History Main / MobstacleCourse

* Anyone who busses tables at a buffet-style restaurant has to learn to do this while carrying a stack of plates.

* ''Film/{{Unknown}}'', during an on-foot chase scene through a hospital, the assassin is constantly blocked by people in his path, which prevents him from catching on to the hero who can escape.

* There's an actual tag-like game involving this and LeParkour: when on areas with very little people, you're allowed to move any way you like, even RoofHopping, but when in a crowded area, your objective is to cause as little commotion as possible and still move as fast as you can. Usually, the one with the best "crowd intuition" wins.

* ''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'': John Preston does this at least twice. He didn't have any place in particular to go one of the times, he was just running to blow off some steam or possibly to be alone and he floored random citizen onto his back!

* Used ''Film/BatmanTheMovie'' as they attempt to reach the United World building.

* In DonRosa's DonaldDuck story "On Stolen Time", Donald and his nephews chase the Beagle Boys atop the heads of a crowd of people who have been frozen in time.

* ''VideoGame/DeadRising'' lets you do this through crowds of zombies if you position your jumps right.
** Not in the {{Wii}} version, where [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer you instead just blast your way through with your guns]].

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', during the "Agent Training Program", Neo is continually bumping into people as he and Morpheus walk through a crowded New York City street. Conveniently, the crowd parts for Morpheus.
** Later in ''Film/TheMatrix'', Neo is forced to do this while running through crowds of people in the streets while escaping from the three Agents near the end of the movie. The Agents tend to just throw people out of their way. Or shoot them.
*** Or simply change places with them

[[folder:Film]]

* Subverted in ''{{Hackers}}'', where the heroes are able to not only weave through the crowded conditions around Grand Central Station easily, they use the crowd (and the traffic) to keep the FBI at bay for a while.

* Subverted in ''OngBak: The Thai Warrior'' in which Tony Jaa, confronted by a crowd, ''runs across people's heads''. The {{Mooks}} chasing him are unable to duplicate the feat and must push through the MobstacleCourse.

* In ''BroadcastNews'', Joan Cusack's character must cross a MobstacleCourse to get a badly needed newstape to the broadcast booth in order for the tape to be included in that night's news broadcast. She barely gets it there in time, but she gets it there.

* ''TheWindAndTheLion'': While the U.S. Marines are trotting through the streets of Tangier, they run into a crowd of people and push them out of the way, including throwing two people into market stalls along a wall.

* The climax of ''TwelveMonkeys'' takes place in such a scene at the airport.

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' does this with George while trying to get a ''Frogger'' arcade console across a busy New York City street. HilarityEnsues.

* ''DeadRising'' lets you do this through crowds of zombies if you position your jumps right.

* In ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', our introduction to the titular character occurs as he dashes with a stolen piece of bread through crowds, fakirs, and herds of sheep with ease while his pursuers take the "toss-everyone-aside" approach.
* This is how Kronk loses the bag holding the unconscious Kuzco in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''.

* Likewise in ''Film/CrocodileDundee'', Mick Dundee "takes the high road" across people's shoulders when he can't make his way through a crowd to get to [[LoveInterest Sue Charlton]].

* The main character of CoryDoctorow's ''Literature/DownAndOutInTheMagicKingdom'' does this all the time, which leads directly to his employment at Disney World.

Our hero has to get to his destination ''yesterday'', and he's on foot. Unfortunately, there's a huge crowd between him and his goal, and for whatever reason, shouting at them to get out of his way just isn't cutting it. His only option is to weave his way through the crowd Frogger-style; changing speeds, cutting left and right to avoid clumps of people, and sometimes even ducking under carried objects and jumping over the incidental obstacles like benches and garbage cans. Generally, if the person is being chased or is fleeing a scene, they'll not even bother dodging, preferring to just bull their way through a crowd as best they can. (Naturally, the hero has to be nicer about it than the villain.) Of course, if the person being chased does this right, they tend to be LostInACrowd. If the hero is holding onto a MacGuffin, odds are he'll lose it, and have to play a game of CrowdHockey in order to get it back.

* In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', Bond chasing Silva through the London Underground during rush hour is this.

* ''{{Equilibrium}}'': John Preston does this at least twice. He didn't have any place in particular to go one of the times, he was just running to blow off some steam or possibly to be alone and he floored random citizen onto his back!
* ''JamesBond'' examples:
** ''{{Thunderball}}'' features the classic chase in the Junkanoo parade, where an injured Bond is desperately trying to get away from [[FemmeFatale Fiona Volpe]] and her {{Mook}}s. He fails, and makes it out alive only thanks to some DeadlyDodging.
** The ski chase in ''OnHerMajestysSecretService'' has this right in the middle, at Bond's DarkestHour after escaping from Piz Gloria...which is when [[GirlOfTheWeek Tracy di Vincenzo]] re-enters the plot to save his bacon.

* The {{Nintendo}} ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' game. And what's better, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everyone wants Marty dead]], including [[SheetOfGlass guys carrying windows]] and hula hoop girls.

** ''{{Thunderball}}'' features the classic chase in Nassau's equivalent of Carnival, where an injured Bond is desperately trying to get away from [[FemmeFatale Fiona Volpe]] and her {{Mook}}s. He fails.

* ''Film/CasinoRoyale'': Mollaka, the bomb-making LeParkour villain, gets chased by Bond in Madagascar through a construction site and an embassy. He practically goes out of his way to push and shove bystanders aside as well as kick one off a superstructure quite ruthlessly, even though he demonstrates several times that he can avoid obstacles with ease with his free running skill.

* Happens when ''TheAmazingRace'' visits big cities, especially in India. Sometimes used as a task where teams have to find a specific person within the mob.

* The {{Nintendo}} ''BackToTheFuture'' game. And what's better, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everyone wants Marty dead]], including [[SheetOfGlass guys carrying windows]] and hula hoop girls.

* The main character of CoryDoctorow's ''DownAndOutInTheMagicKingdom'' does this all the time, which leads directly to his employment at Disney World.

* One of the highlighted features of ''AssassinsCreed'' was the protagonists capacity to make his way unnoticed through [[MobstacleCourse crowds]], weaving in and out, and gently pushing people aside without breaking pace.

* Deckard does this while pursuing Zhora through the crowd in ''{{Bladerunner}}''.

* ''{{Wanted}}''. One of the various climactic scenes is this trope [[IncendiaryExponent on fire.]] The main character runs through a huge loom hallway covered with explosive rats, shooting the hell out of everyone that gets in his way, never once reloading his weapons- instead, he catches the guns his enemies drop out of the air. And he doesn't stop moving.

* In Disney/{{Aladdin}}, our introduction to the titular character occurs as he dashes with a stolen piece of bread through crowds, fakirs, and herds of sheep with ease while his pursuers take the "toss-everyone-aside" approach.

Our hero has to get to his destination ''yesterday'', and he's on foot. Unfortunately, there's a huge crowd between him and his goal, and for whatever reason, shouting at them to get out of his way just isn't cutting it. His only option is to weave his way through the crowd Frogger-style; changing speeds, cutting left and right to avoid clumps of people, and sometimes even ducking under carried objects and jumping over the incidental obstacles like benches and garbage cans. Generally, if the person is being chased or is fleeing a scene, they'll not even bother dodging, preferring to just bull their way through a crowd as best they can. (Naturally, the hero has to be nicer about it than the villain.) Of course, if the person being chased does this right, they tend to be LostInACrowd. If the hero is holding onto a {{MacGuffin}}, odds are he'll lose it, and have to play a game of CrowdHockey in order to get it back.

[[folder: Comics ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''{{The Wind And The Lion}}'': While the U.S. Marines are trotting through the streets of Tangier, they run into a crowd of people and push them out of the way, including throwing two people into market stalls along a wall.

* ''Film/{{Inception}}'': After meeting Eames, Cobb is chased through the streets of Mombasa by {{Mooks}} sent by Cobal Engineering, and must shove his way past bystanders. Luckily, when the people chasing Cobb start shooting, [[{{Imperial Storm Trooper Marksmanship Academy}} their aim is all over the place]]
* In the Hungarian film ''{{Film/Kontroll}}'' Bulsco's gang chase a graffiti artist, which requires pushing past and through random people.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''{{Heavy Rain}}'' invokes a tragic version of this while you're trying to get to Jason.

* In the ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Taste of Freedom", during Freedom Day (the day for doing whatever you want with no regard for consequences) Bender attaches a cowcatcher to himself for pushing through crowds.
* In {{Disney/Aladdin}}, our introduction to the titular character occurs as he dashes with a stolen piece of bread through crowds, fakirs, and herds of sheep with ease while his pursuers take the "toss-everyone-aside" approach.

* TruthInTelevision, of course, especially in large cities.

* In one of EEDocSmith's books (an early ''{{Lensman}}'' one, if memory serves) our hero is undercover with some criminals on a very highly populated planet - the criminals are experts at running the crowds, and the hero has to barge people aside and generally rush to keep up, and hope that the villain doesn't turn back to check on him. The expectation was that a guy in the position he was claiming to hold would know how to run the crowds, and it was a sort of SecretTestOfCharacter.