These spirited New Yorkers push way beyond their perceived limits in an inspiring documentary

Quad Gods, a follows the lives of three men with quadriplegia. Over the course of the film, we learn how they came to be wheelchair-bound. Everything from gunshots to a popped tire unexpectedly brought them to this place. But don’t count their future out.

 Blake, Prentice and Richard meet in a neuro-rehabilitation lab at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where they create the world’s first all-quadriplegic Esports team. It’s a video game competition that they are determined to win. These guys were athletes at various points in life, and they still have that mental determination to be the winner.

But I must hasten to add, that this is not a sports film-it’s better and deeper. They work, they raise kids, they go on dates, and the camera follows them throughout. Of course, they still have to fight against ableism-you’d be surprised how many Manhattan establishments seem to be lacking wheelchair access, but they make do, usually by rolling right past and onto something suitable.

One of the men can use his hands with some limitation, but the other guys are paralyzed from the neck down and must hone their video game skills using mouthpieces. It’s an amazing display of the human spirit.

I think you’ll like getting to know these guys and, yes, following the tournament they make it to. It is their own isolated world of athletic competition but, like all the other challenges, they never stop giving it their all.

Quad Gods is on HBO and will stream on Max.

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