- 2 hours ago
- #darkwizard
- #fantasyseries
- #magic
The Dark Wizard Season 1 Episode 3
Unleash the magic and brace yourself for an epic confrontation! In "The Dark Wizard" Season 1, Episode 3, prepare for a thrilling journey as ancient powers collide and destinies are forged.
Witness the unfolding of perilous quests and the rise of formidable challenges. Our heroes dive deeper into the shadows, seeking forbidden knowledge and facing their greatest fears. Can they unravel the dark wizard's sinister plot before it's too late?
Discover the secrets of forgotten realms and the true nature of the magical forces at play. This episode is packed with intense action, surprising revelations, and the constant struggle between light and darkness.
#DarkWizard #FantasySeries #Magic
Unleash the magic and brace yourself for an epic confrontation! In "The Dark Wizard" Season 1, Episode 3, prepare for a thrilling journey as ancient powers collide and destinies are forged.
Witness the unfolding of perilous quests and the rise of formidable challenges. Our heroes dive deeper into the shadows, seeking forbidden knowledge and facing their greatest fears. Can they unravel the dark wizard's sinister plot before it's too late?
Discover the secrets of forgotten realms and the true nature of the magical forces at play. This episode is packed with intense action, surprising revelations, and the constant struggle between light and darkness.
#DarkWizard #FantasySeries #Magic
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:13For Dean, it was always about Yosemite, his cathedral, his proving
00:26ground. Dean was in his thirties at this point. Physically, mentally, I think he was still
00:36at his high point as a climber. I realized the clock is ticking. At least most people
00:43get weaker soon. But the mind gets better with age. Creativity becomes more and more.
00:55I've never been the strongest climber, but somehow I seem to, through willpower, pull
01:02off big climbs. Creative climbs. And now, what can I do with total concentration?
01:13And single focused desire. At this moment, Dean still had the power to do something really
01:22great in the valley. Half Dome, of course, had never been free soloed. God, man, could
01:30El Cap ever be free soloed? If you want to have a big impact on climbing, you do something
01:36on El Cap or on Half Dome. The biggest walls and the most important place.
01:42Alex Honnold, he had these same ambitions and he had these same goals. Once again, you're
01:47going to have conflict and competition going on. These two guys duking it out in the most
01:53dangerous duel you can imagine. Who was going to be the first to do these legendary climbs?
01:59So amazing climbing is going to happen. Or somebody might die.
02:13When I was done dying, my conscience regains. Oh, I began my struggle of nothing this
02:20strange. And I tried to die. I'm climbing into the night sky. And I said all my prayers
02:26because surely I could die. And I crashed down and smashed into earth, into dirt. How
02:31my skin did explode, leaving only my shirt. And the other one threw me and said it wasn't
02:38that fun. And I'm reborn. I'm sorry if I hurt anyone. She said, better love you next time.
02:44Don't worry so much. Without ears I couldn't hear. I could just feel the touch. As I fell asleep
03:10I was hanging out in Dean's living room in Yosemite and there was a little black book on the table
03:15and I just picked it up and I was like, oh, this is like Dean's tick list. Secret list of
03:21what he's training for, what his big dreams are. Top of the list was free solo half dome.
03:30Dean's big breakout moment in the 90s was that speed solo on half dome.
03:37He was sometimes hanging on the rope and pulling on gear. Dean hadn't yet free soloed half dome.
03:43Nobody had. There's just one blank section at the top that he was too scared to do without a rope.
03:52But he was working towards that goal.
03:56It was going to get extremely close to his limit.
04:00He just kept practicing on it.
04:04Getting more comfortable.
04:10Like I had heard that Dean wanted to free solo half dome and it certainly seemed like something that he
04:15maybe could have done at some point, but he just never did it and I don't know, I just thought
04:19I could do it.
04:20Well, I mean, I knew I could do it.
04:44Honnold free soloing half dome, it was arguably the greatest single achievement in Yosemite climbing at that point.
04:52Dean probably could have done it and it would have been quite a plumb.
04:56Well, Alex just came and did it.
05:00Dean was super pissed that Honnold had come and stolen his project.
05:05I mean, he was like so territorial, you know.
05:08Alex Honnold, when he did half dome, what was your take on it?
05:15Yeah, you know, I had mixed feelings when Alex came around, you know, partially I was like, fuck, I wanted
05:23that.
05:24Another part was just like, that's the way it goes, you know.
05:28Alex has been real competitive with me, trying to do things that he knows I want to do.
05:33And he's, you know, he's younger, he's real competitive.
05:36You said, fuck, I wanted that.
05:39So is there a more broad thing you could explain how that would feel?
05:42It's like, oh, fuck.
05:43He knew that was my life's goal and he did it before me because he was a competitive kind of
05:49like twerp.
05:54Dean knew there was one big climb still to be done in Yosemite Valley.
05:59The free solo of El Capitan.
06:03It is always in the collective unconscious of the Yosemite climber that free soloing El Cap would be the ultimate
06:09of the ultimate.
06:113,000 feet of steep overhanging rock climbing.
06:16El Cap is the biggest thing that anybody would think of free soloing.
06:23Dean said to me many times, the man who solos El Cap will be the greatest climber.
06:29He's the greatest climber of all time.
06:30I knew that Dean wanted to free solo El Cap because who doesn't look at El Cap and want to
06:34free solo it?
06:37It's more about whether or not you're capable of it.
06:41At some point, somebody wrote an outside magazine article inquiring as to whether Dean or I would do it first.
06:46Which of these two contenders will it be?
06:48Well, I mean, I know when I read the piece, I was like, it's going to be me.
06:53Looking up at El Cap.
06:56It looks so fucking scary.
06:59It's hard to believe some of the things I've done and almost impossible to believe what I want to do
07:05up there.
07:06Yeah, feeling the competitive pull.
07:10Seeing that Alex is probably going to free solo it before me.
07:17Yikes.
07:19Dean was desperate to get it before Alex.
07:21But Potter understood that if he's going to solo El Cap, he knew, you know, let's try free base.
07:30Free base, climbing with parachute protection.
07:33I invented that trying to figure out a way how I could climb El Cap by myself with a high
07:39likelihood of living.
07:43Before taking it to El Capitan, Dean started soloing with a base rig some of these other routes in Yosemite.
07:52Hard, hard routes that had never been free soloed.
08:15Of course, base jumping is illegal in Yosemite.
08:19And he's climbing where the Rangers can see him.
08:24And as long as I don't fall, it's legal.
08:29If I do fall and have to pitch my chute, the Rangers are waiting for me down there.
08:36But I don't care about that.
08:39Whatever it takes, I'm going to take it further than anything anybody's free soloed in Yosemite.
08:45Woo!
08:49Glad I had my little friend.
08:51This whole time, Dean was prepping for free base and El Cap.
08:57To free solo or free base El Cap meant climbing one of the routes straight up the biggest, steepest part
09:06of the mountain.
09:07But for the most part, those climbs are too technically difficult.
09:13Everybody knew there's only one route that's remotely possible.
09:18The free rider.
09:20This route, the hardest pitch is right in the middle of the wall.
09:23The problem is, you know, El Cap's like that shape.
09:26And so lower down, it's not that steep.
09:30If you fall off the hardest section, you're hitting this slab 80 feet down.
09:39But having a parachute or not wouldn't affect the fact that you would bounce off and, like, it would be
09:43a catastrophic way to die.
09:46But I tell you what, that whole top part of Freerider overhangs a little bit.
09:53Dean was pretty convinced that the upper part of the wall was actually quite safe with a parachute.
10:04Eventually, Dean wanted to test the free base right at the very top of El Cap.
10:09He rappelled down.
10:11Are those a bunch of white cars down the road?
10:13But falling with the base rig, it was illegal, what we were doing.
10:18And Dean was stressed about getting caught.
10:20What's that car straight out there?
10:22No tool car or anything?
10:23You think they won't see me?
10:25He came up with the idea of wearing some sort of superhero mask.
10:30So he couldn't be identified.
10:33Classic, classic Dean.
10:54ivan.
11:11Ah!
11:12Ah!
11:13Ah!
11:13Ah!
11:14Ah!
11:15Ah!
11:15Ah!
11:16Ah!
11:42All right, Brian, let's do this.
11:45Yeah, my name is Brian Smith, and I've been known for adventure filmmaking.
11:50I've got this opportunity for a one-hour special with a big network, you know, a story about Dean Potter.
11:56Called Dean, he said it was appealing to do something for mainstream television.
12:04Dean was like, well, I want a solo, a free rider, but I'm not prepared to, like, you know, top
12:11to bottom free solo the whole thing.
12:14But he said, the upper section, I can climb free bays.
12:19In case he fell, he'd be able to jump and pull a parachute.
12:22It's like badass.
12:24Come on over.
12:26When we arrived in Yosemite, Park Service was already on edge.
12:30Like, you're filming Dean Potter?
12:32What?
12:33We're assigned a monitor to follow every single step that we do inside of Yosemite National Park.
12:40Yeah.
12:42I'm sorry.
12:42So we started running this interview.
12:44Over here for a second.
12:45Is that okay?
12:46We're losing light here.
12:48Dean and our Park Service monitor.
12:51It won't be too much longer.
12:52They clearly have a history.
12:53Well, this is for Dean, actually.
12:55If there's any way you could say that some of the activities are involved.
13:00There's, um, you won't censor what I say at all, Catherine.
13:04And I won't, I'll, um, so please don't tell me what to say.
13:08And, um, I'd like it best if you couldn't hear my interview because I'm uncomfortable around the Park Service.
13:13Okay, go ahead.
13:14Thanks a lot.
13:17I've never had a more intense lead up to a film shoot.
13:23Several days before the climb, with all the drama coming from Park Service, they said there can be absolutely no
13:32base jumping, not a single parachute, nothing.
13:36So you're going to have to climb this, like, without a parachute on your back.
13:41Dean didn't know what to do.
13:45He was freaking out.
13:51His intensity just starts ramping up.
13:56He doesn't want to talk.
13:59You have a million questions, but you probably shouldn't ask him anything.
14:07Eventually, he was like, okay, I'm going to do this without a parachute.
14:13But he was scared.
14:15He didn't know if he could do what he was going to do.
14:19But the whole film crew is here.
14:21He didn't want to bow out.
14:26The day before the climb, we're going up the trail, getting our equipment to the top of El Cap.
14:35Just take that camera.
14:36He had concocted some kind of crazy approach from the top to down climb, traverse in, and then free solo
14:45the upper section of Freerider.
14:50Camping up there, Dean became more and more distant.
14:56Kept moving his tent further away, just completely separating himself from production.
15:04Everyone on the crew was like, is he okay?
15:06Is he going to survive?
15:08I mean, I barely slept that night.
15:15The morning of, Dean told us, get your shit together.
15:21Don't fuck it up and, like, be ready for the shots.
15:28Everyone moved into their positions.
15:31Ready.
15:31Ready?
15:32Yeah.
15:34And got ready for Dean to make a grand appearance.
15:41He had this, like, red, tattered shirt on.
15:43And Dean said, oh, this is a shirt my dad gave to me.
15:48And I always wear it on days that I think I'm going to die.
15:53And, I mean, I've worked with professional athletes that are very good at managing risk.
15:59Where most people would stop and be like, okay, I don't feel well.
16:03Maybe I shouldn't do this.
16:05Dean's feeding off of that energy to, like, kind of push himself forward to the brink.
16:15And then he started slowly moving across this, like, secret approach.
16:27The ledge is getting smaller and smaller.
16:33Squeezing himself through these places.
16:46Eventually, he gets to this hard spot on the upper part of Freerider.
17:01We were shitting ourselves.
17:25We're glad to be through that.
17:31And now, all of a sudden, he's, like, 3,000 feet off the valley floor.
17:34We're glad to be through that.
18:13He gets up to this section.
18:16The off width.
18:19There's no handhold, foothold.
18:24Just, like, wedging himself in there.
18:32every move it's a total fight
18:38you can see it's taking a toll
18:58it was pins and needles I was right in his face don't move by
19:19Lacey
19:43this whole time I was trying to stay focused on the shots but I was so scared of making a
19:50mistake
19:51on the camera side
19:55you know you drop the lens cap you kill the guy
20:18all of a sudden somebody comes on the radio
20:24tell him to shut up now tell him to shut up tell him to shut up
20:29please no radio we're in the middle of filming no radio
20:53sorry
21:17no problem sorry I lost it
21:20he's like apologizing to us
21:26I mean dude you don't need to apologize to me you're like hanging with no robe
21:38I mean dude
21:47I'm
21:52mmm
22:14He got to the top.
22:20And it's not like a moment of excitement.
22:30I don't know, I think he's just taking in that he's still there, and he's still alive.
22:37I was pretty fucking nervous.
22:40I didn't sleep last night and was feverish and a little bit unsettled, or very unsettled
22:48all night.
22:51And that was my deepest spiritual act right there, so it's even kind of weird to share
22:56it with the camera.
22:58For us as a group, this was a big deal.
23:02For the first time in history, somebody had free soloed a huge section of El Capitan.
23:09El Capitan's head wall has now been climbed ropeless, and I think it's just a matter of
23:14time.
23:14It really does it from the ground, probably.
23:16There's not too many people in the world that do that.
23:19No, there's one.
23:21Yeah, there's one guy.
23:23And it's not Alex.
23:25It really is like the first step towards solo in El Cap, the most ultimate free solo
23:31in the world.
23:33The day after the climb, there was this complete reset in his personality.
23:41It was clear that for Dean, in these on-the-edge life-or-death moments, there was a payoff.
23:56The death consequence, as extreme as it is, it is such a teacher, it's just so pure.
24:07It's like if I live, I'm really happy.
24:09It's that simple.
24:11If I live through this afterwards, it puts me in this totally different state, and then
24:17it just simplifies how good life is.
24:23You put your life out there, you feel these different things, and they're like, we have
24:31more in us than most of us realize.
24:34And I still think I'm just tapping into it a little bit.
24:38I'm hungry for this now.
24:40I felt it, and I want more.
24:45So Dean soloed a route that he called the easy rider.
24:48That was like the first volley, his own personal step toward free soloing El Cap.
24:52To me, I was like, oh, that's creative.
24:54That's interesting.
24:55Power to him.
24:55Like, that's cool.
24:56But it's a long ways away from actually doing the hard thing.
24:59You know, now you only have to worry about the bottom 2,500 feet.
25:03But Dean had a vision.
25:05He had plans.
25:06Dean cooked up a concept to go way off to the left-hand side of El Cap to solo this
25:12route called the West Face route.
25:13It's a little smaller, and by itself, not considered one of the big, proud, real El Cap
25:19routes.
25:20But it just happens to go right into that circuitous link-up that he had figured out to the top.
25:27He called it the West Rider.
25:30It was soloing the West Face into the free rider finish.
25:34He had found a way he could claim to be the first person to free solo El Cap.
25:40Super inspired by the idea of this West Rider route, picking away at that.
25:46Seems like it will come into doable sometime this spring.
25:50You know, Dean was pretty secretive about the whole thing.
25:52This climb was really important to him.
25:56But Alex heard that he was planning on doing that.
25:59I don't know who leaked it.
26:01I'd heard rumor that Dean was going to solo the West Face of El Cap and connect it over
26:05into the Easy Rider.
26:06And that, to me, felt slightly threatening.
26:08And if he did that, mainstream media would have no, you know, like, it would be considered
26:12the first free solo of El Cap.
26:13But that's the most weaselly way to free solo El Cap.
26:16The idea of somebody doing this, like, sneaky little reach around where they start on the
26:19side, they finish in the middle, they call it an El Cap route.
26:22I was like, that is a hard no.
26:24I was like, that is doing a disservice to El Cap.
26:26Ronald's, like, defending the honor of El Cap.
26:28Like, that is an achievement below the dignity of El Capitan.
26:32So, yeah, so what was your, what action did you take?
26:36I knew that if I free soloed the West Face before him, Dean wouldn't be able to claim
26:41it as this, like, first free solo of El Cap.
26:43And then I just went and did it.
26:46With no fanfare.
26:49West Face, 5-1-C, solo.
26:52Good times, but climbed too tensely on bottom, overgripped.
26:55This was a preemptive strike.
26:58Ronald just sort of took the glory out of it.
27:01Stole the thunder.
27:01Here.
27:02I was hanging out with Honnold.
27:03Alex goes, Dean was trying to do that thing on the, on the West Face, and I nipped that
27:08one in the bud, and I just ran up there and did that right away.
27:12There's no way he's gonna call that solo in El Cap.
27:14And I was like, wait a second, this is a whole other level, right?
27:21It really illuminated the life and death struggle that was playing out between these two.
27:28As I suspected, it sort of took the wind out of Dean's sails, and then he never sold the
27:31West Face and, and sort of let the whole thing go.
27:33Put the, put the nail on the coffin.
27:37Um, having my projects done by others will just help me lose my overinflated ego.
27:53Yeah, feeling all sorts of different pulls.
27:56Not sure.
27:57Always not sure.
27:59Not sure.
28:03I think very few of us in our lives will ever experience anything like what Dean experienced
28:08relative to Alex Honnold.
28:10It makes for fun sports journalism.
28:12But if you put yourself in Dean's heart, as someone who hangs your ego on one or two little
28:17things, you hang your self-esteem on, on a few fragile little hooks.
28:22It doesn't get any easier as you get older.
28:25The, um, the blows only hurt more.
28:29And Honnold just kept going.
28:31The 2012 climbing season in Yosemite.
28:352012 was a big fucking year because I basically did everything that Dean had ever done or
28:41wanted to do.
28:43And generally in better style and, and you know, faster and whatever.
28:48Yeah, poor Dean.
28:50In that period in the valley, Alex systematically demolishes Dean's records, Dean's projects.
28:57Doing pretty good.
28:58Dean wanted to do this thing called the triple link up.
29:02Of course, Honnold did it first.
29:04I rope soloed the triple.
29:06Totally something that Dean should have done if he thought he could.
29:09Then right after that, I broke Dean's speed record on the nose on El Cap.
29:13Honnold teams up with Dean's old nemesis, Hans Florine.
29:18Honnold called me and said, dude, we're getting this fricking record.
29:21Come on, Alex.
29:22I was a little stunned that he was so fiercely
29:27competitive.
29:28Yeah.
29:29I mean, I'm competitive.
29:30You know, like if I'm playing somebody ping pong, I want to win.
29:32We totally smoked it.
29:35Alex just obliterates everything.
29:37There's almost a cruelty to it.
29:39With all respect to Dean.
29:41It just happens over and over again.
29:43The guy seeks out my projects and, and does them before me.
29:47And I do nothing to try to stop him.
29:49I think the most brutal moment was when Alex repeated the free solo of heaven.
29:55Dean had free soloed that super hard crack route where he got to the top and he let out
29:59this primal scream.
30:03He's proven himself as a warrior and joined the demigods.
30:08Alex gets a call from some tech company.
30:10They want to shoot an ad with him.
30:12I have a website because I need a way to put myself forward.
30:14Well, I could just do laps up and down it so you guys could shoot it a whole bunch of
30:17times.
30:17No big deal.
30:19I'm Alex Honnold and this is my Squarespace.
30:21At some point, I saw a voicemail on my phone from Dean that was several minutes long ranting
30:28about me respecting his project, respecting my elders and my lack of propriety in climbing.
30:35I was like, oh no, this is all bad.
30:39But it's kind of like, okay, there's no more competition.
30:42It's just done.
30:48For Dean, the writing was on the wall.
30:52The future had arrived and he was no longer it.
30:55So that's painful.
30:58Dean knew that his time as the king of Yosemite was over.
31:05And I don't think he could handle that.
31:09Dean was lost.
31:11It was one of those periods where he was incredibly difficult.
31:17Eventually, he would alienate himself from everyone in his life.
31:21I was like a reporter for the mags and I wrote this little article about what he was doing
31:25on El Cap.
31:27And he came up to me, was like, I need to talk to you, Cedar, and grabbed the handlebars
31:33of my bike and just started pushing me backwards away from the group, dude.
31:37And was basically like, if you ever talk about one of my projects again, like, I'm
31:42gonna fucking kill you.
31:43Like, that was the vibe.
31:45And I was just like, gulp, you know?
31:46You guys were friends.
31:47Dude, we were like really good friends.
31:49And then dude, he would just snap on you, you know?
31:52And that was the beginning of the end for me, of my friendship with Dean.
31:59Over the years, this is something that all friends of Dean endured.
32:04Anger and frustration and jealousy, whatever thing inside him that got triggered.
32:13I was the first of us to break up with Dean.
32:18We did the raddest shit.
32:20Timmy led us here.
32:21And it was the most fun and most out there.
32:24I took a pretty nice whipper, 40 footer or something.
32:28I caught it.
32:28Timmy caught it, got throttled a little.
32:30But then when I started to be recognized for my own climbing, I became competition.
32:38And it's like, what?
32:40Like, what the fuck happened?
32:42I did try and be like, you know, like, what's up, dude?
32:45Like, what's going on?
32:47It's because I heard you're taking all the credit.
32:49I'm like, what?
32:51Really?
32:52Like, Dean didn't know how to share.
32:56Basically is what it comes down to.
32:59He did not know how to be gracious with another person's light.
33:05I would see him all the time.
33:07But it was always like, you know, shields up.
33:14Got to protect myself.
33:16What do you want?
33:17Dude, I want it to be easy.
33:22Bradley.
33:23Bradley.
33:24For me, the end of the road is a certain point in time where for years, Dean and I had
33:30been working on this film project that expresses his art.
33:35And he thought this was going to be a big deal.
33:38I think as his climbing legacy was ending, this film was going to be his redemption.
33:46He wanted like a theatrical release.
33:49You know, he wanted a orchestral score.
33:54And it just kept growing.
33:58It was incredibly taxing.
34:01He would get so mad.
34:02He would get so frustrated.
34:03We'd be editing in my little bedroom.
34:05I made the cut that he didn't want to make.
34:08And he was having a psychotic fucking break.
34:12He grabbed me.
34:13And he fucking lifted me out of that chair.
34:15Like, he just fucking takes the swing.
34:18And he like stops it on my nose.
34:20He's like pressing against my nose.
34:22Just to let me know.
34:26I don't know.
34:28I remember what I said.
34:30But in essence, it was like, we're done.
34:32Take this equipment.
34:33Take the foot, take everything.
34:35We're done.
34:35I can't have this in my life anymore.
34:39Like, it's not healthy.
34:42He just stormed out.
34:46A couple of days after, he's like, I want everything you've ever shot.
34:50It belongs to me.
34:53You sign off rights to it forever.
34:55I was like, that sounds fucking great, actually.
34:58So we have decided we aren't working together anymore.
35:03He had drawn up a document signing over everything.
35:07It says, Brad Lynch and Dean Potter, business separation.
35:11Brad Lynch releases all his rights to all footage he ever shot of Dean Potter.
35:15Yep.
35:16Yep.
35:16He's like, I'll give you $13,000.
35:18No bad mouthing.
35:20Total non-disclosure about creative process and conduct.
35:22The one exception is talking to a therapist who has signed a specific non-disclosure...
35:27I spent all of that money on just fucking mental health care.
35:32Ten years I spent in therapy.
35:34Ten fucking years.
35:36Dean and I, we never spoke again.
35:39All right.
35:40As friends.
35:49I'm sorry.
35:50I just fucking...
35:56Over time, Dean lost a lot of people in his life.
36:00His friends, they're dropping out.
36:03Well, there you are.
36:04That's kind of cool.
36:05Aside from all the emotional drama.
36:07You know, I still believe in Dean.
36:09You know, I fucking love that guy.
36:11Like, your eyes and hits the screen.
36:14Sometimes it felt like I was the last man standing.
36:17But I knew that he needed support.
36:20He needed a friend.
36:24He hadn't had a serious romantic relationship since Steph.
36:30He said to me, Winky.
36:31I go, what?
36:32He goes, I need your help.
36:34I'm like, what?
36:35He goes, I can't get laid.
36:37I'm like, how am I gonna help you?
36:38I just need to get laid.
36:39I go, no, no, no.
36:40You need a lot more than that.
36:41You're just lying to yourself, right?
36:43I go, until you get yourself square with yourself, dude.
36:46It's, you're not gonna, it's not gonna happen.
36:49Or, you're gonna make some really serious mistakes.
36:55And that's when he got involved with this woman.
36:59She was this cool, intelligent person.
37:02But something wasn't right with her mental health.
37:05You could tell.
37:09After, like, a short period of time,
37:11Dean tried to end it.
37:13But she wouldn't let go.
37:15And he continued to reject her.
37:21Dean comes back to his house.
37:23And there's her car sitting in the driveway.
37:26And there she is in the driver's seat, slumped over.
37:30She had taken a bunch of barbiturates.
37:34Dean tried to resuscitate her, called the rangers.
37:39By the time the Park Service responded, she had passed.
37:52Imagine how it must have felt to him.
37:57But honestly, he didn't even ever talk about it.
38:01I was like, dude, what happened there?
38:04He's like, she had some problems.
38:06And that was it.
38:07That was it.
38:08But I could tell.
38:11He was extremely agitated.
38:15I could see the turmoil, the darkness.
38:19He was really fucking low.
38:23And understand this all happened two weeks before he goes to China.
38:34Chinese state television proposed that Dean come to China to do these stunts.
38:42Slacklining and bass jumping.
38:46They're going to put it on live TV in this country of a billion people.
38:51They were offering him quite a bit of money.
38:54I believe it was $200,000 cash.
38:59Three, two, one.
39:03He wants me to come along and help out film the process.
39:07I was like, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool, you know?
39:11But I'm thinking, fuck, this guy is in a really weird fucking headset.
39:17He's way too tense for anything good to happen out of this.
39:22Immediately, they bring us to a fucking Chinese Hooters.
39:26What's this?
39:27Hooters!
39:28Which is so weird.
39:30Hooters!
39:32Then we go to this five-star hotel.
39:35And there's a press conference.
39:39It was his 40th birthday on that particular day.
39:42One, two, three.
39:44Happy birthday to the conference.
39:47Happy birthday to the Republic of London.
39:51We get to this place, middle of nowhere in China.
39:55And there's these incredible mountains.
39:58There's TV trucks and people everywhere.
40:03There was Mike Beck, Dean's lawyer.
40:05And Forrest, the translator.
40:08I'm Forrest Liu.
40:09I'm a climber and a slide-line walker.
40:12My job was to be Dean Potter's translator and assistant.
40:17I feel so excited because, oh, this is an American legend.
40:22Dean was, like, cool guy, really friendly.
40:26He's getting along with the local villagers.
40:29But I can see the situation for him.
40:32It's crazy.
40:34People on the cameras everywhere.
40:37Dean has to deal with that because they pay him.
40:42In the days leading up to the big event,
40:45Chinese state television was filming promotional content
40:48for the broadcast.
40:50So the first order of business is the base jump.
40:52But there's all these people up there
40:55swarming around the cliff edge.
40:58One of the cameramen from the television called Beetle.
41:02He's kind of a wild man.
41:03It makes everybody nervous.
41:06He wants to go close to Dean.
41:09But that was the cliff.
41:11No, Beetle.
41:13Don't let him try.
41:14No.
41:14Beetle.
41:16You.
41:17Beetle.
41:18Hey, no, no, no.
41:19He could kill her.
41:21We got to calm everything down.
41:23No, stop it.
41:23Beetle.
41:24You stay there.
41:26Hey, Beetle.
41:27You just in there.
41:27Tell him I'm fucking serious,
41:29and he's got to calm down.
41:31Dean calmed down to help Beetle.
41:34Come on.
41:35Oh!
41:37Oh!
41:39Any good?
41:40Tell him I will say,
41:42three, two, one, go.
41:46Seven, six, five, seven.
41:51I'm going to count it.
41:53Okay, count it.
41:54Ready?
41:54Go.
41:55Three, two, one.
41:58One.
41:59See ya.
42:05You know, throughout his career,
42:08Dean had tried to straddle an ethical divide
42:12between his art and commerce,
42:16between pure motivation and impure.
42:20Nice meeting you. My name's Jackie.
42:22Nice meeting you, too.
42:22Congratulations.
42:23What's the score?
42:24Well, how would you score your flight this time?
42:27I never score my flight.
42:31I have no competition or no scoring system.
42:34Okay.
42:35This is art.
42:36This is spirituality.
42:37Mr. Potter said...
42:39This is as commercial as he can get,
42:41and he knew that,
42:42but he's still resisting it.
42:44Very, very thank you, Harry Potter.
42:46Not Harry Potter, sorry.
42:47Dean Potter!
42:51Pretty outrageous out here.
42:54In a few days on live TV, it's the main event.
42:59Dean's got to walk this solo highline, no leash.
43:03The line was about 130 feet.
43:07It's longer than anything he's ever soloed.
43:11And Dean out there playing around on his line.
43:13He's going to have to walk this slackline on command.
43:16He's going to have to walk this slackline on command.
43:17Hunan television station is the most popular one in China.
43:22And it's a live show.
43:24I think the organizers are getting nervous.
43:28It can be a legend or a disaster.
43:32And we notice there's this huge cargo net laid out.
43:36So this is the net, huh?
43:38It's a safety net to put below him.
43:41And Dean's like,
43:42What the fuck is this?
43:43What is this?
43:44And they go,
43:45Oh, well, we know we want to put this net there
43:46just to make sure, you know,
43:48we don't want you dying on Chinese state television.
43:51And Dean was like,
43:52I don't fucking need a,
43:53no, no fucking way.
43:55I'm not a fucking circus performer.
43:58And this is a real deal for him.
44:00So the planners are like,
44:02Okay, we won't use the safety net.
44:05So it looks like they're trying to rig the net.
44:07But then we see him installing the safety net.
44:10We need to know your plan.
44:11Yeah.
44:12Like, are these guys, like,
44:13And they tell Dean,
44:15Don't worry, no one will know what's there.
44:19He goes into this rant about
44:21how they're making him look stupid.
44:23What's going on?
44:24We've done everything we've said.
44:25And they keep lying to us.
44:27I've done everything.
44:28I told the truth.
44:30And now, you know,
44:31I had to lie on the fucking radio station,
44:35on the TV station right there.
44:37I'm not going to lie anymore.
44:38You know, I wouldn't tell everybody
44:39there's a big fucking net underneath me.
44:41Like in that Hunan is a bunch of fucking liars.
44:44I was kind of the middleman.
44:48If I translate directly to Chinese,
44:51everything's going to be messed up.
44:55Meanwhile, the money was supposed to be
44:58in the escrow account back in the United States.
45:02And the guaranteed payment has not been paid.
45:05And he says, no money, that's it.
45:07I'm out of here.
45:08It's bullshit.
45:10I'm out of here.
45:11I'm out of here.
45:12I'm out of here.
45:12Bye-bye.
45:15Bye-bye.
45:16Bye-bye.
45:17We go home now.
45:18Yeah, yeah, enough.
45:20Bye-bye.
45:21Bye-bye.
45:22Bye-bye.
45:23Nobody want him to go back to America.
45:26That's okay.
45:27I go bye-bye.
45:28So I have to try to calm him down.
45:31And I walk away and go home.
45:33Don't do that.
45:34No, no, no.
45:35Dean digs his heels in there and says, look,
45:37either I get the money or I'm done with this thing.
45:40Sure enough, they bring in duffel bags stuffed with cash.
45:46That was all very mafia.
45:49Now he's got his money and there's no net.
45:57Before he solos this thing, he's got a few days to practice with his leash and he would try to
46:02walk the line.
46:22And he couldn't.
46:25He was nervous.
46:27Breathe.
46:32And we were talking, this is not a master we saw in a movie.
46:36What's going on?
46:46He kept falling and falling.
46:51When he was trying to practice, there are tons of cameramen.
46:56It was hard for him to focus.
47:10Dean could not walk that line.
47:13But he had no choice, he had to walk the line.
47:21If you fall right at the beginning, it's not too bad to catch and save yourself.
47:26But toward the middle, something that long,
47:31it gets wobbly.
47:34Definitely, like, way harder to catch.
47:42Without the leash, if you miss the line, you're in the void.
47:53Dean was so fucking stressed.
47:58And he goes, okay, so where's the butt weed?
48:02And I was like, what?
48:03He goes, the butt weed.
48:05You know, the weed that you put up your butt to bring over here.
48:08I go, I didn't put any weed up my butt, dude.
48:11He tore into me.
48:14He told me how worthless I was.
48:18I'm lazy, and what a mistake it was to bring me here.
48:24And I just ran into my room.
48:29And I just started to cry.
48:33I never felt so betrayed.
48:41Like, I gave him everything I had.
48:51The next morning was the day of the live event.
48:54How do you feel now?
48:58I feel just trying to relax.
49:01It's like totally unknown whether I make it across or not.
49:20I'm looking at Dean, and I could see him collapsing inside.
49:25I could see it.
49:26Like, in his eyes, it's not there.
49:30He doesn't have it that day.
49:33And Dean looks at me and goes, okay, Winky.
49:35If I fucking fall, right, you come down.
49:38You don't let anyone touch my body.
49:39You take care of me.
49:40You're gonna take care of me, right?
49:42And I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm gonna take care of you, right?
49:44It's not a problem, man.
49:45You're my brother.
49:49It was just everything bad coming to a head.
49:53How do you feel now?
49:55I'm just trying to calm myself.
49:57I was just thinking, this is a guy that gave everything to master his arts.
50:05And now, this is it?
50:08Risking your life for a couple fistful of dollars?
50:21No talking.
50:25Everybody is utterly quiet.
50:27Like the whole world is frozen.
50:31That's more than a hundred million people are watching.
50:34You are pounding.
50:37You do it.logoạch
50:38504 pounds and all
50:39that. I don't
50:50know why. That's amazing.
51:29Out in the middle of the line, it starts to look wobbly.
51:38I'm like, I was just fucking willing.
52:03I'm like, I'm just going to go.
52:17I'm going to go.
52:20I'm going to go.
52:23Woo!
52:25Woo!
52:28Woo!
52:28Woo!
52:29Woo!
52:29Woo!
52:29Woo!
52:31Woo!
52:34He fucking stuck that thing.
52:51So he gets to the end of this line, and on this live feed, we can hear him sobbing.
53:12Wow.
53:13Wow.
53:17Wow.
53:21He had just gone to the deepest, darkest place he possibly could to stay alive.
53:31But he had lost touch with himself as an artist and a friend.
53:39It's like he made it across the line, but he was a broken man.
53:45That's what I'm doing with him.
53:45Yeah.
53:48Yeah, yeah.
53:53He's like, I'm gonna take this thing, you know?
53:54Wow.
53:55Yeah.
53:59Yeah.
54:01Yeah.
54:04Yeah.
Comments