Yes. In reality, Philippe Petit saw an artist performing on the unfinished twin towers in the newspaper of the dentist's clinic. He was deeply inspired and decided to complete the technique he called'the coup'. The film truly reflects that when he went out with a toothache, he did use sneezing as a cover, tore off the page of the newspaper, and hid it in his coat. After that, his tooth continued to hurt for a week. This happened in 1968, when Petit was 17 years old, 6 years before his impressive performance. The film severely compressed his preparation time.
2. Has Philippe Petit really been a street magician?
Yes. As mentioned in the film, this tightrope artist has indeed been a magician, performing on the streets of Paris. He started learning magic at the age of 6, was obsessed with walking a tightrope when he was a teenager, and walked for the first time at the age of 16.
3. When Philippe Petit performed a tightrope walk for the first time, did he really fall into a shallow lake?
No. Neither Petit’s autobiography nor the documentary Man on Wire, Reach the Clouds mentioned the accident in the movie. Petit himself said that he never fell during the performance. However, when he was on the Greatest Show on Earth with Lingling Circus, he fell once during rehearsal. He fell from a height of 45 feet, broke several ribs and suffered internal injuries. Petit said: "That's rehearsal. Rehearsal and performance are two different things. I will never fall during the performance. Of course, if this happens, I won't be able to be here and talk about it."
4, in New York Before the Petronas Twin Towers, what tightrope walking stunts did Philippe Petit perform?
In reality, Petit has tried and completed the illegal tightrope walking in Notre Dame Cathedral in 1971 (it is in the movie), and another illegal tightrope walking on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973.
5. Has Philippe Petit worried that the wind will affect the performance of the Petronas Twin Towers?
Worried. Although it is not mentioned in the movie, part of Petit's preparation is to consider the shaking of the tower caused by the wind, and the wind factor has been incorporated into their design. He also worried that the wind would directly affect himself and the wire. There is a scene in the movie where Philippe's girlfriend Annie is shaking the steel wire in the low place where he is, to prepare for the influence of the wind. On August 7, 1974, the morning he walked the tightrope, it was misty and slightly windy.
6. Are they really wearing disguise?
Yes. Petit used the ID of an American who worked in the building to give himself and his companions fake IDs. Just like in the movie, they pretended to be workers who installed power grids on the top floor. They also pretended to be tourists, construction workers and white-collar workers before. As shown in the film, Petit even pretended to be a reporter for the French architectural magazine Metropolis.
7. Does Petit really have an insider who works in the building?
Yes. Baryy Greenhouse (starred by Steven Valentine in the film) is the research assistant director of the New York State Insurance Bureau on the 82nd floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Greenhouse saw him in the street juggling in Paris, recognized him, and promised to help him. "He seems to be able to pull you into his world," Greenhouse said. "I think I should be that kind of person, and I won't refuse to do a little bit...haha, you know...not completely illegal."
8 , Did Philippe Petit really step on a nail three weeks before walking the tightrope?
Yes. When he was surveying the Petronas Twin Towers, he stepped on a nail protruding from the wooden slats. The nail pierced the sole of his shoe, causing him to lie in bed for three days. As shown in the video, at first he thought that the armpit would hinder him, but soon discovered that the armpit was an artifact in disguise. The security guards would help him, and no one asked him to show his credentials.
9. When filming The Walk, how high was the actor above the ground?
Judging from the dizzying parts of the film, it may be dangerous, but the actor is only 12 feet above the ground. "We built beautiful scenes for the two most important stories," Joseph said, "and then put the scenes on the green screen." The remaining twin towers use digital technology.
Joseph went to the spot in the summer of 2001, only a few months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "It was crowded with tourists, but I just wanted to go. I remember it clearly," Joseph said. "It felt more like in the sky than on a tall building." In order to fully understand the distance Petit traveled, Joseph was in the movie I went back during the shooting and measured the distance between the two pools of the World Trade Center site.
10. Did Petit succeed the first time he tried it?
No. Petit's first execution of'the coup' ended in failure. He called his girlfriend Annie and asked her to come to New York to support him. In reality, Annie said that it was exhausting to find out what Petit was thinking while still encouraging him.
11. Was Philippe anxious before'the coup'?
Yes. As the film shows, before the action of'the coup', Petit woke up in the middle of the night and nailed the wooden box, imagining that he was nailing his coffin.
12. Did they really get a trace of good luck and go straight to the top floor?
no. A trace of good luck helped them get to the 104th floor instead of the top floor in the movie. Originally, they planned to transport most of the equipment to the Barry Greenhouse office on the 82nd floor, but the elevator operator did not listen to the boss's instructions and took them to the 104th floor.
13. Do Philippe Petit and Jeff really sit on an I-beam in order to avoid security?
Yes. They really sat on the I-beam for about 3 hours, and below it was the bottomless elevator shaft (400 meters high). As shown in the movie, one of his companions, Donald, is very scared and does not want to hide under the tarp or be caught. Petit agreed and told him to sneak away from the stairwell quickly. When Petit and Jean-Francois (Jeff in the movie) were hiding under the tarpaulin, Petit used a paperclip to dig a hole in the tarp and made it larger with a pen (only a pen was used in the movie).
14. Do they really use bows and arrows to send the steel wire to the opposite tower?
Yes. Jean-Louis Blondeau, Petit's childhood friend, thought of the idea of using a bow and arrow. They first tied the fishing line to the arrow and shot it, then connected the fishing line to the thicker rope, and finally connected the 450-pound, 200-foot-long steel cable used by Petit. As shown in the video, they had a brainstorm, thought of many ways to send the wire to the opposite tower, and even thought of using a radio to control the aircraft.
15. Does Philippe really take off his clothes and look for the fishing line on the arrow by feeling?
Yes. Philippe Petit crawled to the lower edge naked, really feeling the fishing line on his thigh. As shown in the movie, the arrow stays dangerously on the edge of a corner of the tower.
16. Did the steel cable really almost fall off?
Yes. In reality, the rope and steel cable fell hundreds of feet. Philippe felt that he might have sent too many steel cables at once, causing them to fall down quickly due to their own weight, and they could not grasp it. As shown in the movie, in reality Philippe Petit tightened the U-clamp in time. The companion on the opposite tower spent half an hour pulling up the steel cable with difficulty.
17. Did Annie really wait all night alone?
No. In reality, Annie went home. In the early morning, when the street was still empty, she took a taxi to the World Trade Center. She and other companions gathered at 6 o'clock in the morning, their eyes fixed on the top of the twin towers.
18. On the morning of the tightrope walk, did they really meet a mysterious man in a suit?
Yes. In reality, Philippe Petit believes that what they met on the roof was a "mysterious visitor". He picked up a short metal tube, not sure what to do with it. As shown in the video, they never saw that person again.
19. Is Philippe Petit's costume really lost?
Yes. "Suddenly, what we saw, a silhouette, fell out in a flash..." Annie recalled, "In reality, we cried a lot...Fortunately, it was just a piece of clothing."
20, Philippe Petit stayed on the wire How long has it been?
The man on the wire, Philippe Petit, spent about 45 minutes in the air on the 110th floor maintaining his balance, performing tricks, and avoiding both ends of the wire waiting for the policeman to capture him. He walked back and forth 8 times completely.
21. Philippe Petit really lay down on the wire? Did you perform other tricks?
Yes. As shown in the film, during the 45 minutes he was on the wire, he performed walking, dancing, kneeling and saluting, and lying down on the wire.
22. Are Philippe Petit's feet really walking a tightrope while bleeding?
no. In the documentary man on Wire and Petit's autobiography, it is not shown that his feet are still bleeding while walking a tightrope in the Petronas Twin Towers. The movie suggests that the stab wound he stepped on on a nail broke apart a few weeks ago, but that's not the case.
23. Is there really a big bird to persuade Petit to leave the wire?
not completely. He did write about a white bird in his autobiography, wondering why it disappeared so quickly, and wondering if a storm is coming, or if the bird will bring the flock of birds back to drive him away. As shown in the film, the police threatened to force Petit to leave the wire by using strong means and sent a helicopter to catch him. However, the main reason Petit walked down the tightrope was that he felt that the humidity in the air was increasing and the wind was blowing. He realized that objective conditions were becoming insecure.
24. Are the last three steps before he leaves the wire really swaying like in the movie?
no. The documentary man on wire or autobiography did not mention that Petit's last three steps were unstable. In his autobiography, he said that he greeted the New York sky by running on the tightrope to say goodbye to the sky of New York, which caused the happy sway of the tightrope.
25. Is Philippe Petit really arrested?
Yes. Petit was arrested and put into prison after completing the high-altitude tightrope performance of the Twin Towers, awaiting psychological evaluation. In reality, New York City dropped the charges against him for illegal invasion and disrupting public order, provided that he would perform a tightrope walk for the children on the tortoise pool (a few feet high) in Central Park.
26. After the Petronas Twin Towers, has Petit's girlfriend Annie really returned to France?
Yes. "We are inseparable," Annie said when she met Petit. "In fact, my life was completely consumed by him. He never thought to ask me if I had my own pursuit. Obviously I must follow him." The film did not explain the sudden fame. The influence of Petit. Before re-assembling the team members (including Annie), he randomly found an admirer to sleep in the crowd "welcoming" him to New York.
In reality, Petit is not as eager to take Annie to New York as in the movie. The Man on Wire documentary said, "Annie used various methods such as tenderness, intimidation, insults, tears, etc., to ask Petit to invite her to New York." Petit didn't let Annie go to New York to support him until her first attempt failed.
27. Did Philippe Petit really receive a permanent pass to the Petronas Twin Towers Observation Deck?
Yes. In addition to receiving the permanent pass, he also signed a steel beam near the starting point of the tightrope walk. These two points have been emphasized in the movie.
28. Did actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt really learn to walk a tightrope for the film?
Yes. Philippe Petit, played by Joseph, taught him to walk the tightrope himself. They trained for 8 days in a special workshop. "At the end of the 8 days of training, I was already able to walk the tightrope by myself, and then I practiced until filming," Joseph said, "It's really a joy in suffering."
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