another thought, uh, this IS gonna be 2009. Nobody can really predict how that will change parkour, since we don't know what parkour will be like then. I mean, if somebody said that it would cast parkour in a bad light, well, how do we know it won't ALREADY be in a bad light, and the movie won't affect it. If people in 2009 understand parkour isn't about just jumping off stuff like crazy people, then they'll think oh, they're just mis-using parkour, unlike that traceur who lives down the street. 'Cause who knows what it'll be like to start with.

Call me a skeptic but I don’t think parkour will not change that much in a year and a half to two years here in America – perhaps getting closer to two years we might see some noticeable changes but I still doubt it.  I doubt it because America is such a large country with such a huge population – to get any significant portion of the population aware about a new trend is particularly difficult without widespread exposure.  Right now, parkour in the US lacks that.  The only information getting out about parkour has been through local news services and the information that is getting out is not that great – only a few minutes on the evening news, which unless the local new community does a good job doesn’t really give the audience a good idea of what it is.  Or even if it does do a good job a presenting the information most do not give the audience information on who to contact if they want to try and learn parkour.  To compound that effect there is the fact most people don’t have the self discipline to train parkour in the right way and keep with it – they need someone to show them the way.  This site is trying to help that, but the mainstream awareness of this site is no where near great enough.
Also, when you consider the national informational pieces that have been done on parkour such as in TIME magazine, which did a poor job or representing parkour in a positive light, or The New Yorker magazine, whose target audience is not one that will be overwhelmingly receptive towards parkour, they have not created enough interest.  Though I personally loved the New Yorker article I think that most people who have read it have long since forgotten it.
Movies like the new James Bond that have parkour in them do a good job of reaching a broad audience but they don’t provide any education.  So, as was mentioned before in this thread, people just say “Oh wow! That’s cool!” then just shrug it off as some other action movie stunt.
What you need, in my opinion is something akin to what happened in Britain with programs such as Jump London and Jump Britain showing on the BBC.  Now if we had an hour long documentary following some of the “creators” of parkour/freerunning air on something like NBC at around prime time then I think you would see a similar explosion of interest here in the US.  But also, Jump Britain showed members from Urban Freeflow, showing the public an institution that they could go to.  Again, an established institution of that caliber doesn’t really exist here in the US.  There’s the talent and the desire, but it is spread all around the country – nothing is centralized.  Again, Americanparkour’s efforts are on the right track but, nevertheless, they’re not where they need to be to have such a profound effect.  And, quite frankly, unless there is a massive media push they will be unable to get that type of exposure.  And before I get flamed, let me say that I think what APK does for the US parkour community is a great thing and I support all their efforts 100% and wish them the very best.
Also, the APK community (just like many others) is largely passive.  There is a great number of members on this site – but how many of them are actually active, contributing members – many are either not actively involved or they simply stopped practicing parkour.  I know of at least twenty people who took up and then stopped doing parkour in my local area.  Also I know of many more practitioners of parkour who do train but for them it is a leisure activity and they really don’t put in any personal investment, involvement or organization efforts into it.  A major reason for this is the fact that there is no large institution that they can look to or belong to.  Currently in the US many people have no incentive to become involved or train – because there is simply nothing for them to get into.  And the thought of trying to start something is too daunting of a task for many.  Then there are those who do try to start something, but simply don’t know how to go about it and eventually they grow tired of the apathy of fellow practitioners and the lack of any really developments become disenfranchised and then give up.  Everyone is waiting to see what the few people who are trying will do.  Until something really gets started, most will simply remain on the sidelines.  Right now, simply, parkour is just too young in America.  Not enough people have been introduced to it in a meaningful and positive way.
It is for these combined reasons that I fear a movie such as the one that has been described here could be so bad for parkour.  The first impression is the strongest, it can never be undone.  And if that impression is a negative one – well, that leaves us all with a large hole to climb out of.  So unless, the production of this movie is handled very carefully with how parkour is portrayed it will be a bad thing for us.  Once people develop a cognitive association that parkour is linked with crime or delinquents, you’re going to see concerned communities putting up “no parkour” signs and stricter management of clubs and groups.  Parkour would cease to be a free discipline – and instead would be forced into specialized sanctioned environments.  This is a dramatization, but once you start on that negative path that it is the endpoint.  So I hope very much that any tracuers involved in that production think carefully about the ramifications of their actions and make sure that if this movie is made they do inadvertently end up crucifying the spirit of parkour.
   

I'm not sure what the problem is... when bad-ass movies about racing cars come out does the street-racing culture get shattered? (i don't know but i don't think so)
When the "bad-guy" in James Bond runs away with what has been widely acclaimed as freerunning or parkour in a scene which is often used as an example to people who aren't familiar with the sport; does the parkour culture crash?

thats true but i mean movies got me into parkour i saw jackie chan run up a wall so i googled it and found this site

No, I meant nothing as dramatic as the entire parkour community hanging in the balance . . . however I do think that if handled incorrectly it certainly would be a bad thing.  I am not saying that this movie would cause a worst case scenario situation for parkour however it this movie presented parkour in a negative light and we ourselves did nothing to change peoples opinions or stand by meekly as we allow others to define what parkour is for us then yes I think you will end up with a situation that is similar to the situation regarding skateboarding or BMX and like.
However, as you've suggested there are things we can do. While our ability to affect the public’s opinion on a nation level is severely limited we can work on a local level.  But to do that we must take a pro-active approach we must engage others and create a dialogue about what parkour is and what it represents.  In this regard we all have a great responsibility as we are the first generation adopters of the sport in the US.  As it as been said many times on this site before - we are all ambassadors for this sport.  The actions of one of us reflect upon the community as a whole.  Each of us, if you are serious about parkour and if you care about it should seek to create a group at your school or in your community, educate others about parkour, show them the positive benefits, and act in a responsible manner.  As I said, many find this task to be too daunting.  But the thing is that it shouldn't be.  People are generally very receptive to parkour, they are interested in it, and they want to learn about it, it is actually remarkable how much people want to get behind this once you show them a way.  But you have to take that first step . . . .


First off, street racing is an illicit activity, so I don’t think you should be making a comparison between the affects of a movie on an illicit activity and a legal one – they are not the same and thus you are comparing apples to oranges.  Also street racing and parkour are very different. One is about thrill seeking and the other personal growth – by their very purpose these two activities stand contrary to one another.  But to answer your question street racing as already an illegal activity could not loose its legitimacy because it had none to begin with.  However street racing gained a lot of attention after the Fast and the Furious movies came out which did attract a lot of new admirers but the greater appeal and attention also caused law enforcement to pay more attention and resulted in crack downs on street racing in many cities.
Also as I discussed in my first post the reason that the chase scene in Casino Royal has lead to any effect on the parkour community because people were not told that what he was doing was parkour.  They have no reason to think that it was anything else than regular movie stunts.
However, a movie that has parkour in it and that is recognized in the movie as parkour will give people an impression about what parkour is. Because of this movie’s premise the resulting cognitive relation of parkour will most likely be – unless handled very carefully - with crime (specifically – bank robbing).  This is something I think we all want to avoid.  Though I don’t think people will think traceurs are actually bank robbers the premise does act as a negative introduction to parkour.  People will assume, as they already do, (but on a larger scale thanks to this new movie) that traceurs are adrenaline junkies or risk takers when the opposite is the truth.  To me it seems that this movie would do nothing but further these stereotypes which are in direct contradiction to our efforts to dispel such notions and build parkour as a beneficial, positive, and legitimate physical discipline here in the US.

well my thoughts are that one
if they make a parkour movie and its going to be like all the breakdancing movies and just that type of movie then no one is going to see it in theaters.(who doesnt already know what parkour is)  A few people will go see it but it will most likely be out within 2-3 months after airing in theaters and will probably end up on hbo and people might watch it but with all these videos on the internet why pay $9.50 to see extremely dangerous and probably fake parkour that has tons of mats and stunt coordinators.  Also if it is like the breakdancing movies they only thing that they will probably be counting on to make the movie good is the parkour cause the plot just sounds like complete shit and thats usually what they are about.  Movies like this usually have a very bad plot with sweet action scenes and try to make either a big twist in the movie or some really fake drama.  I guarantee one of the traceurs will have some parkour related accident (he might just get shot or something) or he betrays the parkour gang or whatever and the cop has to fill in for him.  THIS OF COURSE IS ALL COMPLETE SPECULATION BECAUSE OF THE VAGUE DETAILS ON IMDB AND JUST PREVIOUS THOUGHTS ABOUT IT BEING LIKE ONE OF THE DANCING MOVIES AND SUCH THIS IS WHAT I THINK WILL TURNOUT


Another thing is that if these Parkour scenes are really that amazing then they will be uploaded on to youtube within a day or two and finally im going to get so PISSED OFF if everyone asks me what im doing if I have to start referencing it to the movie cause in my opinion the movie looks like complete shit and will definitely not get much response at all from the general public but if it does then i dont want to explain parkour by saying "have you seen the movie where people do all these acrobatics and vaults and such to rob banks, Cause that is what i am practicing right now"


Last thing, nothing like bringing a topic back exactly one year after it was left off

because people on the recent thread told the people there to go to this thread and people kept on saying we have to wait and see what happened so what better time to resurrect it then a year later and besides people that joined within the last year probably dont know much about it