When he was 17, the French high-wire artist Philippe Petit came upon an article describing the prospective construction of the Twin Towers. An idea was hatched. Six years later—on August 7, 1974—Petit summited the partially-built South Tower and, taking up his balancing pole, focused on a heavy wire looming over the open sky before him. Its other end was fastened to the North Tower. Petit intended to tightrope walk between them. In an event that could have certainly ended in disaster, Petit successfully crossed the wire not once but eight times, stealing the breath of the growing audience in the city streets 1,350 feet below him. More than 30 years after his death-defying stunt, the director James Marsh released Man on Wire, a documentary surveying the history behind, and the achievement of, Petit’s feat. The film contains previously unseen (and dizzying) footage, and is available to stream on Hulu. —Jack Sullivan