Courier: Difference between revisions

''And found only skin and bones where he once left a crowd''|'''Remember the Alamo'''}}

Why, it's the local '''Courier'''! A '''Courier''' is essentially a mercantile mailman/woman, delivering messages through cities and towns on foot or other single-person conveyance. In fiction this often comes with some level of danger involved, either from the environment the '''Courier''' crosses, the package they're delivering, [[MacGuffin|people who may be after the package they're delivering]], or simply through the '''Courier''''s own recklessness. Even if there's not an element of danger, there will usually be a tight deadline the parcel must be delivered by, forcing the '''Courier''' to bust their hump getting it there on time. [[Le Parkour]] or other fancy tricks may be employed to get safely from Point A to Point B (the words ''"parkour''" and ''"courier''" both derive from the French for "to run").

Since it's a romantic spy type of job that still allows [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism|cynicism]] with money, combined with the fact that it's an easy way to bring characters to new places or into contact with interesting people, it's ripe for protagonist-hood, but this is not always the case. Can often turn up even in futuristic settings where you'd imagine advanced technology would make human '''Couriers''' obsolete.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy 7|CloudVII]]'': Cloud becomes one in ''[[Advent Children]]''.

* A NorweigianNorwegian courier shows up in ''[[Casablanca]]'' carrying a message for Victor Lazlo. [[Hollywood Tactics|Naturally]] he does the equivalent of saying to an entire nightclub: "Hey I'm an agent of a foreign belligerent. Please come get me. I love the feel of rope around my neck in the morning."

* ''[[Snow Crash]]'''s has Y.T., although she often delivers through <s>suburbs</s> burbclaves.

* In [[Umberto Eco]]'s ''Loana'', the protagonist remembers reading a fascist children's book about a hero trying to smuggle an important message to Italy's then-colony AbessiniaAbyssinia (Ethiopia). This being a serial novel, in [[Real Life]] AbessiniaAbyssinia is liberated from the Italian fascists long before the story ends. And at the end, the oh so secret message delivered essentially boils down to: "Hold out!"

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* The job of 1/2half the cast of ''[[Dark Angel]]''. It's a bike messaging service called Jam Pony that pays minimum wage and has high turnover. Max and Alec particularly like the free sector passes and opportunity to case joints.

* I.C.E.In Iron Crown Enterprise's ''[[Cyberspace: The(role-playing game)|Cyberspace]]'' game, the Skateboys isare a gang that carries messages and packages while riding motorized skateboards.

* ''[[Traveller]]'': Justified in that [[FTL]] communications are not possible so messages have to be carried through jump space on a starship before being transmitteddelivered.

* In ''[[Transformers: War for Cybertron]]'', Bumblebee is acting as a courier because the communications in Iacon City aren't safe from the Decepticons. Ironically, the one he's trying to get a message to (Optimus Prime) is the one that saves him from a Deception ambush. The message he's delivering (that {{spoiler|Zeta Prime is assumed dead}}) is disturbing emough that Optimus decides to step up and take "temporary" command of the Autobots.