garden’s infamous six-day race, that belief is pushed to its breaking point. Amid a haze of stimulants, sleep deprivation, and engineered chaos, Major descends into a nightmarish psychological state—hallucinating lynchings, fire, and figures of terror closing in on him. Pushed back onto the track by Birdie’s handlers even as his mind unravels, Major rides beyond exhaustion, beyond reason—until he crosses the finish line and keeps going, unable to stop. The race doesn’t elevate him. It nearly destroys him.

In the aftermath, Major meets Daisy Morris, a sharp, self-possessed woman who challenges his worldview. Where Major believes in striving, Daisy believes in acceptance—warning him that no amount of achievement will ever earn true equality. Their relationship deepens, offering Major a glimpse of a life not defined by proving himself to others.

But Birdie doubles down. With dreams of Europe, wealth, and permanence, he pushes Major back into competition—chasing a future that promises everything and risks losing what matters most. As Major’s fame grows internationally, so too does his isolation at home, where governing bodies quietly exclude him and rivals—still backed by Marmon—seek to destroy him physically and professionally.

In the final movement, as the sport itself begins to evolve and leave cycling behind, Major enters one last defining race—not to win, not to prove himself, but to confront the belief that has driven him his entire life.

This time, he rides differently.

Not for the crowd.

Not for respect.

Not for validation.

But for himself.

As he crosses the finish, the result is irrelevant. The transformation is complete. Major no longer needs the world to see him—he sees himself.

Nearby, Birdie—who gambled everything on a future of profit and progress—finally confronts the cost of his ambition. Surrounded by the machinery of a new era, he realizes too late that in chasing something bigger, he failed to protect what was already extraordinary. As Major walks away, Birdie collapses in the infield, left behind by both the man he helped build and the future he bet on.

Major’s legacy, once nearly erased, endures—not in trophies or records, but in the act of continuing to ride when there was nothing left to prove.

MAJOR is a visceral, psychologically charged sports biopic that blends the emotional power and dignity of ALI, the mythic rise-and-fall storytelling of THE NATURAL, and the haunting, subjective horror of GET OUT. It reimagines the sports drama as something more immersive and unsettling—where competition becomes psychological warfare and the track becomes a stage for both triumph and terror.

With its singular protagonist, high-stakes set pieces (including the electrifying six-day race), and timely thematic resonance around identity, visibility, and systemic exclusion, MAJOR is positioned to break through as both a prestige awards contender and a commercially viable theatrical release. Its blend of elevated filmmaking, visceral spectacle, and cultural relevance places it squarely in the lane of recent breakout successes—offering the scale of a classic biopic with the edge and originality of modern auteur-driven cinema.

MAJOR