It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve watched the 24 Hours of Le Mans on TV; nothing prepares you for the real thing. Le Mans is a decent-sized city that literally shuts down every year to host one of the biggest motorsport celebrations in the world, and it does so with incredible fanfare. (And this is coming from an Indianapolis resident who is used to Indy 500 folklore.) If you’re lucky, you can appreciate this by attending the race in person. If that’s not in the cards, watching 2DIE4 is the next best thing.
The hour-long docufilm by Salomão and André Abdala, better known as the Abdala Brothers, tells the story of fellow Brazilian and Porsche Penske Motorsport racer Felipe Nasr as he tackles the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans. It follows one of the best endurance drivers of this generation (and a former F1 driver) as he prepares to race in the world’s biggest endurance race and dives into the rollercoaster of emotions that such an event brings. The joy, the excitement, and of course, the pain.
I was privy to an early preview during the Rolex 24 last month, and I found it masterfully produced. I’d say it’s one of the most captivating racing docufilms I’ve seen, and it’s worthy of praise—especially given the many constraints the young filmmakers faced in bringing it to life. The entire thing was shot by a crew of eight who had to deal with enormous restrictions from the ACO (Le Mans organizers) and the team, as well as logistical and budgetary constraints. Also, it’s the first IMAX film ever to be developed by an entirely Brazilian crew.
I found it not too complex or too racing-heavy to be difficult for casual fans to enjoy, but it didn’t lean on typical Hollywood tricks like overly hyped drama or tense dialogue to make it exciting. It’s natural, it’s smooth, and man, it features some truly kick-ass cinematography and music. Even if you don’t give a crap about racing cars, you should watch 2DIE4 for those two reasons alone.
I will keep the details to a minimum here so as not to spoil it for you, but there were several scenes involving racing in the dark and rain that were truly outstanding, and I caught up with Nasr after the preview to hear how he thinks those moments were conveyed on the big screen.
“I think racing at Le Mans, in the dark, and in the rain, and without [functioning] wipers [as was the case in 2024], shows the fine line between succeeding and failing,” Nasr told The Drive. “The scenes relayed how intense those moments are and how we must make the decision to keep going 100% and risk it all. I would never leave time on the table, so I never held back [even with the wiper issue], so I just made sure I was giving it everything I had.
“Like with all top athletes, there are moments of tremendous success, and there are failures too. This is captured on the screen,” Nasr added.
As for the friendly brothers, who quite literally put everything into this project, I applaud their honesty in filmmaking. My first impression, a few minutes into the film, was that they shot, directed, and edited it exactly as they wanted, without giving in to any outside noise. They produced what they thought was the best depiction of Nasr’s Le Mans journey, and the result was extraordinary. It’s no surprise they won the 2025 Motor Sports Film Awards.
“We like to say that it’s for motorsport fans by motorsports fans, but our goal was for it not to be boring,” they told The Drive. We very carefully set up the film so that if you’re a hardcore fan, you will understand every little bit of information you see. But if you’re not, it’s okay. You can take your mom to the movie, and she will understand what Le Mans and [Felipe’s] story is about.
“We also focused on the fact that, if you watch this 10 times, you’re gonna see different fractions of the film differently each time, like the more times you watch Interstellar, you’re like ‘Holy shit! that makes more sense now!’ Of course, I’m not comparing the two, but that was our goal,” they added.
2DIE4 launches in select theaters today, and if you’re into racing—or just incredible storytelling—I highly recommend you go see it. You can find more details here.
2DIE4 | Official Trailer | Experience It In IMAX®
Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com