Le Parkour: Difference between revisions
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Parkour (and its similar offshoot free-running) is a physical discipline originating in [[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]]"
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 practitioners (called by gender-specific nouns, following the original French; a
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.
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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}}
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** 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.
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* ''[[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]]'' movies (particularly 3), with Woody, Buzz and Jessie pulling off borderline ninja moves.
* In the DVD commentary for Shane Acker's ''[[9|Nine]]''
* 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.
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* [[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]] in the twenties. [[Ninja]] building climbing stunts in early martial-arts films are also [[Unbuilt Trope]] examples.
* 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.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[New World of Darkness]]'' has Parkour as a five-dot general "Athletic Style" Merit, not unlike the Fighting Style Merits, with each dot centering around a new technique or degree of mastery. ''[[Werewolf: The Forsaken]]'' likewise has the [[Prestige Class|Lodge]] of
* ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'' has a power called "Sure Footed" which reduces speed penalties from obstacles and other uneven terrain. Take enough ranks in it, and any gauntlet of traps, tripping hazards, handrails, obstacles, buildings, etc. etc., is as easily run through as a wide open field. Sound familiar?
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** 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 ''[[Mirror's Edge]]'' is Parkour. The plot and other game elements are built entirely around it. It's also done completely in first-person. It even has the crane scene from ''[[Casino Royale]]''.
* 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 ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'' can also pull the same wall-running/climbing, sprinting and jump-charging tricks in ''[[The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction]]'' to largely the same effects. He performs air dashes instead of web-swinging, though. And his variation of Le Parkour is more or less going through everything in his way.
* 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.
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* ''[[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 ''[[Half-Life 2]]'', has the IRIS paramilitary team hunting an invisible, super-strong genetically modified human, Subject 617. 617 has the ability to pounce long distances as well as cling to surfaces, allowing him to easily bypass almost any obstacle and climb surfaces as long as his strength holds out.
* 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 & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]'': Jade uses this frequently, but its most apparent in two instances when escaping from Alpha bases.
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** 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]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' takes place in a "[[Steampunk]] metropolis" and uses a lot of parkour-style fighting and chase scenes. This helps represent the way the Avatar world's societies have begun moving away from more traditional, form-based bending styles as society industrializes. And as with the martial arts in both ''Korra'' and {{its predecessor [[Avatar|
** However, the more traditional martial-arts based forms of bending are still practiced, especially by [[The Mentor|Tenzin]], the last real practicioner of Air Nomad culture on the planet until his three (soon to be four) children grow up. This helps set up the "tradition versus progress" conflict that forms part of the story's core.
* ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' has ''finally'' added this to Spider-Man's repertoire, making his [[Roof Hopping]] and [[Wall Crawl
** 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.
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