Man on Wire

James Marsh's documentary Man on Wire (2008) is available to watch online on iFILM. French wire-walker Philippe Petit rigged a cable between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and strolled across it for the better part of an hour, more than 1,300 feet above Manhattan. The police were waiting for him on the ground.

That morning in early August 1974 was the payoff of years of plotting. The film lays out, step by step, how Petit and a small band of accomplices slipped onto the roof of the still-unfinished towers, smuggled their gear past security and strung the wire overnight. Marsh frames it like a proper heist picture: interviews with the crew, home footage, dramatized reconstruction. Petit himself describes the stunt less as a prank than a declaration of love to the city.

The picture took the Best Documentary Oscar, and earned it: this is that rare film where you can't look away from a story whose ending you already know. It plays like a caper and lands like a poem about freedom and the fear of heights. There's a quiet bow, too, to towers that no longer stand. Stream Man on Wire (2008) online on iFILM.