10 Movies That Completely Switched Genre Halfway Through

5. Million Dollar Baby

From Dusk Till Dawn Quentin Tarantino George Clooney Salma Hayek
Warner Bros. Pictures

The boxing drama has always been one of the sports movie's best sub-genres when handled correctly, but Million Dollar Baby upends the archetypal nature of the story on its head by making the pugilism one of the least important aspects of the narrative.

A lot of people would no doubt have been expecting a female-driven spin on the Rocky formula that would follow our determined heroine on a quest for redemption.

Instead, a nasty accident during a fight leaves Hilary Swank's Maggie Fitzgerald paralysed, and Million Dollar Baby morphs into a somber drama that reflects on uncomfortable ideas like euthanasia and mortality instead of relying on the genre's staples of training montages and improbable comebacks.

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