SKYSCRAPER LIVE and MAN ON WIRE

I have been away for more than two months, and after a few days, finally was ready to turn to my streaming channels.  As you know, I have just about all the top ones, most for free because I live at 15 Craigside.  Read the details about how many, etc.  So anyway, I saw this article about Skyscraper Live on Netflix, and thought I'd watch this film.  I got more details from Google AI:

Yes, 

Skyscraper Live

 is currently available to stream on Netflix. The high-stakes event, which originally aired live on Saturday, January 24, 2026, follows legendary climber Alex Honnold as he free solos the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan without any ropes or safety equipment. 

Key details about the program:  Availability: After the live broadcast concluded, an edited version was added to the Netflix library for on-demand viewing.

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  Content: The special documents Honnold's ascent of the 1,667-foot tower, capturing every moment in real-time.

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  Performance: It quickly became one of the most-viewed shows on the platform, reaching No. 3 on Netflix's Global Top 10 TV list shortly after its release.
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  Additional Viewing: Honnold's Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo is also currently available on Netflix if you want to see his famous climb of El Capitan. 

Would you like to know more about the behind-the-scenes preparation or the specific challenges Honnold faced while climbing Taipei 101?

About this film:

• Too early for any Rotten Tomatoes ratings.
• That Variety review provides more details.
• Another Variety article indicated that Alex Honnold was paid less than $1 million--Why So Little?  Oops, you need to subscribe to read this one.
• Google AI said around $500,000.  
• Another source interviewed him.

Ahead of the event, Honnold told The New York Times that he had wanted to climb the Taipei 101 basically because it was there, explaining that it’s hard to get legal permission to climb a famous building. But he was also paid “an embarrassing amount” to do so for Netflix.

“Actually, if you put it in the context of mainstream sports, it’s an embarrassingly small amount,” he said, thinking back on his first answer. “You know, Major League Baseball players get like $170 million contracts. Like, someone you haven’t even heard of and that nobody cares about.”

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  However, this was a long-time dream for him, and he said he likely would have done the climb for free, if given the chance.
• He was a civil engineering student at Cal-Berkeley in 2003, but quit just to go mountain climbing.
• Said he was a nobody and not a particularly good climber compared to others.

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  However, he gained mainstream recognition after his 2008 free solo of Zion National Park's Northwest Face of Half Dome, which was featured in the film Alone on the Wall.
• Seven years ago he climbed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park to become the first free-solo climber to ascend the Freerider grade.
• Solo means not anything...ropes, parachute. etc.  He falls, he dies.
• The New York Times described it as "one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever."
• I watched the film because I was in the El Capitan eating club at Stanford.

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  If you already saw Free Solo, his 2018 documentary by National Geographic, (the climb occurred in 2017) you too will be tempted to watch this new incredible achievement.  You can see the entire 1 hour 40 minute movie by clicking on that link.  Especially because Rotten Tomatoes gave it 97/93 ratings.  And you should, for he won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in the 91st Academy Awards.

In some ways, Skyscraper Live reminds me of Man on Wire, a 2008 documentary film chronicling Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center.

• No one can ever do that again because both towers fell on 9/11/2001.
• The title of the film is taken from the police report that led to the arrest (but later release) of Petit.

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  Honnold was 40 years old when he took 1 hr 31 min 34 sec to climb up 1667 feet.  Petit was 24, and took 45 minutes to walk eight times each a distance from 131 to 140 feet at a height of 1,350 to 1,368 feet.  Oh, he also danced, lay down on the wired and saluted watchers from a kneeling position.  He quit only because it began to rain.  There was considerable appreciation for what he accomplished that the authorities dropped formal charges and he was given a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' observation desk.

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  Film also won Best Documentary Oscar.
• Earlier, Petit gained fame for his unauthorized highwire walks between the towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris inn 1971 and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973.
• In 1984 came a half-hour documentary, High Wire, featuring music from Philip Glass's Glassworks.
• There is a film about his walk, The Walk in 2015 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit, directed by Robert Zemeckis.  Rotten Tomatoes:  83/77.

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