The Walk

In 1973, 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 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 introduces Philippe's 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. They meet a team of accomplices, including Barry Greenhouse, 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 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".