Sam: Jack? You ready?
Jack: Locked and loaded.
Sam: There's over 200 drivers and about 3000 miles of asphalt between here and New York.
Jack: Sounds good to me!
The one that is a cinematic action movie.
Need for Speed: The Run is a racing game and the eighteenth title in the Need for Speed series. Published by Electronic Arts, it was released on November 15, 2011, with EA Black Box developed versions for PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, while Firebrand Games developed the version for the 3DS and Wii.note Unlike previous entries in the series that were set in fictional locations, The Run features an extensive collection of races set against real-life locations, including the cities of New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, and features a wide variety of real-life cars to drive in.
Jack Rourke, an experienced street racer, finds himself in serious trouble with the mob due to a massive debt with them. After narrowly avoiding being crushed within his car at a scrapyard due to his failure to repay what he owes and escaping from his captors by stealing one of their cars. He makes contact in San Francisco with his friend Sam Harper, a fixer who arranges his entries into street races, who offers to help him deal with the mob on one condition — Jack must enter an illegal, large-scale street race from San Francisco to New York City known simply as The Run, for which she will front the entry fee, and win the race's cash pot of $25 million for her. Jack agrees to her condition, knowing that he will be allowed to keep 10% of the prize money for himself, and receives a tablet device from the race's mysterious organizer that details the race's route.
As he deals with other racers (seeking to win the cash prize) and the local police (who seek to stop and arrest the racers involved), Jack also finds himself attempting to defeat Marcus Blackwell, a family member of the mob Jack is indebted with, who wants to ensure his defeat after he escaped his execution. In addition, Jack, who begins the race with a car from his personal garage, faces predicaments that will force him to keep changing his vehicle through the race.
On May 31, 2021, EA announced that the game would no longer be available for purchase in any online stores.
Need for Speed: The Run features examples of:
- Anti-Frustration Features: You can restart from the latest checkpoint if/when you either wreck your car or you've lost that particular segment of the race. You can do this at will, too, up to certain times depending on the difficulty.
- Artistic License – Cars:
- The police cars depicted in the game are highly unlikely to be owned by an actual police department (and be used to the level they are used in this game), though this is standard practice for many NFS games, especially the Hot Pursuit games and Undercover.note For starters, the most common police car in the game is the concept version of the Ford Police Interceptor Sedan (based on the sixth-generation Ford Taurus) which obviously never saw service until production started in late 2012, whereas this game was released in 2011. Then there is the Porsche Cayenne Turbo for Highway police, a Nissan GT-R and even a Federal Cruiser version of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 VB, which are utilized by the Federal police, when neither are used by law enforcement in the United States aside from rare exceptions.
- Subverted in the Wii/3DS version, where its choice of police car is the Dodge Charger, which is very common in numerous police agencies across the country in Real Life; however, their choice for high-speed pursuits is still the aforementioned Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 VB, which is a very rare choice for a high-performance police car.
- It seems in this universe, that the New York Subway in the final race can reach bullet train speeds, making it impossible to outrun one despite driving a hypercar capable of 200+ mph at full throttle. In Real Life, the subway can only go up to 55 mph (89 km/h).
- The police cars depicted in the game are highly unlikely to be owned by an actual police department (and be used to the level they are used in this game), though this is standard practice for many NFS games, especially the Hot Pursuit games and Undercover.note For starters, the most common police car in the game is the concept version of the Ford Police Interceptor Sedan (based on the sixth-generation Ford Taurus) which obviously never saw service until production started in late 2012, whereas this game was released in 2011. Then there is the Porsche Cayenne Turbo for Highway police, a Nissan GT-R and even a Federal Cruiser version of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 VB, which are utilized by the Federal police, when neither are used by law enforcement in the United States aside from rare exceptions.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: During the Las Vegas escape, one QTE scene has Jack encountering an angry black dog, attempting to maul him down.
- Bizarre Seasons: The United States in the game has unusual seasons at certain regions across the country at the same time. And that is a span of about a couple of days.
- For starters, from San Francisco all the way to Las Vegas, it appears to be in the summer, where Death Valley and Desert Hills were at its highest temperature (one example Jack is seen sweating from the heat while refueling for the Las Vegas approach).
- Second, as Jack reaches the Rockies states, its mountains and highways are draped in full snow, which is only common in the winter season.
- Third, when Jack is approaching New York at the State Forest stage, the roads and foliage are scattered with sepia leaves and trees, which happens during autumn.
- Call-Back: The game allows players to access challenges which would unlock cars from Underground (Eddie's Skyline GTR from the first Underground and Rachel's 350Z from Underground 2), Most Wanted (the player's M3 GTR and Razor's Mustang), and Carbon (Cross' Corvette Z06 C6 and Darius' Le Mans Quattro). (Note that the challenges are inspired by the games themselves.)
- The Cameo: All of the highlighted rivals through The Run are played by relatively unknown actors… except for Nikki & Mila, the two competitors who appear near Las Vegas, who are played by Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue models Chrissy Teigen and Irina Shayk.
- Captain Obvious: In the game's opening pursuit, in which you are chased by the mob while raining gunfire over a road with explosives around it, captions pop up helpfully telling you to avoid gunfire and explosions.
- Corny Nebraska: Averted. As one race puts you at the open rural plains of Nebraska, not a single crop of maize is seen in the area.
- Death from Above: One of the game's levels has Jack avoiding an attacking helicopter from the mob as he attempts to escape Chicago. In addition, a police helicopter is also present in the 3DS/Wii version of the game, and appropriately enough, the Episode it appears in is called "Death From Above".
- Distracted by the Sexy: While stopping for gas near Las Vegas, Jack spaces out when he sees two women (eventually revealed to be Nikki and Mila, two other competitors in The Run, and played by two supermodels to boot) who are also refueling their cars. Sam had to snap him out of it.
- Duel Boss:
- Battle Races which puts you against three or more rivals in a sprint race with the task of overtaking and maintaining a lead over each rival before time expires.
- Rival Races play this trope straight. It's Jack against a major rival throughout this cannonball run.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After going through hell with The Mob, Jack wins the Run and his troubles with the Mob has been finally dealt with.
- Epic Race: The central theme of the game puts Jack in the namesake race across the country.
- Every 10,000 Points: The Wii/3DS has 3 lives per race. Crashing will cause to lose 1 life, but scoring a $10,000 bounty from stunts will net you an extra life. However, you can only carry a maximum of 3 lives.
- Fission Mailed: While Jack tries to get out of Las Vegas, he gets arrested in the process after hitting a roadbloack, complete with the "BUSTED" status. If you thought it's game over, don't worry, it still isn't. As you get the faux "Mission Failed" message, this triggers a QTE cutscene that continues through the story.
- Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Stage 9 takes you to the levels of the northeast, filled with sepia foliage and orange leaves scattered on the road.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- Gang Up on the Human: While the mob is justifiable, the police on the other hand are overly biased to only target Jack, rather than the other street racers who are also participating in The Run.
- Gangland Drive-By: The Mob, while in their black Cayennes draw their automatic weapons and attempt to shoot Jack. Same goes for Marcus when he aims his pistol directly to Jack while racing.
- Hellish Copter: The game features a helicopter with its guns opening fire against Jack everywhere he goes, whether on foot or by car. It gets totaled for good when Jack rams his car at it.
- Here We Go Again!: Jack starts off the game being chased by the mob, and while he ends up repaying the debt that caused him to get chased in the first place, he ends the game being chased by the cops.Sam: How's it goin' down there? Havin' a good time Jack?
Jack: There's no place I'd rather be.
[the shot widens to reveal the police pursuing Jack] - Hero Stole My Bike: More like Public Enemy Stole My Police Car, as there is one QTE where Jack beats up a cop and steals his police car in Chicago.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The game features the likenesses of Sean Faris and Christina Hendricks for the characters they play, Player Character Jack Rourke and Sam Harper respectively, with Hendricks even depicted accurately with regards to her, um, proportions. The same goes for Chrissy Teigen and Irina Shayk in their cameos as Nikki and Mila.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: More like "Mid-Race Upgrade". During some races, you can stop by a nearby gas station and switch cars there. However, you have to regain back all those positions you took. Perhaps what plays the trope straight is that as Jack progresses through the Run, he gets into better and more powerful cars after his previous one gets totaled. In Stage 8, Jack has his hands in an Audi vehicle which was use to Car Fu the mob's Hellish Copter, totaling it for good again. And finally approaching for Stage 9, he seeks Uri for a new set of wheels, which are high-end Tier 5 supercars.
- New York Is Only Manhattan: Downplayed. The final race against Marcus Blackwell takes place in Downtown of New York City, which is typically within the Manhattan area. The early parts of the race put you around the Brookyln area and the track has you cross the Brooklyn Bridge.
- No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: The Run was infamous for taking away many things from the Need for Speed formula, including many that were introduced during the Black Box era (something ironic as this game was made by Black Box themselves), most noticeable being this game throwing away the free roam, which previous games since Underground 2 were known for, in favor for a cinematic-style but extremely scripted linear story. There is absolutely no deviation to the story other than just going to the gas station to change cars. The Wii/3DS is far worse as you're in a FIXED car that is selected in the story.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Excluding the one played before Stage 1, this game has multiple Quick Time Event sequences that interrupt normal gameplay that come out of nowhere and have the player having to control Jack, the player character, most of the time while he's on foot, something not exactly to be expected for a racing game. First is the sequence at the end of Stage 3 where Jack has to escape the Police in Las Vegas on foot, then avoid getting killed by a feral dog, cars, and an overturning truck, the second time being near the end of Stage 7 where Jack has to run and jump across Chicago rooftops to avoid the Mob and their machine gun-mounted helicopter, then steal a police car, and the third time after the stolen police car sequence in the same stage, where the car flips over in a train yard, and Jack needs to escape it in order to avoid getting hit by an oncoming commuter train.
- Palette Swap: There are loads and loads of variants for the same car. Mainly NFS Editions or Product Placement signature editions.
- Permanently Missable Content: Most of the cars in the roster, mainly its special edition variants, can be only unlocked via limited weekly playlists. Weekly playlists rotated only twice or three times between February to April of 2012. Once its past its last rotation, these limited-time cars were locked behind closed doors.
- Press X to Not Die: The Run uses this trope for moments where you're out of the car. In the PS3/Xbox 360 version, this is literally the case in the opening cutscene where the first button you need to press is Square/X.
- Product Placement The Run has the K&N, Old Spice, and AEM challenge series, and every gas station is a Shell one, with their premium brand fuels clearly shown.
- Racing the Train: Happens twice in the game. The first time is during the opening when Jack does this to escape from the mobsters chasing him. The second time is in the final race against Marcus Blackwell. To avoid being shot at, Jack ends up driving into an underground subway tunnel and has to dodge oncoming and pursuing subway trains until he reaches an opening to get back into the race.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: While the game takes place over several days, a real life cannonball run has been completed in around 25 hours. While that record in particular was done using a car disguised as a police vehicle and spotters to distract police, even older runs from the '70s managed to make it in around 40 hours.
- Rocky Mountain Refuge: The final race of Stage 5 where you have to survive the ice-clearing avalanche and black boulders blocking portions of the road. The safest place would be the tunnels, which serves as a checkpoint and the finish line.
- Rubber-Band A.I.: And taken to its extreme, due to the fact the entire gameplay is basically scripted for the sake of dynamic immersion.
- Scenery Porn: Given that the game's plot involves a cross-country voyage through the contiguous U.S., the game doesn't miss any opportunity to depict the various regions of the country in great and ornate detail.
- Shifting Sand Land: Given its cross-country setting, the game includes levels around the desert areas of California and Nevada.
- Shout-Out:
- Given the game's namesake theme, the story is set in a similar fashion as the 1981 film The Cannonball Run.
- The achievement "Got to the Chopper" after you complete Stage 8. Does it sound familiar?
- In the 3DS/Wii version, when the mob kidnaps the Co-Driver, one of the mobsters tells another to take her to "Miller's Crossing". The mobster asks where that is, before the first mobster clarifies that he's talking about the movie Miller's Crossing, in which the titular location is a place in the woods where mob executions take place, basically stating that he wants to do the same with her.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Stage 5 takes you in the snowy peaks of Colorado. Be on the lookout for avalanches!
- Something Else Also Rises: Jack getting spaced out after getting distracted seeing Nikki and Mila refuel ends when Jack's fuel nozzle goes "click!". Subtle.
- Stealth Pun: In the 3DS/Wii version, some of the game's Episodes are basically recursive shout-outs to previous installments' names, remarkably "Underground", "Most Wanted" and the last Episode, "Hot Finish".
- Step One: Escape: The Run opens with the protagonist waking up in a car that's in a crusher. The first thing to do is to Press X to Not Die (literally if it's in the PS3/Xbox 360 version) to escape the car before it's completely crushed.
- Suddenly Voiced: The Run marks the first time a protagonist ever talks.
- Trapped in a Sinking Car: The very beginning of the Wii/3DS version has Matt trapped inside his car and submerged down in the San Francisco Bay. He luckily escapes.
- Viva Las Vegas!: The game features Las Vegas being as the first elimination checkpoint to which Jack must reach within the top 150.
- The Walls Are Closing In: The very beginning has Jack trapped inside a car with their hands duct-taped to the wheel. Then, the car is thrown into a trash compactor and one of the walls begin to close in. He luckily escapes.
