Parkour is the physical discipline that deals with moving from point A to B in the shortest distance possible, no matter the difference in height or number of obstacles in between. Disciples of the sport scale walls, jump from rooftops and perform every kind of jump, flip and dive imaginable.
Soon an offshoot of parkour also developed known as Freerunning, which laid greater emphasis on incorporating fancy flips and stunts into a parkour routine, to add more style to the practice. Naturally, such a visually thrilling sport has found wide application in action films. Here are 10 films that made the best use of parkour and freerunning:
Casino Royale
While this movie only had a brief parkour scene at the beginning, it was in many ways the first time Hollywood audiences were introduced to parkour, by none other than Sebastien Foucan, who along with David Belle is widely credited with developing Parkour into what it is known for today. The chase between Foucan’s character and Bond was a thrill ride from start to finish and set the stage for a new kind of Bond movie with grittier stunts and action in the most spectacular fashion.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
You would think the MCU films would have great use for incorporating parkour sequences between heroes and villains, but so far the only film in the series to make full use of freerunning is the second Captain America movie.
A super-soldier like Cap would naturally be adept at parkour, and he makes great use of the discipline in almost all his action scenes, whether he is dodging in and out of view on a ship full of terrorists or chasing after the Winter Soldier through building, across rooftops, and over bridges.
Yamakasi
This film is widely known for being the first movie by a major director to focus on parkour. Luc Besson, of Fifth Element fame, made this movie about a group of parkour experts who use their skills to rob money from a board of directors to pay for the treatment of a young boy who suffered an injury while trying to imitate them. The film is not just parkour action but takes a look at the responsibilities and dangers that go with practicing this form of exercise in front of an audience that does not truly understand the risks involved.
Freerunner
A freerunning athlete is forced to compete in a parkour tournament created by a group of bloodthirsty businessmen who are looking for a new and more exciting form of gambling where actual human lives are at stake. Failure to win the race means the bomb attached to your neck detonates. The premise of the movie is rather forced, but once you get to roll with it, you can focus on what this movie truly is: a comprehensive showcase for all the ways in which parkour techniques can be used to clear obstacles, performed by some of the best athletes in the field.
Prince of Persia
Anyone who has played the Prince of Persia games knows the series relies heavily on parkour, and the movie was no exception. We get to see the titular character bring many of his signature parkour moves from the games onto the big screen, including scaling walls, running sideways across them and vaulting from one wooden beam to another. While most of the stunts are done by stuntmen rather Jake Gyllenhaal himself, the moves look as good as any other parkour film centered around an actual practitioner of the discipline. Honorable mention also goes to the Assassin’s Creed movie, which is also a video game adaptation that uses parkour to spice up its action scenes.
The Tournament
With a premise pretty similar to Freerunner, this independent British thriller kicks things up a notch with a group of powerful and wealthy men who organize a tournament for the world’s deadliest assassins, with a huge cash prize for the one who manages to survive the battle royale until only one assassin remains, to be named the new deadliest assassin in the world. The movie is a non-stop thrill ride of sick martial arts fights, freerunning and inventive methods of murder. Definitely a movie that should be on the watch list for action fans.
Tracers
Taylor Lautner was set to be the next big thing in Hollywood at one point, and this movie cashed in on that particular moment in time. Lautner stars as a bike messenger who becomes a part of a group of parkour experts in order to pull off a bunch of robberies and earn some quick cash to pay off the debt owed to the Chinese mafia. Lautner is one of the very few Hollywood actors with the level of athleticism required to do most of his own parkour scenes, and the fight choreography isn’t bad either. Kind of makes you wish we could have seen Lautner’s werewolf character pull off some parkour stunts in Twilight.
The Protector
Before the word parkour was even coined, there was Jackie Chan, who has made a lifelong career out of martial arts and running, sliding, jumping and hanging off of dangerous things. While Jackie is not a formal practitioner of parkour, many experts have cited him as their earliest inspiration to learn the discipline.
And few Jackie Chan films better capture his expertise in this area like 1985’s The Protector. Jackie plays a police officer on a mission to save the kidnapped daughter of a millionaire from a drug lord, and the movie contains some of the best stunts and fight scenes of his career.
District 13
David Belle is a name that is familiar to most people in the parkour community as the founder of the Parkour movement. And District 13 was in many ways his magnum opus. Belle plays one of the leads as Leito, a small-time crook fighting to protect his community from a much bigger threat from a local drug lord and even the police. The parkour scenes are possibly the most iconic ever captured for films. Additionally, the fight scenes are choreographed and performed by Cyril Raffaelli, one of the very best in the business, making this movie one of the best action films of the past two decades.
District 13: Ultimatum
The sequel to District 13 suffers somewhat in the story department because it often feels like a retread of the original film. But when it comes to parkour and action, the movie benefits from a bigger budget, bigger set pieces, and more ambitious choreography. We get to see an army of parkour experts storm a building, led by Leito, using every trick and stunt in the book to make the sequence an unforgettable experience for any parkour or freerunning enthusiast.
