Parkour Civilization might seem like every other silly Minecraft movie. Still, very unexpectedly the story Evbo has told through a Minecraft series reflects the poverty of the real world and what a caste system looks like.
Evbo was born as a parkour noob believing that the only way to gain true freedom was to become a parkour pro, all he knew was that being a parkour pro would make his life better. From the start, Evbo tells us that “Here in Parkour Civilization, no one chooses to jump for the beef. It’s better to be safe and do the one block jump for the raw chicken rather than risk your entire life for half a hunger bar more”. This is considerably the most popular line in the show. However, not only is it funny, it reflects a society where people are conditioned to stick to the "safer" or "approved" choices, much like how a caste system may dictate what each individual is allowed to strive for, based on their social position rather than personal ambition. Evbo worked hard to gain the ticket to rank up but failed his first jump in the course. Evbo finds the parkour prison where noobs who fail their jumps are jailed for years, but fortunately, he manages to bribe a guard to escape the prison.
After Evbo meets the old man who gives him a ticket and a barrier block, he realizes that the last jump to rank up to a parkour pro is impossible. The only way to get out of poverty was to use the barrier block the old man gave him. The impossible jump wasn’t a skill test. It was a metaphor for the structural barriers in society that limit individuals in poverty from advancing. The barriers can symbolize the lack of resources, education, or even opportunities. Furthermore, -little to no parkour noobs are trying to rank up to be a parkour pro, this is very similar to how people in poverty tend to focus more on survival rather than advancement.
Evbo ranks up to be a parkour pro and learns the truth about Parkour Civilization. He learns that above the Parkour pro level, there are Parkour Masters and The Champion. As a parkour pro, his job is to do daily tasks that contribute to society in exchange for food. The parkour pros are incentivized to work because they can get a pass to the training grounds where they practice their parkour skills. The fact that the parkour pros get the resources to improve their skills and rank up while parkour noobs don’t, tells us that the system was created so the parkour noobs will remain to be parkour noobs forever. Similar to how in real life, ones who are born poor are more likely to die poor due to the lack of resources provided for them by the government.
One time, Evbo felt like not doing his daily tasks, and for the first time, he met a parkour master. The parkour master challenges Evbo to a ‘parkour battle’ as a punishment for not doing his task. He battles the parkour master with 360 jumps and the master accepts defeat because those jumps were too difficult for him. The parkour master gives him a totem and tells him that the course to rank up is impossible. Again, the impossible jumps reflect the structural barriers in society even when parkour pros are considered the ‘middle class’.
Evbo finds the impossible jump, practices it with the secret path, and starts the course over again. While completing the course for the second time, a parkour pro sabotages him with a TNT in a tree. The parkour pro reveals himself and tells Evbo, “You were a noob, you don’t belong up there, you could never be a parkour master. You belong at the bottom level” This is clearly the pro trying to discourage him and waver his confidence, but how does this impactful line parallel the real world? Now, we can see it’s more than just the lack of resources these people have, it’s about the narrative others have of them. It shows us that people are often judged for their starting point and not their potential, hence the parkour pro called Evbo a noob.
This can look like the stereotypes that people in lower classes are less capable or are not worthy of success, no matter what their abilities are. Or other stereotypes of other uncontrollable factors like gender, sexuality, and race where, for example, a woman can be seen as ‘too emotional’ or less capable of getting a job that’s considered more masculine. Back to Minecraft, the parkour pro adds on saying, "You were a noob, you were born one and you’ll always be one.” At this point in the movie, his using the words ‘you were born one’ is a huge lore drop that hints each player was born into different parkour ranks and did not earn their way to be at a higher rank. From the ranking of courses we have seen, they were all impossible. The only way to become a parkour pro, master, or champion was to either be born into that status or have Evbo’s plot armor.
Evbo battles the parkour pro, wins with a two-block downwards backward diagonal jump, and is ranked up to become a Parkour Master. He learns Parkour masters also do tasks, but they can choose to do one whenever they want. They have an incentive to do so to get blocks from the bank to practice jumps. Evbo meets the parkour master who gave him the totem to rank up and the master tells him to travel as north as he can, find the highest parkour highway there is, and get into a building there.
Evbo finds and enters the building. He steps into a machine and it gives a flash of his memory with a player named ‘seawattgaming’ paying him to do a four-block jump. Evbo hides behind a bush when he sees a player with no boots on the machine and shortly after he sees Seawatt. The player with no boots failed a one-block jump and he was labeled a noob. This means that the first few jumps you take after just being ‘born’ determine who you can be. Seawatt calls out Evbo for hiding behind a bush and reveals to Evbo that the memory he has of him is fake, it was created so that people believed the way to succeed was parkouring. Then Seawatt proceeded to poison Evbo with a brewing stand jump.
Evbo wakes up to fight the parkour champion, but he fights three battles before he can even fight the champion. The Parkour Champion made a five-block jump, which was impossible for anyone. Evbo was back at square one. He returns to being a parkour noob, but then he meets the Parkour God who was looking out for him all this time. The Parkour God gives Evbo the Champion boots and says, “As long as you can parkour there is always a way”. So Evbo tries to find a ticket to rank up, but a parkour noob informs him that parkour pros don’t have any challenges for the ticket anymore making it completely impossible to rank up. This prevents the ‘noobs’ from challenging the parkour system. The current Champion was taking away everyone’s free will. However because Evbo had the champion boots, he broke the barriers and ranks up to a master and threatens Seawatt to know how to beat the Champion. Seawatt reveals that the Champion used a barrier block to make a ‘five’ block jump and the way for Evbo to win was to create a harder jump.
Finally, Evbo fights the Champion. They both did a Neo jump over the void and only one made it out alive. Evbo won, he became the new Champion and now he was going to redesign the whole of Parkour Civilization. “Parkour was never making or failing a jump, it was about getting up and trying again. And in my Parkour Civilization people will always have a chance to try again.” -Evbo
Evbo has turned some cheesy ideas into a cinematic masterpiece. I heavily encourage you to watch Parkour Civilization.