Man on Wire

The Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature.

Winner-Audience Award & Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary, 2008 Sundance Film Festival

Winner-Audience Award & Special Jury Prize, 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

“Erupts onscreen as one of the most wildly entertaining docs of recent years.

An adventure tale that astonishes in every respect."

– Robert Koehler, Variety

MAN ON WIRE is the extraordinary story of Philippe Petit who thrilled the world in the summer of 1974 when he snuck to the top of the World Trade Center towers and performed the greatest high wire walk in history. Engagingly told by Petit and the co-conspirators who helped make it happen, MAN ON WIRE – like the remarkable event recalled – is both a pulse-pounding adventure and an achievement of singular beauty. Winner of Audience and Jury prizes at the Sundance and Full Frame film festivals.



As a young wirewalker in France, Philippe Petit became fascinated by the as-yet unbuilt World Trade Center towers. He was determined to one day walk between them – without a harness, without a net, 1350 feet above the ground. What started as an obsession eventually developed into an intricate plan, as Petit and a crack team of accomplices spent eight months developing a bold strategy for their secret mission. Like professional bank robbers planning their most ambitious heist, the challenges they faced seemed insurmountable: bypassing WTC security, smuggling heavy equipment into and up the unfinished towers, somehow suspending and anchoring a wire between them – all without being caught. And if somehow they succeeded, the true test still awaited: Petit stepping alone onto the wire, the awe-struck city watching from below, his daring dream now a breathtaking reality.



Combining edge-of-your seat re-enactments, candid interviews, and astonishing archival footage of the puckish Petit and his cohorts, director James Marsh (WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP) elegantly fashions a rare documentary that transports, moves, and buoyantly entertains. MAN ON WIRE is an exhilarating celebration of ingenuity and spectacle, and of the sky-high twin towers that captured the imagination.
MAN ON WIRE


“ERUPTS ONSCREEN AS ONE OF THE MOST WILDLY ENTERTAINING DOCS OF RECENT YEARS. AN ADVENTURE TALE THAT ASTONISHES IN EVERY RESPECT."
– Robert Koehler, Variety

“RIVETING. This exhilarating film makes you shake your head in amazement.”
– Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“EXHILARATING.” – Stephen Holden, New York Times

“Shows, step by thrilling step, how Philippe Petit pulled off his astonishing tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. NO DOC—AND NO FICTIONAL FILM [AT SUNDANCE]—WAS MORE PURELY ENTERTAINING.”
– David Ansen, Newsweek

“EXHILARATING! A crowd pleaser in such witty, poetic ways that even a curmudgeon couldn’t deny.” – Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

“HIGHLY ENTERTAINING AND DEEPLY MOVING. The film relates the complex tale with the breathlessness of a caper thriller.” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

“BREATHTAKING.” – Harlan Jacobson, USA Today

“EUPHORIC AND WILDLY ENTERTAINING. A magnificently eccentric film about imagination, risk taking and creative self-expression.” – Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

“THRILLING AND PROFOUND. Filled with jaw-dropping footage of NYC and paced like a heist film, the movie reaches great heights.” – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

“THERE IS NO WAY A REVIEW CAN ADEQUATELY CONVEY ITS COMPLICATED RESONANCE, OR ITS SUBTLE POETIC TRANSFORMATION. Director Marsh has done much more than document one man’s unlikely accomplishment; he has restored those towers to us as symbols of joy and transcendence.” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

“BREATHTAKING! A HEART POUNDING THRILLER. It is impossible not to get caught up in the sheer audacity of Philippe Petit’s plan.” – S. James Snyder, New York Sun

“Don’t Miss! The finale is stunning and heart-stopping.” – Sara Cardace, New York Magazine

“NO AMOUNT OF DESCRIPTION CAN TRANSMIT THE PASSION AND JOY IN THIS WONDERFUL PICTURE. GRADE A+.” – Cole Smithey

“IT’S TOO ELECTRIC AND GRIPPING TO BE CALLED A MERE DOCUMENTARY.” - Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere