Million Dollar Baby
Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), an amateur who aspires to become a successful boxer, leaves her Missouri town in the Ozarks for Los Angeles, and is reluctantly taken on by Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), a brilliant but down-and-out boxing trainer who has been cast aside by his colleagues and relatives, including his estranged daughter, Katy. Initially, Dunn's attitude towards Maggie is indifferent, because she is female and already 32 years old. Maggie, however, perseveres in her attempts to win Dunn's favor by training each day in his gym, even when others discourage her. Frank's friend and employee, ex-boxer Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman) narrates the story in non-dialogue scenes.
Dunn writes to his estranged daughter every week but receives no replies. Dunn's priest cannot fathom why Katy would not respond and doubts Dunn's claims that he writes to her. Dunn, lacking a close relationship with his daughter, establishes a strong one with Maggie, whose own family cares little for her well-being. When Maggie buys her mother a house, she is not grateful and hounds Maggie for putting the welfare scam she and Maggie's sister are running at risk.
With Dunn's help, Maggie fights her way up to the women's welterweight boxing division, and eventually ranks high enough for a match in Las Vegas against the WBA women's welterweight champion, Billie the Blue Bear (played by real life boxer Lucia Rijker), a former German prostitute who is known to get away with committing fouls. During the match it looks like Maggie has the game in her hands, however, an illegal attack by Billie causes Maggie to hit her head and neck on her corner stool, which the frantic Dunn is unable to move out of the way in time. As a result, Maggie is paralyzed from the neck down, and Billie retains the championship with no police charge. Dunn initially blames Scrap for convincing him to train her, but in the end blames himself for having worked with her against his better judgment.
In a medical rehabilitation facility, Maggie hopes that her family will visit her, though Dunn repeatedly calls them with no success. Eventually, the family arrives—after first visiting Disneyland, with an attorney in tow, to arrange the transfer of Maggie's assets to them. Maggie reveals that she retained the title to the house she gave her family and gives them a choice: leave and never contact her again, or Maggie will sell the house and leave them homeless. Her defeated family leaves and does not return.
Maggie asks Dunn to be relieved of her suffering and help her die. Dunn refuses, but does speak with his priest, who objects to the idea of euthanasia, sympathetically but firmly saying that it is murder. Maggie then attempts suicide by biting her tongue multiple times in an attempt to choke to death on her own blood. Though hospital staff prevent further suicide attempts, Dunn decides that Maggie's suffering should not continue, and he injects her with an overdose of adrenaline.
Just before administering the injection, Dunn finally tells Maggie the meaning of the nickname by which he has called her; the phrase, Mo Cuishle, which he says is Irish for "My darling, my blood". Afterwards, as Scrap explains, Dunn disappears. Scrap's narration is revealed to be a letter to Dunn's daughter, Katy, informing her of her father's true character.
