- 10 hours ago
The Dark Wizard Season 1 Episode 3
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00:14For Dean, it was always about Yosemite, his cathedral, his proving ground.
00:28Dean was in his 30s at this point.
00:32Physically, mentally, I think he was still at his high point as a climber.
00:39I realized the clock is ticking. At least most people get weaker soon.
00:47But the mind gets better with age.
00:52Creativity becomes more and more.
00:55I've never been the strongest climber, but somehow I seem to, through willpower, pull off big climbs.
01:03Creative climbs.
01:07And now, what can I do with total concentration and single focused desire?
01:18At this moment, Dean still had the power to do something really great in the valley.
01:26Half Dome, of course, had never been free soloed.
01:30God, man, could El Cap ever be free soloed?
01:33If you want to have a big impact on climbing, you do something on El Cap or on Half Dome.
01:38The biggest walls and the most important place.
01:42Alex Honnold, he had these same ambitions and he had these same goals.
01:47Once again, you're going to have conflict and competition going on.
01:50These two guys duking it out in the most dangerous duel you can imagine.
01:56Who was going to be the first to do these legendary climbs?
02:00So amazing climbing is going to happen.
02:03Or somebody might die.
02:12When I was done dying, my conscience regained.
02:16So I began my struggle of nothing this strange.
02:20And I trapped a dive.
02:22Climbing into the night sky.
02:24And I said all my prayers because surely I died.
02:28And I crashed down and smashed into earth into dirt.
02:31How my skin did explode, leaving only my shirt.
02:35And the earth blew me and said it wasn't that fun.
02:39And I replied, I'm sorry if I hurt anyone.
02:42She said, better look, next time don't worry so much.
02:46Without ears I couldn't hear, I could just feel the touch.
02:50And I fell asleep softly, the edge of a key.
02:54But I should've gone deeper, but I'm not so brave.
03:10I was hanging out in Dean's living room in Yosemite.
03:13And there was a little black book on the table.
03:15And I just picked it up.
03:16And I was like, ooh, this is like Dean's tick list.
03:20Secret list of what he's training for, what his big dreams are.
03:24Top of the list was free solo halftime.
03:30Dean's big breakout moment in the 90s was that speed solo on halftime.
03:37He was sometimes hanging on the rope and pulling on gear.
03:40Dean hadn't yet free solo at halftime.
03:43Nobody had.
03:44There'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 halftime.
04:13And it certainly seemed like something that he maybe could have done at some point.
04:16But he just never did it.
04:18And I don't know, I just thought I could do it.
04:20Well, I mean, I knew I could do it.
04:43Ronald free soloing halftime.
04:46It 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 plum.
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.
05:21Partially I was like, fuck, I wanted that.
05:24Another part, it was just like, that's the way it goes, you know.
05:28Alex has been real competitive with me.
05:31Trying to do things that he knows I want to do.
05:34And he's, you know, he's younger, he's real competitive.
05:37You said, fuck, I wanted that.
05:39So is there a more broad thing you could explain how that would feel?
05:41It's like, oh, fuck, he knew that was my life's goal.
05:45And he did it before me because he was a competitive kind of like 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
06:06that free soloing El Cap would be the ultimate of the ultimate.
06:123,000 feet of steep overhanging rock climbing.
06:17El 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 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, it looks so fucking scary.
06:59Hard to believe some of the things I've done and almost impossible to believe what I want to do up
07:05there.
07:06Yeah, feeling the competitive pull, seeing that Alex is probably going to free solo it before me.
07:17Yikes.
07:19Dean was desperate to get it before Alex, but Potter understood that if he's going to solo El Cap, he
07:26knew.
07:26Yeah, 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.
08:07E.
08:16Of course, base jumping is illegal in Yosemite.
08:20And 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.
08:50And this whole time, Dean was prepping for Freebase and El Cap.
08:57To Free Solo or Freebase El Cap meant climbing one of the routes straight up the biggest, steepest part of
09:06the 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.
09:19This 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 a 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'll tell you what, that whole top part of Free Rider overhangs a little bit.
09:53Dean was pretty convinced that the upper part of the wall was actually quite safe with a parachute.
10:03Eventually, Dean wanted to test the Freebase 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?
10:24You 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.
11:01Oh no, kids, clearly.
11:20I'm fucking curious.
11:20I'm fucking curious.
11:20You're a you're a woman.
11:41all right brian let's do this yeah my name is brian smith and i've been known for adventure
11:49filmmaking i've got this opportunity for a one hour special with a big network you know a story
11:54about dean potter called dean he said it was appealing to do something for mainstream television
12:04dean was like well i want a solo free rider but i'm not prepared to like
12:10you know top to bottom free solo the whole thing but he said the upper section i can climb free
12:18based casey fell he'd be able to jump and pull a parachute it's like badass come on over when we
12:27arrived in yosemite park service was already on edge like you're filming dean potter what we're
12:33assigned a monitor to follow every single step that we do inside of yosemite national park yeah
12:41i'm sorry so we started running this interview we're we're losing light here dean and our park
12:50service monitor they clearly have a history well this is for dean actually if there's any way you
12:56could say that some of the activities are involved there's um i you won't censor what i say at all
13:03catherine and i won't i'll um so please don't tell me what to say and um i'd like it best
13:10if you
13:10couldn't hear my interview because i'm uncomfortable around the park service thanks 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
13:30absolutely absolutely no base jumping not a single parachute nothing so you're gonna have to climb
13:38this like without a parachute on your back dean didn't know what to do he was freaking out
13:51his intensity just starts ramping up
13:56he doesn't want to talk you have a million questions but you probably shouldn't ask him anything
14:07eventually he was like okay i'm gonna do this without a parachute but he was scared we didn't know
14:16if he could do what he was gonna do but the whole film crew is here he didn't want to
14:23bow out
14:26the day before the climb we're going up the trail getting our equipment to the top of el cap
14:36he had concocted some kind of crazy approach from the top to down climb traverse in
14:44and then free solo the 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 is he gonna survive i mean i barely slept that night
15:15the morning of dean told us get your together back on the red don't it up and like be ready
15:23for the shots
15:28everyone moved into their positions ready ready yeah
15:34and got ready for dean to make a grand appearance
15:41he had this like red tattered shirt on and dean said oh this is a shirt my dad gave to
15:47me
15:47and i always wear it on days that i think i'm gonna 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 maybe i shouldn't do this
16:04it's dean's feeding off of that energy to like kind of push himself forward to the brink
16:15then he started slowly moving across this like secret approach
16:27the ledge the ledge it's 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 there's this
17:06i'm so nervous
17:25i'm glad to be through that
17:31and now all of a sudden he's like 3 000 feet off the valley floor
17:40uh
17:46uh
18:13He gets up to this section, the off-width.
18:19There's no handholds or footholds, just like wedging himself in there.
18:32Every move, it's a total fight.
18:38You can see it's taking a toll on him.
18:57It was pins and needles, and I was right in his face.
19:05Don't move, bud.
19:19There is he.
19:22Don't move, bud.
19:44This whole time, I was trying to stay focused on the shots, but I was so scared of making
19:50a mistake on the camera side.
19:55You know, you drop the lens cap, you kill the guy.
20:17All of a sudden, somebody comes on the radio.
20:24Tell him to shut up now.
20:25Tell him to shut up.
20:28Tell him to shut up.
20:29Please, no radio.
20:30We're in the middle of filming.
20:32No radio.
20:32There we go.
20:54Sorry.
21:17No problem.
21:18Sorry I lost it.
21:20He's like apologizing to us.
21:26I mean, dude, you don't need to apologize to me.
21:29You're like hanging with no robe.
21:32I'm not talking to him.
21:34I'm mad.
21:34I'm sorry.
21:54You're coming back.
21:54We're not!
21:54Just kidding.
21:55I see him next time.
21:55Let's go.
21:55You can.
21:56Let's go.
21:57Let's go.
21:59Let's go.
22:14He got to the top, and it's not like a moment of excitement.
22:31I 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.
22:41I didn't sleep last night and was feverish and a little bit unsettled, or very unsettled all night.
22:51And that was my deepest spiritual act right there, so it's even kind of weird to share it with the
22:57camera.
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 rope-less, and I think it's just a matter of time.
23:14He 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.
23:30The most ultimate free solo in the world.
23:33The day after the climb, there was this complete reset in his personality.
23:40It 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.
24:04It's just so pure.
24:07It's like if I live, I'm really happy.
24:10It's that simple.
24:11If I live through this afterwards, it puts me in this totally different state, and then it just simplifies how
24:21good life is.
24:23If you put your life out there, you feel these different things, and they're like we have more in us
24:31than 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, that's interesting.
24:55Power to him, like, that's cool, but 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. He had plans.
25:06Dean cooked up a concept to go way off to the left-hand side of El Cap
25:10to solo this route called the West Face route.
25:13It's a little smaller, and by itself, not considered one of the big, proud, real El Cap routes.
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.
25:44Picking 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.
25:53This 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
26:04and connect it over into the Easy Rider.
26:06And that, to me, felt slightly threatening.
26:09And if he did that, mainstream media would have no, you know,
26:11like, it would be considered the 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 side,
26:20they 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.
26:29Like, that is an achievement below the dignity of El Capitan.
26:33So, yeah, so what was your, what action did you take?
26:36I knew that if I free soloed the West Face before him,
26:40Dean wouldn't be able to claim it as this, like, first free solo of El Cap.
26:43And then I just went and did it with 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, stole the thunder.
27:02I was hanging out with Ronald.
27:03Alex goes, Dean was trying to do that thing on the, on the West Face,
27:07and I nipped that one in the bud, and I just ran up there and did that right away.
27:11There's no way he's gonna call that solo in El Cap.
27:14And I was like, wait a second.
27:18This is a whole other level, right?
27:20It 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,
27:30and then he never stole the West Face 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, not sure.
28:03I think very few of us in our lives will ever experience anything like what Dean experienced relative to Alex
28:09Honnold.
28:09It 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 things,
28:18you 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 wanted to do.
28:43And generally in better style 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.
28:58You're 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 frickin' record.
29:22Come on, Alex.
29:22I was a little stunned that he was so fiercely competitive.
29:29Yeah, I mean, I'm competitive, you 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.
29:43And the guy seeks out my projects 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 this
30:00primal 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.
30:18No big deal.
30:18I'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 about me
30:29respecting 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.
30:51The future had arrived and he was no longer it.
30:56So 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 like 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 like 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 gonna 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.
31:50And 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.
31:58Over 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.
32:29Timmy 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?
32:46Like, what's going on?
32:47It's because I heard you're taking all the credit.
32:49I'm like, what?
32:51Really?
32:51Like, Dean didn't know how to share, basically is what it comes down to.
32:59He did not know how to be gracious with another person's light.
33:06I would see him all the time, but 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.
33:22Yeah, Bradley.
33:24For me, the end of the road is a certain point in time where, for years,
33:29Dean and I had been 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 an 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.
34:03He would 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.
34:20And he's, like, pressing against my nose just 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.
34:34Take 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.
34:51It belongs to me.
34:53You sign off rights to it forever.
34:55I was like, that sounds fucking great, actually.
34:59So, 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.
35:10Brad 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.
35:19No bad-mouthing.
35:20Total non-disclosure about creative process and conduct.
35:23The 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.
35:50It's 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 hit 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.
36:35I'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?
36:44I go, until you get yourself square with yourself, dude.
36:47It's...
36:47You're not gonna...
36:48It'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, Dean 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.
37:36He called the rangers.
37:38By 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.
38:09But I could tell.
38:11He was extremely agitated.
38:15I could see the turmoil, the darkness.
38:19He was really fucking low.
38:23And I 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.
38:46And they'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.
38:53I believe it was $200,000 cash.
38:56He wants me to come along and help out film the process.
39:08I was like, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool, you know.
39:11But I'm thinking, fuck, this guy is in a really weird fucking headset.
39:16He's way too tense for anything good to happen out of this.
39:22Immediately, they bring us to a fucking Chinese Hooters.
39:25Which is so weird.
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 you.
39:52We 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.
40:06And Forrest, the translator.
40:08I'm Forrest Liu.
40:09I'm a climber and a slackline walker.
40:13My 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.
40:25Really friendly.
40:27He's getting along with the local villagers.
40:29But I can see the situation for him.
40:33It's crazy.
40:34People on the cameras everywhere.
40:38Dean 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 for the broadcast.
40:50So the first order of business is a base jump.
40:53But there's all these people up there swarming around the cliff edge.
40:58One of the cameramen from television called Beetle.
41:02He's kind of wild man.
41:04Makes everybody nervous.
41:06He's want to go close to Dean.
41:10But that was the cliff.
41:12No, Beetle.
41:13Don't let him try.
41:14No.
41:14Beetle.
41:17You, Beetle.
41:18Hey, no, no, no.
41:19He could kill her.
41:21We got to calm everything down.
41:23Stop it, Beetle.
41:24You stay there.
41:27You tell him I'm fucking serious and he's got to calm down.
41:31Dean calmed down to help Beetle.
41:34Come on.
41:35Go down.
41:36Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
41:41Tell them I will say, 3, 2, 1, go.
41:477, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 1.
41:51Wait, wait.
41:52Okay, go.
41:52I'm going to count it.
41:53Okay, count it.
41:54Ready?
41:55Go.
41:563, 2, 1, see ya.
42:05You know, throughout his career, Dean had tried to straddle an ethical divide between his art and commerce.
42:17Between pure motivation and impure.
42:20Nice meeting you.
42:21My name's Jackie.
42:22Nice meeting you, too.
42:22Congratulations.
42:23What's the score?
42:24How would you score your flight this time?
42:27I never score my flight.
42:29Why?
42:30I have no competition or no scoring system.
42:34Okay.
42:35This is art.
42:36This is spirituality.
42:37Mr. Porter said...
42:39This is as commercial as he can get.
42:41And he knew that.
42:42But he's still resisting it.
42:44Thank you very much, Harry Potter.
42:46Not Harry Potter, sorry.
42:47Dean Porter!
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, it 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.
43:17Hunan 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 just like, what the fuck is this?
43:43What is this?
43:44And they go, oh, well, we know we want to put this net there just to make sure, you know,
43:48we don't want you dying on Chinese state television.
43:51And Dean was like, I don't fucking need a, no, 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, okay, 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.
44:13And they tell Dean, don't worry, no one will know what's there.
44:19He goes into this rant about how 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, I had to lie on the fucking radio station, on the TV station right there.
44:37I'm not going to lie anymore.
44:38You know, I wouldn't tell everybody there's a big fucking net underneath me.
44:41Like in that Hunian is a bunch of fucking liars.
44:46I was kind of the middle man.
44:48If I translate directly to Chinese, everything's going to be messed up.
44:55Meanwhile, the money was supposed to be in 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.
45:08Bullshit.
45:12Bye-bye.
45:15Bye-bye.
45:16Bye-bye.
45:17We go home now.
45:18Yeah, yeah.
45:18And now.
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.
45:35Dean digs his heels in there and says, look, either I get the money, or I'm
45:39done 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
46:01try to walk the line.
46:22And he couldn't.
46:25He was nervous.
46:27Breathe.
46:32And we were talking, this is not the monster we saw in the movie.
46:36What's going on?
46:46He kept falling and falling.
46:51When he was trying to practice, there are tons of cameramen.
46:55It was hard for him to focus.
47:10Dean could not walk that line.
47:13But he had no choice.
47:14she had to walk the line if you fall right at the beginning it's not too bad
47:23to catch and save yourself but toward the middle something that long it gets
47:32wobbly definitely 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 buttweed and i was like what he goes the buttweed you know the
48:06weed that you put up your butt to bring over here i go i didn't put any weed up my
48:09butt dude
48:11he tore into me he 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 and i just started to cry i 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 um feel just trying to relax it's like totally unknown whether i make it across
49:03or not
49:20i'm looking at dean and i could see him collapsing inside
49:25i could see it like in his eyes it's not there he doesn't have it that day
49:33and dean looks at me he goes okay winky if i fucking fall
49:36right you come down you don't let anyone touch my body
49:39you take care of me you're gonna take care of me right
49:41and i'm like yeah dude i'm gonna take care of you right
49:44it's not a problem man you're my you're my brother
49:49it was just everything bad coming to a head
49:53how do you feel now i'm just trying to call myself
49:57i was just thinking this is a guy that gave everything to master his arts
50:04and now this is it
50:09risking your life for a couple fistful of dollars
50:25everybody is utterly quiet like the whole world is frozen
50:31that's more than a hundred million people are watching
50:46um
50:55um
50:56um
51:13um
51:14um
51:14um
51:29Out in the middle of the line, it starts to look wobbly.
51:39I'm like, fuck.
51:41I was just fucking willing.
51:49I was just like, fuck.
51:49I was just like, fuck.
51:56Fuck.
52:07Fuck.
52:08Fuck.
52:09Fuck.
52:12Fuck.
52:13Fuck.
52:15Fuck.
52:21Fuck.
52:21Fuck.
52:33Fuck.
52:35Fuck.
52:36Fuck.
52:40Fuck.
52:40Fuck.
52:42Fuck.
52:45Fuck.
52:48Fuck.
52:56Fuck.
52:59Fuck.
53:01Fuck.
53:03Fuck.
53:04Fuck.
53:05Fuck.
53:05Fuck.
53:07Fuck.
53:08Fuck.
53:08Fuck.
53:09Fuck.
53:12Fuck.
53:23Fuck.
53:25Fuck.
53:53Fuck.
53:54Fuck.
54:21Fuck.
54:24Fuck.
54:53Transcription by CastingWords
54:59CastingWords
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