The Game Plan Inspired Dog Names

The Game Plan is a feel-good movie that gives the right amount of comedy and drama. Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a professional football player who is surprised to find out that he has a child from a former relationship. Aside from Johnson’s Joe Kingman and Madison Pettis’ Peyton Kelly, another character that made the viewers laugh and smile was the English Bulldog named Spike.

The movie starts during the fictitious American Football Federation’s last game for the regular season, where the Boston Rebels and New York Dukes are playing against each other. The game ends when Joe Kingman, the quarterback for the Rebels, runs the ball to the end zone for a touchdown, much to the dismay of his teammate, Trevor Sanders, who was wide open. The morning after, he finds 8-year-old Peyton Kelly at his doorstep. The girl informs Joe that he is her father and that her mother, Joe’s ex-wife Sara, sent her so that they could meet.

When Kingman’s agent, Stella Peck, finds out about the existence of a child, she thinks it will hurt Joe’s reputation. However, when Joe accidentally leaves his daughter in his restaurant’s opening and was bashed in the media, Peck decides that he should change his image and become a more fatherly figure to his daughter. During a press conference, Peyton defends Joe and says that she is the best father in the world, which helped fix his image. In exchange, she asks Joe to let her join a ballet academy owned by Monique Vasquez. Eventually, Joe and Peyton start getting along and he also befriends Vasquez.

One day while eating at a restaurant, Peyton accidentally reveals that her mother does not know she is with Kingman and that she was supposed to be in a ballet program during that time. Instead, she ran away and decided to visit him. This revelation upsets Joe but before he gets mad, Peyton suffers an allergic reaction to peanuts and had to be brought to the hospital. Karen, Peyton’s aunt and guardian, shows up at the hospital and tells Joe that Sara has passed. Meanwhile, Peyton overhears Peck saying that she was a distraction to Joe. Thus, she decides to go home with her aunt after getting out of the hospital.

Following that night, Spike, Joe’s dog who has also developed a bond with Peyton, discovers her bag filled with photos and a letter from Sara, which states how she kept Peyton a secret because she didn’t want Joe to be distracted from his career. In the championship game, Joe’s head wasn’t clear and was distracted the whole time. This caused him to sustain a minor injury during the first quarter of the game. Refusing to return to the game, Joe was shocked to see Peyton in the locker room and giving him a pep talk about not giving up. Motivated, he returns to the fourth quarter to play and makes a winning pass to Sanders, who catches the ball for a touchdown. The Rebels win the championship and Joe takes Peyton home with him.