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46. Banlieue 13 - K2 Pays a Visit

“Look at him. Armed to the teeth, and he’s scared of a pen.”

Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or l’art du déplacement (English: the art of displacement) is recreational activity of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.

At least, that’s the way Wikipedia sees it. In the opening sequence from the Pierre Morel-directed, Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri-scripted actioner, its “a way to evade the shady motherfuckers who have come looking for the drugs you stole and look unbelievably cool doing it.”

Two things make this particular action sequence stand out. One, of course, is the use of parkour. This was one of the first films to embrace the sport, along with the lesser seen (and liked) Yamakasi. Representing essentially definitive approval from the parkour community, parkour founder David Bellle plays one of the leads and does all the heavy lifting in this sequence. I have yet to be in an audience that doesn’t audibly swoon when he goes flying through that transom.

The second aspect, which really ties into the first, is the low-budget, underground feel of the sequence, which is right in line with the low-budget underground feel of the sport and the numerous videos that go along with its early days. What skating videos were to the early 90’s, Parkour vids were to the early ’00’s.

At $20mil, this is a damn expensive skater vid, but by action film standards, that’s a drop in the bucket, which is about the response it got in the States.

But Hollywood noticed, and we’ll get to how later in the list.

See also: The rest of Banlieu 13, the chase through the marketplace in Ong Bak, the parkour docs Jump London or Jump Britain, that Toyota ad, or just do a “parkour” search on YouTube.

Next: Hey, remember when Stellan Skarsgård tried to kill Sean Connery?