On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer days shy of his 25th birthday, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire he and friends strung between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. Uses contemporary interviews, archival footage, and recreations to tell the story of his previous walks between towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, his passions and friendships, and the details of the night before the walk: getting cable into the towers, hiding from guards, and mounting the wire. It ends with observations of the profound changes the walk’s success brought to Philippe and those closest to him.

Man on Wire (2008)
  • Rating: (18,157 votes)
  • Tagline:1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century. »
  • Runtime:94 minutes
  • Director: James Marsh
  • Countries:UK, USA
  • Actors:
    Himself
    Philippe Petit
    Himself (as Jean-François Heckel)
    Jean François Heckel
    Himself
    Jean-Louis Blondeau
    Herself
    Annie Allix
    Himself
    David Forman
    Himself
    Alan Welner
    Himself
    Mark Lewis
    Himself (as N. Barry Greenhouse)
    Barry Greenhouse
    Himself
    Jim Moore
    Himself (as Guy Tozzoli)
    Guy F. Tozzoli
  • Genres:Documentary, Biography
  • Producers:
    Simon Chinn
    producer  
    Liz Fay
    archive producer  
    Nick Fraser
    executive producer: BBC  
    Victoria Gregory
    co-producer  
    Jonathan Hewes
    executive producer  
    Andrea Meditch
    executive producer: Discovery Films  
    Maureen A. Ryan
    co-producer  
  • Plot: On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit, a French wire walker, juggler, and street performer days shy of his 25th birthday, spent 45 minutes walking, dancing, kneeling, and lying on a wire he and friends strung between the rooftops of the Twin Towers. Uses contemporary interviews, archival footage, and recreations to tell the story of his previous walks between towers of Notre Dame and of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, his passions and friendships, and the details of the night before the walk: getting cable into the towers, hiding from guards, and mounting the wire. It ends with observations of the profound changes the walk's success brought to Philippe and those closest to him. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Man on Wire
  • User's comment:A perfect heist film by Jeff Beachnau (beachna9@gmail.com)

    I saw this at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan.

    Man on Wire is an exciting documentary about Philippe Petit who, thanks to his friends, managed to sneak into the World Trade Center in 1974 and do a high-wire act between the Twin Towers.

    From the very start of the film it pulls you in, this is an amazing story and Petit is an amazing person to document. Sure, he's a reckless person and has a wild personality, but he's fascinating to watch. The interviews with him and his friends and "team" who helped pull off the stunt are extremely interesting and great to watch. It's fun watching old footage of Petit performing some of his previous acts, this guy really has talent, and may be a bit too determined and crazy. The reenactments are also well filmed and a nice job of telling the story.

    This documentary plays like a classic heist film. It's filled with suspense and has many of those caper moments of mistakes that may ruin the entire job. Even though the final outcome is already known, it's still thrilling and you don't know if they will pull it off.

    A well crafted film that does a wonderful job of telling the story of one man's dream and how he managed to make it a reality.


  • Quotes: Philippe Petit: It's impossible, that's sure. So let's start working. Alan Welner: The fact that I could not speak French, and didn't know what the sound was or what had happened with the wire... was probably just as well. Philippe Petit: If I die, what a beautiful death!
  • Also known as: Man on Wire - Der Drahtseilakt (Austria - TV title), Man on Wire - Der Drahtseilakt (Germany - imdb display title), Czlowiek na linie (Poland), Ember a magasban (Hungary - imdb display title), Homem Equilibrista (Brazil - festival title), Homem no Arame (Portugal), L'homme sur le fil (Canada - French title), Le funambule (France), Man on Wire (Japan - English title), Muz na lane (Czech Republic), Nuorallakävelijä (Finland - TV title), O Equilibrista (Brazil), Se tentomeno shoini (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title), Teldeki adam (Turkey - Turkish title),

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