With all the arguing and politics surrounding high profile sporting events and like Super Bowl and The Winter Olympics, I want to introduce you to a French athlete named David Belle. I had forgotten about this man until I saw a post on X recently showing off his feats.
I think of Belle as an athlete, but his professional work has been as a stunt coordinator and choreographer. He is best known, however, as the founder of the current parkour movement, inspired by the trainings of his own father.
I won’t get too much into the history, but basically Belle’s father, Raymond, called it “les parcours” a sort of military training allowing one to move in the best, quickest and most efficient way possible through any environment, including urban ones. It has been used in movies, video games, music videos and other impressive forms of sport and entertainment.
Okay, now that I’ve got the boring explanation out of the way, let’s see some fun parkour:
3 Doors Down “It’s Not My Time” Video
Stuntman and founder of The King of Concrete Gabriel Nunez provides the (literally) live-saving freestyle parkour in this alt rock video from 2009. There are plenty of music videos with parkour like scenes, but Nunez is from my neck of the woods (born and raised in El Paso). Also, just two days ago we lost the talented lead singer or 3 Doors Down, Brad Arnold to cancer. It may have been his time, but this incredible video is just part of his musical legacy that lives on.
Matt Murdock’s Chase
Remember when Marvel was still fun to watch? Back in the original Netfilx Daredevil series, Charlie Cox got to show us how cool a short chase scene in a nice suit can be. I think the stunt double performing these is Chris Brewster.
Assassin’s Creed 4 at San Diego Comic-Con
In 2013, Ubisoft and videographer DevinSuperTramp teamed up with parkour performer Chris Romwell for a badass promo for Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag just in time for the Comic-Con madness in San Diego. Back when the game was still good, it heavily featured parkour, and seeing it in real life is nothing short of amazing.
Current parkour is impressive no doubt, but even with Belle being the founder of the modern discipline one of my movie heroes did it long before: Jackie Chan.
Jackie Chan’s Parkour Style
Many would credit the real founder of Parkour as we know it is Chan, and I won’t argue. Chan’s almost flying like movements date back to a centuries old Chinese martial arts training technique. As a Gen X baby, Chan was the first person I really saw do this type of thing, and it is still to me the gold standard of the style.
Athletics and entertainment can still be fun, and these athletes and performers show us there’s no obstacle they can’t overcome.
Lisa, I really enjoyed your article on Parkour and these feats of incredible athleticism that these folks can perform. I met a man who was a movie stuntman and escape artist and he said he would never attempt the stunts they do now. He said he would have had a lot more surgeries if he did. When I watch them , I always think they aren’t going to have any knee cartilage when they hit 40. Jackie Chan is truly the master of these stunts. His training as a child was the reason he was able to attempt and make these stunts look so flawless. Today’s freestyle parkour folks owe him a debt of gratitude for making this art form (which to me it is) popular and the world wide phenomenon it is. RIP Brad Arnold. 🙏
Thanks Lisa, for me this was an insight to what real-life Parkour includes. Practicioners have a definite gift.