大萧条时期,每个人都要守住一个梦想,以此来度过最黑暗的时光,生活失意的汽车制造商查尔斯•霍华德(杰夫•布里吉斯 Jeff Bridges 饰)也不例外。他买了一匹小个子赛马,名为“海饼干”,并笼络了一批同样有梦想的人,意图进入赛马圈。 第一个发现海饼干天赋的是训练师 汤姆•史密斯(克里斯•库珀 Chris Cooper 饰),他认为这匹马虽然个头矮小,腿脚也不太灵光,天性中却藏着十足的执拗和倔强,这有可能使其成为赛马圈的王者。他们找来前拳击冠军瑞德•波拉德(托比•马奎尔 Tobey Maguire饰)作为海饼干的骑师,三个人一匹马在共同的征程中重新找到了生活的方向。It's the Depression, and everyone needs to hold onto a dream to get them through the bad times. Car maker Charles Howard is no different, he who is trying to rebuild his life after the tragic death of his only child and the resulting end of his first marriage. With second wife Marcela at his side, Charles wants to get into horse racing and ends up with a team of underdogs who are also chasing their own dream. The first is trainer Tom Smith, who has a natural instinct to spot the capabilities of horses. The second is the horse Tom chooses for Charles, Seabiscuit, an unconventional choice as despite his pedigreed lineage, Seabiscuit is small at fifteen and a half hands tall with a slight limp. But Tom can see something in Seabiscuit's nature to make him a winner, if only Seabiscuit can be retrained from his inbred losing ways. And third is the jockey they decide to hire, Johnny "Red" Pollard, so nicknamed because of his hair color. Like Tom, Red has always shown a natural way with horses, but a difficult upbringing due solely to the Depression has made Red an angry young man, which has gotten him into trouble both on and off the track. And he is large for a jockey, and thus he always feels the need to battle the weight issue. Another common trait between Tom, Seabiscuit and Red is that they have been called crazy by those in traditional horse racing circles. Against the odds, Seabiscuit, with his human team behind him, does show his winning abilities and captures the imagination of all those others wanting to believe in a dream. But Seabiscuit's victories are at smaller races. As such, Charles aims high and wants Seabiscuit to race Triple Crown winner War Admiral, who by all accounts is a winner and should be a winner. If given the chance to race against War Admiral (whose owner doesn't want to race as he feels he has nothing to prove), will Seabiscuit and his team continue to keep the dreams of the common Americans alive? Through the good and the bad, especially as Red and Seabiscuit face mirroring problems, they all have to decide what is in their collective best interest.