History Main / ExtremeSportsPlot

So you want to make a film or show based on an extreme sport that your target demographic is really into these days, to cash in on the trend. But you can't really focus on it without a plot, unless you want to make a documentary about it. And how could you justify featuring big name, A-list actors in a documentary?

So maybe, drug lords are using the local illegal street racing competition as a recruiting ground for wheelmen, and our hero is an undercover cop who must infiltrate them. Perhaps the protagonist's [[YouKilledMyFather father was killed]] in the ring of an Mixed Martial Arts competition, and he must seek vengeance by joining the competition and defeating the killer. Or alien invaders use [[AppliedPhlebotinum some sort of suppression field]] to disable all electronic devices, so the only way LaResistance can communicate in the [[UrbanWarfare city's battlegrounds]] is with elite practitioners of ''LeParkour' as messengers. May involve NotJustATournament.

Whichever route you choose, it's clear from the beginning that the whole point is to feature [[XtremeKoolLetterz Xtreme Troping]] for 100 minutes and grab a hold of the people you think are into it. Occasionally the plot will be strong enough to make for an entertaining work on its own, but this is far from a requirement.

Compare ExcusePlot.

Contrast SubcultureOfTheWeek.

** ''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.

** ''Film/FastAndFurious'': Same as the second (different drug lord), with the added twist that Don is also going undercover on his own initiative to get revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend. From that point onwards things go so off the rails in SerialEscalation that the series essentially becomes ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' with a [[PimpedOutCar souped-up car]] gimmick.

* ''Film/{{Banlieue 13}}'' 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.

* ''Extreme Ops'' was an example that came out 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 as a result.

* The 2002 remake of ''Film/{{Rollerball}}'' made the story into this. Whereas the original film emphasized the use of the titular BloodSport as BreadAndCircuses meant by the [[OneNationUnderCopyright corporate rulers of the world]] to suppress individualism, this version focused on the rollerblading, the fast bikes, and Wrestling/PaulHeyman as the announcer. It's stated that the BigBad made the sport as violent as he could in order to maximize ratings.

** ''Film/FastAndFurious'': Same as the second (different drug lord), with the added twist that Don is also going undercover on his own initiative to get revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend. From that point onwards things go so off the rails in SerialEscalation that the series essentially becomes ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' with a car chase gimmick.

* ''Xtreme Sports'' for Game Boy Color, aptly enough. Fin and his girlfriend Guppi hear about an extreme sports competition sponsored by the Xtreme Cola company, so they compete against each other so that [[LoopholeAbuse they both have the chance to win its cash prize]]. There ''is'' a group of antagonists called the Bone-Heads, but they're only secondary to the main objective.

So you want to make a film based on an extreme sport that your target demographic is really into these days, to cash in on the trend. But you can't really focus on it without a plot, unless you want to make a documentary about it. And how could you justify featuring big name, A-list actors in a documentary?

* ''Film/{{Banlieue 13}}'' is designed to showcase the parkour skills of its protagonists, one of whom is actually the founder of the sport.

** First movie: The excuse is that the street racers are hijacking shipment trucks to fund their activity, and a cop goes undercover to infiltrate the group.
** Second movie: The excuse is that the same undercover cop and an ex-convict become street racers in order to get hired as drivers for a drug lord so they can infiltrate his operation.
** Third movie: The excuse is that a street-racing teenager sent to his US Navy dad stationed in Japan wrecks a {{yakuza}} drifter's car, and he must work as his errand boy until he pays his car.
** Fourth movie: Same as the second (different drug lord), with the added twist that Don is also going undercover on his own initiative to get revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend. From that point onwards things go so off the rails in SerialEscalation that the series essentially becomes ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' with a car chase gimmick.

** And the third film ''Film/XXxTheReturnOfXanderCage'' 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.

** And the third film ''Film/XXxTheReturnOfXanderGage'' 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.

** Fourth movie: Same as the second (different drug lord), with the added twist that Don is also going undercover on his own initiative to get revenge on the man who killed his girlfriend.

** Although that is at least still some sort of plot, in the sequel ''LesFilsDuVent'' the group literally just runs (or parkours) into criminals.

So maybe, drug lords are using the local illegal street racing competition as a recruiting ground for wheelmen, and our hero is an undercover cop who must infiltrate them. Perhaps the protagonist's [[YouKilledMyFather father was killed]] in the ring of an Mixed Martial Arts competition, and he must seek vengeance by joining the competition and defeating the killer. Or alien invaders use [[AppliedPhlebotinum some sort of suppression field]] to disable all electronic devices, so the only way LaResistance can communicate in the [[UrbanWarfare city's battlegrounds]] is with elite practitioners of ''LeParkour' as messengers.

Whichever route you choose, its clear from the beginning that the whole point is to feature [[XtremeKoolLetterz Extreme Troping]] for 100 minutes and grab ahold of the people you think are into it. Occasionally the plot will be strong enough to make for an entertaining work on its own, but this is far from a requirement.

* A number of {{LEGO}} lines, including ''Extreme Team'', ''[[VideoGame/LEGOIsland Island Xtreme Stunts]]'', and ''Gravity Games'', have little plot beyond extreme stunts.

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan'' 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.

Compare ExcusePlot. Contrast SubcultureOfTheWeek.

Compare ExcusePlot.

SubTrope of ExcusePlot.

* ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' has an episode where Earl is still in his coma, and the hospital convinces Randy to start caring for him at home instead of keeping him there, or moving him to long-term care. Randy has figured out that doing items on the List seems to improve Earl's condition (even pulling him back from the brink of death in an earlier episode), and one of the items involved stealing wheelchairs from two paralyzed children some 20+ years ago to go racing, leaving them out in the sun to be humped by a dog. The boy (now a man) competes in a game called "Killerball," which is like a cross between basketball and dodgeball, in wheelchairs. So does the girl's (now a woman) ex-boyfriend. Earl (despite being totally unaware) gets caught in the middle of a conflict between the ex-boyfriend and the brother. [[spoiler: He wakes up from the coma in the middle of the game, after scoring a winning goal.]]