Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,480
edits
m (added Category:Walking Tropes using HotCat) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) m (markup,spelling) |
||
(12 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{
[[File:parkour.jpg|frame|[[Superman|Able to leap between buildings in a single bound!]]]]
Parkour (and its similar offshoot free-running) is a physical discipline originating in [[
Parkour is based on general principles of survival: Should one ever need to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the shortest distance is always a straight line. The goal, therefore, is to get past, over, under, or through various obstacles without wasting any time. And it just happened that Évry's central agora is an incredible mishmash of stairs, decks, catwalks and roofs at different
▲Parkour (and its similar offshoot free-running) is a physical discipline originating in [[Useful Notes/France|France]], more specifically, a suburb of Paris called Évry (although it's worth noting that the inventor's father/teacher was born in [[The French Colonial Empire|a French-controlled Vietnam]]). It can be summed up as "[[X Meets Y|acrobatics meets assault courses]]" -- whereas free-running is a far more demonstrative discipline best described as a form of skateboarding which is practiced ''[[Rule of Cool|without a board]]''.
Parkour practitioners (called by gender-specific nouns, following the original French; a
▲Parkour is based on general principles of survival: Should one ever need to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the shortest distance is always a straight line. The goal, therefore, is to get past, over, under, or through various obstacles without wasting any time. And it just happened that Évry's central agora is an incredible mishmash of stairs, decks, catwalks and roofs at different heights -- and thus, the best way to go in a straight line from A to B in Évry was jumping and running through obstacles.
▲Parkour practitioners (called by gender-specific nouns, following the original French; a male Parkour runner is a ''traceur'', a female is a ''traceuse''; referring to multiple practitioners uses ''traceurs'') run their environment like an obstacle course: vaulting obstructions, leaping gaps, running up walls, [[Wall Jump|Wall Jumps]], and otherwise taking wild shortcuts. Although commonly associated with cities, Parkour can be used to negotiate any type of environment. Traceurs will tell you their discipline becomes a mindset over time. They learn to unconsciously scan their surroundings for routes and movements. Think [[The Tetris Effect]] after playing ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' or ''[[Mirrors Edge]]''. Plus, it not only [[Rule of Cool|looks damn cool]], but is [[Awesome Yet Practical]], and may prove to become a more widely practiced discipline similar to martial arts.
The obvious example of Parkour usage is moving from point A to B, but the core idea is simply to make yourself more practically agile and more able to overcome physical obstacles. A mundane example is accidentally throwing something (e.g. a football) on a rooftop and needing to recover it. A practitioner of Parkour would be able to get onto the roof, get the object and get down safely.
Line 17 ⟶ 16:
Parkour has begun to appear more frequently in TV shows, owing to its growing popularity. Its moves are commonly employed by martial artists, notably [[Ninja]] and practitioners of [[She Fu]]. With special effects and wirework, it becomes an even more impressive feat than it already is. That could be considered proof positive that movie producers are dedicated to [[Completely Missing the Point]], because Parkour is [[Rule of Cool|cool]] because it is ''[[Real Life|real]]''.
A realistic version of [[Roof Hopping]]
{{examples}}
== Advertising ==
* One of the first things to introduce Parkour to a mainstream British audience was a stunning [[BBC]] 1 ad featuring David Belle [[Roof Hopping]] home to watch his favourite show.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDe7bXqsF04 Austrian Army TV-Ad.]
* There was an old Nike commercial that aired around 2000-01 or thereabouts where a traceur blasted across rooftops to avoid... [[
* A commercial for AT&T High Speed Internet shows a man learning Parkour via online videos.
== Anime & Manga ==
* The characters Izaya Orihara and Shizuo Heiwajima from ''[[Durarara!!]]'' practice Parkour, or something very much akin to it. The former learnt it to avoid Shizuo's many attempts to kill him very much dead, and the latter in order to catch the former and kill him very much dead.
* A much less flippy- and martial-artsy-version occurs in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]''. Sena, and a few other running backs, have the ability to foresee the quickest and safest abilities to get to the goal. Thus, it involves [[Mobstacle Course|running in between people, cutting back, slowing your speed, etc]]. One of Sena's contemporaries, Patrick "Panther" Spencer, is fond of running across rooftops as his morning exercise.
* In the ''[[Gundam 00:
== Comics -- Books ==
* Warren Ellis' ''[[Global Frequency]]'' centered one story around it.
* ''[[
* Technically speaking, [[Spider
** So would that be [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Le Peter Parkour]]?
** There is a famous Spidey story where he is forced to track a villain to Suburbia and basically relies on free-running to get around because web-slinging doesn't work well on one-story houses.
** The Spidey villain Screwball has no powers, but her skill in Parkour.
* Spidey's pal [[Daredevil]] tends to do this kind of thing more, though.
* Being [[Badass Normal
** And now Batman has selected Bilal Asselah, a French free-runner, to take up the mantle of "Nightrunner" as part of the Batman Incorporated program.
* [[Captain America (comics)]] villain Batroc does this, combined with the French martial art Savate, as his shtick (he's called Batroc the Leaper for a reason). This is played up in the one-shot issue "Captain America and Batroc", where he comes to identify as a traceur after befriending a group of young practitioners.
== Films -- Animation ==
* Although the animators based it more on surfing and skateboarding movements, Disney's ''[[Tarzan]]'' movie has the title hero do lots of Parkour-style movement through the jungle.
* Probably an example before this style, but in the claymation ''[[Santa Claus
{{quote|
* ''[[Resident Evil: Degeneration]]'', a CGI movie based off the series, has Leon do an incredible Parkour sequence near the end of the movie to escape a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]].
* Parkour seems to be the main mode of locomotion for the stray boys Black and White in ''[[Tekkon Kinkreet]]''.
* ''[[Batman: Under the Red Hood]]'' has some of this while Batman and Nightwing are chasing Red Hood.
* Shows up, weirdly enough, in the ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' movies (particularly 3), with Woody, Buzz and Jessie pulling off borderline ninja moves.
* In the DVD commentary for Shane Acker's ''[[9
* The [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] always had a bit of Parkour in them, but TMNT, the CGI movie, has them doing full on parkour runs of the city. Even more impressive is that each turtle has his own preference and style of moving.
* In [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame]], Quasimodo pulls off a lot of neat parkour-style moves on the rooftops of the cathedral.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
Line 62:
* Briefly seen, in an effects-exaggerated way, in the late-1980s feature-length adaptation of Mike Jittlov's ''The Wizard of Speed and Time''.
* The trailer for ''[[The Spirit]]'' shows him doing this over rooftops. Of course, he was also good at this in the comics.
* ''[[James Bond (
** ''[[
* The French film ''Yamakasi'' revolves around a group of ''traceurs'' stealing from rich people's houses, in an attempt to pay for a young imitator's surgical operation. The film itself is a big showcase of Le Parkour.
* The French movie ''[[Banlieue 13]]'' (dubbed as ''District B-13'') makes liberal use of Le Parkour, and features a co-founder of Parkour in the co-main role.
* Parkour on film is definitely [[Older Than They Think]], with instances and influences traceable to at least the 1930s with the crowning backstage sequence in ''[[Marx Brothers|A Night at the Opera]]''
* [[Buster Keaton]] was the master before Parkour [[Unbuilt Trope|was built]]. Climbing around buildings and jumping from ledge to ledge with no safety restraint was a big part of his [[Silent Films
* Buster Keaton could be considered a comedic successor to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., the first Hollywood actor to portray Robin Hood and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBud6ii5Wk Zorro]. (Keaton even played a role originated by Fairbanks when the latter's 1915 film, ''The Lamb,'' was remade as Keaton's first feature, ''The Saphead,'' in 1920.)
* There are a number of movies where [[Will Smith]] plays the main character, that have him showing off his Parkour
* ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' has Gabriel's [[Blond Guys Are Evil|henchblond]], played by Cyril Raffaelli, employ Parkour and [[Dance Battler|bouncy dexterity]] throughout the movie. Rafaelli was also in ''Banlieue 13'', in which he co-starred opposite a co-founder of the discipline.
* All the mall thieves of ''[[Paul Blart: Mall Cop]]'' can do some Parkour tricks along with using bikes and skateboards to get around.
* Bruce Banner shows off a little Parkour while running from General Ross in the ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' movie. A Parkour expert choreographed the Hulk's movements.
* A trio of "traceurs" serve as couriers for mobster Billy Russoti in ''[[The Punisher|Punisher: War Zone]]''. One of them learns the hard way that the discipline doesn't cover how to dodge rockets in mid-air. According to the [[DVD Commentary]], this was meant as a [[Take That]] aimed at just about every movie on this list.
* A staple of [[Jackie Chan]] movies, though outtakes show that being able to leap up a wall in three bounds does take just the right amount of momentum and angle, and failures range from hilarious to painful (or both).
* ''[[Ong Bak]]'', so very very much.
* ''[[Babylon
* Shows up in, of all things, ''The [[Twilight (
* In the movie adaptation of ''[[The Crow]]'', Eric Draven uses Parkour-like movements to cross the city rooftops.
* ''[[Watchmen (
* The 2010 movie ''[[Prince of Persia:
* Featured in ''[[
* Seen in ''[[Exit Through the Gift Shop]]'', when an apparent graffiti artist in France escapes from two policemen by quickly scampering to the roof of a building.
* In ''[[Transformers
* During ''[[Tron
* In ''[[Colombiana]]'', Cataleya (even as a little girl!) and a random mook use this.
* In ''[[Resident Evil (
** In ''[[Resident Evil
* Spoofed in ''[[Johnny English Reborn]]'' when English is chasing an assassin with these skills; English runs him down by doing mundane things like squeezing between air-conditioner units instead of running over them, using a crane instead of jumping between buildings, and taking the elevator instead of climbing down the scaffolding.
* In the early parts of ''[[Kingsman: The Secret Service]]'', Eggsy makes use of parkour to escape a gang who want to beat him up.
== Live-Action TV ==
Line 97 ⟶ 98:
* Subverted in one episode of ''[[The Unit]]'', where Sam McBride, {{spoiler|on the run after attempting to rape Bridget}} runs across a row of parked cars. One of them pulls out just before he reaches, causing him to fall and break his ankle.
* Mocked on ''[[The Office]]'' when Dwight, Andy, and Michael have just discovered the existence of Parkour, which Jim describes as a fad from several years ago. The trio excitedly jump around the office shouting "Parkour!" and generally just knock things over.
{{quote|
* Bryce Larkin uses this in the pilot episode of ''[[Chuck]]''.
** Chuck picks up some Parkour skills in the intersect 2.0
Line 103 ⟶ 104:
* Has also appeared in the opening of an episode of ''[[Rush]]'' and several recent episodes of ''[[The Bill]]''. Needless to say, they were being chased by the police at the time. Not only that, the villain of the first episode is actually an instructor of Parkour in Melbourne. Part of the Australian Parkour Association.
* An episode of ABC's ''[[The Forgotten]]'' focuses on this.
* An episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' opens with police chasing an unnamed fellow who navigates the alleyways using this technique. One of the cops pursuing him discovers Parkour isn't as easy as the suspect on the run makes it look.
* In an episode of ''[[Covert Affairs]]'', Ben Mercer and Jai engage in a short chase through a shipyard that has them both employing some parkour type moves including Ben doing recognizable vaults.
* ''[[Ninja Warrior]]'': [[Promoted Fanboy]] Levi Meeuwenberg is a professional free-runner, whose skills have made him one of the most successful non-Japanese participants in the history of the program.
* ''[[Game of Thrones]]'' uses elements of this in Bran Stark's climbing {{spoiler|in the pilot epiosde, anyway}}.
Line 111 ⟶ 112:
== Pro Wrestling ==
* [[John Morrison]] and Kofi Kingston do this at times. Like when Kofi ran up a closed ladder at Wrestlemania 25.
** Morrison did a Parkour training segment prior to a Falls Count Anywhere match with Sheamus. The match itself also made great use of Morrison's Parkour abilities, as he constantly stymied Sheamus by using the environment to his advantage. Sadly, Morrison did not yell "[[The Spoony Experiment
** Taken to CMOA levels during the 2011 ''Royal Rumble'', where Morrison was knocked out of the ring, managed to cling to the security barrier, climb up it, leap to the ring steps, and get back to the ring without touching the floor.
** Then there's Morrison ''climbing'' up the inside of the Elimination Chamber just so he land ''on top of Sheamus''. Then later he climbs up on the sides of the chamber just to kick Punk in the face.
Line 118 ⟶ 119:
== Music ==
* The music video for [[Madonna]]'s "Jump" features two men performing this, but the Parkour is arguably overshadowed by Madonna's sort-of-creepy cosplaying of Mello from ''[[
* Three Doors Down's "It's Not My Time" video features this, and quite prominently at that.
* [[
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
Line 133 ⟶ 134:
** While it's called free-running (thus not making the distinction on this page's main article), in general the player characters practice ''Parkour'' whenever they need to get around quickly, and the game's racing/courier missions tend to enforce efficiency as the focus. Strangely enough though, somehow every Thief, Agile guard, Robber and Borgia Courier seems to practice ''Parkour'', and Francesco de' Pazzi demonstrates amazing proficiency for a presumably non-athletic man, much less a non-Assassin. (It's implied that for the player characters, their physical aptitude is a "family thing.")
** The official strategy guide's portions on free-running and climbing are clear on the importance of efficiency, suggesting that one [[The Tetris Effect|adopt the ''traceur'' mindset]] to the game world, "appraise your immediate environment quickly, identifying all potential points of interactivity," and that "the real challenge lies in picking the most efficient route to your destination."
* The whole point of ''[[
* Quite a lot of ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' characters can do this, especially [[Super Speed|Sonic]] himself. [[Wall Jump
* The ''[[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] 2'' video game gives Spidey and the player plenty of moves to run around the city with. Aside from the obvious web-swinging and [[Wall Crawl
* Speaking of [[Marvel Universe]] games, the ''[[
* You can gain ''Free Running'' as a skill in the browser-based [[Zombie Apocalypse|zombie]] [[Survival Horror|survival]] game ''[[Urban Dead]]''. It lets you enter normally inaccessible buildings, and move from building to building without having to go outside.
* Not necessarily used by ''[[Splinter Cell]]'''s Sam Fisher, who prefers silent approaches, but slowly added to the repertoire of the Shadownet spies throughout the series.
* ''[[Prototype (
* ''[[
* The Xbox ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' series. It gets rather over-the-top when Ryu can chain wall-runs by jumping from wall to wall so that he can ascend a tall shaft, but hey, the titles are adherents of [[Rule of Cool]]. Also, [[Ninja]].
* ''[[N]]'' is nothing but this, since you play as a [[Ninja]] whose only power is wall-jumping.
* [[In the Hood|The Hunter]] from ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' not only moves in this style and can even be made to do Parkour moves by the more skilled Versus player, but was given the duct tape on its arms and legs not just because [[Rule of Cool|it looked cool]], but also because it was apparently [http://accelagirl.deviantart.com/art/Left-4-Dead-Hunter-Part-2-107838271 based on Parkour style.] (It's to eliminate the air pockets that would naturally occur in the jacket, making the person more aerodynamic, and prevents the jacket from getting caught on things.)
** All of the Common Infected seem to have somehow gained the ability to climb walls and fences that would be difficult for even
* This is the main mode of travel for ''[[Sly Cooper]]''.
* Some of the swinging/roof-jumping sequences in the 3D ''[[
* ''[[Brink]]'' is a first person shooter with what's called SMART; "Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain". It has a dedicated "Parkour" button, as well as more precise manual controls. Look up at a ledge, hit the SMART button, and you jump and climb onto it automatically. Look down and press the same button, and you slide. Approach a railing and hit the button, and you climb over it.
* ''The Hidden'', a mod for ''[[
* A meta example is the art of [[Speed Run
* Speaking of ''[[Metroid]]'', Samus herself can be can be considered a free-runner based upon he constant flipping. She also wall jumps, and does one-handed cat-leaps to get to where she needs to be. The physics of ''Super Metroid'' make it possible to do some actual Parkour stuff with what you have, especially with Mock-Balling which lets you get places really fast, especially really small places.
* ''[[Beyond Good
* ''[[Champions Online]]'' has makeshift Parkour "tracks" on rooftops in Millennium City.
* This is Monkey's primary mode of transportation in ''[[Enslaved:
* Hermes from ''[[God of War (
* ''[[
* The Snorks from ''[[STALKER]]'' for a more mutant example.
* ''[[Minecraft]]'' has entire adventure maps centered around this, up to and including at least one ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' themed map. You can also try it during a normal game, though it's [[Lava Pit|not]] [[Not the Fall That Kills You|recommended]].
Line 166 ⟶ 167:
* Jane attempts to get her start as a Parkour master in [http://nobodyscores.loosenutstudio.com/index.php?id=350 this strip] of ''[[Nobody Scores]]''.
* Wren of ''[[White Noise]]'' uses a Parkour Tic-Tac to leap from one wall to the top of another, amongst other Parkour movements.
* Robot S13 of ''[[
* ''[[
* [
* ''[[Last
** Technically that's a vampire, not a zombie.
* In ''[[Rusty and Co
* In ''[[Snow By Night]]'', Blaise [https://web.archive.org/web/20130308115311/http://www.snowbynight.com/pages/ch1/pg19.html does this] to evade three disgruntled rooks. His pursuers are rather taken aback.
* In [[The Zombie Hunters]], at least one "hunter" zombie is depicted in this way. The author described them as "urban ninjas" but without human inhibitions, like pain, tiredness, or fear of death.
Line 187 ⟶ 188:
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'', used occasionally by friends and foes alike.
* ''[[
** Aang commonly rides on a spherical column of air to accomplish it, though he is capable of executing it with his own swiftness and agility.
** Azula is quite agile on her own and {{spoiler|with the help of some of her minions from the Dai Li, she was able to elevate it to the level of [[She Fu]].}} A little while later, {{spoiler|she invents a way to use firebending to ''launch herself around like rocket''.}}
Line 193 ⟶ 194:
** Zuko's used it a couple of times, notably in "The Firebending Masters" when he ran along a wall to avoid a spike pit.
** Also, in one episode during the Ba Sing Se arc, the [[Fan Nickname|Gaang]] make a straight run toward the Earth King's Palace, using [[Elemental Powers|bending]] to clear some obstacles, namely the [[Mooks|palace guards]].
* [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
** However, the more traditional martial-arts based forms of bending are still practiced, especially by [[The Mentor|Tenzin]], the last real
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider
** Meaning Parker can now [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Parkour]]?
* Heavily parodied in the Bounty Hunter episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]''. Flanders chases Homer across Springfield, leaping over obstacles. Homer gets into an elevator and bounces off the walls as he waits to arrive at the top. Then the two steal horses, which proceed to practice Parkour themselves, jumping off cars and springing off walls.
* In ''[[Barbie]]: A Fashion Fairytale'', this is one of the hobbies that Barbie's aunt Millicent considers taking up after her fashion house closes {{spoiler|which of course, doesn't happen}}.
* The various ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' animated series has just about everybody pulling this every time they go up on a rooftop.
* ''[[
* Used in a chase scene from ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]''.
* Done in an episode of ''[[
** [[Played for Laughs]] later in the episode when Stan and Francine's attempt to make their friends slow down [[Gone Horribly Wrong|goes horribly wrong]]. After a fight, the wife throws her ring into the husband's face and free-runs away, screaming angrily.
== Real Life ==
Line 221:
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Travel Cool]]
[[Category:Le Parkour]]▼
[[Category:Walking Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Le Parkour]]
|