Man on Wire

"1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century."

2008 1h 34m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🔥

100%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.7

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 999🍅100%Rotten Tomatoes●89Metacritic★7.7IMDB · 59,935

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. After nearly an hour of performing on the wire, 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan, he was arrested. This fun and spellbinding documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's "highest" achievement.

“1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century.”

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Cast

Philippe Petit
Himself
Jean François Heckel
Himself
Jean-Louis Blondeau
Himself
Annie Allix
Herself
David Forman
Himself
Alan Welner
Himself
Barry Greenhouse
Himself
Jim Moore
Himself

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: James Marsh
Writers: Philippe Petit
Languages: English, French
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 18 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by James Marsh, shot by Igor Martinović. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jinx Godfrey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Philippe Petit and Jean François Heckel and Jean-Louis Blondeau carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1155592 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

James Marsh directs. Igor Martinović behind the camera. Jinx Godfrey cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 18 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.
3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
4Directed by James Marsh, shot by Igor Martinović. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Jinx Godfrey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Philippe Petit and Jean François Heckel and Jean-Louis Blondeau carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "1974. 1350 feet up. The artistic crime of the century.".
8IMDB entry: tt1155592 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "judge", "1970s", "juggler", "based on true story".

The technical file

Cinematography: Igor Martinović
Editing: Jinx Godfrey
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $2,957,978
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Man on Wire (2008)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 89/100
IMDB rating: 7.7/10 · 59,935 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 46 wins & 13 nominations total

Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
Sundance World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

James Marsh

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-06-04
★ 6/10
If you ever saw “Spills and Chills” (1949) then you’ll get a sense of mankind’s obsession with doing daft things at great altitude. This takes that audacity just one step further as it introduces us to French acrobat Philippe Petit who has designs on the ultimate on American daftness. He is going to string some high wires between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and set off into the middle for some fun! Of course, aside from being dangerous and probably a bit foolhardy, it’s completely illegal. What follows for an overlong ninety minutes takes a pretty detailed look at the intricacies and logistics of the planning that went onto smuggling themselves and their kit into the fairly secure structure, then erect and align their taut cables from their roofs - and that’s before he sets even a toe on the lines. That’s really the bit I wanted to see, and that’s also the bit that we seem to have to listen to an inordinate amount of earnest chatter before we get to. The problem for me with him and his team is simply that they liked the sound of their own voices far too much rather than succinctly condense this into an half an hour documentary that builds up that sense of peril as they plan and execute their stunt and show us just how spine-tingling his efforts proved to be. Lots of animated maps of planes going from Paris to New York, lots of talking heads and a few aerials of 1974 New York lose their lustre after ten minutes and though there is a sense of mischief from some of the contributors, it’s largely drowned out by the plotting that has all the complexities of an heist movie but none of the excitement. It was dare-devildom at it’s most exciting, but this doesn’t really convey that very well and frankly it borders a little on the self-indulgent.

Production companies