The Walk (2015 film)

In 1968, Parisian street performer Philippe Petit bites a hard candy from the audience, damaging his tooth. In the dentist's waiting room, he sees a photo of the Twin Towers in a magazine. Analyzing it, he dreams of walking a tightrope between the towers. Meanwhile, he is evicted from his parents' house by his father, who disapproves of his job. Philippe returns to the circus that inspired him to wire walk as a child and practices in the big top after hours. He is caught by Papa Rudy, whom he impresses with his juggling skills. Philippe asks Papa Rudy for tips and advice on knot tying and rope rigging, which Papa Rudy agrees to for compensation.

While performing one day, Philippe meets Annie, a fellow street performer, and they begin a romantic relationship. Annie supports him on his dream and arranges for him to practice at her music school. Meeting Jean-Louis, a photographer, they become friends, and he, the official photographer and second accomplice in his dream. Jean-Louis introduces Jeff, another accomplice with fear of heights, to Philippe and Annie. He explains his idea to use a bow and an arrow tied to a fishing line to get the cable across the Towers. After failing his first real performance by falling into a lake due to anxiety, Philippe walks between Notre Dame Cathedral's towers in Paris to redeem himself. He succeeds with Jean-Louis' support and is arrested in the process, though he receives universal applause and international attention.

Philippe and Annie travel to America, setting a date for the walk as August 6, 1974. He disguises himself to spy and scout out the locations, impaling his foot on a nail in the process. At one point, he meets a fan of Philippe's, seeing him at Notre Dame: Barry Greenhouse, a life insurance salesman who works in the building and becomes another team member. They also meet French-bilingual electronics salesman J.P., amateur photographer Albert, and stoner David. The team goes over the plan several times, deciding Philippe must be on the wire before the construction crews arrive at 7:00 a.m.

On the eve of the event, the team encounters several challenges: being three hours behind schedule, guards on the premises, and nearly dropping the heavy cable off the roof. However, they successfully string up the ropes and set the wires. Philippe begins his walk, explaining that everything around him faded once he started, except the wire and himself, and that for the first time in his life, he felt genuinely thankful and at peace. He successfully crosses the gap between the towers while crowds below cheer him on. Once reaching the other building, Philippe has an urge to return, so he walks back again across the void. At one point, he kneels to his audience and even lies down. The police arrive and threaten to remove him by helicopter if he does not get off. But Philippe relentlessly continues to walk back and forth until he achieves the feat a total of six times in his 45-minute performance and feels confident enough to showboat on occasion before complying. He is arrested on site, with the police and construction workers commending him on his bravery.

Philippe and his accomplices are released, and he decides to stay in New York, but Annie chooses to follow her music dream in Paris. Philippe explains that the building manager gave him a free pass to the observation decks of the towers with the expiry date crossed out and replaced with "forever".

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit
• Ben Kingsley as Papa Rudy
• Charlotte Le Bon as Annie Allix
• James Badge Dale as Jean-Pierre
• Clément Sibony as Jean-Louis
• César Domboy as Jeff
• Benedict Samuel as David
• Ben Schwartz as Albert
• Steve Valentine as Barry Greenhouse

Philippe Petit personally trained Gordon-Levitt how to walk on wire. He optimistically predicted that the actor would be able to walk on the wire alone after an elaborate workshop of eight days, which the actor did.

On January 23, 2014, it was announced that Robert Zemeckis would direct a film based on the story of Philippe Petit's walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. It was also confirmed that Zemeckis wanted Joseph Gordon-Levitt to star in the film as Petit.[5] Zemeckis first came across the story of Petit from the children's book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.[6] At first, Zemeckis questioned whether or not the story was true as he did not recall the event, saying he "somehow missed it."[6] Zemeckis immediately recognized the potential for a movie, telling Deadline: "To me, it had everything that you want in a movie. It had an interesting character who’s driven, and obsessed, and passionate. It had all this caper stuff. He was an outlaw. There was suspense. And then he did this death-defying thing."[6] By February 2014, Gordon-Levitt was confirmed to star in the film.[7] In April 2014, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley and James Badge Dale joined the cast of the film.[8] On May 6, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on October 2, 2015.[9] In May 2014, Steve Valentine and Ben Schwartz joined the cast of the film.[10][11] Principal photography began on May 26, 2014, in Montreal, and ended on August 6, 2014.[12][13]

Gordon-Levitt, who had no formal high-wire experience, trained directly with Petit. By the end of the eighth day, he was able to walk on the wire by himself, and continued to practice while shooting.[14] Along with a stunt double, the actor shot the climactic wire-walking scenes on a soundstage; it had reconstructions of the top two stories of the tower and a wire approximately 12 feet (3.7 m) off the ground, which was connected out across a green abyss and was anchored on a pole.[14] To learn more about what it was like, Gordon-Levitt also walked the distance between the World Trade Center memorial's two pools, which are located where the Twin Towers stood before the September 11 attacks. He visited the original observatory once before, in 2001, during his first summer in New York City. "It was touristy but I wanted to go do it. I remember it distinctly. It felt more like being in the sky than being on a tall building."[14] Aside from wire-walking, Gordon-Levitt also learned to speak French fluently, perfecting a Parisian accent aided by Le Bon and other French actors on set.[14]

The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on September 26, 2015.[15] It had an early release in IMAX on September 30, 2015, before a wide theatrical release on October 9, 2015.[16]

• The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2003 book), picture book depicting the crossing
• Man on Wire (2008 film), documentary biopic film about the crossing

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• The Walk at Metacritic