Cult classic cheerleader flick Bring It On premiered in theaters 15 years ago today and spawned a generation of fans who fell in love with spirit fingers.
The success of the first film, which starred Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union, Eliza Dushku and Jesse Bradford, resulted in four more straight-to-DVD cheerleader films, including Bring It On Again, Bring It On: All or Nothing, Bring It On: In It To Win It, and Bring It On: Fight to the Finish.
To celebrate today’s Cheeraversary, we’re looking at 15 cheertastic facts about Bring It On. Cheers!
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1. Before playing cheerleaders on Heroes, Hayden Panettiere and Danielle Savre played cheerleaders in All Or Nothing in 2006. Francia Raisa, who also starred in All Or Nothing, also played a cheerleader again in Fired Up!.
2. The girl group Blaque played Clover cheerleaders in the original Bring It On.
3. Jessica Bendinger, who wrote the original Bring It Own, also worked as a writer for Sex And The City.
4. The Bring It On franchise is full of people saving the world. Michael Copon (In It To Win It) and Brittany Anne Pirtle (Fight To The Finish) both starred as Power Rangers.
5. Not Another Teen Film and Fired Up! both reference Bring It On. “Spirit fingers” has even made it to Urban Dictionary.
6. The Bring It On series has included Rihanna, Giuliana Rancic, and Ashley Tisdale starring as themselves.
7. Eliza Dushku and Clare Kramer starred in Buffy The Vampire Slayer together, with Dushku’s Missy even calling another squad “a bunch of Buffys.”
8. Director Peyton Reed’s first feature film was Bring It On, with Ant-Man acting as his most recent release. We totally knew Paul Rudd was showing off some tiny spirit fingers.
9. Many of the stunts performed in Bring It On, as well as the uniforms that show cheerleader’s midriffs, are not allowed at the high school level in the U.S.
10. Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union (Bring It On) and Bethany Joy Galeotti (Bring It On Again) were all cheerleaders in high school.
11. Jennifer Tisdale, older sister of High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale, stars in In It To Win It. Ashley Tisdale later went on to play a cheerleader in the series Hellcats.
12. Bring It On made it all the way to Broadway when it was turned into a musical in 2011, earning two Tony nominations.
13. Before playing a teenager on MTV’s Teen Wolf, Holland Roden starred opposite Christina Milian in Fight To The Finish.
14. Milian isn’t the only pop singer to star in a Bring It On film. Beyonce’s little sis Solange was cast as the lead for All Or Nothing.
15. Pretty Little Liars star Ashley Benson and Christina Milian starred in different Bring It On films, but they later worked together on the film Christmas Cupid.
