The prop in question - a battered, yellow, flying taxi cab - was used by the film’s main lead, Bruce Willis, whose character Korben Dallas becomes accidentally responsible for the survival of planet Earth.

Thankfully the responsibilities that have been taken up by Parsons since he succeeded Sir Philip Craven in September are not of such dire consequence - but they are nevertheless heavy.

There’s the ominously bad news from Pyeongchang 2018 on Paralympic ticket sales. There’s the recent controversy that has flared up in Britain over alleged abuses within the classification system.

And there’s the big question of whether the IPC should maintain the suspension of Russian athletes from international competition following the evidence pointing towards systemic doping that emerged shortly before the start of last summer’s Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. 

The timing - at the very least - of that bold announcement by Sir Philip two days before the Olympics got underway in Brazil caused a huge rift with Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which chose to devolve the responsibility over the same decision, at very short notice, onto individual International Federations.

So here is another urgent imperative for the 40-year-old Brazilian of Scottish origin - to repair, as far as possible, the damage done to IPC/IOC relations.

Parsons won the Presidential election on September 8 with a huge majority in the first round, having shown his ability to deliver in highly challenging circumstances at Rio 2016 as President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee.

Diplomacy was one of the key elements he highlighted in his election manifesto, which also underlined the importance of mending fences, as far as was possible, with the IOC.

The bold manner in which Sir Philip delivered the IPC judgement on Russian athletes on August 7 last year will not swiftly be forgotten - or, in some parts of the Olympic Movement - forgiven.

The Briton announced to a packed press conference that the Russian Government had "catastrophically failed" its Para-athletes, adding: "Their medals over morals mentality disgusts me.”

Sir Philip claimed afterwards he had been emboldened by the unanimous support of his Board, of whom Parsons was a key member.

The new President has maintained since that he believed - and still believes - that the IPC was correct in acting as it did at that crucial point in sporting history.

Whether the stance shifts or not will be revealed  before the end of the year, as Parsons took the opportunity in Paris to say that the IPC Board were targeting December 19 as the date when they would decide whether to keep their Russian ban in place.

Whichever way it goes, we can be sure the announcement will not be couched in the same tones as the one delivered by the last President. Parsons, who has a degree in marketing and communications, talks a very different Games.

"The IOC is our main partner," he told insidethegames after witnessing Paralympic events at the College Dora Maar in Saint-Denis and then touring Cité du Cinéma, the vast cinema complex in Saint-Denis that will form part of the Athletes’ Village at the Paris 2024 Games - and which featured, among other film props, the flying yellow taxi.

“We share the opportunity of the Games every two years, summer and winter. We are part of the bid process. We are part of the everything that has to do with the Games, but the IOC are the main partners.

“So having a good, open, transparent and positive relationship with the IOC is fundamental to us - and in the different levels - so when it comes to the IOC administration and the IPC staff, Board to Board and also President to President.

“I had a very positive meeting with Thomas Bach in Lausanne last Monday, really productive, and of course we are part of the sport environment so we face common issues, so the more aligned we can be the better.

"Of course we are two different organisations. We have in some cases different goals and objectives and we work sometimes in different ways. We have some different characteristics, like for instance we are the International Federation for 10 sports.

"But even though we are different, the more we can converge with the IOC the better. And I only believe in win-win - I know there was a lot of ‘win-win-win’ being mentioned - but I only believe in win-win relationships, and the one we have with the IOC is a win-win one because we know what we bring to the table when it comes to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"We bring a very important element of inclusion, of legacy, of sport – at the end of the day, of sport. We see in London [2012], we see in Rio [2016], we see in Sochi [2014] how excited the crowds were, the media were about the athletes performances in the Paralympics.”

The large conference room in which we sit features sculptures of a powerful and primitive nude male, and of a mother feeding her baby. But there is also within it a metaphorical elephant. How can the IOC and IPC be in accord if they can’t agree on how to treat the problem of Russian doping?

Is it possible that the IOC and IPC might continue to run on separate lines on the profound issue of whether or not to recognise Russian athletes for international competition, with Pyeongchang 2018 being the next point of issue?

Parsons is as diplomatic in response as one might expect.

 "To be honest with you it’s too early to say because we have a lot in the coming weeks," he said. "We have the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Foundation Board meeting, the two IOC Commissions working on it, we have our own Taskforce.

"But we will make what is the best decision for the Paralympic Movement. But of course, and this is something we have discussed with President Bach, we will exchange - and we have been exchanging - information on the Russian situation when it comes to Pyeongchang, and beyond.

"So I think it is a bit early to speculate, but we will take the decision taking into account the Paralympic Movement, Paralympic athletes, the Russian Para-athletes…

"We are not far from the decision. That will probably, as I mentioned, be taken around December 19."

There are, of course, other questions to be resolved regarding Pyeongchang 2018 other than whether Russian athletes and Para-athletes will take part.

Tickets sales for the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympics, due to take place between March 8 and 18, were reported early last month to have reached just 0.2 per cent, although South Korean officials claim it is 4.3 per cent when group sales are taken into account. 

"I think it’s a situation that we had in a way in Rio and Sochi and Pyeongchang," Parsons said. "What I would say is that on these three occasions we didn’t have the specific promotion of the Paralympic Games that we would have liked.

"I don’t think that it’s a problem of the Paralympic Games, of the product, if I may put it that way. In Pyeongchang promotion of the event as a whole - both Olympics and Paralympics - has been poor. And when I was in Pyeongchang a few weeks ago this is something I raised with the President of the Organising Committee [Lee Hee-beom] and also with the President of the country [Moon Jae-in].

"I think in Rio, even though the Paralympic Movement was something already well-known there from an Organising Committee point of view, promotion was not good. Rio, of course, was a challenging situation for the Paralympic Movement as we all know.

"And it is something that we do not foresee here in Paris 2024 because – from what we understand – to the Government, to the Organising Committee, to the Paralympic Committee, the Paralympic Games are something important in the whole concept of the Games.

"We are confident we will have full venues in Pyeongchang, but of course the promotion of the Games so far has been not of the level that we want."

Parsons insisted to insidethegames that he had already seen a clear response following his strong intervention last month.

"There has been some reaction to our comments. The authorities in Pyeongchang are now moving with the plans and targeting some specific groups of the population. They have opened now ticket boxes both in Pyeongchang and Seoul.

"So they have reacted. Of course we would have liked this reaction to have been earlier in the process. But as we know this is not something that is only related to Paralympics – the Olympic Games also faces some challenges in this area.

"Pyeongchang have plans, solid plans, on how they intend to bring people and sell the tickets, so we are confident. But confidence doesn’t mean we won’t work closely with them and monitor the situation week-by-week or even on a daily basis.

"We don’t only want full venues, we want the Games to be promoted to people - for example, people in Korea and the whole world - who are not in the venues so they will watch it on TV or on the internet.

"So it’s not only about ticket sales, although of course these are one of the elements that we have to measure the success of the Games, and of course we want to provide athletes with a good atmosphere in which to compete.

"It is a concern. It will remain, probably, a concern until Games time. So it is something that we are really focused on, even though we are confident with the plans they have put forward.

"I can only speak on behalf of the IPC. We are monitoring the plans very, very closely. But it is something that - we have to keep on top of it until the Closing Ceremony."

After his first official visit to Paris, where he met the Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, the IPC President was left feeling relatively sanguine about the prospects for the 2024 Paralympics.

"The Mayor has made it clear that Paris is seeing the Games as a catalyst for change in a number of important ways," he said.

"We are very happy with what we have seen so far.  Even at this early stage, it looks as if Paris 2024 is going to have a very integrated Paralympic Games.

"I think we already have a very engaged public and private sector here, and the same is true for the sports community. So I think we have a very good opportunity for the Paralympic Movement in Paris 2024. It will give us a good pathway to strengthen our presence in Europe after the summer Games in Rio and Tokyo [2020].

"The venue masterplan is a very interesting one. We don’t have a Park, which means we will have competition spread around the city, which is a very good concept for us. Because then you will have athletes with disability competing all across Paris, and citizens of Paris and the tourists and whoever is in the city will have the opportunity to see them in action, and we will see persons with an impairment moving through the city.

"We know this is something that the Mayor of Paris is really keen to enhance in the city, and as we know mobility makes people with an impairment visible in society, and visibility brings inclusion.

"The French authorities are interested in providing a very good delivery of the competition, but also the legacy and the social aspects that a Paralympic Games can bring to Paris.

"I think we will have a very good legacy from these Games. This is one of the key elements, the social transformation is embedded in everything that has to do with the Paralympic project for 2024. And this will come after the Tokyo 2020 Games, which also have a very social element.

"It’s really good to cities that even advanced cities such as Paris and Tokyo are perceiving the Paralympic Games as a catalyst for change, not only in the delivery of the Games but after it as well."

After officially greeting Parsons at the Hotel de Ville on Friday, Hidalgo commented: "We hope that the organisation of the Paralympic Games will allow Paris to get as close as possible to universal accessibility.

"The Grand Paris Express already plans for all the new stations that will be opened to be accessible.

"With Andrew Parsons, we have identified another priority area: electric autonomous vehicles, which represent a significant step forward for people with disabilities.

"In the coming weeks, I will start work on this subject with car manufacturers.

"My goal is for this technology to be fully deployed on the streets of the capital by 2024.

"It will be a strong part of the Paralympic legacy for the people."

Parsons was optimistic about the changes in public accessibility that are likely to occur in the French capital.

"We know that Paris has a lot of iconic places, monuments, squares and we know that accessibility in those times was not a priority," he said. "For us, what is important is what level accessibility is going to be at by the time of Paris 2024 and onwards.

"Even if Paris is not perceived as a very accessible city today or if it is, that we can work with the French and Paris authorities to make it even more accessible. Not only the transport system and public buildings, but also getting into the private sector – restaurants, movie theatres, malls, everything."

Parsons has made it clear this week that he feels the criticism of the IPC classification - which has  been strongly voiced in UK over recent weeks - has been unfair, insisting that the system is "absolutely fit for purpose".

But he well understands Sir Philip's description of the classification system as both the "jewel in the crown" for the IPC, and also its "Achilles heel".

"I think he means that if it is something that is not properly done, if it is not done in a professional way - and by that I refer to the attitude rather than talking about paid people - it can be our Achilles heel," Parsons said.

"Because of course we are looking very closely at what is happening in the UK and it’s only in the UK. We had issues brought to us in the lead-up to Rio coming from other big countries in the world.

"But it can be the jewel in the crown because classification is the method or the science that allows a fair competition in the Paralympics. It’s a way to show to the world that even athletes with a severe impairment can compete on a level playing field at the highest level.

"So if it’s properly done, and we have the proper processes in place, which as I said I do believe we have, it’s the jewel in the crown. But of course it’s something where we can never rest and think that we have done enough. That’s how it is and it’s going to be like this forever.

"The more the technology evolves, and when we have more and more people with impairments coming to compete and maybe their impairment isn’t exactly like the other one – that is what induces the evolution of the process."