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Watch The Dark Wizard () free Season 1 Episode 3 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:13For Dean, it was always about Yosemite, his cathedral, his proving
00:26ground. Dean was in his 30s at this point. Physically, mentally, I think he was still at his high
00:37point as a climber. I realized the clock is ticking. At least most people get weaker soon.
00:47But the mind gets better with age. Creativity becomes more and more. I've never been the
00:57strongest climber, but somehow I seem to, through willpower, pull off big climbs. Creative 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. God, 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. Alex Honnold, he had these same ambitions and
01:45he had these same goals. Once 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. Who was going to be the
01:57first to do these legendary climbs. So amazing climbing is going to happen or somebody might die.
02:12When I was done dying, my conscience regained. So I began my struggle of nothing this strange.
02:20And I dropped about climbing into the night sky. And I said all my prayers because surely I'd die.
02:28As I crashed down and smashed into earth, into dirt. How my skin did explode, leaving only my shirt.
02:35And the earth looked at me and said it wasn't that fun. And I replied, I'm sorry if I hurt
02:41anyone.
02:42She said, better look, next time don't worry so much. Without ears I couldn't hear. I could just feel the
02:49touch.
02:50As I fell asleep softly, the edge of the world came on. I should have gone deeper, but I'm not
02:56so afraid.
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
03:16picked it up and was like, oh, this is like Dean's tick list. Secret list of what he's training for,
03:22what his big dreams are.
03:23Top 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. Nobody 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 half dome.
04:13And it certainly seemed like something that he maybe could have done at some point.
04:16But he just never did it. And I don't know, I just thought I could do it.
04:20Well, I mean, I knew I could do it.
04:21Let them know.
04:36Get started.
04:44Honnold free soloing Half Dome, it was arguably the greatest single achievement in Yosemite
04:50climbing at that point.
04:52Dean probably could have done it, and it would have been quite aplomb.
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 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.
05:34And 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.
05:45And he did it before me, because he was a competitive kind of like twerp.
05:53Dean knew there was one big climb still to be done in Yosemite Valley.
05:59The free solo of El Capitan.
06:02It 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 of all time.
06:29I 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.
07:27Yeah, let's try Freebase.
07:31Freebase, 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 bass rig some of these other routes in Yosemite.
07:52Hard, hard routes that had never been free soloed.
08:07E.
08:16Of course, bass 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 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 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'll tell you what, that whole top part of FreeRider overhangs a little bit.
09:52Dean 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.
10:43Quiet and だ
11:01Who's going on?
11:11Oh, my God.
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
11:55Dean Potter.
11:56Called Dean, he said, it was appealing to do something for mainstream television.
12:05Dean was like, well, I want a solo 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
12:40Park.
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 in love.
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.
13:07And, um, I'd like it best if you couldn't hear my interview because I'm uncomfortable
13:12around the Park Service.
13:13Okay, go ahead.
13:14Go 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
13:29can be absolutely no base 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.
14:07And eventually, 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
14:34El Cap.
14:35Just take that camera.
14:36He had concocted some kind of crazy approach from the top to down climb, traverse in, and
14:44then 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?
15:07Is 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 and got ready for Dean to make a grand appearance.
15:41He had this, like, red, tattered shirt on.
15:44And Dean said, oh, this is a shirt my dad gave to me, and I always wear it on days
15:50that
15:50I 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, maybe I shouldn't
16:04do this.
16:05Dean'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
16:20approach.
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.
17:03There's the shot.
17:05I'm fucking nervous, man.
17:25Glad to be through that.
17:31And now, all of a sudden, he's, like, 3,000 feet off the valley floor.
17:34I'm fucking nervous.
17:38I'm fucking nervous.
17:45I'm fucking nervous.
17:46I'm fucking nervous.
17:47I'm fucking nervous.
17:49I'm fucking nervous.
17:52I'm fucking nervous.
17:52I'm fucking nervous.
17:53I'm fucking nervous.
17:54I'm fucking nervous.
17:54I'm fucking nervous.
17:55I'm fucking nervous.
17:56I'm fucking nervous.
17:57I'm fucking nervous.
18:02I'm fucking nervous.
18:13He gets up to this section, the off-width.
18:19There's no handholds or footholds.
18:24Just like, wedging himself in there.
18:32Every move, it's a total fight.
18:38You can see it's taking a toll on him.
18:47Grr!
18:52Grr!
18:53Grr!
18:53Grr!
18:53Grr!
18:53Grr!
18:54Grr!
18:55Grr!
18:55Grr!
18:55Grr!
18:56Grr!
18:57It was pins and needles.
18:59I was right in his face.
19:01Grr!
19:05Grr!
19:05Don't move, Bri.
19:09Grr!
19:11Grr!
19:14Grr!
19:15Grr!
19:15Grr!
19:19Grr!
19:20Grr!
19:22Grr!
19:25Grr!
19:25Grr!
19:26Grr!
19:27Grr!
19:38Grr!
19:43Grr!
19:43Grr!
19:44Grr!
19:44This whole time, I was trying to stay focused on the shots
19:47but I was so scared of making a mistake on the camera side.
19:53Grr!
19:53Grr!
19:54Grr!
19:54Grr!
19:55Grr!
19:55You know, you drop a lens cap.
19:57You kill the guy.
20:18All of a sudden, somebody comes on the radio.
20:24Tell him to shut up now.
20:25Tell him to shut up.
20:28Please, no radio.
20:30We're in the middle of filming.
20:32No radio.
20:35We're in the middle of filming.
20:37No radio.
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 rope.
22:14You got to the top.
22:20And it's not, like, a moment of excitement.
22:31I don't know.
22:31I 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 had, like, was, like, feverish and, like, a little bit, like, unsettled or very
22:47unsettled all night.
22:51And that was my deepest spiritual act right there.
22:55So it's even kind of weird to share it 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.
23:12And I think it's just a matter of time until he 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.
23:26It really is, like, the first step towards soloing 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.
23:41It was clear that for Dean, in these on-the-edge life-or-death moments, there was a payoff.
23:55Like, the death consequence, as extreme as it is, it is such a teacher.
24:04It's just so pure, like, it's like if I live, I'm really happy.
24:09Like, it's that simple.
24:11Like, if I live through this afterwards, it puts me in this totally different state.
24:16And then it just simplifies, like, how good life is.
24:23If you put your life out there, you feel these different things.
24:28And they're, like, we have more 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.
24:42And I want more.
24:45So, Dean soloed a route that he called the Easy Rider.
24:48That was, like, the first volley.
24:50His own personal step toward free soloing El Cap.
24:52To me, I was like, oh, that's creative.
24:54That's interesting. Power 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
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 and connect it over into
26:05the 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 the first free
26:12solo 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, they finish in
26:20the middle, they call it an El Cap route.
26:22I was like, that is a hard no. I was like, that is doing a disservice to El Cap.
26:26Ronald's, like, defending the honor of El Cap. Like, 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, Dean wouldn't be able to claim it as
26:41this, 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.
27:02I was hanging out with Ronald.
27:03Alex goes, Dean was trying to do that thing on the, on the West Face, and I nipped that one
27:09in 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, this is a whole other level, right?
27:20I, it, it 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 West
27:31Face, and, and sort of let the whole thing go.
27:33Put the, put the nail on the coffin.
27:38Um, having my projects,
27:45done by others will just help me
27:49lose my
27:51overinflated 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 relative to Alex
28:09Honnold.
28:09It makes for fun sports journalism, but if you put yourself in Dean's heart,
28:14as someone who hangs your ego on one or two little things, you hang your self-esteem on,
28:20on a few fragile little hooks, it 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.
28:342012 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, 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.
28:58They'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, totally 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.
29:21Come on, Alex.
29:22I was a little stunned that he was so fiercely competitive.
29:28Yeah, 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, and I do nothing to try to stop
29:49him.
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.
30:19I'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,
30:27ranting about 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, it's just done.
30:48For Dean, the writing was on the wall.
30:51The 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.
31:16Eventually, he would alienate himself from everyone in his life.
31:20I was like a reporter for the Mags, and I wrote this little article about what he was doing on
31:25El Cap.
31:27And he came up to me, was like, I need to talk to you, Cedar, and grabbed the handlebars of
31:33my 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?
31:46Because you 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...
32:53Dean 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.
33:06I would see him all the time.
33:07But it was always like...
33:12You 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.
34:03We'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.
34:20And he's, like, pressing against my nose.
34:22Just to let me know.
34:27I 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.
34:46Couple of days after, he's like,
34:48I 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.
34:58So, we have decided we aren't working together anymore.
35:03He had drawn up a document signing over everything.
35:08Says 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.
35:19No 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.
35:40All 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.
36:03Oh, yeah.
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 his, 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 going to 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, you're not going to, it's not going to happen.
36:49Or, you're going to 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.
37:06He could tell.
37:09And after, like, a short period of time,
37:12Dean 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.
37:39By the time the Park Service responded,
37:42she 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.
38:28The Chinese 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.
38:53I believe it was $200,000 cash.
38:58Three, 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 you.
39:47Happy birthday to you.
39:49Happy birthday to you.
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.
40:05The translator.
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 American legend.
40:22Dean was like, cool guy.
40:24Right?
40:25Really friendly.
40:26He got 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,
40:44Chinese 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.
40:57One of the cameramen from television called Beetle.
41:02He's kind of wild man.
41:03It makes 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.
41:23No, stop it.
41:23Beetle.
41:24You stay there.
41:26Hey, Beetle.
41:27Tell him I'm fucking serious and he's got to calm down.
41:31Dean, calm down to help Beetle.
41:34Come on.
41:35Go down.
41:35Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
41:39Any good?
41:41Tell him I will say, three, two, one, go.
41:46Seven, six, five, five, oh, oh, oh, oh.
41:52Okay, go.
41:52I'm going to count it.
41:53Okay, count it.
41:54Ready?
41:54Go.
41:55Three, two, one.
41:59See ya.
42:05You know, throughout his career, Dean had tried to straddle an ethical divide between 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?
42:24How would you score your flight this time?
42:27I never score my flight.
42:30I have no competition or no scoring system.
42:34Okay.
42:35This is art.
42:36This is spirituality.
42:38This 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.
42:47The Emperor!
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?
43:38Use 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.
44:09We 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.
44:42Like in that Hunan is a bunch of fucking liars.
44:44I 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. I'm out of here.
45:08It's bullshit.
45:11Bye-bye.
45:12Sorry.
45:12Bye-bye.
45:15Bye-bye.
45:16Bye-bye.
45:17We go home now.
45:18Yeah, yeah.
45:20Bye-bye.
45:21Bye-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.
45:35Dean 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.
46:21And he couldn't.
46:25He was nervous.
46:27Breathe.
46:32I'm worried.
46:33We were talking.
46:33This is not the master we saw in the movie.
46:36What's going on?
46:46He kept falling.
46:48And falling.
46:51When he was trying to practice, there are tons of cameramen.
46:55It was hard for him to focus.
46:59Go away.
47:00Go away.
47:01Go away.
47:01Go away.
47:02Go away.
47:03Go away.
47:10Dean could not walk that line.
47:13But he had no choice.
47:14He had to walk the line.
47:20if 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 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 butt weed and i was like what he goes the butt weed
48:05you know the weed that you put up your butt to bring over here i go i didn't put any
48:08weed up my butt 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
48:30and i just started to cry
48:32i never felt so betrayed
48:38like
48:41i gave him everything i had
48:51the next morning was the day of the live event
48:54how do you feel now
48:59feel just trying to relax it'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 like in his eyes it's not there he doesn't have it that day
49:33and dean looks at me and goes okay winky if i fall right you come down you don't let anyone
49:38touch
49:38my body you take care of me you're gonna take care of me right and i'm like yeah dude i'm
49:43gonna take
49:43care of you right it's not a problem man you're my brother it was just everything bad coming to a
49:53head
49:54how 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
50:05and now this is it
50:08risking your life for a couple fistful of dollars
50:21i don't know
50:25everybody is utterly quiet like the whole world is frozen
50:31that's more than a hundred million people are watching
51:09i don't know
51:12I've seen many times have suffered a failure.
51:19It's a clear breath.
51:25It's probably the hardest part in the middle.
51:27Out in the middle of the line, it starts to look wobbly.
51:39I'm like, fuck.
51:42I was just fucking willing.
52:03I'm so sorry.
52:08I'm so sorry.
52:10I'm so sorry.
52:12I'm so sorry.
52:27I'm so sorry.
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.
53:01I can feel that we can hear him sobbing.
53:07He's crying. I want to cry.
53:12Wow.
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.
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