Damien Walters Showreel

By Shamus Posted Saturday May 30, 2009

Filed under: Movies 45 comments


Link (YouTube)

My thoughts:

That one trick at the 55 second mark? Pfft. Big deal. I took off my pants as recently as yesterday, and I did it without the trampoline thing.

More seriously: I always laughed at those wall-run moves in Prince of Persia, but they aren’t all that different from what this guy is doing. And he doesn’t have time-traveling cutlery to bail him out if he messes up.

Jackie Chan is fifty-five years old. As much as I love his work, he’s getting to the point where he probably shouldn’t be back-flipping out of an exploding helicopter into a burning car crusher owned by angry Shaolin monks. I have always wondered who could possibly take his place as the world’s foremost comic kung-fu stunt actor. After seeing this, I nominate Damien Walters. Someone hurry up and get that man into a helicopter made of dynamite and filled with ninjas.

Putting this guy on wires would be insane. The stuff he’s doing on the street already looks fake. (For example, watch this one at the 45 second mark.)

Also: He’s good with kids.

It really is disgusting how much talent some people have. The nerve.

 


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45 thoughts on “Damien Walters Showreel

  1. Debaser says:

    Wow, just … wow. How does he manage to get such amazing height from such small jumps?

  2. karln says:

    If you search youtube for ‘parkour’ you should find several examples of wallruns, both horizontal and vertical, similar to those in PoP/Mirror’s Edge — they sometimes use walls with a slight incline but I’ve also seen it done on vertical surfaces.

  3. Gerard says:

    Pfft. He can’t even double jump. :P

  4. capital L says:

    I nominate Tony Jaa. Ong Bak seemed to me to be very much a movie in line with the Jackie Chan style: no wire work, technical fight scenes, stunts performed by the lead himself (I think), ample comic relief, main character as a good hearted rube.

  5. Noumenon says:

    (For example, watch this one at the 45 second mark.)

    You can link directly to the 45 second mark in a YouTube video by adding #t=0m45 to the end of the URL. Like so. I love this direct linking feature and think we might eventually get Googleable video out of it.

  6. skizelo says:

    That’s, like, the least efficient mode of travel ever.

  7. Carra says:

    [email protected], seriouslY? Jumping above a street where cars pass, that does look reckless. Don’t try this at home, kids!

  8. WysiWyg says:

    As has already been mentioned; kung-fu is SO 5 years ago. Parkour is the new thang.

    On another note; the one thing I am most envious about isn’t his talent or abilities (although I wouldn’t mind being able to do even half of those things), it’s his belief and trust in himself. When he starts doing backflips that goes faster and faster he must have an incredible belief in his own abilities. Me, even if I had his body, I would have been petrified.

  9. MOM says:

    I hope his mother isn’t watching. I know I worry about Shamus anytime he does that walking thing.

  10. Ugh, this is the third time I’ve entered this post now, as I forgot to enter my email and WordPress doesn’t autosave what you’ve written when it errors. So I’ll just post the link instead:

    That's, like, the least efficient mode of travel ever.

    Two freerunners racing a Peugeot 207 on TopGear:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNBPQe4dFxk

  11. toasty says:

    that is pretty amazing.

    I refuse to let Jackie Chan retire. He’s too cool for that. :p

  12. ngthagg says:

    The move at about 2:10 when he uses a moving car to boost himself up a wall is ready made for a movie. I can see Jason Bourne doing a stunt like that during a chase scene.

  13. Yar Kramer says:

    Do I smell an incoming Memetic Badass? (Warning, link leads to TVTropes. If you follow that link you will likely spend hours browsing that site. You have been warned.) I can only imagine what he’d be like if they gave him a lightsaber

    Also, I want the background music for that. Seriously.

  14. Rutskarn says:

    Screw “made of dynamite and filled with ninjas”, let’s take the next logical step.

    Filled with dynamite and made of ninjas.

  15. TehShrike says:

    Tony Jaa is awesome, it’s true.

    I showed my dad (who was a gymnast through college) a video of people doing stunts like that a few years ago, and he was thoroughly unimpressed.

    He thought they were too sloppy, and would never have been able to hack it with a real gymnast.

    Still, to someone like me who’s never been initiated into the People Who Can Do Awesome Things with their Bodies club, it looks pretty ridiculous.

    Not as ridiculous as this, though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o

  16. Fosse says:

    In the bits filmed in a large gymnasium… how in the world are the other people not simply transfixed?! They’re just going about their business while this guy Spider-Mans his way around the place.

  17. AGrey says:

    This man is well-suited to surviving the zombie apocalypse.

    give him a machete and a shotgun, and he will singlehandedly save humanity

  18. wonderduck says:

    1:20. Flying backwards over large wall after a flipping pass.

    I wish he had hair so we could see if the video was run backwards. It just seems so not possible.

  19. unitled says:

    Wow, this is filmed in Derby where I live! The bit where he jumps onto the beam above the main road is on my walking route into town… I’ll have to keep my eyes open for him!

  20. John Callaghan says:

    All terrific stuff, and thanks for the links. I was particularly amused by the young gymnast doing a spin off his back.

  21. Kalil says:

    No one commented on the music. Isn’t that a remix of Liberi Fatali from FF8?

  22. Pocket Nerd says:

    Impressive. Most impressive.

    The limits of possibility are often just a little beyond where most people think they are…

  23. Jason B. says:

    The fact that he has an enormous amount of natural talent is cool. The fact that he has devoted himself to the utmost development of this talent, while remaining humble and passing on his skill and passion to the younger generation is absolutely admirable.
    I think he is to be emulated in his character rather than just because he can do cool stuff.
    Although I do love the cool stuff. :D

  24. Scourge says:

    As i said somewhere else already, seething envy.. just seething envy.

    And yes, if there is a zombiecapolypse will he survive.. or hunt you down as the uber zombie.

    In either case is england not safe then anymore.

  25. Duoae says:

    Was that a remixed Final Fantasy 8 song?

  26. VonKunkel says:

    His moves are not bad, but I’m willing to bet that he is not very good at programming procedural graphics engines, so I’m still unimpressed.

  27. Vladius says:

    Ubisoft would be smart to use him for motion capture for whatever Prince of Persia sequel they’re cooking up. I mean, if you can make it look any more realistic than its current ridiculous incarnation, why not do it?

  28. Terrible says:

    If only the GTA guy could do that, he’d have no trouble getting those hidden packages.

  29. Deoxy says:

    Screw “made of dynamite and filled with ninjas”, let's take the next logical step.

    Filled with dynamite and made of ninjas.

    Either way is actually just awesomely funny.

    And yes, this guy looks like a tall, white, bald version of Jackie Chan. Which is pretty darn humorous itself, when said that way.

    As much as I love his work, he's getting to the point where he probably shouldn't be back-flipping out of an exploding helicopter into a burning car crusher owned by angry Shaolin monks.

    I’m a serious Chan-fan, and that was just a beautiful summary of his non-mainstream, non-Chinese works (movies that are just a vehicle for Chan to go off – very enjoyable if you like him, very not if you don’t).

    He actually has retired, by the way, at least to a certain extent: he’s letting (younger) stuntmen do the more extreme stuff now. Sad, but you can only break most of the bones in your body so many times over so many years before your body finally pushes back. Of course, for most of us, that “so many times over so many years” would be “once, anytime, ever”, so I don’t at all blame him. heh.

    By the way – did he pioneer including the outtakes at the end? The earliest examples I’ve seen of that (by several years) is some of his early stuff. Of course, a lot of that was showing the screw-ups, probably to prove it was him doing it, and OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH. Seriously. Some of that stuff needs some kind of “if you have a weak stomach” type of warning. Falling 30+ feet, back first, onto concrete? Getting hit by the helicopter at the back of the train (thankfully, the blades weren’t going!)?!? Wow, PAIN.

  30. Leonardo Herrera says:

    I’m a fan of Cyril Rafaelli myself. Been around a while; he’s the cop in B13, did the stunts for The Transporte, and, most recently, he played ‘damn hamster!’ guy in Live Free or Die Hard.

  31. Cadrys says:

    Clearly he’s the inspiration for the Hunter in L4D.

  32. dkAllen says:

    Errmm… the music. Yeah. I liked what the music /should/ have been, but some moronic idiot pushed it into clipping, probably because they liked how the stupid distorted bass line made their penis tingle. The video is actually easier to watch without the shitty audio track.

    And yes, the video is impressive (if maybe a bit repetitive – and redundant – and repetitive…)

  33. VonKunkel says:

    > By the way – did he pioneer including the outtakes at the end?

    As far as I know, Burt Reynolds was the first to do that.

  34. Candrian says:

    This guy reminds me of a motivational poster I saw once.

    DEXTERITY
    Get it above 20 and you can do all kinds of crazy shit.

  35. ryanlb says:

    Wow, that guy is amazing!

  36. molotoff says:

    somebody know whose remix is on the backgr of the clip? and what is the name of the mix?

  37. T-roy says:

    whoe dude you are awesome, your influence must be jackie chan, but your imagination is all you, you amaze me, dont get hurt..T-roy

  38. DeShannon & Matias Beasley says:

    that is one gifted, talented ,strong,individual. we loved it.

  39. orsatelli says:

    salut damien

    voila 1 video interressante , on dirais 1 plume qui ce fait porté par le vent . un fantasme de faire pareil.

    carine de CORSE

  40. leemo, says:

    Well, I am a Chinese girl read your run cool video
    Very cool,
    Well, unfortunately I no man so can run
    I am your small fans a HA HA
    You are very good, as you tribute

  41. carlosierra says:

    wow you are amaZIng i can do that to you weak

  42. GazB says:

    Damien has already been scouted by Jackie Chan’s stunt agent. But when you see the stuff that he can do, it’s not hard to see why. If you want to see some of Damien’s work in film, check out Ninja Assassain. Then watch his videos again and you will see him practicing.

    It’s not surprising that he is so good. He has been doing this for nearly 25 years. He has represented Great Britain winning 1st place in many european and international events and at one point ranked 4th in the world at tumbling. If anyone doesn’t believe that this is real, go down to Derby City Gymnastics centre. Damien is there pretty much everyday and trains for about 3-4 hours.

  43. Leonel Blau says:

    I can jump 5 bicycles and i have 13 years. This is good???

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