The Walk Page #3

- This is providence.

- Mmm-hmm.

It says they're almost finished.

The lower floors are already occupied.

Annie! We need to pack.

They're enormous.

Yes.

They're monstrous.

Music's getting longer too

Music is a-flashin' me

I want to, I want to, I

want to take you higher

I want to take you higher

Baby, baby, baby, light my fire

Whoa!

I want to take you higher

They're a lot taller than I imagined.

Yes.

It's absurd.

Completely absurd.

It's not real.

These towers, they have no scale!

They just rise and never stop.

It's not human!

It's over. It's over. It's finished.

- What's finished?

- The coup! My dream! It's destroyed!

Do you see these monsters?

- These beasts! Beasts!

- Calm down!

They just tell me it's not possible

and nothing else!

There's no sign of possibility.

There's nothing telling me

that it can be done.

Yo.

How you doing?

There's stairs going up.

Go back to the hotel.

If I'm not back in five hours,

look for me at the police station.

I make my way to the top.

Nobody stops me.

And I find myself standing

on an island floating in mid-air,

on the edge of the void.

Of course, I automatically

look across to the opposite tower.

But then I have to dare to look down.

Now, I think I know the void.

I'm a wire walker.

The void is my domain, yes?

Well, not this void.

But, still I gather the courage to whisper.

I whisper so the demons won't hear me.

It's impossible.

But I'll do it.

Boom laka-laka

Boom laka-laka-laka, boom laka-laka

English. Only English.

We must learn to sound like New Yorkers.

Your so-called coup is a ridiculous joke.

- There. Have it in English.

- That's why I have it all planned out.

Planned out? Who are you kidding?

You have no idea

what's on the opposite roof.

You don't know what time

the construction crews arrive

or what time they quit.

You have no idea

what the actual distance is

between the towers.

Or how you're going to

anchor the cavalettis.

How? There is absolutely no place

to attach them to the facade.

And, by the way, how many days

did it take you to build this maquette?

Oh, come on.

This is beautiful! Eh?

What are the cavalettis?

These guy wires.

Papa Rudy calls them "cavalettis."

They stabilize the walk cable.

Ah. The walk cable.

So,

how do you intend to pass the cable

across the void?

Well, just like we did at Notre-Dame.

We start with a fishing line

attached to a rope

attached to the cable.

And how do we pass the fishing

line between the towers?

Yes, it is too far to

throw the juggling ball.

But I was thinking we could get

a radio-controlled airplane

and fly the line across.

This would be fantastic.

Philippe.

It takes years to learn

how to fly an RC airplane.

- Do you understand that?

- No.

We must accomplish the coup this summer.

The towers are almost built.

We are running out of time.

I need you to help me pull this off.

Think if we succeed.

This could be the most audacious

- work of art that has ever been done!

- Audacious? Audacious?

- It's madness!

- Yes, it's madness!

No one in his right mind

would attempt this thing.

But that is why I must do it,

because it has never been done!

And so, yes, I admit, I am mad.

- Ah, yes! Wow, you are mad.

- Yes! I am mad.

- Are you completely insane?

- Yeah, I'm crazy!

Yes, you love me because I am mad!

I am insane! I am totally crazy!

I gotta go.

I'll figure out how to get the wire across.

- Yes!

- You figure out how to anchor the cavalettis.

- Okay. Deal.

- Do we have a deal?

The cavalettis cannot be vertical.

They must be horizontal,

parallel to the walk cable.

- Parallel?

- It won't be pretty

but it will keep the cable from swaying.

And you must use three bolts

on the cavaletti clamps.

Not two. A span this wide

will put tremendous pressure

on the brace plates.

And as you walk,

your weight could crack a bolt.

And wood!

You must remember

to put wood blocks

between the wire and the building's struts.

That way, when the building breathe,

the wood will break but the wire won't

explode and tear you in half.

Okay.

Wood.

Also...

Here's what you're going to do, Philippe.

You're going to wear

a safety belt underneath your costume,

attached to a safety line,

connected to a carabiner.

A safety line?

A carabiner?

I'm not going to do this walk

with a safety line

- hanging off of me!

- From that height,

it will be invisible! No

one will have any idea!

And what do I do

when I get to the first cavaletti?

You're a performer.

You kneel down on the wire.

You unhook from side, clip it on the other.

- The audience will think you are saluting.

- This I will not do!

- This I will never do!

- So why'd you come here?

Because you know so much?

You tell me I'm wrong?

No. Because I need you to tell me

how to rig this wire!

Not do a phony walk like a coward!

Philippe, you two are

acting like children.

He does not comprehend

one thing I am trying to do.

His high wire and my high wire,

they have nothing in common!

Go talk to him.

- You want me to talk to him?

- Yes! You go talk to him!

- You apologize and...

- I will not apologize!

Yes, you do. You have no choice.

You know that.

Hmm?

Look, Papa Rudy, I'm sorry. But...

If I do the walk with the safety line,

it becomes meaningless.

Philippe...

My sons are consummate wire walkers.

And I would never allow them to attempt

such a walk without safety line.

Yes, but would you?

Would you walk with a safety line?

Years ago, when you first started

to teach me in this house,

I was a stupid little kid

and I never listened to you.

But you told me something

I always remember.

You said, "You cannot lie on stage.

"The audience will always know

what is inside your heart."

I think I understand now.

You know, Philippe,

what you're doing, I may not understand it.

But it's...

It's...

...something.

Something beautiful.

It was my grandfather's.

You'll need this.

And you'll need this.

Now my secrets are our secrets.

Thank you.

Faster!

Stronger!

More! Annie, more!

Faster.

Stronger.

- I'm trying.

- You're a tempest.

You are the terrible, hurricane winds

that howl between the towers!

Ah. Jean-Louis.

Hello.

- How are you?

- Hello, hello!

It's good to see you.

So this is my good friend, Jean-Francois.

- He wants to be an accomplice in the coup.

- Ah!

He's always in search of adventure.

Please call me Jeff.

Ah. An English name. Okay, I like this.

So welcome, Jeff. Welcome to the coup.

- Now, tell me, have you ever done...

- Unfortunately,

Jeff doesn't speak any English.

I speak a little English.

Six times six equal 36, for example.

Ah, yes! So his English is not bad.

Yes, but only numbers.

- He teaches high school mathematics.

- Ah.

He's also, uh...

- He's also terrified of heights.

- Ah.

Ah.

Perfect.

I'm terrified of algebra.

Welcome to the coup.

Now tell me, what is 81 divided by 27?

- Three.

- Exactly.

And you are accomplice number three.

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