The rope dart falls under the flexible weapons category. It is also known as the rope javelin.
Historically the rope dart is a Wu-Shu (or Wu Shu) weapon, a part of the Long Fist (Chang Quan) discipline also known as Shaolin style.
Construction is fairly simple; a 10' to 12' rope with a metal dart shaped object at one end. A piece of cloth can be attached to the end near the dart.
This cloth serves many purposes, from providing more stability to the weapon, making a very distinctive sound when used at high speed, to distracting enemies in combat.
Like many other of the flexible weapons, this is not easy to learn and it is not very forgiving, that is, getting hit hurts and can cause serious damage.
Similar weapons are the nine-section chain whip, 3 section staff, Meteor Hammer and Poi, although the later is not designed to be used as a weapon.