What Does the Spinning Football Mean in HIM? We Asked Justin Tipping to Explain

HIM spins the horror genre on its head with a story that tackles our collective obsession with professional football and the brutality that its players endure for our entertainment. And, because it exists in the Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw universe, there are moments in this movie that are up for wide interpretation and dissection. One of them happens very early on in the film when its protagonist Cam (Tyriq Withers) throws a football. The ball lands upright on the ground and spins continuously, causing Cam to stare at it in confusion until he’s struck on the head by someone in a costume. It’s the beginning of his twisted journey into the world of Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). 

What Does the Spinning Football Mean in HIM? Justin Tipping Weighs InMonkeypaw Productions

What is the significance of that football spinning in HIM? It is certainly not something that would normally happen in our world. We find out that Cam has gone through several head injuries, so it could’ve been spinning less time than what we witness onscreen. He increasingly becomes more of an unreliable narrator in the film, after all. Or, to quote OJ from Nope, maybe HIM’s spinning football is a sort of “bad miracle,” a phenomenal moment that is actually a harbinger for something disastrous. 

There’s also the possibility that it is a representation of the mental spiral that Cam will endure throughout the events of the film. Like the stitches in a football, Cam has staples in his head, an injury that causes the lines between reality and fantasy to blur. One thing is for sure: director Justin Tipping isn’t gonna tell you what to make of that scene. 

“I’m hoping it’s an open interpretation,” Tipping told Nerdist. “… I guess that’s another moment that’s very hard to calibrate tonally, but you’re in the Monkeypaw universe. So it walks the line of ‘this is just a bad miracle’ or ‘something else is at play.’” 

So, let the theories and analysis commence. Justin Tipping can’t wait to hear your thoughts about HIM and the spinning football conundrum.

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