All language subtitles for vmt-manwire-xvid

ln the middle of the night,
I have almost a nightmare.

I wake up and I had forgotten
to nail shut the crate.

So I go there,
and though it was raining...

... I must have waked up the whole
neighbourhood, you know...

...was not closing the box,
it was nailing the coffin.

I am nailing the coffin.
I see it as that.

Why, why this expression?
Why this thought?

Well, maybe death is now looking through
the golden frame of this dream,...

...and now reality is
going to choke me to death.

Does it make any sense to conduct
surveillance when somebody knows about it?

Now, I am Tuesday the 6th of August.

The surveillance involved,
not what he was looking for...

It was tense, but we were eager
to get going. Everything was ready.

... maintain surveillance,
they did so for security reasons,...

...and I will not go beyond that.

I have never obstructed justice,...

...and, I think, too, that I could say
that in my years of public life...

...that I welcome this kind of examination,...

...because people have gotta know
whether or not their Presidents a crook.

Well, I am not a crook.
I have earned everything I have got.

Everybody was getting
more and more nervous.

And finally, we were all ready
and said, "OK, lets go."

So we jump in the truck...

Were not going to die, were going to live.

I remember the extremely
tense silence in the van.

Alan was absolutely sombre,...

...Philippe extremely tense.

Annie As for me I was
petrified very worried.

I was disguised as a workman
with a helmet, a shirt...

Jean-Francois To look like an
American, I had lot of pens in my pocket.

Thats typically American, apparently.

I was gonna be
on the crew in the South Tower.

We were gonna go at closing time with
a big hamper, with all the gear in it.

There were gonna be
some guys in the North Tower,...

...dressed for business
with much less gear,...

...an architects tube... and I believe
that was holding the bow.

Electricity in the air
between Jean-Louis and Albert.

I can read it in Jean-Louis face,
he doesnt trust Albert.

I had a bad feeling, er, there is
something wrong with this guy.

He is not at all
on the same... track that we are.

Fear was in the air.

I assumed that even
in the best possible situation...

...that we were all going to be arrested.

There was no doubt of that.

I cant imagine
how they didn't feel the same way.

I felt that the horizontality of driving
through the streets of Manhattan...

...suddenly became slant.

I was on the ramp.
I was being engulfed by the monster.

And Philippe said to me:
"I know whats going to happen...

...we are going to go in,
and were going to get caught."

It was suddenly not a dream
any more. It was tangible.

He could no longer carry on living
without having at least tried to...

...to conquer those towers

because it felt like those towers
belonged to him.

It was as if they had been built
especially for him.

"Once upon a time..."

Now, thats how you start fairytales,
and actually my story is a fairytale.

Here I am, young,
17 years old, with a bad tooth,...

...in one of those uncolourful
waiting rooms of a French dentist,...

...and its really lit
with a little 40-watt bulb.

And you have old ladies
and people, you know,...

...sheepishly looking at magazines,
its quiet, and suddenly I freeze.

Because I have opened
a newspaper at a page...

...and I see something magnificent,

something that inspires me,
I see two towers.

And the article says,
"One day those towers will be built."

They're not even there yet.

And when they are, they will become
the highest in the world.

Now, I need to have that,
this little tangible start of my dream,...

...but everybody is watching and...
but I need that page.

So what I do is,
under the cover of sneeze... Aaah!

I tear the page,
put it under my jacket and go out.

Now, of course, I would have
a toothache for a week,...

...but whats the pain, in comparison
that now I have acquired my dream?

Usually, when you have a dream,
the object of your dream is tangible.

Its there. Its... its quixotic,...

...but its there, nagging you,
you know, confronting you.

But the object of my dream
doesnt exist yet.

I was twenty years old.

And I was
a painfully shy young girl.

I was very surprised
by this individual...

...and even more surprised
when he began to chase me relentlessly,...

...having just met me.

He would bring me flowers,
arrange little dates,...

...send me love letters.

I was completely overwhelmed,...

...bowled over, harpooned,
that's what it was.

He introduced me to his wire.

A wire set up at the end of a garden.

I would spend hours watching him walk.

He wasn't that experienced at the time.

He was just beginning his life
as a tightrope walker.

We became inseparable.

In fact my life
was completely consumed by his.

And he never thought to ask me whether
I had my own destiny to follow.

It was quite clear
I had to follow his.

Annie, who knows me
better than everybody,...

...Annie, who was at my side
during my discovery of the wire,...

...whose large, green eyes move me.

When we embrace,
we look like two kids...

...plotting our next piece of mischief.

I started as a young,
self-taught wirewalker,

To dream of... not so much
conquering the universe,...

...but as a poet
conquering beautiful stages.

One day he said,...

"I really would like
to put a wire on Notre Dame."

At first I thought it was a joke,
but in the meantime, I knew...

I knew that there was something
a little bit real about it,...

...and then we started to talk
more and more about it.

And then we started to plan it.

It took about a year
to find the right way to do it.

Jean-Louis had told me right away
that it was illegal.

Jean-Francois
Accomplice

So I knew it was illegal, but of course
that's what got me a bit excited!

Against the law,
but not wicked or mean.

It was wonderful!

Notre Dame Cathedral
Paris, June 1971

Can you imagine, you
wake up in the morning in the city...

...and all of a sudden you see
a high-wirewalker between... Notre Dame?

lts a dream.

Thats what really attracts me.

lts the challenge of doing something
thats supposed to be impossible.

And, in the meantime, doing
something thats so beautiful...

...that not only doesnt hurt anybody,
but gives something to somebody.

Then Philippe appeared on the wire.

It was amazing.

I went inside, all excited,...

...and I leant over the nave
and saw that a huge ceremony

was taking place in Notre Dame.

There were a dozen or so priests
dressed all in white, arm crossed.

They were lying on the floor,
their heads against the floor.

I was staggered, dumbstruck.

The organist asked me:
"What are you doing here?"

I said to him: "There's a wirewalker
up there on the towers!"

This gentleman looked at me
with an expression of wonder...

...and he said;
"Oh, really! A wirewalker!

How amazing!"

South Tower 3.58pm

We drove the van inside.

We got through
the first security barrier.

We presented the company documents
and the fake invoices.

Everything
was quite carefully planned.

And now we were horizontal again,...

...we were driving in the subterranean
garage of the two towers.

And we were going.
I knew the plan. Ha ha!

We were going to the freight elevator
of the South Tower.

It was... the whole plan was in the making.

North Tower 4.25pm

The basic plan was very simple.

We had ID cards, so it was just a matter
of kind of pushing our way through.

Once wed gotten in the buildings...
it was pretty smooth sailing.

The time had come for us to part.

There was a real madness
in his eyes, a real rage.

It was truly: " I'm going to do this,
no matter what, now is the time".

And he held me in his arms as if
we would never see each other again.

If I die, what a beautiful death.

To die in the... in the exercise
of your passion.

Sydney, Australia
June 1973

We broke into the Sydney Harbour
Bridge pylon one night,...

...carried all this equipment in,
put a tightrope up,...

...disappeared in the morning
and then sat down on the street

...and watched Philippe walk
backwards and forwards.

The fact that the wirewalking
activity is framed by death,...

...its great because then you have
to take it very seriously.

lts a little half a millimetre of mistake...

...or a quarter of a second
of inattention, and you lose your life.

This is the Sydney Harbour
Bridge and the traffic was backed up.

The police came, of course,
within minutes.

When he was taken away,...

...the first thing he did was
he picked the policemans watch.

Philippe manages to take
the guys watch off his wrist...

...and hide it in his pocket!

These Twin Towers
are trotting in my head.

You know, Im galloping in my brain.

As Im back to Paris, slap in the face.

"Paris Match", double page,
"The Twin Towers are built."

But right now the picture tells me
that those beams are not still covered.

The things are not painted. I see workers.

I imagine maybe for a few more months,
or a year, who knows?

Its in construction and I can sneak in.

One day he showed me a photo
of two buildings in a magazine.

And then I was a bit frightened.

It was inhuman to want to go
and walk up there, 450 meters high.

This was all becoming demonic.
I just wanted to say: "Stop!"

Barry Greenhouse
"The Inside Man"

The plan was for me to bring
all my equipment to the 82nd floor,...

...which was Barrys hiding place.

There was one in each tower,
the same floor.

And to put all the equipment there,
using the freight elevator,...

...saying, "Delivery for 82nd floor."
And Barry will be there to receive, OK.

At the time, I was an Assistant
Director of Research...

...at The New York State
Insurance Department.

Wed just moved in,
and I was on what was then...

...the highest occupied floor
in Two World Trade Center.

I knew there was gonna be
a team in each tower...

...and that the stuff
was gonna be delivered to me.

Then it was gonna be carried up...
wouldve been 28 floors.

The operator of the freight elevator
had not completely heard the foreman...

...shouting, "82nd floor!"

And it was clearly on our delivery bill
and on all the package.

He asked to the group,
"What floor again?"

Right there, I think, this is it,
and I said clearly, "104!"

"OK, whatever. Watch your hands,"
and cling, the gate clanked shut.

Now we are in a plywood box,
in a temporary freight elevator,...

...going all the way up,...

...and its dark, its a...
its a travel towards heaven.

And the darkness becomes grey,...

...and I see a square of grey
that becomes lighter.

I see a square of light. It is the sky.

Were getting there and were arriving
just a few floors below the roof...

...with all our equipment.

Annie came to my office
and told me that they had,...

...by a great stroke of fortune,...

...gotten on the freight elevator

and saved themselves 20 floors
of carrying up all that equipment.

Now, I find myself
in a deserted floor, 104,...

...and the first thing we do is unpack
and take equipment out.

Suddenly, I hear a guard coming.

I just look and I see over there a tarp.

So I just grab Jean-François
and I throw him underneath,...

...and I hear Jean-François yell, "Argh!"

This beam was over the elevator shaft
that had a drop of 400 meters.

"What? Were going under it?"
Yeah, we had to hide under a tarp.

Donald starts saying, "Hold on my leg,
hold on this, where can I go?"

And I kind of like... right on the spur
of the moment said,

"You know what, man? I cant do this."

And hes like, "OK, go ahead."

"Go quick!" I think, who was the more happy,
Donald or I? Anyway, bye-bye, Donald!

Unbridled glee.

Im so happy to not have to do this.

Im running down the stairs, 110 flights.

lts like those dreams
where you never touch down.

Itwas so beautiful.

So here we are under the tarp,
frozen to death.

I dont have to mumble
to Jean-François, "Dont move."

He feels it in our body... connection.

And now the guard comes.
Has he seen us?

Has he heard us?
Has he seen the tarp move?

But the guard comes
and leans against the structure,...

...and he seems to be a foot away.

I hear the cracking of his walkie-talkie,
and I hear he takes a cigarette.

The sound close-up now
of the lighter and of his first puff,...

...the burning of the extremity
of the cigarette and the...

He seems to be almost
leaning on my ear.

So, we are, I mean, frozen. We dont breathe.

We wait for 6, 6:30.

So we start to climb.

We saw nobody in the stairway,
nobody underneath the roof.

Seems pretty safe.

All of a sudden, we hear somebody
coming from the stairway.

So, we are scared like hell.

So we run to the hiding place
and we jump in the hiding place.

We hear some steps.
We hear the walkie-talkie noise.

And the noises were very confusing.

Sometimes, you dont hear the guy
for 10 minutes.

So, you think hes gone.
All of a sudden you hear...

You hear him coughing
or you hear a talkie-walkie noise,...

...like hes right next to the
hiding place, so we could not talk.

We started to write little notes.

We kept saying, "Do you think
now Yeah? Lets wait longer."

It was uncomfortable, but... you know

Once you understand
you dont have a choice,

you try to settle in and just wait.

At that point,
were in suits. In business suits.

Being in a business suit
with heavy equipment,...

...hiding behind a pile of boxes,
I mean, there is no explanation.

lf we were caught at that time,
that was it.

What if the guard
is still around, toying with us,

waiting for us to make the slightest
movement before he pounces on us?

We must wait.

To ease the torment,
I return to my memories.

The gold and mud, years of dreaming,...

...months of organising.

I dive back into the past for a long while.

That it will indeed serve
the purposes intended

and that it will truly promote
not only harmony between the states,

but harmony and communication
between the nations of the world.

Itwas in January of 1974.

I climbed on the roof of my little house
and screamed, "Im coming to America!"

And the minute I got out of the subway,
climbing the steps, looking at them,

I knew that they were no dream.

I knew that it was...
My dream was destroyed instantly.

Impossible. Impossible. Impossible.
Its clearly impossible.

Not only to walk across this high,
I probably hardly thought of it,

but to bring almost like
a ton of equipment secretly,

to rig a wire for hours, to guy-line it,

its clearly out of human scale.

But something in me
pulls me toward touching it.

Jim Moore

Thats when he spoke to me
about his project.

He said, "Well, I want to string a wire
between the two World Trade Center Towers."

I said, "OK, sounds wild."

I mean, Id never met
a high-wirewalker before,

so I had no idea what... nor did
I even entertain the idea at the time

of what the consequences
of anything happening would be.

It just sounded like a really fun
adventure to get involved in.

So I took it upon myself to say,
"Sure, lets... lets work on it."

The first occasion
we went up in the elevator,

we took the elevator to the 86th floor.

When we got off,
there was a guard there.

He said, "What are you doing here?"
So, obviously, we couldnt continue.

So we took the elevator back down
and then realised,

"Well, lets just walk up."

Then we proceeded to climb up
the 110 flights to the top.

We are at the top of the world.

I see two slabs of concrete, barely
inhabited, with some construction.

No fence, no net, no nothing,
and... and I am frozen to death.

I see the other tower
and I... I imagine the void.

And if I were to run... on the slab,

I will just fall to another life.

And slowly I thought, "OK, its impossible.
Thats sure. So lets start working."

We took pictures
of all these things, thinking,

"Perhaps thats where the cable might be tied,
or may be a cable we could use."

He wasnt sure how he was gonna rig it
at that particular time.

I decided in the staircase
to draw a little fresco,...

...as if I needed some tangible proof...

...to show me that I was going
through different steps...

...and approaching the impossible
of actually finding myself on that wire.

I even rented a helicopter
at some point,...

...and Jim was with me taking pictures
of the roof, of the equipment there,...

...for making a model, for measuring.

But I also wanted a little bit
to see if it was possible.

He wanted to get higher than where
he was gonna be when he walked on the wire.

It was a way of tricking his mind
into not feeling fear

by being higher than where he was gonna be
when he actually did the walk.

One day I received a postcard
with a "W - World Trade Center".

I never heard about the WTC
at that time,

and he had drawn a little wire
on top of the towers.

I thought, "Of course, thats why
these towers are there: for Philippe!"

So, now I go back to France.

The minute I arrive, I didnt even go home.

I run to Jean-Louis, my old friend,
and I said, "I have a new idea."

This, we knew that legally
we could not do it.

I mean, nobody knew... knew Philippe Petit.

Nobody knew us,
you go there and you ask,

"Can I put a wire on top of the World
Trade Center?" Theyd say, "Get out."

So I tried to get
information from Philippe.

"So you have been there,

"you told me you have been ten times
on the top, but what did you get as...

"... what do we have as information?"

"But I have pictures, look,
and we can put the wire...

"... I dont know where to put it
but well find out with the pictures."

This is the best.

A minute ago you said the whole place
was swarming with cops.

This is what they'll make you do
when you're prison.

They'll make you clean the windows
in all the tall towers.

I started to do... er...
a little recap in my head,...

...and I found out we had nothing.

Hes not driven by the impetuous feeling
of dancing between the towers.

He is driven by, "Im gonna help Philippe.
I dont want to help him to kill himself.

"I dont want to be caught there, and
we want to succeed, we dont want to fail."

So for plenty of reasons that
are actually noble and understandable,

he becomes almost the...
We fight a lot on... on...

"You dont have enough elements,
Philippe, to build up a serious plan."

So now I go back
and this is the second visit to America.

Now I spend my time
spying on the Twin Towers.

With all my might. I go day and night.

I note things and fill the exercise books
with all those notes and little doodlings,

...and I look at what commercial vehicles
go underneath for freight delivery.

I go in. I find a way
at lunch time to disguise myself.

The workers seem to arrive
in normal cars...

At some point, I am so much into taking
notes as a spy around the Towers,

I dont see its a construction site,

I dont see one nail
sticking out of one plank.

So, right there, the big nail goes
through my sole. Three days in bed.

So, here I am with crutches.
Thinking I am incapacitated.

No, no, no, no. Its the opposite.

Its wonderful, a human being
with crutches. The Universe is his!

The guards, you know, help me,
"Can I help you? Let me hold the door."

People, you know, "Sit down, take
your time." Nobody asks me for an ID,

...nobody says, "What are you
doing here?" I... I have this fabulous...

So then now, even though
my foot is about to be repaired,...

...I use the crutches a lot. OK?

And sometimes you would see the man
leaving his crutches and running around...

...to measure something and coming back
and being with crutches!

One time we went up there,
it was very, very windy,...

...and I... I actually wasnt sure
why we were going up there.

I barely had the courage
to get out of my little trap door,...

...and Jim, hanging on, I dont know how,

managed to take a picture of me
hanging on to a post...

...at the very roof of the tower,
with my body almost horizontally.

The wind was blowing me away.

- So, what if...?
- Very scary.

That was may be one of the first times
I realised how crazy it was up there...

...with that kind of condition and the
height and what we were involved in.

What happens if Im up there
and I rig it and something happens?

I started thinking about those things and
when we got closer to the actual event,

I basically said,
"No, I cant... I cant help you rig.

"I cant be part of that team
that goes to the top."

South Tower 8. 10pm

Here we are,...

...underneath the top
of the World Trade Center, under a tarp.

Each time we would hear a noise,
it was very hard to tell...

...if it was a cardboard board
flapping in the wind...

...or a guard coming, or a walkie-talkie.

I drilled a little hole with a paperclip,
and I enlarged this hole in the canvas

with a conical end of a ball-point pen.

And then with one eye I was able
to see a little bit of the ambient light...

...going onto the figure of my watch.

What time is it? Is it dark outside?

Oh, I heard noise,
lets try to go out of the tarp.

His foot was up my nose...

...and my foot was stuck
between his arms,...

...we were completely entwined.

I guess you could say
we really got to know each other.

I've rarely known a man
that way before!

We kept hearing more and more
noise from the roof. Like voices, like machines.

North Tower 9.38pm

Sometimes, far away. Sometimes, very close.

But really like somebody
was walking on the roof.

Gee, if they are working at night,...

...we are stuck, I mean, there is no chance
the coup will happen.

The longer we waited
and the longer we hid,...

...the less time wed have to do
what we had to do to get up there.

There was tension. I thought that
we were both out of our element.

That neither of us really
should have been there.

There is something
that I dont trust in this guy.

Hes not deeply concerned by anything.
Why is he here?

Mark
"The Australian"

When I finished university I flew
to Paris and I caught up with Philippe,...

...and he showed me
this extraordinary sort of diagram

...and this photograph of this building
that was being constructed in New York.

This is a big one now. And the wire, a big one.

You know,
I looked at this huge tower or towers,

and Philippe was just so enthusiastic
about doing this.

So, er... I became, I guess,
one of the first members of the team.

I intend on a giant meadow,
its a giant, giant field,

to reproduce, not two roofs of the World
Trade Center, I dont have the money for that,

but just the outline and practise!

He wanted to set up a wire

to correspond exactly to the
distance between the two towers.

And to practice on it
a much as he could.

Even if I miss, it doesnt matter.

We had, I guess, a little bit
of a boot camp or a training camp.

Essentially we spent time there
conceiving, er... designing,

trying to work out how to make
this thing work from every aspect.

Someone had spoken to him
about the elasticity of the building

and the fact that the wind could cause
the towers to sway.

So there was a moment
of great concern.

So I asked my friends
to make the cable dance.

And here is Mark the Australian,
here is Jean-Louis, Annie.

We would jump up
and down on these wires.

Wed try and bounce Philippe off
of the wire.

The World Trade Center
was extraordinary,

because it was 200 feet between the towers,

so how do you get a tightrope
from one tower to the other?

Look what you will see.
Like that? Ha ha!

We have to find a way
to throw something,

then you can pull a little string
and then a bigger string and then a rope,

and then eventually the wire.

At some point, I mean, I thought
even of a little airplane, radio guided.

Football and baseball,
we have to learn how to play baseball

for two months before we can do that.
No, no, no.

At some point, Jean-Louis
came up with a really silly idea.

I dont even let him finish his sentence, he says,
"Philippe, what about a bow and arrrr...?"

We drilled a very small hole
in the... in the end of an arrow,

and we attached a monofilament
or a fishing line wire to the arrow.

The whole idea would be that
Jean-Louis would, you know,

send the arrow
from one building to another.

Then, of course, whenever
we tried it... it just didnt work.

Its pretty useless. Make a proper one.

ln the end we designed a spool
that had a conical shape on it,

so that the monofilament would unravel
and go very freely through the air.

Great!
Hey, just right. Exactly!

As a child
I loved to climb everywhere.

Ill let the psychiatrist decide why.
Maybe I wanted to escape my time.

Maybe I wanted to see the world
from a different perspective

and I was an explorer at heart.

Who knows and who cares,
but I was a little climber,

and nobody, not my parents,
not the teachers, nobody could stop me.

I heard about wirewalkers,

described to me as magnificent men
and women walking in thin air.

And I thought, "Well, thats nothing.
With my ropes, I do that."

Oh, shit! If only I could control it.
Only a few steps are going to be nice.

There was always and still is, this
'bad boy' side to Philippe's character.

He had a very strict upbringing.

And he would never have strayed
too far down that illegal road.

But he got great pleasure
from taking certain 'liberties'.

He's so excessive, so creative,

...so each day
is like a work of art for him.

What excited him most
about this adventure...

...aside from being a beautiful show...

...was that it was like
a bank robbery.

And that pleased him enormously.

Ah, no. Cos its not...

Gradually things began
to get more serious

because a proper plan
had to be worked out.

And then the arguments
between Jean-Louis and Philippe...

...really got started.

Mark said, "lf... somebody
opened the door in the stairs

"and see a very serious man,
dark, taking big... this is no good."

Now listen, now listen. In the stairway,
we can be discovered by anyone,...

...now, so we have to be a combination
of a workman and an office man.

I think this is perfect. This is perfect.
And this is no good.

Ok, so we get through the main gate,
however we decide to do it.

The trick is going to be on the top
floor, coming out of the elevator.

It is better to be dressed
as office workers.

- No! As workers...
- Wait! Let me finish!

It was almost impossible
to imagine them...

...getting into the tower undetected.

They didn't even know
how they were going to get in.

And I think right from the start,

Jean-Louis felt
an enormous responsibility.

And he wouldn't let Philippe
have it his way,...

...perhaps because he felt
that Philippe wasn't being realistic.

No! We're being complete idiots.

Jean-Louis knew I sided with him...

...and Philippe also knew
I was taking Jean-Louis' side.

Since long before Vary,

Annie has been angling
for an invitation to New York,...

...using tenderness, blackmail,
threats, insults and tears.

But I need absolute detachment,
complete freedom.

I must be a castaway
on a desert island of my dreams.

May 13th 1974

Philippe and I travelled
to New York together.

I remember looking out
through this hazy aeroplane window

...and seeing in the far
distance the Twin Towers.

Wed come all of this way,
and this was what we were here for.

Metropolis, Frances
number one journal of urban planning.

We are preparing a feature profile
of the workers...

...who are presently constructing
the World Trade Center in New York.

Our credentialed reporter, Philippe Petit, kindly
requests your co-operation for this article.

He told me he was a French journalist,

and it was just not normal for me to say,

"Show me your credentials, if you would?"

He was gonna write a story about the World
Trade Center for the French newspapers

and he had two photographers with him,
and I thought that was pretty good publicity.

Do you completely trust
the building yourself?

ls it safe up there? You mean,
tumbling down? No, its safe!

Here was this sort
of long-haired Australian

and this very volatile Frenchman,
who couldnt speak great English,

saying we were journalists,

and we enlisted Jim Moore
and he was the cameraman.

It was, er... it was interesting,
because, er... you know

Here we are, disguising ourselves
as someone who were not

and perfectly getting away with it,
and it was wonderful.

When you are working
and the weather changes,

you stop because
you cannot work any more?

We start doing a day up here
and suddenly the weather gets bad?

We have to finish the day.

So you work on the top
in very bad conditions...

- And you get a bit scared of that?
- No, not really.

I remember Jim would act like
he was taking a photograph of a worker,

then hed put the camera down
and take a photograph of a pylon

or an anchor point or something like that.

The towers were
not corners facing corners.

They were askew, which was a problem
for me to decide where to put my wire.

So in principle, thats a cable
across the two roofs.

I decided to attach the cable to what
I believe was the strongest beam

at the top of the roof,

and then Im going to tie the wire
to here, on the South Tower.

A cable between two buildings
of very long length, it sways.

It goes up and down,

and there is almost an invisible move
which is a torsion on itself.

So, what we devised is a... its called
a cavaletti in the circus parlance.

Its actually a guy-line that is
perpendicular to the axis of the wire

and it goes down to the ground.

Even with permission, we couldnt go
a quarter of a mile to the ground.

Plus I needed a pair.
Heres one and heres two.

We know they cannot go down.

So the solution was asymmetric rigging.

Which is like this.
Heres the first attachment.

Each cavaletti had two legs,
a short one and a long one.

So, this is what I decided
was the best for the situation.

And now I am preparing for le coup

May 28th 1974

We are going to do it.

I arrived Saturday
and the coup was due on Monday.

He is more and more ready for the coup,

but the coup itself is not ready.

And I was very frustrated about that.

I knew we had to act quickly
and I knew we had nothing.

Jean-Louis wants to know.
"Have you done what I asked you to do?

"What do I say when the guard...?"
And I dont satisfy him with my answer.

So he attacks my non-preparations,

when actually I feel
that I have prepared immensely.

I think the longer we were there,
the longer I was cognisant that...

... it was a very ambitious pursuit,
what we were doing.

We just werent ready.

...more suede, we must put the screw...

I never doubted Philippes talent,
his prowess on the wire.

Itwas the unforeseen things
that really worried me.

...if I need the cavalettis or not...

You know, Americas
a very litigious society.

You know, involuntary manslaughter,
assisted suicide.

...a little bit.
Then we put everything down.

I didnt want to be liable
for the death of a friend.

We could clearly see
that we were not ready.

Everybody could see it but Philippe,
and at the time I gave up.

Obviously, with the Australian not there,

obviously the whole thing
is a total débâcle.

I told him,
"Philippe, what do you think now

"lts May 30th, were supposed
to go to do the coup today.

"Do you think we can do it like that?"

And he said no.

He said,
"No, its clear that its impossible."

I said, "No, its not impossible.
It is possible, we are very close to it."

If you want something, nothing is impossible.

He kept repeating, "Ill be back.
Well prepare it and well do it."

The first attempt had failed.

He called me and asked me
to come over immediately.

Of course my role was
to support and encourage him.

It was always a matter
of trying to understand

what was going on in his head
and of encouraging him.

That was my job
and it was really exhausting.

He would spend the night
watching television.

He only ever watched
detective movies, bank robberies,

stories about cops and robbers.

I'm convinced he was getting
in shape with this.

He was looking for the strength,...

...so he could break into these towers.

So he went back, again and again,...

...to the World Trade Center,
to the main entrance hall.

And Philippe observed very carefully...

...how people went in,
showing their passes, etc.

I saw him in the lobby.

It was just somebody
that didnt belong there,...

...like someone who had come out...
It was just... it was just er...

...a wrong juxtaposition.
It just was very, very odd.

"Philippe, its wonderful to see you."

And his name is Barry.
He has seen me street-juggling in Paris.

He started talking and telling
me all this wirewalking that he did.

I think I said at some point, "If youre thinking
of doing the World Trade Center, forget it."

But he sort of draws you in to his world.

And I guess I was the kind of guy who was not
averse to doing things that were slightly er...

...you know not... not totally legal.

Barry called and said,
"Philippe, sorry to tell you,

"but the security around
the World Trade Center has changed,

"and now we all are forced
to carry an ID.

"But I happen to have mine freshly
unsealed from the envelope.

"It wont be too much trouble to abandon it
in your hands for a few hours."

He did this incredibly artistic,
perfect job of copying it

and getting an ID card
with his own picture on it.

David aka "Donald"
Rock Singer

One day he called me and said,
"Ive found two or three American guys.

"They are crazy, they are great
and they are ready to help."

I meet two American
young men, Donald and Chester.

We met with Petit
and I had a friend named Alan Welner

who I went to high school with.

He was always up
for an adventure. Always.

I think Petit knew also
that this guy was a quality guy.

Alan aka "Albert"
Quality Guy

Certainly smart. Certainly aware
of himself and knowing his limits.

The ideal accomplice.

He was pitching it.
He was presenting it.

He was desperately sort of proposing it

in a way that you would, you know,
sell a time share or something.

I knew he was a nut or a con man
or something, but he seemed harmless enough.

I didnt really take it seriously at that point.

I need to practise a little bit
on the wire,

and I need mostly to show
my two, three American friends

how to hook the cable,
how to help Jean-Louis.

Thats when I saw him on a cable.

I had never seen concentration like that.

And I think I never have to this day.

And his face became this...
ageless mask of concentration.

I mean, he became like a sphinx.
It was amazing.

He did it beautifully and calmly.

He just did it in fact,
literally with his eyes closed.

Itwas just what he does.
Everything he told me was true.

I was really very worried.

The team included people
who were totally unreliable.

I dont remember
right now when we fixed the date,

but we had fixed the date
for August 7th.

Jean-Louis reminded me
about Notre Dame,

said it would be
the same kind of thing,

the same adventure, but this time
in New York at the World Trade Center.

He didn't tell me much more,

just asked whether
I wanted to come or not.

Jean-Louis arrives and I go
and pick him up at the airport.

Hes with Jean-François,
whom of course I remember.

Hes an adorable, little apparition
and hes all smiles.

He doesnt have any questions.
He will just follow. Hes here to help.

When we arrived in New York
on the Boston train,

at one point we went past
the Empire State Building.

At that moment I looked up,

I saw the height
of the Empire State Building

and I was horrified.

My legs started to shake,
it was terrifying!

Especially when I realised the World
Trade Center was even higher.

I kept it all to myself,
but I was terrified.

♪ When I was a boy

♪ I dreamed of Phillip Marlowe...

When Jean-Louis came back,
the tension rose enormously.

It became unbearable.

The problem was the team.

♪... gave me shotgun fever... ♪

I met the first two guys.

One of them was a musician,
the other one, I think, was a carpenter.

They really looked liked losers.
I mean, Im sorry but...

When I saw these guys,
I thought, "Oh, my God!"

The very night before the coup,
they arrived at the apartment

in a deplorable state.

One of them was stoned.

He was completely gone,
lost in a haze of smoke.

Jean-Louis was absolutely dismayed.
So was Philippe.

It was likely I probably
had been smoking pot.

Yeah, likely as all hell.

I smoked pot every day for 35 years.

Theres no reason to think
I didnt smoke that day.

When Jean-Louis meets Albert,
he has a little intuition,

I can read it in Jean-Louis face.
He doesnt trust Albert.

You know you have
this feeling with people.

Sometimes its wrong,
but you cant help it anyway.

We shook hands, said hello.

They didnt speak English,
I spoke no French.

So, there wasnt too much to say.

Just, "Nice to meet you, good luck,
lets do what we have to do."

11.08pm, August 6th

When I felt that
the whole floor finally was silent

and the darkness was there,
I ventured out.

Imagine staying three hours on a beam,
you cannot walk. You need re-education.

A normal human being staying completely
unmoving on a beam for three hours cannot walk.

After a while I said,
"We cannot wait any more."

I told Albert,
"You know what? You should go,

"because if I go, if Im caught,
there is no way we can do the rigging.

"Im the only one who knows
about Philippes habit and how to do it."

So he goes on the top
and comes back five minutes later.

Im sure I just said, "OK, lets go.
Lets just get this done".

So he said, "Great, we dont know
what this noise comes from, but lets go."

And now we moved and we go
for the most important equipment.

I mean a wirewalker
needs a cable to walk on.

Now we are walking toward a tiny little
construction staircase, very narrow,

and hes in front and I am in the back.

I see a nightmare: a policeman.

And the policeman has his eyes open
and hes looking at me!

There was someone there
that we hadn't expected,

sitting at a desk with a little light.

I decide to hold him.
But hold on, he is pushing me.

The same way I am holding him,
the same way he is pushing me.

What is happening?

There is no way I can get
Jean-François to turn around.

So, lets play his game. Lets follow.

We were very silent,
because we didnt have shoes on.

When we arrived on the top,
I whispered, "Did you see the guard?"

He said, "Of course I saw the guard,
and I was trying to alert you by pushing you.

"But why did you resist?"

I said, "I was trying to resist, to have you
turn around and for me to explain..."

I remember the vastness of New York!
The altitude!

The Statue of Liberty, the UN building,
all looking so tiny.

It was magnificent.

And the sounds as well,
the police sirens all night long.

It was all so alive!

And we were kings!

The most beautiful moment
is when I see a shape,...

...actually, two silhouettes on the other tower.

I recognise immediately in the darkness,

it is the silhouette of Jean-Louis
and the silhouette of Albert. They made it!

When I saw them on the roof,
I was so happy.

And the impression I got,
I remember that all the time,

you go on the roof, its all dark and there is
this red light for the planes, you know,

thats turning,
and thats like a... like a metronome,

giving you an idea of time going by.

There was peace and immensity,
and I... I...

In the middle of all this madness,
I suddenly had hope and joy.

So I put, like a bat, actually...

I put Jean-François, upside down
in that little staircase opening.

Just his head showing.

So imagine what the guard must have seen
if he were awake.

He would have seen a human beings head,
looking at him upside down!

First thing I did,
I prepared my bow.

Prepare the arrow and prepare the fishing line
and wait for them.

So, there was this signal for Jean-Louis
to say, "I am ready to shoot."

And there was a signal for me to say,
"I saw your signal. I am ready."

And Im going to count till ten
and then he will shoot.

But there were no signal
for "I am not ready".

I hadnt thought of that and I was not ready.

- Finally, they... they give the big signal.
- "I am ready."

I have been waiting for so long,
that when he finally... gives a signal,

instinctively, I took the... the bow,
I aim and I aim at him.

And he was almost at the edge
of the... of the building.

I go hunting for the arrow.

Nothing!

Out of frustration, I take all my clothes off,

and I think that, the line,
I will feel... the line on my naked... skin.

With a defeated heart,
I climb down to the edge,

and I feel a dancing fishing line
caressing my thigh.

The arrow was actually balancing... precariously

on the very edge of the buildings corner.

A little...
...a little blow, and it was breezy,

would have simply made it fall.

The first thing
we did after a few ordinaires,

a few little ropes getting bigger
and bigger and stronger,

was to bring a burlap bag.

And this bag was carrying the very important
item of the communication, the interphone.

A little tinny toy intercom
is connected.

And we hear Philippes voice
on the other end.

And that was an important moment.

Now the four of us are together,
the work is truly going to begin.

The guard leaves,
Jean-François hardly can talk,

his head has been upside down for so long.

But we go back, we rush, we get our shoes.

And now we bring the equipment
like mad people,

and I put a little trap in the staircase.

And that will be like an alarm clock,
"Ah, somebodys getting on your roof."

By that time, everything was
perfect. I mean, it was not even midnight.

Itwas... normal rigging,

that means within three hours
everything wouldve been perfect.

Now we are ready to pull the wire.
Philippe has a wire ready.

The nylon rope is... in our hand.
We are ready.

At some point,
I gave probably too much cable.

And all of a sudden, I see the wire going...
a tremendous noise.

I thought, "My God, whats going on?"

We almost lost the wire.

So I called Philippe, "Whats going on?"
He said, "Yeah, we could not hold it."

Which was... very unfortunate.

The fact that I didnt speak French,

so I couldnt hear the details of what
was going wrong, was probably just as well.

So we had to pull... er...

probably more than 100 metres
of wire plus rope.

I dont remember
how much we gained with each attempt.

Maybe we worked hard for one minute,
two minutes, three minutes, four minutes,

and got a tiny bit
of this endless cable up there.

Within, I dont know, half an hour
it became almost impossible.

Here we are in big trouble.

Somebody is coming on the roof.

Jean-François hears also,
and he hides immediately.

And I see him, hes like a dead animal.

As a child, have you ever played
hide-and-seek in a park

and taken refuge
behind a giant tree trunk?

And a policeman comes to the roof.

And then your companion comes.
Circles the trunk, he walks, you walk.

He stops, you stop.

The man starts turning around this obstacle
in the centre of my tower,

and I turn around
on the side diametrically opposed.

This little pas de deux could go on forever,

until one of you turn around
and bump into each other.

Well, this is exactly what happened.

He turns, I turn. He stops, I stop.
He goes on, I go on.

Now, of course,
if he would have turned around, oops!

Hide-and-seek.

4.48am, August 7th

Albert was starting to...
to give up, to argue,

to say, "No, I dont want to do this any more.
Its not possible. We are not going to do it."

It was clear we werent going to get this job
done, but there was no arguing with him.

There was just... you know It was useless.

He was just going to go ahead, regardless.

lts impossible, impossible that he thought we
were going to be able to rig this before daylight.

Imagine being...
after these months of preparation,

these months of all that,
and finally being on the roof,

on the roof and having to stop
because the wire is like that.

I mean... phew!

At dawn, I assumed,
"Well, the jig is up," you know

We... we did the best, and now, you know,
lets get outta here.

The streets were deserted.

I found a taxi willing to take me there.

So I waited with the others.

Other members of the team joined us.

And our eyes were absolutely glued
to the towers.

I was looking out
for the slightest movement,

but we couldn't see a thing.

It was absolutely terrifying.

Itwas a misty day,
and I thought, "Eegh, that sucks."

And it wasnt windless either.
There was a little bit of air that morning.

And you could see when the, erm...
when the cable was up there,

and it looked very, very slack.

I pulled like crazy,
like crazy, like crazy.

Finally, I got the wire.

For some reason, the last metre
was the one that came the easiest.

Despite the abandon
of... of his co-accomplice,

Jean-Louis has his last communication almost,

"Philippe, I did it, I did it. Ive got two clamps.
We did it, the cable is anchored!"

All of a sudden we see this black spot
coming down off the top of the towers,...

...and we didnt know what the hell it was,
like, "Oh, my God, what is that?"

Suddenly we saw something,
a shape,...

...just for a second, falling down.

I saw this thing falling down,...

...and... I couldnt believe it.

And I said to myself, "Thats it,
youve been fooling yourself this whole time.

"He went straight down with the first step
off the roof. He might be dead."

There was a huge cry of relief...

...it was only a piece of clothing.

We all thought: " He must have just
dropped something, that's ok."

We all thought: "Of course
it's possible he could fall."

On the top of... Philippes roof,
there was a big wheel of the... the machines.

So as soon as the elevator would move,
we would see the wheel starting to... to turn.

I scream, "La roue, la roue!"
to Jean-François. "The wheel, the wheel!"

Because I see the giant
wheel starting in motion,...

...and I know my fate has been written now,
time is no longer smiling at me.

At that time I was really worried.
I think, the first time I was really scared.

"Oh, my God, hes exhausted, like I am..."

Maybe not as much, but for what
he has to do... Its really not a good thing.

The wire is the worst wire we ever... did,...

...and... er... I was really scared.

We all thought it,
but we didn't believe it.

We thought it,
but we didn't believe it.

And I had to make a decision

...of shifting my weight
from one foot anchored to the building...

...to the foot anchored on the wire.

This is probably... I dont know... probably
the end of my life to step on that wire.

And on the other hand,
something that I could not resist...

...and I didnt make any effort to resist,
called me upon that cable.

And death is very close.

I start walking as a wirewalker
who is studying his cable.

And instead of doing an entire study
for the whole length,...

...seeing the first
cavalettiand keep walking,...

...seeing the middle
which is so soft and treacherous,...

...seeing the second cavaletti how it is...

No, I do only go to the first cavaletti
and I know enough!

Now Im going to perform.

I saw his face changing.
He was very tense.

And all of a sudden there was
something... like a relief in him.

And from that time I thought,
"Thats it. He is secure. Its good.

"And wow, thats..."

I saw Philippe.

I saw Philippe up there,
it was extraordinary.

It was so, so beautiful.

It was like he was walking
on a cloud.

And there were
such amazing moments.

When he lay down...

...we were thrilled by this image
of Philippe lying down up above.

And another very powerful moment
was when he...

It was so beautiful.

When he knelt down.

There was a moment
when he knelt down and saluted.

I cried out: " Look! Look!"

People started gathering,
but they couldn't see.

They asked me:
"What is it? What do you see?"

I said: " Look, a wirewalker!
He's walking!"

I sat down on the wire
on one crossing,...

...and I did something that amazed people.

I actually looked all the way down, to look at
something that I will never in my life see again.

So I can tell you,
probably its a lie, but to me its not,

I heard the crowd. I saw the crowd.
I heard them murmur.

Beyond anything you could ever imagine.

Its just... mind-boggling.

The awe of the event...

...and the overwhelming largeness
of the scale of the situation...

...took my mind into a place where
I really wasnt that concerned about him.

It just... it was... magical.
It was just... it was just profound.

Officer Meyers and I observed the... er...

...tightrope dancer,
because you couldnt call him a walker,

approximately halfway between the two towers.

And upon seeing us,
he started to smile and laugh.

They dont know how to react
to a daydreaming wirewalker...

...lying down and dialoguing with
a seagull, so they were really mad.

Philippe did provoke them, naturally,...

...because that's what
he does, that's his character!

He would come close
to the guards or the police,...

...who were trying to grab him,...

...then he would turn around
and be out of their reach,...

...because they weren't about
to get on the wire!

When he got to the building,
we asked him to get off the high wire,...

...but instead he turned around
and ran back out into the middle.

Everybody was spellbound
in the watching of it.

When we observed that
he wasnt about to come in...

...because he seemed to be
enjoying it so much,...

...we mentioned the fact to his associate
that if he did not come in...

...we would have a helicopter
pluck him up off the wire.

At which time his associate...

...spoke to him in French,
being that hes a Frenchman.

"Philippe!" you know

And he said, "The police are going
to dislodge you and you should stop."

And I was... I was... I was madly enraged
by that, but also it saved my life.

There is somebody out there
on a tightrope walk...

...between the two towers of the World
Trade Center, right at the tippy-top!

I personally figured I
was watching something

that somebody else
would never see again in the world.

I thought it was once in a lifetime.

I had no reason to stay on that wire
any more, and also I felt... huh!...

...humidity in the air and the wind growing.

My friends later told me,

"You spent 45 minutes.
You know you did eight crossings?"

They grabbed me and they grounded me,...

...handcuffed... actually hands in the back,
I was thrown down the staircase,...

...the most dangerous part
of this whole adventure.

I almost broke my head on a narrow staircase
that led to the elevator.

We got it from the Port Authority that
they took about three days to rig it up.

Id say its about $1000 worth of cable,...

...and the rigging outfit itself,
its magnificent the way he did it.

- Did he say why he was doing it?
- No.

Why did you do it?
I will explain...

You know, "Why? Why?"
And that was a very...

...again in my way of seeing America,
a very American finger-snapping question.

I did something magnificent and mysterious,
and I got a practical "why".

And the beauty of it is that
I didnt have any why.

- Why did you do this?
- Thats the thousandth "why" this morning.

There is no why.

I was then taken for a psychiatric
examination by a psychiatrist.

The place was a sort
of scientific area...

...where lunatics walk round in circles.

So here we were,
surrounded by mad people.

But we weren't mad,
we were stars!

I kept asking for water,
because I was so dehydrated.

He said,
"When was the last time you drank?"

I said, "Are you crazy Youre mad!
Do you know what I did?

"I danced at the top of the world!
I am on the front pages of all the world!

"300 journalists are waiting to talk to me,
and you ask when was the last time I drank?

"You're completely mad!"

So he wrote, "The guy is completely normal.
Hes just very thirsty."

Police took a humourless view of the act.
They took Petit and a companion into custody.

They finally decided to charge them
with trespassing and disorderly conduct...

The District Attorney
offered me a deal.

He said, "Philippe, if you agree
to do a little show,

"like juggling three oranges
in front of four kids

"but on camera for the news and all that,
then well drop all the charges."

So I said, "Sure."

And now I climbed down the steps
of the Palais de Justice.

I saw in the crowd an admirer,
she was smiling beautifully.

She came to me and she put her hands
on my neck in a loving way,

and she amorously said,
"Philippe, I would like to be the first person

"to... to welcome you
and to celebrate with you.

"Lets... lets... I can follow you anywhere."

So yes, it did end up on a waterbed
in a loft somewhere,

but I went for a very short
little moment of... of... of...

I dont know!...of pleasure of the flesh.
How disgusting!

But, but, but I am sorry, how beautiful, too!

I mean, my friends were waiting for me.
Annie, my girlfriend...

It was a betrayal of my friends.

I remember, I called and said, "I have
many interviews to do, so Ill see you soon."

I had this magnificent explosion of pleasure,
lets say it,...

...and then I went back... oh, frightened
to death, you know, to my friends,

thinking Im a really, really guilty guy.

I saw Philippe discover
what it meant to be famous,...

...to be recognized, with expressions
of friendliness and enthusiasm.

People would cross the street
to tell him: "You gave us such a gift!"

"It was so beautiful!

It was a breath of fresh air...
thank you!"

It was extraordinary
and I think in Philippe's mind,...

...many things were changing.

I am a celebrity in New York.
People say,

"Are you the guy who walked
between the Twin Towers?"

I say, "Yeah, yeah, its me."
"This is incredible!"

Then some people say, "Are you the guy who...?"
I say, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"

Then people say, "Are you the guy...?
I say, "Yeah! Yeah! Its me!"

So the judge's sentence
was pretty harsh, I thought.

I was expelled from the United States.

There was a love story.

We talked about it on the plane.
Jean-François was so happy.

He said, "Well, Im ready for the next time."
I said, "No, there will not be any more...

"... any more stories like that."

There was something broken, probably,
in this friendship.

It doesnt matter, because...

Well, basically because we did it.
And... er... basically...

I mean, you cannot take away what happened.

And er...

Yeah, what happened is that... er...

But it was clear...

...that Philippe had gone through
an incredible moment in his life...

...and he was starting
something else, a new life.

Strangely, I felt the same way.

Our relationship
was meant to end here...

...and it was beautiful that way.

To me, its really... its so simple,...

...that life should be lived on the edge of life.

You have to exercise rebellion.

To refuse to taper yourself to rules,
to refuse your own success,...

...to refuse to repeat yourself,...

...to see every day, every year,
every idea as a true challenge,...

...and then you are going to live your life
on the tightrope.