0:00:13 > 0:00:19In the middle of the night, I have almost like a nightmare.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23I wake up and I had forgotten to nail shut the crate.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27So I go there and it was raining.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30I must have wake up the whole neighbourhood, you know?
0:00:30 > 0:00:32It was not closing the box, it was nailing the coffin.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35I am nailing the coffin, I see it as that.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37Why, why this expression?
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Why this thought? Well, maybe death is now looking
0:00:41 > 0:00:43through the golden frame of this dream
0:00:43 > 0:00:46and now reality is going to maybe choke me to death.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54So now I am Tuesday the 6th of August.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06'The Secret Service did maintain surveillance.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10'They did so for security reasons and I will not go beyond that.
0:01:10 > 0:01:16'I have never obstructed justice. And I think too that I can say...
0:01:16 > 0:01:18'that in my years of public life,
0:01:18 > 0:01:21'that I welcome this kind of examination,
0:01:21 > 0:01:25'because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28'Well, I am not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.'
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Everybody was getting more and more nervous
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and finally we're all ready and said, "OK, let's go."
0:01:42 > 0:01:45So we jumped in the truck.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54We're not going to die,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56we're going to, to live.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38I was going to be on the crew in the South Tower.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40We were going to go at closing time
0:02:40 > 0:02:47with a big hamper with all the gear in it and there were going to be some guys in the North Tower
0:02:47 > 0:02:53dressed for business with much less gear, an architect's tube,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55and I believe that was holding the bow.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57Electricity was between Jean-Louis and Albert,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01I can read it in Jean-Louis' face, he doesn't trust Albert.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I had a bad feeling, there was something wrong with this guy.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07He's not on the same track that we are.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Fear was in the air.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13I assumed, that even in the best possible situation,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15that we were all going to be arrested.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17There was no doubt of that.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I can't imagine how they didn't feel the same way.
0:03:25 > 0:03:31I felt that the horizontality of driving through the streets of Manhattan suddenly became slant.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35I was on the ramp. I was being engulfed by the monster.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46It was suddenly not a dream anymore.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48It was tangible.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10Once upon a time...
0:05:10 > 0:05:16Now that's how you start fairy-tales, and actually my story is a fairy-tale.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20DRILL WHIRRS
0:05:20 > 0:05:25Here I am, only 17 years old, with a bad tooth, in one of those
0:05:25 > 0:05:28uncolourful waiting rooms of a French dentist.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32It's lit with a little 40-watt bulb and you have old ladies
0:05:32 > 0:05:35and people, you know, sheepishly looking at magazines, quiet,
0:05:35 > 0:05:39and suddenly, I freeze, because I have opened
0:05:39 > 0:05:46a newspaper at a page and I see something magnificent, something that inspire me, I see two towers.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49And the article says, "One day, those towers will be built..."
0:05:49 > 0:05:50They're not even there yet.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55"..and when the are, they will become the highest in the world."
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Now I need to have that. This little tangible start of my dream,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01but everybody is watching, but I need that page
0:06:01 > 0:06:04and so, what I do is, under the cover of a sneeze - Ah-choo! -
0:06:04 > 0:06:08I tear the page, put it under my jacket and go out.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12Now of course I would have a toothache for a week,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16but what's the pain in comparison that now I have acquired my dream?
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Usually when you have a dream,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23the object of your dream is tangible, it's there, it'S quixotic
0:06:23 > 0:06:27but it's there, nagging you, you know, confronting you.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29But the object of my dream doesn't exist yet.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Annie, who knows me better than everybody.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16Annie, who was at my side during my discovery of the wire,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19whose large green eyes move me.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23When we embrace, we look like two kids
0:09:23 > 0:09:26plotting our next piece of mischief.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38I started as a young, self-taught wire walker.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42To dream of, not so much conquering the universe,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47but as a poet, conquering beautiful stages.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03One day he said, "I really would like to put a wire on Notre Dame."
0:10:03 > 0:10:09And at first I thought it was a joke but, in the meantime, I knew,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12I knew that there was something a little bit real about it.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16Then we started to talk more and more about it,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19and then we started to plan it.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22It took about a year to find the right way to do it.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42You can imagine you wake up in the morning in a city
0:10:42 > 0:10:48and all of a sudden you see a high-wire walker between Notre Dame - it's a dream.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57That's what really attracts me, it's the challenge part of doing something
0:10:57 > 0:11:00that's supposed to be impossible, and in the meantime doing something
0:11:00 > 0:11:04that's so beautiful that doesn't, not only doesn't hurt anybody,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06but gives something to somebody.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05Now we were horizontal again, we were driving in a subterranean garage of the two towers
0:13:05 > 0:13:07and we were going and knew the plan.
0:13:07 > 0:13:13We were going to the freight elevator of the South Tower.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15The whole plan was in the making.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24The basic plan was very simple.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30We had ID cards, so it was just a matter of just, kind of, pushing our way through.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35Once we'd gotten in the buildings, it was pretty smooth sailing.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01If I die...what a beautiful death.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05To die in the exercise of your passion.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33We broke into the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon one night
0:15:33 > 0:15:37and carried all this equipment in, put a tightrope up,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40disappeared in the morning and then sat down on the street
0:15:40 > 0:15:43and watched Philippe walk backwards and forwards.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05The fact that the wire walking activity is framed by death,
0:16:05 > 0:16:10it's great because then you have to take it very seriously.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13It's a little half a millimetre of mistake
0:16:13 > 0:16:17or a quarter of a second of inattention and you lose your life.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39This was the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the traffic was backed up,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42the police came, of course, within minutes.
0:16:59 > 0:17:05When he was taken away, I mean, the first thing he did was he picked the policeman's watch.
0:17:05 > 0:17:11Philippe manages to take the guy's watch off his wrist
0:17:11 > 0:17:12and hide it in his pocket.
0:17:23 > 0:17:24THEY CHEER
0:17:29 > 0:17:34These twin towers are trotting in my head, elles trottent dans ma tete, I'm galloping in my brain.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45As I'm back to Paris, slap in the face, very much double-page -
0:17:45 > 0:17:46the twin towers are built!
0:17:49 > 0:17:54But right now the picture tells me that those beams are not still covered, the things are not painted.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58I see workers, I imagine, maybe for a few more months or a year, who knows,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01it's in construction and I can sneak in.
0:18:28 > 0:18:34The plan was for me to bring all my equipment to the 82nd floor,
0:18:34 > 0:18:35which was Barry's hiding place -
0:18:35 > 0:18:38there was one in each tower, the same floor -
0:18:38 > 0:18:39put all the equipment there,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42using the freight elevator saying, "Delivery for 82nd floor,"
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and Barry will be there to receive, OK?
0:18:44 > 0:18:48At the time, I was an assistant director of research
0:18:48 > 0:18:51at the New York state insurance department.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56We'd just moved in and I was on what was then the highest occupied floor in two world trade centres.
0:19:04 > 0:19:10I knew there was going to be a team in each tower and that the stuff was going to be delivered to me
0:19:10 > 0:19:13and that it was going to be carried up,
0:19:13 > 0:19:14it would have been 28 floors.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17The operator of the freight elevator
0:19:17 > 0:19:22had not completely heard the foreman shouting, "82nd floor,"
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and it was clearly on our delivery bill and on the package.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27He asked to the group, "What floor again?"
0:19:27 > 0:19:29"Right there." I said, "This is it,"
0:19:29 > 0:19:32and I said clearly, "104."
0:19:32 > 0:19:34"OK, whatever. Watch your hands."
0:19:34 > 0:19:38And, cling! The gate clanged shut.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Now, we are in a plywood box.
0:19:45 > 0:19:49I'm in a temporary freight elevator going all the way up.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54It's dark, it's travel to heaven and the darkness becomes grey
0:19:54 > 0:19:58and I see a square of grey that becomes lighter.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02I see a square of light, it is the sky.
0:20:02 > 0:20:08We are getting there and we are arriving just a few floors below the roof,
0:20:08 > 0:20:09with all our equipment.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Annie came to my office and told me
0:20:13 > 0:20:17that they had by a great stroke of fortune
0:20:17 > 0:20:23gotten on the freight elevator and saved themselves 20 floors
0:20:23 > 0:20:25of carrying up all that equipment.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Now I find myself in a deserted floor, 104,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33and the first thing we do is unpack and take the equipment out.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Suddenly I hear a guard coming.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41I just look and I see over there a tarp.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44So I just grab Jean-Francois and I throw him underneath
0:20:44 > 0:20:46and I hear Jean-Francois yell.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56What? We're going under it. Yeah, we had to hide under a tarp.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00The man starts saying, "Hold on, my leg, hold these, where can I go..."
0:21:00 > 0:21:06I kind of like, right on the spur of the moment said, "You know, man, I can't do this."
0:21:06 > 0:21:10He's like, "OK. Go ahead."
0:21:10 > 0:21:15"Go, go, quick..." I think, "Who was the more happy, was it Donald or I?" Anyway, bye-bye.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Unbridled glee.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20I'm so happy to not have to do this.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24I'm running down the stairs, 110 flights.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27It's like those dreams where you never touch down.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29It was so beautiful.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39So here we are under the tarp, frozen to death.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42I don't have to mumble to Jean-Francois, "Don't move."
0:21:42 > 0:21:46He feels it in our body...connection.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Now the guard comes, has he seen us?
0:21:50 > 0:21:53WALKIE-TALKIE CHATTER
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Has he heard us? Has he seen the tarp move?
0:21:56 > 0:22:04But the guard comes and leans against the structure and he seems to be a foot away.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08I hear the crackling of his walkie-talkie and I hear he takes
0:22:08 > 0:22:13a cigarette and the sound of the lighter and of his first puff, the burning from the cigarette.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18- HE MIMICS PUFFING A CIGARETTE - He seems to be almost leaning on my ear.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21We are frozen, we don't breathe.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33We wait for 6.30.
0:22:37 > 0:22:38We start to climb.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45We saw nobody in the stairway. There is nobody on this roof, it seems pretty safe.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09All of a sudden we heard somebody coming from the stairway.
0:23:09 > 0:23:15So we were scared like hell. So we ran to the hiding place and we jump in the hiding place.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19We hear some steps, we hear the walkie-talkie noise.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30The noise was very confusing.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35Sometimes you don't hear the guy for ten minutes, so you think he's gone.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40All of a sudden you hear him coughing or you hear the walkie-talkie noise
0:23:40 > 0:23:45like he's right next to the hiding place, so we could not talk.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48WALKIE-TALKIE CHATTER
0:23:49 > 0:23:53We started to write little notes.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58We kept saying, "You know, now, let's wait a little longer?"
0:23:58 > 0:24:01It was uncomfortable
0:24:01 > 0:24:06but once you understand that you don't have a choice, you try to settle in and just wait.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14At that point we're in suits, in business suits.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Being in a business suit with heavy equipment,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20hiding behind a pile of boxes, there's no explanation.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23It we were caught at that time, that was it.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37What if the guard is still around?
0:24:37 > 0:24:39What if he is toying with us?
0:24:39 > 0:24:44Waiting for us to make the slightest movement before he pounces on us.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46We must wait.
0:24:46 > 0:24:51To ease the torment, I returned to my memories,
0:24:51 > 0:24:56the gold and mud, years of dreaming.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58Months of organising...
0:24:58 > 0:25:01I dive back into the past
0:25:01 > 0:25:03for a long while.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09That it will indeed serve for the purposes intended
0:25:09 > 0:25:13and it will truly promote not only harmony in the States,
0:25:14 > 0:25:20but harmony and communication between the nations of the world.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25It was in January of 1974, I climb on the roof of my little house
0:25:25 > 0:25:27and I scream, "I am coming, America!"
0:25:44 > 0:25:47The minute I got out of the subway, climbing the steps,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50looking at them, I knew that they were no dream.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54I knew that my dream was destroyed instantly.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01Impossible, impossible, impossible.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06It's clearly impossible, not only to walk across, this probably I'd hardly thought of it,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11but to bring almost like a tonne of equipment secretly, to rig a wire for hours, to guy-line it,
0:26:11 > 0:26:16it's clearly out of human skill.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Something in me pulls me toward touching it.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33That's when he spoke to me about his project.
0:26:33 > 0:26:39He said, "I want to string a wire between the two World Trade Center towers."
0:26:39 > 0:26:41I said, "OK. Sounds wild."
0:26:41 > 0:26:45I mean, I'd never met a high-wire walker before.
0:26:45 > 0:26:47I had no idea what...
0:26:47 > 0:26:53nor did I entertain the idea at the time of what the consequences of anything happening would be.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It just sounded like a really fun adventure to get involved in.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00So I took it upon myself to say, "Let's work on it."
0:27:00 > 0:27:05The first occasion we went up in the elevator. We basically took the elevator to 86th floor.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08When we got off there was a guard there.
0:27:08 > 0:27:09He said, "What are you doing here?"
0:27:09 > 0:27:12So obviously we couldn't continue.
0:27:12 > 0:27:17We took the elevator back down again and then we realised, well, he actually said, "Let's just walk up."
0:27:19 > 0:27:23We proceeded to climb up the 110 flights to the top.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31We are at the top of the world.
0:27:34 > 0:27:42I see two slabs of concrete barely inhabited with some construction, no fence, no net, no nothing.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45I am frozen to death.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50I see the other tower and I imagine the void
0:27:50 > 0:27:57and if I were to run on this slab, I would just fall to another life.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09And slowly I thought, "OK, now it's impossible, that's sure. So let's start working."
0:28:09 > 0:28:12We took pictures of all these things, thinking perhaps that might be
0:28:12 > 0:28:17where the cable would be tied or maybe it's a cable we could use.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22He wasn't sure how he was gonna rig it at that particular time.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28I decided, in the staircase, to draw a little fresco
0:28:28 > 0:28:31as if I needed some tangible proof
0:28:31 > 0:28:36to show me that I was going through different steps and approaching
0:28:36 > 0:28:39the impossible of actually finding myself on that wire.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48I even rent a helicopter at some point.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51Jim Moore was with me taking pictures of the roof,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54the equipment there for making a model for measuring.
0:28:54 > 0:29:00But I also wanted a little bit to see if it was possible.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05He wanted to get higher than where he was gonna be when he walked on the wire.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08It was a way of tricking his mind into
0:29:08 > 0:29:13not feeling fear by being higher than where he was gonna be when he actually did the walk.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17One day I received a postcard with the World Trade Center.
0:29:17 > 0:29:25I'd never heard of the WTC at the time and he had drawn a little wire on top of the towers.
0:29:25 > 0:29:29I thought, "Of course, that's why these towers are there." I mean for Philippe.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32So I go back to France.
0:29:32 > 0:29:38The minute I arrive, I didn't even go home. I run to Jean-Louis, my old friend.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41I said, "I have a new idea."
0:29:41 > 0:29:43This we knew that legally we could not do it.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48I mean, nobody knew Philippe Petit, nobody knew us.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51you go there and you ask, "Can I put a wire on top of the World Trade Center?"
0:29:51 > 0:29:53They said, er, "Get out!"
0:29:55 > 0:29:59So I try to get some information from Philippe.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04So OK, you have been there, you told me you have been ten times on the top, but what did you get?
0:30:04 > 0:30:07What do we have as information? "But I have pictures, look.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11"We can put the wire, I don't know where to put it, but we'll
0:30:11 > 0:30:13"find out with the pictures."
0:30:25 > 0:30:31I started to do a little recap in my head and I found that we had nothing.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35He's not driven by the impetuous feeling of dancing between the towers.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39He's driven by "I'm going to help Philippe. I don't want him
0:30:39 > 0:30:44"to kill himself and I don't want to be caught there and we want to succeed, we don't want to fail."
0:30:44 > 0:30:47So for plenty of reason that are actually noble and understandable,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50he becomes almost, we're fighting a lot on,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54"You don't have enough elements, Philippe, to build up a serious plan."
0:30:56 > 0:31:00So now I go back and this is the second visit to America.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Now I spend my time spying the Twin Towers.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11With all my might, I go day and night, I note things,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15I fill the exercise books with all those notes and little doodling
0:31:15 > 0:31:22and I look at what commercial that he could go underneath for freight delivery.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25I go in, I find ways at lunchtime to disguise myself.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36So it's important. I'm so much into taking notes as a spy around the towers,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38I don't see it as a construction site.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40I don't see one nail sticking out of one plank.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49So right there the big nail goes through my sole. Three days in bed.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54So here I am with crutches thinking I am incapacitated.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56No, no, no, no, it's the opposite.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00It's wonderful! Human being with crutches - the universe is his.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02The guards, you know, help me.
0:32:02 > 0:32:04"Can I help you? Let me hold the door."
0:32:04 > 0:32:07People, you know, "Sit down, take your time." Nobody asked me for ID.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Nobody says "what are you doing here?"
0:32:09 > 0:32:11I have... It was fabulous.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16So then now, even though my feet is about to be repaired, I use the crutches a lot, OK?
0:32:16 > 0:32:21You would see the man leaving his crutches and running around to measure something
0:32:21 > 0:32:23and coming back and being with crutches.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45One time we went up there and it was very, very windy
0:32:45 > 0:32:48and I actually wasn't sure why we were going up there.
0:32:48 > 0:32:52I barely had the courage to get out of my little trap door.
0:32:52 > 0:32:58And Jim, hanging on I don't know how, managed to take a picture of me hanging onto a post
0:32:58 > 0:33:02at the very roof of the tower with my body almost horizontally.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The wind was blowing me away.
0:33:05 > 0:33:06So what if?
0:33:06 > 0:33:11That was very scary. That was maybe one of the first times I've realised how crazy it was up there
0:33:11 > 0:33:14with that kind of condition and the height and what we were involved in.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17What happens if I'm up there and I rig it and something happens?
0:33:17 > 0:33:21I just started thinking about those things when it got closer to the actual event.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I basically said, "No, I can't help you rig.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27"I can't be part of that team that goes to the top."
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Here we are underneath the top of the World Trade Center,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54- under a tarp. - PIN DROPS
0:33:54 > 0:33:58Each time we would hear a noise, it was very hard to tell if it was a cardboard board
0:33:58 > 0:34:02flapping in the wind, or a guard coming, or a walkie-talkie.
0:34:07 > 0:34:12I drill a little hole with a paper clip and I enlarged this hole
0:34:12 > 0:34:15in the canvas with the conic end of a ballpoint pen.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23And then with one eye, I was able to see a little bit of the ambient light
0:34:23 > 0:34:26going on to the figure of my watch.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31What time is it? Is it dark outside? Oh, I heard noise.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34Let's try to go out of the tarp.
0:34:54 > 0:34:56We kept on hearing more and more noise from the roof,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59like voice, like machines.
0:34:59 > 0:35:03Sometimes far away, sometimes very close, but really like
0:35:03 > 0:35:05somebody was working on the roof.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09"Gee, they're working at night. What if we are stuck?
0:35:09 > 0:35:13"There's no chance it will happen."
0:35:13 > 0:35:15The longer we waited and the longer we hid,
0:35:15 > 0:35:19the less time we'd have to do what we had to do to get up there.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21There was tension.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26I thought we were both out of our element, that neither of us really should have been there.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30There's something that I don't trust in this guy.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33He's not deeply concerned by the thing.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35Why is he here?
0:35:43 > 0:35:49When I finished university I flew to Paris and I caught up with Philippe
0:35:49 > 0:35:52and he showed me this extraordinary diagram and photograph
0:35:52 > 0:35:55of this building being constructed in New York.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57This is a big one now, a big one.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01I looked at this huge tower, or towers,
0:36:01 > 0:36:06and Philippe was just so enthusiastic about doing this,
0:36:06 > 0:36:11so I became, I guess, one of the first members of the team.
0:36:18 > 0:36:19Merde!
0:36:32 > 0:36:39I intend, on the giant meadow, it's a giant field, to reproduce not two roof of the World Trade Center,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43I don't have the money for that, but just the outline and practise.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Even if I miss, it doesn't matter.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02'We had, I guess, a little bit of a boot camp or a training camp.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07'Essentially, we spent time there conceiving, designing,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12'trying to work out how to make this thing work from every aspect.'
0:37:13 > 0:37:17ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:37:27 > 0:37:29So I asked my friends
0:37:29 > 0:37:34to make the cable dance, and here is Mark the Australian, Jean-Louis and me.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37And we would jump up and down on these wires.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40We'd try and bounce Philippe off of the wire.
0:37:54 > 0:38:00The World Trade Center was extraordinary because it was 200ft between the towers,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03so how do you get a tightrope from one tower to the other?
0:38:03 > 0:38:05Look what you will see.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07You like that?
0:38:07 > 0:38:12We have to find a way to throw something and then you can pull a little string
0:38:12 > 0:38:16and then a bigger string and then a rope and then eventually the wire.
0:38:18 > 0:38:24At some point, I mean I thought even of a little aeroplane, radio-guided.
0:38:24 > 0:38:30Football and baseball - yeah, we have to learn how to play baseball for two months before we can do that.
0:38:30 > 0:38:31No, no, no.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35And at some point, Jean would come up with a really silly idea.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37I don't even let him finish his sentence.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40He says, "Philippe, what about a bow and arrow?"
0:38:40 > 0:38:45We drilled a very small hole in the end of an arrow
0:38:45 > 0:38:49and we attached a monofilament or a fishing line wire to the arrow
0:38:49 > 0:38:55and the whole idea would be that Jean-Louis would send the arrow from one building to another.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00And then, of course, whenever we tried it, it just didn't work.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32It's pretty useless. A proper one or make a proper one.
0:39:32 > 0:39:34'In the end, we designed a spool that had a conical shape on it
0:39:34 > 0:39:39'so that the monofilament would unravel and go very freely through the air.'
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Just right. Exactly.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19As a child, I loved to climb everywhere.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22I let the psychiatrist decide why. Maybe I wanted to escape my time.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27Maybe I wanted to see the world from a different perspective and I was an explorer at heart.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Who knows and who cares? But I was a little climber
0:40:30 > 0:40:35and nobody, not my parents, not the teachers, nobody could stop me.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45I heard about wire walkers.
0:40:45 > 0:40:51I was told how they are magnificent men and women walking in thin air
0:40:51 > 0:40:54and I thought, "Well that's nothing. With my ropes I do that."
0:41:20 > 0:41:22HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:41:24 > 0:41:26ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:42:23 > 0:42:24Oh, no. Cos it's not...
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Mark said if somebody opened the door in the stairs
0:43:12 > 0:43:15and see a very serious man taking big... It is no good.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18No, listen.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22In the stairway, we can be discovered by anyone,
0:43:22 > 0:43:28- so we have to be a combination of a workman and an office man. - I think this is perfect.
0:43:28 > 0:43:29This is perfect,
0:43:29 > 0:43:30and this is no good.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32IN FRENCH:
0:43:43 > 0:43:46ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:44:05 > 0:44:07JEAN-LOUIS IN FRENCH:
0:44:07 > 0:44:09ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:44:15 > 0:44:21Since long before, Annie has been angling for an invitation to New York
0:44:21 > 0:44:28using tenderness, blackmail, threats, insults and tears.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34But I need absolute detachment, complete freedom.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37I must be a castaway on the desert island of my dreams.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49Philippe and I travelled to New York together.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54I remember looking out through this hazy airplane window and seeing in the far distance the Twin Towers.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58We had come all this way
0:44:58 > 0:45:00and this was what we were here for.
0:45:01 > 0:45:08Metropolis - France's number-one journal of urban planning.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10We are preparing a feature profile of the workers
0:45:10 > 0:45:14who are presently constructing the World Trade Center in New York.
0:45:14 > 0:45:22Our credentialed reporter, Philippe Petit, kindly requests your co-operation for this article.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26He told me he was a French journalist.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30It wasn't normal for me to say, "Show me your credentials".
0:45:30 > 0:45:33He was going to write a story about the World Trade Center
0:45:33 > 0:45:37for the French newspapers and he had two photographers with him.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39I thought that was pretty good publicity.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42You completely trust the building yourself.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44Is it safe?
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Like tumble down or fall down or something? No, I'd say...
0:45:47 > 0:45:50'Here was this sort of long-haired Australian
0:45:50 > 0:45:56'and this very volatile Frenchman who couldn't speak great English saying we were journalists.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00'We enlisted Jim Moore, and he was the cameraman.'
0:46:01 > 0:46:04It was interesting. We were standing there,
0:46:04 > 0:46:10saying we were something we were not and getting away with it. It was wonderful.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15When you are working here and when the weather changed, you can not work any more.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19If we start doing a day up here and the weather gets bad, we have to finish the day.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24- So it happens in life to go there on the top, bad conditions?- Oh yeah.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Would you be scared of that?
0:46:26 > 0:46:31- No. Not really.- 'I remember Jim would act like he was taking a photograph of a worker
0:46:31 > 0:46:33'and at the same time, he'd put the camera down
0:46:33 > 0:46:36'and take a photograph of a pylon or anchor point or something like that.'
0:46:38 > 0:46:41The towers were not corners facing corners.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44The were askew, which was a problem for me
0:46:44 > 0:46:47to decide where to put my wire.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50So, in principle, that's a cable across the two roof.
0:46:50 > 0:46:56I decided to attach the cable to what I believed was the strongest beam at the top of the roof,
0:46:56 > 0:47:03then I'm going to tie the wire to here on the South Tower.
0:47:03 > 0:47:09A cable between two buildings of a long length, it sways, it goes up and down.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13And there is an almost invisible move which is a torsion on itself.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17So, what we devise, is a...
0:47:17 > 0:47:20It's called a cavaletti in the circus parlance.
0:47:20 > 0:47:26It's actually a guy-line that is perpendicular to the axis of the wire and it goes down to the ground.
0:47:26 > 0:47:32Even with permission, we couldn't go a quarter of a mile to the ground, plus I needed a pair.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34Here's one. And here's two.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36We know they cannot go down.
0:47:36 > 0:47:42So the solution was asymmetric rigging, which is like this.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47Here's the first attachment. Each cavaletti had two legs - a short one and a long one.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52This is what I decided was the best for the situation.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57And now I am preparing for le coup.
0:47:57 > 0:47:58We are going to do it.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02I arrive Saturday and the coup is due on Monday.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06He is more and more ready for the coup,
0:48:06 > 0:48:12but the coup itself is not ready and I was very frustrated about that.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15I knew we had to act quickly and I knew we had nothing.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Jean-Louis wants to know, "Have you done this that I asked you to do,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23"and what is my answer about when the guard and..." I don't satisfy him with my answer.
0:48:23 > 0:48:28So he attacks my non-preparations when actually, I feel that I have prepared immensely.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34I think the longer we were there, the longer I was cognisant
0:48:34 > 0:48:38that it was a very ambitious pursuit, what we were doing.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42'We just weren't ready.'
0:48:42 > 0:48:45..means the more we must have to put the screw...
0:48:45 > 0:48:49'I never doubted Philippe's talent, his prowess on the wire.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53'It was the unforeseen things that really worried me.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56'America's a very litigious society.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58'Involuntary manslaughter.
0:48:58 > 0:48:59'Assisted suicide.'
0:49:01 > 0:49:04I didn't want to be liable for the death of a friend.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10We could clearly see that we were not ready.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12Everybody could see it but Philippe.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14And at that time, we gave up.
0:49:15 > 0:49:22Obviously with the Australian not there, obviously the whole thing is a total debacle.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And I told him, "So, Philippe, what do you think now?
0:49:30 > 0:49:33"It's May 30th. We're supposed to do the coup today.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36"Do you think we can do it like that?" And he said, "No."
0:49:36 > 0:49:40He said, "No, it's clear that it's impossible."
0:49:40 > 0:49:42I said, "No, it's not impossible.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44"It is possible. We are very close to it."
0:49:46 > 0:49:48If you want something, nothing is impossible.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51"I'll be back, I'll be back."
0:49:51 > 0:49:53We prepared and we do it.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05I saw him in the lobby.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08It was just someone who didn't belong there.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13Like someone... It was just a wrong juxtaposition.
0:51:13 > 0:51:15It just was very, very odd.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18"Philippe!
0:51:18 > 0:51:20"It's wonderful to see you!"
0:51:20 > 0:51:24His name is Barry. And he has seen me street juggling in Paris.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30We started talking and he told me about all this wire walking that he did.
0:51:30 > 0:51:36And I think I sort of said, "If you're thinking of doing the World Trade Center, forget it."
0:51:36 > 0:51:40But he sort of draws you into his world.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45I guess I was the kind of guy who was not averse to doing things that were slightly...
0:51:47 > 0:51:50..not totally legal.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Barry calls me. He says, "Philippe, sorry to tell you, but the security
0:51:55 > 0:52:00"around the World Trade Center has changed and now we are all forced to carry an ID.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04"But I happen to have mine freshly unsealed from the envelope
0:52:04 > 0:52:08"and it will not be too much trouble to abandon it in your hands for a few hours."
0:52:08 > 0:52:12He did this incredibly artistic, perfect job
0:52:12 > 0:52:16of copying it and getting an ID card with his own picture on it.
0:52:24 > 0:52:29One day he called me and said, "I have found two or three American guys, crazy,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33"they are great and they are ready to help."
0:52:33 > 0:52:38I meet two American young men, Donald and Chester.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44We met with Petit and I had a friend named Alan Welner, who I went to high school with.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49He was always up for an adventure. Always. I think Petit knew also that this guy was a quality guy.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56Certainly smart, certainly aware of himself and knowing his limits.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59The ideal accomplice.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03He was pitching it, he was presenting it,
0:53:03 > 0:53:09he was desperately proposing it, in a way that you would sell a timeshare or something.
0:53:10 > 0:53:15I knew he was a nut, or a conman or something, but he seemed harmless enough.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20I didn't really take it seriously at that point.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25I need to practise a little bit on the wire.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30I need mostly to show my two or three American friends how to hook the cable, how to help Jean-Louis.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36That's when I saw him on a cable.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40I had never seen concentration like that.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43And I think I never have to this day.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47And his face became this ageless mask of concentration.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50He became like a sphinx.
0:53:50 > 0:53:51It was amazing.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09He did it beautifully and calmly and he did it,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13literally, with his eyes closed. It was just what he does.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Everything he told me was true.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33ANNIE IN FRENCH:
0:54:43 > 0:54:49I don't remember right now when we fixed the date, but we had figured it for August 7th.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08Jean-Louis arrives and I go and pick him up at the airport.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12And it is Jean-Francois and of course I remember Jean-Francois.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14He's all smiles. He doesn't have any questions.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17He just will follow. He's here to help.
0:55:48 > 0:55:55# When I was a boy I dreamed of Philip Marlowe
0:55:56 > 0:55:59# He took me as his partner... #
0:55:59 > 0:56:01ANNIE:
0:56:05 > 0:56:08# He gave me his fedora
0:56:08 > 0:56:10# Gave me shotgun fever... #
0:56:12 > 0:56:15'I met the first two guys.'
0:56:15 > 0:56:20One of them was a musician, the other one, I think, was a carpenter, I don't know what.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24And they really looked like losers.
0:56:24 > 0:56:25Sorry, but...
0:56:25 > 0:56:28HE LAUGHS
0:56:28 > 0:56:32When I saw these guys, I thought, "My God!"
0:56:32 > 0:56:34# ..loves me. #
0:56:55 > 0:56:57It was likely I probably had been smoking pot.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01Yeah. Likely as all hell.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03I smoked pot every day for 35 years.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06There's no reason to think I didn't smoke that day.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11And when Jean-Louis met Albert...
0:57:11 > 0:57:15he has intuition. I can read it in Jean-Louis' face.
0:57:15 > 0:57:16He doesn't trust Albert.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21You know you have this feeling with people, and sometimes it's wrong,
0:57:21 > 0:57:23but you can't help it, anyway.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28We shook hands, said hello.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31They didn't speak English, I spoke no French.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34So there wasn't too much to say.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39Just, "Nice to meet you, good luck, let's do what we have to do."
0:58:00 > 0:58:06When I felt that the whole floor finally was silent and the darkness is there, I venture out.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13Imagine staying three hours on a beam, you cannot walk. You need re-education.
0:58:13 > 0:58:18A normal human being staying completely unmoving on a beam for three hours cannot walk.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28After a while, I said, "We cannot wait any more."
0:58:28 > 0:58:33I told Albert, "You know what? You should go, because if I go, if I am caught,
0:58:33 > 0:58:35"there is no way we can do the rigging
0:58:35 > 0:58:40"cos I am the only one who knows about Philippe's habit and how to do it."
0:58:42 > 0:58:47So he goes on the top and comes back five minutes later.
0:58:47 > 0:58:51I'm sure I said, "OK, let's go. Let's just get this done."
0:58:51 > 0:58:52So I said, "Great."
0:58:52 > 0:58:56We don't know where this noise comes from, but let's go.
0:58:56 > 0:59:01And now we moved and we go for the most important equipment.
0:59:01 > 0:59:05I mean, a wire walker needs a cable to walk on.
0:59:05 > 0:59:10Now we are walking to a tiny little construction staircase, very narrow.
0:59:10 > 0:59:12He's in front, I am in the back.
0:59:12 > 0:59:15I see a nightmare - a policeman.
0:59:15 > 0:59:17The policeman has his eyes open and he is looking at me.
0:59:22 > 0:59:25I decide to hold him.
0:59:25 > 0:59:27But hold on, he is pushing me.
0:59:27 > 0:59:30The same way I am holding him, the same way he is pushing me.
0:59:30 > 0:59:32What is happening?
0:59:33 > 0:59:37There is no way we can turn around, so let's play this game.
0:59:42 > 0:59:44We were very silent because we didn't have shoes on
0:59:44 > 0:59:47and when we arrive on the top, I whisper, "Did you see the guard?"
0:59:47 > 0:59:52"Of course I saw the guard. I was trying to alert you by pushing you, but why did you resist?"
0:59:52 > 0:59:56I said, "I was trying to resist to have you turn around and for me..."
1:00:18 > 1:00:24The most beautiful moment is when I see a shape, two silhouettes on the other tower
1:00:24 > 1:00:29and I recognise immediately in the darkness, it is the silhouette of Jean-Louis and Albert.
1:00:29 > 1:00:30They made it.
1:00:31 > 1:00:34When I saw them on the roof, I was so happy.
1:00:34 > 1:00:37And the impression I got, I remember that all the time.
1:00:37 > 1:00:39You go on the roof, it's all dark,
1:00:39 > 1:00:45and there's this red light for the planes that's turning, it's like a metronome.
1:00:47 > 1:00:50Giving you an idea of timing going by.
1:00:50 > 1:00:57There was peace and immensity and in the middle of all this madness, I suddenly had hope and joy.
1:01:18 > 1:01:20So I put, like a bat, actually,
1:01:20 > 1:01:26I put Jean-Francois upside down in that little staircase opening. Just his head showing.
1:01:26 > 1:01:29So imagine what the guard must have seen if he were awake.
1:01:29 > 1:01:33He would have seen a human being head looking at him upside down.
1:01:41 > 1:01:44The first thing I did, I prepare my bow.
1:01:51 > 1:01:57Prepare the arrow and prepare the fishing line and wait for them.
1:02:04 > 1:02:09So there was a signal for Jean-Louis to say, "I am ready to shoot."
1:02:09 > 1:02:13And there was a signal for me to say, "I saw your signal.
1:02:13 > 1:02:18"I am ready. And I'm going to count to 10 and then you will shoot."
1:02:18 > 1:02:20But there was no signal for "I am not ready."
1:02:20 > 1:02:22I had not thought of that.
1:02:22 > 1:02:24And I was not ready!
1:02:25 > 1:02:28Finally he gives this big signal.
1:02:28 > 1:02:30"I am ready."
1:02:30 > 1:02:35I have been waiting for so long that when he finally gives the signal,
1:02:35 > 1:02:39instinctively, I took the bow and I aim at him.
1:02:40 > 1:02:43And he was almost at the edge of the building.
1:02:46 > 1:02:48I go hunting for the arrow.
1:02:50 > 1:02:52Nothing!
1:02:52 > 1:03:00Out of frustration, I take my clothes off and I think that I will feel the line on my naked skin.
1:03:04 > 1:03:08With a defeated heart, I climb down to the edge
1:03:08 > 1:03:12and I feel a dancing fishing line caressing my thigh.
1:03:12 > 1:03:17The arrow was actually balancing precariously
1:03:17 > 1:03:22on the very edge of the building's corner.
1:03:22 > 1:03:28A little blow - and it was breezy - would simply make it fall.
1:03:31 > 1:03:38The first thing we did after a few little ropes getting bigger and bigger and stronger
1:03:38 > 1:03:39was to bring a burlap bag.
1:03:39 > 1:03:45And this bag was carrying the very important item
1:03:45 > 1:03:49of the communication - the interphone.
1:03:49 > 1:03:52Little tinny toy intercom was connected
1:03:52 > 1:03:55and we hear Philippe's voice on the other end.
1:03:55 > 1:04:00That was an important moment. Now the four of us are together.
1:04:00 > 1:04:02The work is truly going to begin.
1:04:02 > 1:04:07The guard leaves and Francois can hardly talk, his head has been upside down for so long.
1:04:07 > 1:04:13But we go back. We rush and get our shoes and now we bring the equipment like mad people
1:04:13 > 1:04:16and I put a little trap in the staircase.
1:04:18 > 1:04:21And that will be like an alarm - somebody is getting on your roof!
1:04:22 > 1:04:26By the time everything was perfect, I mean, it was not even midnight.
1:04:26 > 1:04:28It was a normal rigging.
1:04:28 > 1:04:33That means, within three hours, everything would have been perfect.
1:04:35 > 1:04:38Now we are ready to pull the wire. Philippe has a wire ready.
1:04:38 > 1:04:43The nylon rope is in our hand. We are ready.
1:04:43 > 1:04:48At some point, I gave probably too much cable.
1:04:49 > 1:04:51All of a sudden, I see the wire going...
1:04:51 > 1:04:54Tremendous noise. I thought, "My God, what's going on?"
1:04:57 > 1:04:58We almost lost the wire.
1:04:58 > 1:05:02- INTERCOM BUZZES - Eee!- So I called Philippe.
1:05:02 > 1:05:06"What's going on?" He said, "Yeah, we could not hold it," which is...
1:05:06 > 1:05:08very unfortunate!
1:05:10 > 1:05:12The fact that I didn't speak French,
1:05:12 > 1:05:17so I couldn't hear the details of what was going wrong, was probably just as well.
1:05:21 > 1:05:26So we had to pull probably more than 100 metres of wire.
1:05:28 > 1:05:31I don't remember how much we gained with each attempt.
1:05:31 > 1:05:36Maybe we worked hard for one minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes,
1:05:36 > 1:05:38and got a tiny bit of this endless cable up there.
1:05:38 > 1:05:43Within, I don't know, half an hour, it became almost impossible.
1:05:46 > 1:05:48Here we are in big trouble.
1:05:48 > 1:05:50Somebody is coming on the roof.
1:05:54 > 1:05:58Jean-Francois hears also and he hides immediately.
1:05:58 > 1:06:01I see him, he's like a dead animal.
1:06:01 > 1:06:08As a child, have you ever played hide and seek in a park and take refuge behind a giant tree trunk?
1:06:08 > 1:06:10And a policeman comes to the roof.
1:06:10 > 1:06:15And then your companion comes, circles the trunk, he walks, you walk, he stops, you stop.
1:06:15 > 1:06:19The man starts turning around this obstacle in the centre of my tower
1:06:19 > 1:06:21and I turn around on the side diametrically opposed.
1:06:21 > 1:06:27This little pas de deux could go on forever, until one of you turns around and bumps into each other.
1:06:27 > 1:06:29This is exactly what happened.
1:06:29 > 1:06:31He turns, I turn. He stops, I stop.
1:06:31 > 1:06:33He goes on, I go on.
1:06:33 > 1:06:37Now, of course, if he would have turned around, oops. Hide and seek.
1:06:53 > 1:06:56Albert was starting to give up, to argue,
1:06:56 > 1:07:01to say, "No, I don't want to do this anymore, it's not possible, we're not going to do it."
1:07:01 > 1:07:08It was clear we weren't going to get this job done, but there was no arguing with him. It was useless.
1:07:08 > 1:07:12He was just gonna go ahead regardless.
1:07:12 > 1:07:18It's impossible, impossible, that he thought we were going to be able to rig this before daylight.
1:07:18 > 1:07:24Imagine, after these months of preparation, all that,
1:07:24 > 1:07:29and finally being on the roof and having to stop
1:07:29 > 1:07:32because the wire is like that!
1:07:32 > 1:07:35At dawn, I assumed the jig is up.
1:07:35 > 1:07:40We did the best and now let's get out of here.
1:08:23 > 1:08:28It was a misty day and I thought, "Eee, that sucks."
1:08:28 > 1:08:30And it wasn't windless, either.
1:08:30 > 1:08:33There was a little bit of air that morning.
1:08:33 > 1:08:37You could see, when the cable was up there,
1:08:37 > 1:08:40it all looked very, very slack.
1:08:56 > 1:08:59I pulled like crazy, like crazy, like crazy.
1:08:59 > 1:09:01Finally I got the wire.
1:09:01 > 1:09:06For some reason, the last metre was the one that came the easiest.
1:09:06 > 1:09:09Despite the abandon of his co-accomplice,
1:09:09 > 1:09:14Jean-Louis in his last communication almost was,
1:09:14 > 1:09:18"Philippe! I did it, I did it, I've got two clamps. We did it, the cable is anchored!"
1:09:23 > 1:09:25All of a sudden, we see this black spot
1:09:25 > 1:09:28coming down off the top of the towers.
1:09:28 > 1:09:31We didn't know what the hell it was. "Oh, my God, what is that?"
1:09:36 > 1:09:39I saw this thing falling down
1:09:39 > 1:09:43and I couldn't believe it.
1:09:43 > 1:09:47I said to myself, "That's it, you've been fooling yourself this whole time.
1:09:47 > 1:09:51"He went straight down with the first step off the roof.
1:09:51 > 1:09:53"He might be dead."
1:10:12 > 1:10:18On the top of Philippe's roof, there was the big wheel of the machines.
1:10:18 > 1:10:20So as soon as the elevator would move,
1:10:20 > 1:10:25we would see the wheel starting to turn.
1:10:28 > 1:10:32I scream, "La roue, la roue!" to Jean-Francois. "The wheel, the wheel!"
1:10:32 > 1:10:37Because I see the giant wheel starting in motion and I know my fate has been written now.
1:10:37 > 1:10:40Time is no longer smiling at me.
1:10:43 > 1:10:45At that time, I was very worried.
1:10:45 > 1:10:47I think the first time I was really scared.
1:10:47 > 1:10:51"Oh, my God, he's exhausted, like I am."
1:10:51 > 1:10:55Maybe not as much, but for what he has to do,
1:10:55 > 1:10:57it's really not a good thing!
1:10:57 > 1:11:01The wire is the worst wire we ever did.
1:11:01 > 1:11:03I was really scared.
1:11:20 > 1:11:26And I had to make a decision of shifting my weight
1:11:26 > 1:11:31from one foot anchored to the building to the foot anchored on the wire.
1:11:33 > 1:11:38This is probably, I don't know, probably the end of my life, to step on that wire.
1:11:38 > 1:11:41On the other hand, something I could not resist,
1:11:41 > 1:11:47and I didn't make any effort to resist, pulled me up on that cable.
1:11:50 > 1:11:52And death is very close.
1:12:21 > 1:12:26I start walking as a wire-walker who is studying his cable.
1:12:26 > 1:12:30Instead of doing an entire study of the cable for the whole length,
1:12:30 > 1:12:32seeing the first cavaletti and keep walking,
1:12:32 > 1:12:35seeing the middle, which is so soft and treacherous,
1:12:35 > 1:12:41seeing the second cavaletti and how it is... No, I only go to the first cavaletti and I know enough.
1:12:41 > 1:12:43Now I'm gonna perform.
1:12:48 > 1:12:49I saw his face changing.
1:12:49 > 1:12:55He was very tense, and all of a sudden there was something, like a relief, in him.
1:12:55 > 1:13:02And from that time, I thought, "That's it, he's secure, that's good," and that's...
1:14:30 > 1:14:35I sit down on the wire on one of my crossings, and I did something that amazed people -
1:14:35 > 1:14:37actually looked all the way down,
1:14:37 > 1:14:40to look at something that I will never in my life see again.
1:14:43 > 1:14:47So I can tell you, and just probably it's a lie, but to me it's not,
1:14:47 > 1:14:52I heard the crowd, I saw the crowd, I hear their murmur.
1:14:56 > 1:14:59Beyond anything you could ever imagine.
1:14:59 > 1:15:02It was just mind-boggling.
1:15:04 > 1:15:10The awe of the event and the overwhelming largeness of the scale of the situation
1:15:10 > 1:15:14took my mind into a place where I really wasn't that concerned about him.
1:15:14 > 1:15:16It was magical.
1:15:16 > 1:15:19It was just profound.
1:15:39 > 1:15:43Officer Miles and I observed the tightrope dancer -
1:15:43 > 1:15:46because you couldn't call him a walker -
1:15:46 > 1:15:50approximately halfway between the two towers,
1:15:50 > 1:15:56and upon seeing us, he started to smile and laugh.
1:15:58 > 1:16:01They don't know how to react to a daydreaming wirewalker
1:16:01 > 1:16:04laying down and dialoguing with a seagull, so they were really mad.
1:16:22 > 1:16:26When he got to the building, we asked him to get off the high wire,
1:16:26 > 1:16:29but instead he turned around and ran back into the middle.
1:16:29 > 1:16:31Everybody was spellbound in the watching of it.
1:16:33 > 1:16:38When we observed the fact that he wasn't about to come in because he seemed to be enjoying it so much,
1:16:38 > 1:16:42we mentioned the fact to his associate that if he did not come in,
1:16:42 > 1:16:45we would have a helicopter pluck him up off the wire,
1:16:45 > 1:16:51at which time his associate spoke to him in French,
1:16:51 > 1:16:53being that he's a Frenchman.
1:16:53 > 1:16:55"Philippe!" And he said,
1:16:55 > 1:16:58"The police are going to dislodge you and you should stop!"
1:16:58 > 1:17:04I was madly enraged by that, but also he'd saved my life.
1:17:04 > 1:17:09There is somebody out there on a tightrope walk between the two towers of the World Trade Center,
1:17:09 > 1:17:11right at the tippy top.
1:17:13 > 1:17:16I personally figured I was watching something
1:17:16 > 1:17:19that somebody else would never see again in the world.
1:17:19 > 1:17:21I thought it was once in a lifetime.
1:17:28 > 1:17:31I had no reason to stay on that wire anymore
1:17:31 > 1:17:35and also I felt the humidity in the air and the wind growing.
1:17:38 > 1:17:43My friends later told me I spent 45 minutes. They said, "You did eight crossings."
1:17:45 > 1:17:48The grabbed me and they grounded me.
1:17:48 > 1:17:50Handcuffed - hands in the back.
1:17:50 > 1:17:54I was thrown down the staircase - the most dangerous part of this adventure.
1:17:54 > 1:17:58I almost break my head on the narrow staircase that leads to the elevator.
1:17:58 > 1:18:02We got it from the port authority that they took about three days to rig it up.
1:18:02 > 1:18:06I'd say it's about 1,000 worth of cable,
1:18:06 > 1:18:09and the rigging itself, it's magnificent, the way he did it.
1:18:09 > 1:18:12- Did he say anything about why he was doing it?- No.
1:18:12 > 1:18:14- Why did you do it?- I will explain.
1:18:16 > 1:18:21"Why? Why?" That was again, in my way of seeing America, a very American, finger-snapping question.
1:18:21 > 1:18:25I did something magnificent and mysterious and I got a practical "Why?".
1:18:25 > 1:18:29The beauty of it is that I didn't have any "why".
1:18:29 > 1:18:31Why did you do this?
1:18:31 > 1:18:33That's the 1,000th "Why?" this morning. There is no why.
1:18:39 > 1:18:43I was then taken for a psychiatric examination by a psychiatrist.
1:19:00 > 1:19:05I keep asking for water cos I was so dehydrated, and he said, "When was the last time you drank?"
1:19:05 > 1:19:08I said, "Are you crazy? You're mad! Do you know what I did?
1:19:08 > 1:19:12"I danced at the top of the world, front page of all the world, 300 journalists are waiting
1:19:12 > 1:19:16"to talk to me, and you're asking the last time I drunk? You're mad."
1:19:16 > 1:19:20So he wrote, "The guy is completely normal and he's just very thirsty!"
1:19:20 > 1:19:22The police took a humourless view of the act.
1:19:22 > 1:19:25They took Petit and a companion into custody
1:19:25 > 1:19:29and finally decided to charge them with trespassing and disorderly conduct.
1:19:29 > 1:19:32The district attorney offered me a deal.
1:19:32 > 1:19:38He said, "Philippe, if you're going to do a little show, like juggling three oranges in front of four kids,
1:19:38 > 1:19:44"but on camera, the New York News and all that, then we'll drop all the charges." So I said, "Sure."
1:19:53 > 1:19:56APPLAUSE
1:19:56 > 1:20:02And now I climb down the steps of the Palais de Justice, I saw in the crowd an admirer.
1:20:02 > 1:20:06She was smiling beautifully and she came to me
1:20:06 > 1:20:10and she put her hands on my neck in a loving way and she amorously said,
1:20:10 > 1:20:18"Philippe, I would like to be the first person to welcome you and to celebrate with you
1:20:18 > 1:20:21"and I can follow you anywhere."
1:20:25 > 1:20:29So, yes, we did end up on a waterbed in a loft somewhere,
1:20:29 > 1:20:37but here I went for a very short little moment of, I don't know, of pleasure of the flesh.
1:20:37 > 1:20:42How disgusting! But, but, but, I am sorry, how beautiful too.
1:20:42 > 1:20:45I mean, my friends were waiting for me. Annie, my girlfriend.
1:20:45 > 1:20:47It was a betrayal of my friends.
1:20:47 > 1:20:51I remember I called and said, "Well, no. I have many interviews to do, so I'll see you soon."
1:20:53 > 1:20:57I had this magnificent explosion of pleasure - let's say it -
1:20:57 > 1:21:03then I went back frightened to death of my friends, thinking, "I'm a really guilty guy!"
1:21:31 > 1:21:36I am a celebrity in New York. People say, "Are you the guy who walked between the Twin Towers?"
1:21:36 > 1:21:41I say, "Yeah, yeah. It's me". "This is incredible!" And then some people say, "Are you the guy who..."
1:21:41 > 1:21:43I say, "It's me".
1:21:53 > 1:21:57We talked about it in the plane and Jean-Francois was so happy.
1:21:57 > 1:22:01He said, "Well, I'm ready for the next time." I said, "No.
1:22:01 > 1:22:04"There will not be any more story like that."
1:22:06 > 1:22:10There was something broken, probably, in this friendship.
1:22:12 > 1:22:14Doesn't matter because...
1:22:16 > 1:22:18Well, basically, because we did it.
1:22:18 > 1:22:20And basically, eh...
1:22:24 > 1:22:27I mean, you cannot take away what happened.
1:22:30 > 1:22:32And, yeah, what happened is that...
1:23:56 > 1:24:02To me, it's so simple - that life should be lived on the edge of life.
1:24:02 > 1:24:04You have to exercise rebellion.
1:24:06 > 1:24:13To refuse to taper yourself to rules, to refuse your own success,
1:24:13 > 1:24:17to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year,
1:24:17 > 1:24:23every idea as a true challenge and then you are going to live your life on the tightrope.
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