Parkour Expert Breaks Down Parkour Scenes from Movies & TV | GQ Sports

I had a blast making this with you guys. Thanks for the opportunity.

One of the things I LOVE about the Casino Royale scene is that they clearly show you someone who is practiced, and excellent, at parkour/freerunning, aaaand then they give the contrast of Bond who, in these films, is more of a brute; "a blunt instrument" as M puts it. And is actually really bad at making the jumps and maneuvers. I like to think Bond is 1/2 using his training, and 1/2 trying to mimic what the other guy is doing, so he can keep up. I'm rambling, I just love the contrast; the "villain" is far superior to the "hero" in this sequence, and it's great.

Shoutout to all the stunt doubles out there. They really don't get the credit they deserve.

Actually Scot Atkins mentioned this in one of his GQ breakdowns: Tony Jaa trained to do his moves without wires because he grew up with Chinese martial arts movies thinking that the flying stunts were done without wires. So in order to achieve the same he actually trained till the point where he almost had the ability to do alot of these jumps naturally

This man was destined for parkour with the name Jesse La Flair, that or Flamenco dancing

About time you get Jackie Chan on to break down Jackie Chans body breaking down in Jackie Chan movies.

Tony Jaa is a freaking menance - He does all the stunts himself and mostly without wires. What a Champ! Ong Bak, The Protector are awesome movies

In district b13 they allude to the fact that Lito (David belle) has made and planned out an escape route if his place was ever raided. Remember he tells the crime boss he will always be one step ahead of him. He planned that rope to be there and u can assume the whole run he had previously planned for a quick escape

I confirm, no wire on Ong Bak. I've seen the making of years ago and Tony Jaa did all that legit. Glad to see Ong Bak and Banlieue 13, finally movies I've seen in breakdowns

The guy acting Ong Bak, Tony Jaa is a legit Muay Thai fighter. He does his own stunts legitimately. And yes for the movies he does he is intentionally showing off, because he is that athletic. Go watch the full movie. It's amazing

I love how with Ong-Bak, he's so genuinely conflicted on whether he should think Tony Jaa's stunts are utterly ridiculous or genuinely impressive, and how he's gradually more like "this is really impractical and silly... but like, it's pretty sick tho"

The Casino Royale parkour chase is still one of my favourite movie scenes of all time. Not only were the stunts and action astonishing, but it was also mad cool how they illustrated the contrast between Bond and the bomb maker guy. Bond relies on brute strength and speed, while the bad guy has so much finesse. Blows my mind to watch every time.

Tony Jaa running on the gangs shoulders was definitely done without wires. He does this live at some NBA halftime performances.

Tony Jaa used to think the stunts in the old hong kong movies were real when they actually used wires. And he wanted to do that too. So he actually learned how to jump like this without wires. This dude is insane

I did long and triple jump in high school. the back motion you talk about with the legs is something we do before throwing everything forward to get maximum distance. we don't have to worry about landing safely on an object at height. we only focus on getting as far as possible. for distance jumping his technique is pretty good. for jumping onto an object at height and maintaining balance... not so much.

I can tell you that Tony Jaa whose in Ong Bak doesn't use a stunt double, wires or CG effects. What you see is him doing all these stunts.

0:04 My man came straight outta the game vector with those shins

I'd love to hear you talk about parkour/free running in games. Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge, Dying Light, Watch Dogs, etc. It would be really interesting to see how plausible or realistic you'd deem them, how practical and maybe have you give a ranking as to which best represents the art form. Also, if you ever get invited back for a part 2, I'd love to see your take on Hardcore Henry and the remake of B13...Brick Mansions.

I think the whole point of the Casino Royals one is that Bond isn't skilled in Parkour, and thus his jumps etc. Aren't/shouldn't be good technique or 'correct'.

That odd arching your back whine jumping sort of movement is a long jumping technique. It’s very good at launching your body further, but it’s obviously not ideal when you’re trying to land safely on some sort of ledge.