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.

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&mdash;Les samouraï des temps modernes (Yamakasi&mdash;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).


 * A lengthy chase sequence in the film Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse features parkour.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.

Television

 * 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. 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 CSI: NY episode "Tri-Borough" involves a murdered traceur.


 * A series of Nike commercials 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.


 * A Toyota Scion commercial had free runners Sébastien Foucan and Jerome Ben Aoues playing "tag" with two cars in a parking structure.


 * In Avatar the Last Airbender the cruel and prodigious Princess Azula seems to be a master of Parkour


 * On Survivor: China, 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.


 * 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. 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.


 * 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.


 * 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.

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.


 * 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.


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


 * In William Gibson's Spook Country, Tito uses a mix of techniques very much like Parkour. Interestingly, he mentions having actually run with traceurs and considers parkour a subset of his own skills.

Video games

 * In Resistance: Fall of Man 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.


 * Assassin's Creed, a game by Ubisoft Studios, has character movements inspired by parkour and free running.


 * Crackdown is an Xbox 360 action game and it has a parkour feature.


 * 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.


 * 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.

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.


 * Die Trying has a music video for their song Oxygen's Gone that features two or three traceurs.


 * Eric Prydz vs Floyd - Proper Education is about saving energy by using parkour in it to promote the facts of Global Warming.


 * 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".


 * Madonna featured free running extensively in the Jump 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.


 * 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) featuring two Iranian traceurs of the Rahaa clan bringing a dove to him.


 * The Urban freeflow team member Blue was appearanced in the About you now music video by Sugababes.