Actor Chris Klein of "American Pie" fame, says he had to learn to skate for his part in Rollerball. "I had to learn how to inline skate, which I had only done in junior high school. It was a horribly humbling experience. People would ask me to do something that I was initially just physically incapable of doing. I trained with extreme skaters, guys younger than me, and they taught me how to do a half-pipe and skate up the wall. When I left, I was ready to play rollerball."

Young Jonathan Cross (Chris Klein) rips all over San Francisco streets on a street luge board hoping that his need for speed will drown the sorrow of not being chosen for a professional hockey team. When old high school buddy Marcus Ridley (LL Cool J) asks him to try out for a European Rollerball team and cops are hot on his tail, Jonathan moves overseas, joins the team, and quickly becomes its star player with a huge fan base. He also gets a "secret" thing going with hot team member Aurora (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos).

When the game's creator and team owner Petrovich (Jean Reno) sees that game accidents bring in huge TV ratings, he sees that they happen intentionally. When Jonathan and pals learn of the set-up, Jonathan and Ridley try to flee the country. When Jonathan returns, he faces a final no holds-barred death game and he must play for his life.