History Main / ExtremeSportsPlot

* ''Prayer of the Rollerboys'' takes place in a dystopian near-future America where, amidst economic collapse, a gang of white supremacist rollerbladers is taking over the drug market and terrorizing Los Angeles.

[[caption-width-right:350:Foreground, a typical Kim investigation/action plot. B background, Creator/{{ESPN}}'s actual X-Games.[[note]]Yes, ESPN ''is'' a subsidiary of the [[Creator/{{Disney}} Walt Disney Company]]. [[ProductPlacement Why do you ask?]][[/note]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' story "Scouts Dishonor" (Cartoon Network Block Party #35) has Billy enlisting in an Extreme Scouts troop where he and Grim (who got enlisted through Mandy exercising power of attorney) deal with a DrillSergeantNasty as well as their perilous obstacle courses.

* ''WesternAnimation/ButchCassidyAndTheSundancekids'': In "Road Racers", Butch and the gang trace black market diamond thieves and discover they're using a cross-country racing driver to smuggle the gems out of Italy.

[[caption-width-right:350:Foreground, a typical Kim investigation/action plot; background, Creator/{{ESPN}}'s actual X-Games[[note]]yes ESPN ''is'' a subsidiary of the [[Creator/{{Disney}} Walt Disney Company]], why do you ask?[[/note]]]]

The reason these sports have such appeal is in the RuleOfCool and excitement inherent in them. There's a certain thrill to seeing athletes or athletic actors commit incredible physical feats, made even more impressive by cinematography, soundtracks, and plot.

The narratives of Extreme Sports Plots vary. A newcomer underdog from a regular background might be introduced to the thrilling lifestyle. Established professionals might be betting it all on one last, dangerous ride. On occasion, an Extreme Sports Plot is mixed with another genre; a common one is for a cop to go undercover to investigate some illegal race/fight club.

* [[ThoseWackyNazis Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups]] are known to use [[https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kbpxq/neo-nazi-fight-clubs-how-the-far-right-uses-mma-to-spread-hate underground MMA competitions]] and [[https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7evgw/neo-nazi-fight-clubs-robert-rundo-fat-shaming-white-nationalism "active clubs"]] as a recruiting tool among young men, most notably in Europe but also in North America. The goal is to create propaganda depicting men involved in their subculture as [[RatedMForManly physically fit, hypermasculine badasses]] who can take on the world and are willing to resort to violence to do so, with such groups often serving as a gateway to membership in Nazi gangs and involvement in terrorist plots.

A type of SportsStory based around an extreme sport, such as street racing, underground Mixed Martial Arts, parkour, or free climbing.

* The historical basis for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race -- isolated town's children imperiled by diphtheria, weather conditions prevent shipment of antitoxin by sea or air, heroic teams of mushers and animals race the clock to deliver the lifesaving medicine -- used the Extreme Endurance Sport Excuse Plot for social change. It really happened in 1925, with the Great Race of Mercy to Nome, Alaska, but the organizers also made sure to keep the press informed, knowing that this life-and-death race would call attention to the lack of reliable transportation to western Alaska.

** ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious2001'': The excuse is that the street racers are hijacking shipment trucks to fund their activity, and a cop goes undercover to infiltrate the group. (It should be noted that [[RecycledScript the film is almost identical to the above-mentioned]] ''Point Break''.)

* In [[Film/PointBreak1991 the original 1991 film]], the excuse is that the surfers [[BankRobbery are robbing banks]] to fund their activity, and an FBI agent goes undercover to infiltrate the group. Although not the first, it is probably the most imitated example regarding films in this genre.

* ''Film/PointBreak1991'' (and its 2015 remake): The excuse is that the surfers [[BankRobbery are robbing banks]] to fund their activity, and an FBI agent goes undercover to infiltrate the group. Although not the first, it is probably the most imitated example regarding films in this genre.
** TheRemake is even crazier, with BigBad Bodie's justification going from "just" surfing to a jamboree of extreme stunts around the world that, if completed, are supposed to let the sports artist achieve a kind of spiritual Nirvana, not to mention that the heists now involve insane stunts such as Halo jumping.

* ''Film/DropZone'': The excuse is that some people want to break into the DEA office to find out all their undercover agents. It turns out Washington DC is [[ItsRainingMen a free drop zone for skydivers]] on one day (hard to say if this was ever true -- certainly not after 9/11), so they use that to sneak into the building.

* ''Film/TheSkydivers'' by Creator/ColemanFrancis, which managed to suck out any sort of joy or excitement one might find in the activity. Was featured in an episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.
* Another [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]-featured movie, ''Film/TheSidehackers'', is initially about motorcycle racing with sidecars. It takes a somewhat darker turn about [[HalfwayPlotSwitch a third of the way through.]]

* ''Film/XXx'': the Western governments apparently need an extreme sports athlete with anarchist leanings to infiltrate the like-minded Anarchy 99 terrorist group, as their clean-cut James Bond types have already been exposed and killed for their inability to mesh seamlessly within the group. The entire plot is a contrivance to set up the parachute-snowboard-snowmobile-grenade scene.
** The sequel ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'' swaps out the extreme sports for GangstaRap, as an ex-UsefulNotes/{{Navy SEAL|s}} from the UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC ghetto teams up with his former partners in crime to stop a coup attempt.
** And the third film ''[[Film/XXxReturnOfXanderCage xXx: Return of Xander Cage]]'' has Xander recruited for another mission and him deciding to ditch the CIA suit-and-tie gang that they tried to give him to recruit his own RagtagBunchOfMisfits team that, you guessed it, are all also master extreme sportsmen on top of whatever else they are good at.
* In the Creator/JackieChan film ''Film/NewPoliceStory'', the baddies are extreme sports enthusiasts and an action set piece takes place at a X-Games meeting.
* ''Film/BlueCrush'' may have a plot, but there are so many surf scenes, [[SceneryPorn shots of Hawaii]], and gratuitous [[MsFanservice beach scenes]] that it is completely obfuscated.
* ''Film/ExtremeDays'' has the four main characters surf, drive, ride, and board their way across the country, in the name of freedom the summer before beginning their college careers.
* ''Film/District13'' is designed to showcase the parkour skills of its protagonists, one of whom is actually the founder of the sport. The story is considerably more political than could be expected due to the social issues involved, dealing with a dystopia where the more dangerous neighborhoods around Paris were walled off by the government and left to fend for themselves.
* Released in late 2002, ''Extreme Ops'' concerned a film crew and three extreme sports enthusiasts who go to the Alps to shoot a commercial, only to discover the hideout of a war criminal who faked his death.
* ''Film/BloodSurf'' is a monster movie about a bunch of {{Surfer Dude}}s who film themselves attracting sharks and surfing nearby for kicks. This would make them TooDumbToLive by itself, but the sharks aren't actually the problem: there's also a much more vicious, [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile giant crocodile]] stalking them.
* Every Warren Miller ski documentary (there are over 50 of them) is this. They all have some nominal hook that claims to explore some concept in skiing, but films are a series of short vignettes following different skiiers, followed by a lot of amazing shots of people skiing which are the real reason people watch the movies.
* ''Film/OutCold'' was a SexComedy example, in which a [[SavingTheOrphanage "save the ski resort"]] plot is used as the excuse for a mix of early '00s raunchy humor and scenes of snowboarders carving up the slopes of British Columbia ([[CaliforniaDoubling doubling]] for UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}). The directors were at the time best known for the surfing documentary ''Thicker Than Water''.
* Both versions of ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'' have this. The titular BloodSport is a sci-fi mix of UsefulNotes/RollerDerby, motocross, and GladiatorGames. The original film emphasized the use of rollerball as BreadAndCircuses meant by the [[OneNationUnderCopyright corporate rulers of the world]] to suppress individualism, the protagonist Jonathan becoming an IconOfRebellion by emerging as a superstar athlete in a system designed to keep him down. In the remake, meanwhile, the BigBad made the sport as violent as he could in order to maximize ratings, even at the expense of his stars. The "extreme" elements are also emphasized, most notably with Wrestling/PaulHeyman as the announcer and the sport being heavily draped in a contemporary "Wrestling/AttitudeEra" pro wrestling aesthetic.

* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' had some of this vibe, as all the Rangers save Cam were extreme athletes in their off hours: Shane's a skateboarder, Tori's a surfer, and the others are motocross bikers. These hobbies rarely if ever crossed into their fights with the evil space ninjas, though.

* This trope is the whole purpose for Creator/WilliamsElectronics' ''[[Pinball/NoFearDangerousSports No Fear: Dangerous Sports]]''

* ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater Tony Hawk's Underground]]'' had a fairly decent plot involving getting sponsored by a major skateboarding company, and proving yourself as a star, before events made you realize that it was never about the money, and you end the game learning to do it for fun, rather than for money. The sequel then just had you skating around the world, causing destruction, as you're part of a team of pros competing in a "World Destruction Tour"

* ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive [[XtremeKoolLetterz Xtreme]] [[BeachEpisode Beach]] Volleyball''. The [[MsFanservice girls]] are tricked into going to an island for a fake tournament (even though two of them should know for a fact that there isn't one). One of them even falls for it twice. Despite some of them being bitter or even deadly rivals (kind of the reason they batter each other in ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive''), they all put this aside, play volleyball and buy each other swimsuits.
* ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge''. In a dystopian future, [[ShadowDictator the government]] monitors all communication, so LaResistance can only relay messages using [[LeParkour Parkour]]-trained agents who can jump rooftops and slide on rails.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSummit'' runs on this trope. After a UFO crashes at the Mt. Garrick ski resort and the military sets up shop there to study it, a group of rebellious snowboarders show up to uncover the truth, pitting them against the military and the ski patrol, who have teamed up in order to stop them.
* ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' and its sequels are based entirely around racing at high speeds on hoverboard-like objects known as Extreme Gear.

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'' has one of the more insane (and awesome) of these, involving UsefulNotes/ColdWar SuperSoldier experiments, radical Trans-Humanism and BulletTime powered by super-advanced math.
* The similarly-themed (although rather different past the premise) ''WesternAnimation/MaxSteel'' starts as this, but drops it for a season and a half when Josh [=McGrath,=] for whom 'Max Steel' is an alias, quits sports because he [[PowerIncontinence can't turn off his powers]] and doesn't enjoy competition with the unfair advantage. He later learns to overcome this and the trope shows up played straight in a couple of episodes, but he's completely switched careers. In the season three {{Retool}}, Josh is no longer a secret agent and goes back to competing, so it shows up a few more times.
* ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'' was pretty much filled to the brim with them, including one episode that featured Tony Hawk.

* One episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' has the Pokéathlon, which was probably put in there to promote the ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'' version that the player can compete in.

* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'':

* Released in late 2002, ''Extreme Ops'' concerned a film crew and three extreme sports enthusiasts who go to the Alps to shoot a commercial, only to discover the hideout of a war criminal who faked his death. It suffered from terrible pacing (it takes almost an hour for the war criminal to reveal himself) and being released just as Joe Public was getting really good and sick of the "X-Treme" craze of the early 00s. It bombed both critically and financially.

** The sequel ''Film/XXxStateOfTheUnion'' swaps out the extreme sports for GangstaRap, as an ex-{{Navy SEAL|s}} from the UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC ghetto teams up with his former partners in crime to stop a coup attempt.

** And the third film ''Film/XXxReturnOfXanderCage'' has Xander recruited for another mission and him deciding to ditch the CIA suit-and-tie gang that they tried to give him to recruit his own RagtagBunchOfMisfits team that, you guessed it, are all also master extreme sportsmen on top of whatever else they are good at.

[[WMG:[[center:[[AC:This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1640743372033890200 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.]]]]]]