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Morgan Freeman plays Eddie Dupris, a former boxer, and he narrates the story, which opens at a boxing event where Big Willie Little (Mike Colter) is getting pummeled in the ring. Between rounds, his trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) seals the cut and tells Willie to let himself get hit in the next round. Willie seems perplexed but allows his opponent to pound away at the cut area, and as the punches land, the sealant actually goes deeper into the cut and stops the bleeding completely. Willie recovers and knocks his opponent out. From the entrance aisle, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is watching intently and is pleased to see the victory. In the locker room afterwards, Maggie introduces herself to Frankie, saying she fought on the undercard and wondered if Frankie got a look at her fight. He didn't. Maggie cuts right to the chase and asks Frankie to become her trainer. He flatly refuses because he "doesn't train girls". Maggie retorts that she's pretty tough, but Frankie simply says, "Girlie, being tough ain't enough" and walks away.
The next day at Dunn's owned gym, the Hit Pit, Eddie (who works there and is Frankie's longtime friend) sees Willie arrive. Eddie stares as Willie says hello to everyone on his way to see Frankie. Eddie can sense something's up. Willie asks when Frankie will get him a title fight, but Frankie keeps saying he'll be ready after a couple more fights. Meanwhile, in the gym several prospective boxers include a skinny hillbilly kid named "Danger" Dan Barch (Jay Baruchel) and a loudmouth named Shawrelle Berry (Anthony Mackie). Dan proclaims repeatedly that he's ready to challenge Thomas "Hitman" Hearns for the welterweight title, apparently unaware that Hearns has been long-retired from the ring. After Willie leaves, Eddie meets with Frankie to tell him that Willie hasn't been seen meeting with promoter and trainer Mickey Mack (which infers that he actually has been), and then asks who the new girl is in the gym. Frankie goes to the window and sees Maggie wailing away on a heavy punching bag. Frankie heads down there and again turns down her request to train her. Later at night, however, Eddie is the last to leave. Or so he thinks, because Maggie's still there working out. Eddie gives her a little advice and also lends her a speed bag since she doesn't yet have one of her own.
The next day, Shawrelle starts joking about Maggie and her "little titties". Maggie doesn't even blink as she slams him right back, saying his last fight Shawrelle spent so much time on his stomach that she'd have thought the canvas had little titties. Everyone laughs except Shawrelle, who just tells everyone else to shut up. Frankie questions Eddie as to why he's encouraging Maggie, including lending her the speed bag. Eddie says he should give her a shot. Frankie still won't relent, but does decide she can keep the speed bag. Frankie says he thinks women boxing is a "freak show" but there are plenty of trainers out there who will gladly take her on. His biggest concern in regards to Maggie is that she's 31 years of age, which for boxers is considered a bit old.
That night, Frankie gets a visitor at his house. It's Willie. The conversation starts out pleasantly enough, but Willie says he wanted to let Frankie know personally out of respect that he's decided to sign with Mickey Mack because he needs to get his title fight. Frankie isn't happy about this, needless to say, and he's even angrier (although probably some of that is with himself) some days later when he watches Willie win his title fight on television with Mickey in his corner.
Maggie is again training in the gym on what turns out to be her 32nd birthday. Eddie is angry with Frankie for letting Willie slip through his hands, saying in trying to protect him, he protected himself right out of a title fight. He thinks Frankie should give Maggie a shot. Reluctantly and finally, Frankie tells Maggie he'll give her a few pointers until he can find her a manager, especially after Maggie shows frustration for the first time when talking about her family and that boxing is all she has. During the several weeks of training, Maggie and Frankie get to know each other a little bit better, including Frankie talking about his estranged daughter (he writes letters to her often, but they always get returned by her in the mail unopened). Finally, after some more time, Maggie thinks she's ready for a fight. Frankie asks Sal, who's at the gym, if he wants to take Maggie on as her manager. He says he might as well. Maggie is obviously disappointed but tries to make the most of it.
It does not go well at all. Maggie is getting pummeled by her opponent, and Sal pretty much just stands there. Between rounds, he gives her minimal advice as well. From the bleachers, Frankie is yelling at Maggie to protect herself. Eddie is next to him and says she can't hear him from up here. Frankie goes to the ring as another round ends and start coaching Maggie. Sal questions what's going on, as does the referee, and both Frankie and Maggie tell Sal to take a powder. Frankie also tells the referee that she's his fighter, which causes Maggie to smile. Frankie tells Maggie what she's doing wrong, and just seconds into the next round she knocks out her opponent. After the fight, Frankie tells her she wasn't protecting herself. Maggie answers saying he didn't protect her either because he gave her away to another manager. Frankie promises from now on, they're a team.
From there, Maggie is unstoppable. She works her way up the division and wins every fight with first-round knockouts, sometimes before Frankie has even fully removed the stool from the ring and put it down at ringside. It gets to where no one wants to fight her, so Frankie moves her up a division to welterweight. Her first welterweight fight is a little harder, including a broken nose that Frankie fixes up so the ref doesn't stop the fight, but he tells her she has about 20 seconds to knock out her foe before his repair wears off and she sprays blood into the first row. Maggie succeeds and wins again. Eddie is thrilled to see Frankie and Maggie successful, but dismayed upon learning that Frankie is turning down lucrative offers for Maggie to fight overseas. Eddie takes Maggie to a diner for her 33rd birthday, and also has Mickey Mack meet them there. Without actually saying so, Eddie encourages Maggie to go with Mickey if she wants to get a title shot. After Eddie leaves, Maggie goes up to Mickey and introduces herself, then says she's loyal to Frankie and exits the diner.
The loyalty pays off, because Frankie has, against his better judgment, set up a fight for Maggie in the UK against a top opponent. Before that fight, he presents her with a robe emblazoned with "Mo Cuishle", a Gaelic phrase that gets the British crowd solidly behind her, even chanting the nickname. Maggie wins the fight and continues her meteoric rise.
Back home, Maggie tells Frankie that she bought her mom Earline (Margo Martindale) a house. They head down to her hometown, and Maggie stops at a diner nearby where she says they have the best lemon meringue pie anywhere, which is Frankie's favorite. After that, they pick up her family to present her with the house, but Earline gets upset upon seeing it because now she'll lose her welfare checks and Medicaid. Earline, along with Maggie's sister (Riki Lindhome, AKA "Garfunkel" from Garfunkel & Oates), say Maggie should have just given them the cash instead. Maggie angrily gives Earline the keys and says if she wants the cash, sell the house. Earline relents somewhat, but is sure to also tell Maggie that the town is laughing at her for being a pro boxer.
At the gym, Eddie is fixing an overflowing toilet when he hears a commotion out in the boxing ring. Danger Dan is getting the snot beaten out of him by Shawrelle. Eddie gets into the middle of it and throws Shawrelle off, and then when Shawrelle comes at him, Eddie knocks him cold and tells him he's banished from the gym. Meanwhile, Dan runs off while no one's looking and isn't seen again.
Frankie arranges a major fight for Maggie in Las Vegas with a 50-50 split on a $1M purse. Maggie is fighting Billie The Blue Bear, the women's WBA welterweight champion, and a notoriously dirty fighter. Maggie spends the first round getting pummeled by both legal and illegal means, but starts to battle back in the second and third rounds thanks to Frankie's advice and her own natural talent. Billie gets frustrated after the third round, however, and hits Maggie with a cheap shot from behind after the bell rings. Frankie has already put the stool into the ring as Maggie gets hit and falls, and isn't able to remove it before Maggie lands on it sideways and neckfirst. Maggie is motionless in the ring as doctors check on her.
In the hospital, Frankie and Eddie learn that the injury is severe enough to where a recovery isn't possible. Frankie blames Eddie at first for convincing him to train her, but ultimately feels responsible himself. Frankie makes a lot of calls for alternate medical opinions, but all the doctors agree there is no hope of recovery. He does eventually move Maggie to a medical rehabilitation facility, and they learn that Maggie's family is coming to visit. Frankie tries for several days to call them at the hotel they checked in several days earlier, but never hears back. Finally one day, the family arrives decked out in Disneyland clothing, and with a lawyer. Their only concern is to arrange the transfer of Maggie's assets to them. Frankie objects, but Maggie tells him to leave since with all due respect, this isn't his concern. He does leave, and Maggie orders her family to leave and never show their faces again, threatening her mom with selling the house because her mom hasn't filled out the paperwork to claim it in her own name so she could continue to receive welfare payments.
Frankie is at Maggie's side every day. He reads her poems from William Butler Yeats and jokes around with her a lot, but over time Maggie's condition deteriorates more and more, including needing to have a leg amputated due to bedsores and infection. Frankie asks Maggie about returning to school and living with him, but Maggie instead asks Frankie to give her a mercy killing, saying she got what she most wanted out of life, and will never forget the cheers and chants during her fights. A horrified Frankie refuses, but that night Maggie bites her tongue repeatedly in an attempt to bleed to death and kill herself. The medical staff saves her, but Frankie decides he needs to do her this favor. He sneaks in one night and tells her what's about to happen. Maggie is smiling, but Frankie continues, finally explaining the nickname "Mo Chuisle". It means "my darling" and "my blood". Maggie became a second daughter to Frankie. Frankie injects a fatal dose of adrenaline and disconnects the breathing machine, and then Frankie leaves the hospital and disappears for good, according to Eddie's continuing narration, which is revealed to be a letter to Frankie's daughter, informing her of her father's true character. The film ends with Eddie now having taken over the gym, Danger Dan returning, and a final shot inside a diner near Maggie's hometown where a blurry but familiar figure is seen through the window eating lemon meringue pie.
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The feel-good film of the year? For the first 90 minutes, it could be. Then it makes you want to slit your wrists for the final 50 minutes. It's amazing how this movie is like two completely different ones, and it sure was a shock to a lot of people, because absolutely NONE of the advertising, trailers, etc. gave even the slightest hint to what was the ultimate direction of the story. That turned off some, but actually wound up OK with most, even if they too came out of the theater depressed as hell. Reviewers found themselves in a bit of a quandary because this was a case when even saying something along the lines of "Spoiler Alert!" would tip off that this film wasn't going to have a happy ending, and certainly wasn't going to end up like the trailer made it out to be, which was that this was the female Rocky Balboa.
Nonetheless, Million Dollar Baby was highly-decorated during awards season, including garnering 7 Oscar nominations. It did not win Best Film Editing (Joel Cox), Best Adapted Screenplay (Paul Haggis) and Best Lead Actor (Eastwood), but it brought home Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Freeman), Best Lead Actress (Swank, who won her second Oscar in two tries, and actually beat out Annette Bening in both cases...poor Annette), Best Director (Eastwood, who at 74 became the oldest person to win that award) and Best Picture. In winning the top prize, it bested The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray and Sideways. I think this movie is an incredible dichotomy, being so fun and engrossing up until Maggie is paralyzed. Then it just becomes agonizing to watch, and not at all fun. I mean, the closest thing I can say to this film having any sort of happy ending is that Danger Dan returned to the gym. Well, it was fun seeing Maggie tell her family to all go fuck themselves, but that's besides the point. Million Dollar Baby is a film that's hard to characterize. Inspiring at times, funny at times, torturously depressing at times. Personally, I'd have preferred Ray to have won Best Picture. I'd recommend watching the movie and turning it off after 90 minutes if you want to stay in a cheerful mood.
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