The Walk Page #7

We will do everything we can.

Philippe, this is crazy.

We're never going to finish at this rate.

Yes, we will. We will finish.

No, we're not! We're not!

We're all gonna get caught and go to jail.

And I don't want to go to jail.

And the rigging isn't safe.

I'm not gonna watch you fall.

I'm leaving, okay. I quit.

Okay, Albert, listen to me.

Yes, I agree with you, okay?

And if the rigging is not done by daylight

and if the rigging is not safe,

then I'll give up.

Hey, look who made it through the night.

- I got you a donut.

- Thank you.

Hey, the wire's up!

Yeah, but it's not tight yet.

Something's wrong.

Philippe, are you there?

Yes, yes, I'm here.

The good news

is the cable is tied off

and secured on this end.

The bad news is Albert has quit.

Albert has quit. He said the sun is rising

and the coup is off.

Wait, did you put wood between

the anchor points and the cable?

Philippe, did you hear me?

Albert is on strike.

He will no longer lift a finger to help me.

Not only that, he smuggled a camera up here

and he's going to take pictures

and sell them.

I knew it.

I told you I knew we couldn't trust him.

Well, my friend...

it's just you and me.

And one more thing,

you will always be my Photograph Official.

It's working!

The cable's moving!

He's going for it.

Look. It's moving up.

The wheel!

Come on!

I need your help!

The elevator is on its way up!

The workers will be here any moment!

Follow me!

We have to tighten the cavalettis!

Philippe, I can't do that!

Jeff, I'm begging you!

If you don't help now,

the coup is over.

I can't do that.

Don't look down.

Don't think about it.

Come on.

Help me review.

- Seven times seven?

- Forty nine.

Nine times eight?

- Seventy two.

- Okay.

Watch.

Turn this way.

Okay.

Stay here.

I'll tighten the next one.

Don't leave me!

- Seven times eight!

- Fifty-six.

- Ninety six divided by eight!

- Twelve!

Let's go!

You did great.

Thank you.

The wheel.

What were you going to do with that?

With what?

And that was the moment in my adventure

I call, "The Mysterious Visitor."

I have no idea who he is.

I've never seen him again.

And I can only imagine

what he must have thought.

Now it's time for me to put on my costume.

But I have to do this privately,

so my dressing room is the very ledge

of the building.

Not visible from the streets of Manhattan.

The dressing room is also something

that Papa Rudy taught me.

This is where the

transformation takes place.

This is where the disguised impostor,

the intruder, becomes the performer.

The artist.

Oh, my God! He's falling!

Oh, no, it's just his shirt.

It's just his shirt.

Hey. Nothing yet, huh?

Well, he better get cracking.

I lost my costume!

This is a tragedy!

The biggest stage of my life,

and I lose my costume!

It falls off the edge. I have no costume!

What?

I lost my turtleneck!

This is not my costume!

What should we do?

We do it. We do it anyway.

I walk in this ridiculous undershirt,

but we do it.

I have one foot on the building

and one foot on the wire.

And the outside world starts to disappear.

Jeff no longer existed.

My tower was deserted.

I no longer heard the sounds of New York.

Everything fell silent.

All I could see was the wire,

floating out in a straight

line to infinity.

And if I were to shift my weight,

I would become a wire walker.

As soon as my entire

weight is on the cable,

I feel immediately a

feeling I know by heart.

I feel the wire supporting me.

I feel the towers supporting the wire.

Oh, my God! He's doing it.

- He's doing it!

- Do you see? Oh, my God!

He's doing it!

Everybody! Everybody stop! Look!

There's a wire walker!

There!

Yes! Yes! Yes! You did it!

I approach the first cavaletti,

and it's upside down.

But I look closer and it seems okay.

Thank you, Papa Rudy,

for suggesting the three bolts.

Watch the birdie, Philippe.

Philippe.

Come on, Philippe. You're doing it.

You're doing it, Philippe.

Oh, my God!

That's brilliant!

I arrive at the North Tower

feeling the most intense joy,

the most profound satisfaction

I've ever felt in my life.

Philippe! Come on, Philippe.

Philippe, okay. Yeah, working man. Okay.

All right, now over your

right shoulder, huh?

Philippe, smile.

My friend, thank you.

I had finished my crossing,

the coup was over.

But then I looked over at the South Tower

and it was still calling to me.

So I'm thinking,

maybe I should get back on my wire.

He's coming back out.

And then I feel something

that maybe I've never truly felt before.

I feel thankful.

So, I get down on one knee

and I salute.

First, I salute the wire,

then the towers,

and then I salute the

great city of New York.

Then, as I stand, I see two uniforms.

The cops.

Christ Almighty,

what the hell is that?

Cuff him.

Hey! Get your hands on your head.

Get down! Get down!

Get your hands on your head. Down!

I'm French. I don't speak English.

What?

Holy sh*t. This one's a frog.

French, I'm French.

You and twinkle toes are in a

lot of trouble, you know that?

Uh, look, fella.

Just, uh, come on in

and, um, we'll talk about it, all right?

Okay, buddy. Come on.

Come on in. Yeah.

Show's over.

Okay. Come on.

Parlez-vous American-o?

- Careful!

- Whoa!

Jesus!

These officers, God bless them,

they remind me of my days

when I had to run from the police.

But they can't follow me up here.

What the hell do we do now?

By now, I'm becoming aware

of the people on the ground below,

watching me.

My audience.

And even though this is something

a wire walker should never do,

I look down.

And it was...

It was peaceful.

It was calm and serene.

Not dangerous.

Did you hear that?

Someone's coming. Go. Go, go now.

Go, go, go. Go.

- Go, go, go.

- Okay.

- They're over here.

- We're on the roof.

Hey, buddy!

What are you doing out there?

Jesus. Hey, get a load of this!

This fool has gone and lost his mind.

Hey. Hey, pallie.

Why don't you come down

off that thing, all right?

Why you doing this?

- Whoa, whoa.

- Come on.

Okay, hey. Stop wastin' everyone's time!

Come on. Get down off that wire now!

Quit foolin' around.

Okay, hey, hard-on.

Sh*t. Oh, sh*t.

Hey, hey, hey.

Whoa, whoa. Don't fall, buddy!

Hey, hey, don't go fallin'!

- Goddamn it.

- Freakin' believe this little pissant?

Now with police on both rooftops,

I have no choice.

I have to stay on my wire.

- Whoa!

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

- Buddy.

- No. No.

Oh. Oh.

Wow.

Unbelievable.

All right. You get him.

- I got your back.

- Yeah, okay. I...

- You got me?

- I got you.

- You got me, okay?

- Yes.

Okay, come on.

- That's it. Nice and slowly.

- All right.

- Let's go.

- All right, come on.

That's it.

Nice and slowly, buddy.

Got it.

- Hold.

- That's it.

Come on, buddy.

Okay.

Here we go.

Here we go. Yeah.

Okay, man. Yeah.

Here we... Okay. One more.

- What... What are you doing?

- Damn.

What are you doing?

- You S.O.B.!

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