Plot
In 1981, in San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his family's savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tries to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proves to be a white elephant which financially breaks the family and as a result, his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and moves to New York. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris meets a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short cab ride. This new relationship earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker, but he nearly turns it down when the position turns out to be unpaid. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a BART station. Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter primarily for single mothers and their children. Due to demand for the limited rooms, Chris must frantically race from his internship work early each afternoon in order to land a place in line. He also spends a night in jail after incurring a parking ticket on his boss's car. One of his costly bone scanners is stolen and damaged by a demented man, but Chris finally gets it back and repairs it. Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that maximizing his client contacts and profits is the only way to earn the one paid position that he and his 19 competitors are fighting for, Chris develops a number of ways to make phone sales calls more efficiently. He also reaches out to potential high value customers, defying protocol. One sympathetic prospect takes him and his son to a professional football game. Regardless of Chris's challenges, he never reveals his lowly circumstances to his co-workers, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five dollars for a cab, a sum he can barely afford.
Concluding his internship, Chris is called into a meeting with his managers. Despite arriving there unkempt and shabbily dressed due to an emergency, his struggle has paid off and he is offered the position. Fighting back tears, he rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him. They walk down the street, joking with each other and are passed by a man in a business suit (the real Chris Gardner in a cameo). The epilogue reveals that Chris went on to form his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm.
Cast
In 1981, in San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his family's savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tries to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proves to be a white elephant which financially breaks the family and as a result, his wife Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and moves to New York. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris meets a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik's Cube during a short cab ride. This new relationship earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker, but he nearly turns it down when the position turns out to be unpaid. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a BART station. Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter primarily for single mothers and their children. Due to demand for the limited rooms, Chris must frantically race from his internship work early each afternoon in order to land a place in line. He also spends a night in jail after incurring a parking ticket on his boss's car. One of his costly bone scanners is stolen and damaged by a demented man, but Chris finally gets it back and repairs it. Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that maximizing his client contacts and profits is the only way to earn the one paid position that he and his 19 competitors are fighting for, Chris develops a number of ways to make phone sales calls more efficiently. He also reaches out to potential high value customers, defying protocol. One sympathetic prospect takes him and his son to a professional football game. Regardless of Chris's challenges, he never reveals his lowly circumstances to his co-workers, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five dollars for a cab, a sum he can barely afford.
Concluding his internship, Chris is called into a meeting with his managers. Despite arriving there unkempt and shabbily dressed due to an emergency, his struggle has paid off and he is offered the position. Fighting back tears, he rushes to his son's daycare, hugging him. They walk down the street, joking with each other and are passed by a man in a business suit (the real Chris Gardner in a cameo). The epilogue reveals that Chris went on to form his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm.
Cast
- Will Smith as Chris Gardner
- Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner Jr. (as Jaden Christopher Syre Smith)
- Thandie Newton as Linda Gardner
- Brian Howe as Jay Twistle
- Dan Castellaneta as Alan Frakesh
- James Karen as Martin Frohm
- Kurt Fuller as Walter Ribbon
- Domenic Bove as Tim Ribbon
- Kevin West as World's Greatest Dad
- Takayo Fischer as Mrs. Chu