Synopsis

Max Kane, a physically imposing teenager struggling with dyslexia, befriends Kevin Dillon, a brilliant boy with Morquio syndrome. Brought together through a school reading assignment, they become inseparable and imagine themselves as the legendary "Freak the Mighty." Their friendship gives both boys courage as they face bullying, family trauma, and the dangers surrounding Kevin's worsening condition.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is based on Rodman Philbrick's 1993 novel Freak the Mighty.

• The production originally intended to use the book's title, but Miramax changed it to The Mighty because executives considered "Freak" potentially offensive.

• Philbrick initially wrote a screenplay adaptation, but it was discarded because it followed the novel too closely. The finished screenplay was written by Charles Leavitt.

• Although the film is set in Cincinnati, much of it was filmed in Ontario, Canada, including locations at the University of Toronto at Mississauga.

• The Arthurian material used throughout the film is central to Kevin and Max's imaginative world. The on-screen book is identified as a 19th-century edition by James Thomas Knowles, while the passages heard in the film are paraphrased adaptations rather than direct readings from that volume.

• The theatrical trailer contains scenes that were removed from the finished film, including Max playing with one of Kevin's toys and Kevin receiving a computer at Christmas.

• The film's theme song, "The Mighty," performed by Sting, received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song and won the Las Vegas Film Critics Society award in that category.