Parkour in popular culture

Parkour (an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body) has appeared in various television advertisements, news reports and entertainment pieces, sometimes combined with other forms of acrobatics also called free running, street stunts and tricking. Such acrobatics are not part of parkour.cite web
author=David Belle and/or PAWA Team |url=http://www.pawa.fr/Welcome/welcome.html |title=English welcome - Parkour Worldwide Association |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20050508021450/www.pawa.fr/Welcome/welcome.html |archivedate=2005-05-08 |accessdate=2007-05-12 |quote=Understand that this art has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit I'd like parkour to keep. You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not. So if you do acrobatics things on the street with no other goal than showing off, please don't say it's parkour. Parkour existed long time ago before acrobatics, ever since cave man ran away from predators - parkour-online.com.]

Films

*After including parkour moves in a chase sequence in the film "Taxi 2" (2000), in 2001 French filmmaker Luc Besson made a feature film, "Yamakasi—Les samouraï des temps modernes" (Yamakasi—the modern-day Samurai), featuring members of the original Yamakasi group. The film tells the (fictional) tale of a group of young friends who use their parkour skills to evade capture, while stealing money to fund the healthcare of a child that was injured copying their parkour training. In 2004, Besson wrote "Banlieue 13", another feature film involving parkour, starring David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli; English-dubbed and -subtitled versions were released in 2006 as "District B-13" in North America, and the UK. Later, members of Yamakasi group filmed for France 2 channel a documentary called "Génération Yamakasi - Vol au dessus des cités".

*The biggest interest surge to date was created by the documentary "Jump London", which explained some of the background to parkour and culminated with Sébastien Foucan and two other French traceurs (Johann Vigroux and Jérôme Ben Aoues) demonstrating their parkour skills at many famous London locations: HMS Belfast, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Somerset House and the Tate Gallery and Saatchi galleries amongst them. It is perhaps worth noting that David Belle received no mention in "Jump London", despite often being accredited as the most important founder of parkour. "Jump London" was followed up by the sequel "Jump Britain", once again featuring Foucan and Ben Aoues.

*An action sequence in the James Bond film, "Casino Royale", is a construction site roof-top chase that implements many aspects of parkour. Sébastien Foucan, the founder of the similar art free running, plays a small-time terrorist after whom James Bond is chasing. The scene was filmed in the Bahamas (standing for Madagascar).cite web |title=No Obstacles |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_wilkinson?currentPage=all |date=April 16, 2007 |author=Alec Wilkinson |publisher=The New Yorker |accessdate=2007-10-14] [cite web |title=ESPN:60 Parkour |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?&brand=null&videoId=3097213&n8pe6c=2 |author=ESPN |date=November 11, 2007 |accessdate=2007-11-29]

*A lengthy chase sequence in the film "" features parkour. [cite web |title=Crimson Rivers/Crimson Rivers II |url=http://www.teleport-city.com/movies/shrimpchips/2007/09/crimson-riverscrimson-rivers-ii.html |author=Keith |date=September 18, 2007 |publisher=teleport-city.com |accessdate=2007-12-11 |quote=The parkour scenes are OK -- it's no B13 or Casino Royale]

*There is a Parkour and Tricking Sequence performed by Joe Eigo in the 2007 film .

*Parkour is featured prominently in the 2007 film "Breaking and Entering", in which two of the characters employ parkour techniques to burgle an office in the Kings Cross, an area of London.cite web |title=Parkour: Leaps of faith |url=http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_4937806 |author=Sandra Barrera |date=January 2, 2007 |publisher=LA Daily News |accessdate=2007-12-11] cite web |title=Focus: Look Mum, watch this! |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2262412,00.html |author=Yuba Bessaoud and Alex Delmar-Morgan |date=July 09, 2006 |publisher=Times Online |accessdate=2008-01-03]

*In "Ong Bak", Ting (Tony Jaa) and Hum Lae is escaping a gang pursuing them, in which Ting jumps through various obstacles, which somewhat resembles as parkour.

* Martial Art movie star, Jackie Chan who has a unique style of mixing martial arts choreography with real large scale stunts in many of his Hong Kong and Hollywood movies, including the Police Story (film) trilogy, Dragons Forever, Who am I?, My Lucky Stars, Rush Hour,etc. Many of Chan's movements and stunts resemble Parkour in that both he and traceurs use the environment to run, vault, jump, flip and tumble off. However, Chan is merely the latest and most high profile exponent of Chinese acrobatics, a long and rich tradition which predates Parkour by centuries. Other notable exemplars in Hong Kong action films such as the Sammo Hung stunt team and various notable martial art stuntmen such as Yuen Wah and Yuen Biao, performed stunts in modern action movies throughout the 80s and 90s which resemble parkour but is essentially acrobatic stunts performed in a variety of large and small scale, real life and on set locales, incorporating martial art elements and modified (eg slowed down) for the silver screen.

*The werewolves in the movie "Blood and Chocolate" used (in their human form) what appeared to be parkour as a demonstration of their superhuman agility.

*In the movie "Live Free or Die Hard", Rand (played by Cyril Raffaelli), a sharpshooting hitman, uses parkour to both escape and pummel detective John McClane. [cite web |title='Look, Ma, no hands' — or feet |url=http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2007-12-03-parkour_N.htm |author=Janet Kornblum |date=December 3, 2007 |publisher=USA Today |accessdate=2007-12-07]

*In the 2008 film, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan", Adam Sandler's character, the Zohan, executes tic tacs, muscle ups, kong vaults, and many more parkour techniques while chasing his nemesis, the Phantom.

Television

*Although it's never explicitly stated in the series the character Terry McGinnis uses parkour in several episodes of "Batman Beyond" (1999-2001).
*The British public was widely exposed to parkour during 2002 via the BBC television trailer "Rush Hour", which depicted David Belle leaping across London's rooftops from his office to home, in an attempt to catch his favourite BBC programme. [cite web |title=Unmissable new campaign for BBC ONE |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/04_april/11/rush_hour.shtml |date=April 4, 2002 |publisher=BBC One |accessdate=2007-12-13] [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMAr8y-Vtw YouTube Video: David Belle - Rush Hour Le Parkour(BBC)] Retrieved on 2007-02-18] The piece generated a great deal of discussion, particularly after it was revealed that no special effects or wires were used (although it was partly filmed in Newcastle upon Tyne, not completely in London), all Belle's moves were genuine and unassisted. It was later re-used for the BBC Children in Need appeal, with the face of Terry Wogan superimposed onto the body of Belle.

*The "" episode "Tri-Borough" involves a murdered "traceur". [cite web |title=CSI: New Yorker - episode: Tri-Borough |url=http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_ny/episodes/111/ |accessdate=2007-12-11 |quote=They "parkour" together, free-running, traversing the "urban obstacle course we all encounter on a daily basis from a new perspective".]

*A series of Nike commercials [cite web |title=Nike Angry Chicken - Featuring Sébastien Foucan |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6571575392378784144 |accessdate=2008-01-03] depicted traceurs clearing rooftop gaps and stairwells as part of an ad campaign for their Presto line of slip-on running shoes. Also the run to 300 podcast explain a bit of parkour. [cite web
title=Run to 300
url=http://broadbandsports.com/node/2846
author=Nike
accessdate=2007-07-25]

*A Toyota Scion commercial [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ucNP74HV0 YouTube - Scion ] ] had free runners Sébastien Foucan and Jerome Ben Aoues playing "tag" with two cars in a parking structure.

*On , contestant Michael "Frosti" Zernow frequently discussed his training as a traceur.

*A Rogers Wireless mp3 phone commercial features a group of young adults running to meet another group via free running on a rooftop, with a slogan "Tippin' on the brink".

*A Canon commercial with David Belle. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAV0EYLIdsg YouTube David Belle: Canon commercial] Retrieved on 2007-01-26]

*An episode of the popular BBC motoring programme "Top Gear" featured a race between James May in a Peugeot 207 against two traceurs — Daniel Ilabaca and Kerbie from Worldwide JAM's 'Street Team'—in the city of Liverpool on July 23 2006. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmaiMA0OsXU YouTube Video: Peugeot 207 Vs. French Kids] Retrieved on 2007-02-18] The traceurs won the race to the Liver Building, if only because May, true to character, got lost on his way to the building.

*"Cops and Robbers" is a European advert for Microsoft's Xbox 360 which features a car chase and chases over roof tops and streets all influenced by parkour. One of its "robbers" is Cyril Raffaelli - French stuntman who duet with David Belle in 2004 French film Banlieue 13. [cite web |title=Xbox Europe Plays Cops and Robbers |url=http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/11829/Xbox-Europe-Plays-Cops-and-Robbers/ |date=September 25, 2006 |publisher=teamxbox.com |accessdate=2007-12-13]

*In an episode of "Heroes" entitled "Truth & Consequences", the character of Monica Dawson, a "muscle mimic", watches a parkour video on her iPod and then uses the techniques to break into a house.

*The Australian version of 60 Minutes featured a segment of parkour on September 16, 2007, which featured Sébastien Foucan on a trip to Australia, and French traceur Stephane Vigroux. [cite web |title=Go Jump |url=http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=295676 |author=Liz Hayes |publisher=60 Minutes |date=September 16, 2007 |accessdate=2008-01-03]

*In the British Police drama, The Bill, on the episode first broadcast on January 16,2008, a criminal who practised parkour used the discipline to evade capture on two occasions. In the first, he escaped, but in the second, he was caught and arrested.

*In the Australian Police drama Rush, in the first episode broadcast on September 2,2008, a criminal used parkour in an attempt to evade capture which ended with him under arrest.

Literature

*Issue 6 of the limited series Global Frequency, written by noted comic book author Warren Ellis, tells the story of a young traceuse named Sita Patel who is tasked with the seemingly impossible mission of crossing London in under twenty minutes to defuse a biological weapon. The issue, titled The Run, is a varied and detailed (and mostly believable) treatment of the topic. The series was published by Wildstorm Comics. [cite web |title=Hailing Frequency |url=http://www.shakingthrough.net/comics/reviews/2004/global_frequency_planet_ablaze_2004.html |date=February 16, 2004 |author=Kevin Forest Moreau |publisher=shakingthrough.net |accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=one concerns a young woman -- a Le Parkour runner, or someone who treats the city as an urban obstacle course]

*The hip-hop novel Kid B — written by Texan author Linden Dalecki — tells the story of a teenager named Kid B who's a b-boy in a four-man crew called the Krush Krew. A passage in the novel details an escape by the Krush Krew over rooftops, and another passage, where Kid B trains alone, reads like a free running sequence. The book was first published in 2006 by Houghton Mifflin.

*In "Tale of Two Summers" by Brian Sloan, the story of a French "traceur" is relayed by Hal via blogging.

*In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel 'Pyramids', a junior Assassin takes an examination called the Run, which involves parkour-style navigation of the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork.

*The webcomic Achewood briefly shows the character Teodor engaging in parkour.cite web
author=Chris Onstad |url=http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11072005 |title=Achewood - November 7, 2005 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060505015750/http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11072005 |archivedate=2006-05-05 |accessdate=2008-02-05 |quote=Hey, have you guys heard of Parkour? It's a new sport-philosophy where the urban landscape is treated as an obstacle course!]

*In The Dark River it tells of the main character Gabriel joining a group of parkour, and running to avoid the Vast Machine.

*In William Gibson's "Spook Country", Tito uses a mix of techniques very much like parkour. [cite web |title=Genre with the wind |url=http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/books/9479/genre-with-the-wind |date=August 1, 2007 |author=Drew Toal |publisher=Time Out New York |accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=the GPS wizardry, the gravity-defying parkour, the text-code languages] Interestingly, he mentions having actually run with traceurs and considers parkour a subset of his own skills.

Video games

*"Prototype" is a game being released by Radical Entertainment that has moves strongly influenced by Parkour.

*"Mirror's Edge" features "parkour-esque moves" ["Mirror's Edge": The Agenda," "Electronic Gaming Monthly" 225 (February 2008): 59.] and is set to release in November 2008.

*"Saboteur" has parkour moves used to evade capture

*"Grand Theft Auto 4" contains Parkour sequences

*In "" for the Playstation 3 a skill point by the name "le parkour" is awarded for completion of a rooftop level in a set amount of time.

*In ' and ', the Lara Croft character can perform various parkour movements.

*"Assassin's Creed", a game by Ubisoft Studios, has character movements inspired by parkour and free running. [cite web |title=Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) |url=http://www.gamesxtreme.net/x360/game/assassins-creed/review.shtml |date=November 28, 2007 |accessdate= |quote=Its a good start, an excellent free-roaming adventure with some of the best use of parkour yet.] [cite web |title=X06: Assassin's Creed demo |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOk5j-iGuTM |accessdate= |publisher=youtube.com
quote=Just like the guys knows as le parkour or free running.] [cite web |title=Review: 'Assassin's Creed' Not Quite Perfect |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,,00.html |author=Ryan Pearson |publisher=Fox News Channel |quote=Leave it to the French to bring us the first parkour video game] [Andrew P., "Review of "Assassin's Creed"," "Electronic Gaming Monthly" 224 (January 2008): 89. In Andrew P.'s review, he writes that the game features "a challenging parkour path of escape..."]

*"Crackdown" is an Xbox 360 action game and it has a parkour feature. [cite web |title=10 Reasons to Play Crackdown |url=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/754/754563p1.html |author=Cam Shea |date=January 10, 2007 |accessdate= |quote=It's part super hero (think Hulk or Neo), part Jumping Flash and part Parkour.]

*"Tony Hawk's American Wasteland": one of the several techniques you can learn whilst not on your skateboard is freerunning, although it is called parkour in the game. Also, you can wall-run, wire-grab and other parkour movements. [cite web |title=Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - Xbox 360 |url=http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4583&vpr=yes |author=Steven Williamson |date=February 8, 2006 |accessdate= |quote=Later on in story mode, you’ll even get the chance to learn some parkour(free-running) skills!]

*The "Prince of Persia" reimagined trilogy is a Ubisoft series about a Prince trying to escape from his fate, meanwhile he uses lots of parkour techniques such as cat leap and wallrun.

*"Army of Two" character Philip Clyde uses Parkour or Free Running to navigate the battlefield and to get close enough to his targets to kill them with his bare hands.

*In "Lugaru" Turner and the enemies can use free running moves such as flips, rolls and ledge grabbing. But no ability to shimmy. Using rolls and handsprings to dodge enemies and wall flips to confuse enemies is possible in the game though not always successful.

*In "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" the main character, "Sam Fisher"; can use parkour to avoid detection or to reach a destination such as a rooftop or a more stealthy entrance than a front door. Whenever Sam Fisher falls from a sufficient height, he automatically rolls and automatically grabs ledges and such whenever jumping or falling to avoid death. Though the player can force Sam to fall to his death anyway.

Music videos

*David Guetta vs. The Egg have a music video for their song Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away) which features free running extensively throughout it, performed by the British Freerun crew named team Evolution, headed by Chase Armitage

*Die Trying has a music video for their song Oxygen's Gone that features two or three traceurs. [cite web |title=Die Trying Video Premiere |url=http://www.mtv.com/onair/spankinnewmusic/2003/vid_premieres/die_trying/ |author=Michael Palmieri |publisher=MTV |accessdate=2007-12-13]

*Eric Prydz vs Floyd - Proper Education is about saving energy by using parkour in it to promote the facts of Global Warming. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdgzKU4k9sY YouTube Music Video: Eric Prydz vs Pink Floyd - Proper Education] Retrieved on 2007-01-27]

*German singer Liza Li chases after German traceur Moses Kallweit in both cartoon and real life scenes on her video for the song "Ich könnte dich erschießen". [ [http://www.warnermusic.de/action/video/?mediaplayer=8a0af8120cb3a194010cf7e2e5e6097f&odsArtistID=&track=&stream=8a0af8120cb3a194010cf7e362b10981&odsReleaseId=&type=video Warnermusic Video] ]

*Madonna featured free running extensively in the Jump music video. [cite web
title=No fear, no limits, no safety net
url=http://www.capp-online.ca/pdf/articles/News%20Article%20-%20No%20Fear%20-%20Parkour.pdf
format=PDF
author=The Sunday Times
accessdate=2007-07-04
quote=Foucan can be spotted showing off his parkour talents in Madonna’s latest music video.] Madonna also featured free running on her world tour in 2006 "The Confessions Tour" as well as featuring it initially in her music video for "Hung Up". All the free running sequences for Madonna were created and executed by Sebastian Foucan, Mike 'Frosti' Zernow, Levi 'Skynative' Meeuwenberg and others. [cite web
title=Skynative in the Madonna "Jump" Video
url=http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/876/243/
accessdate=2007-12-11]

*Paul Oakenfold released a song with Brittany Murphy called Faster Kill Pussycat which had some parkour in its music video performed by a few PKCali traceurs including Paul 'PD' Darnell and Cliff 'CAK010' Kravit.

*Persian singer Mehran recently released a music video named "Kaboutar (dove)" [http://youtube.com/watch?v=hklcfz_pyGk] featuring two Rahaa clan, member of Iran parkour [http://www.parkour.ir] , traceurs.

*The Urban freeflow team member Blue appeared in the About You Now music video by Sugababes.cite web |title=Parkour:Take that, Spiderman |url=http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/guides/adventure/story/0,,2175974,00.html |author=Toby Young |date=September 29, 2007 |publisher=The Guardian |accessdate=2007-12-11]

*3 Doors Down released a music video for "It's Not My Time" where the main character performed by Gabe Nunez from "Tempest Freerunning team" has a premonition and uses parkour skills to stop an accident involving a mother and daughter who are heading for disaster when a truck runs a red light. [cite web |title=Gabe Nunez in 3 Doors Down Video |url=http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/2162/318/ |publisher=americanparkour.com |date=23 April 2008 |accessdate=2008-04-26] [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHU9dN0Itrk YouTube - 3 Doors Down - It's Not My Time ] ]

*The Chemical Brothers released a music video for Midnight Madness that features a gold sequin clad gremlin break dancing and doing parkour in an alley in London [http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/video-chemical.html] .

Other

*On May 2, 2008, parkour was featured in a series of videos on the front page of YouTube. The display added 14 videos from different parkour artists, propelling one of the videos to nearly 1,000,000 views. [ [http://youtube.com/watch?v=li3Wd_2_Y-4 YouTube - yamakasi founders clip haute categorie ] ]

References

[ [http://www.parkour-online.com] ]