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\n There\u2019s one really obvious, horrifying way Alex Honnold\u2019s ascent of the Taipai 101 skyscraper could go wrong. Allow these films to reassure you that it (almost) certainly won\u2019t.
\n Photo: Corey Rich\/Netflix\n <\/p>\n
There has never been a television event quite like Skyscraper Live, which sounds like the riskiest thing anyone has ever attempted in the medium: Sui generis climber Alex Honnold climbing up the Taipei 101 skyscraper, in his customary free-solo style, with no ropes or other safety gear to catch him if he falls \u2014 there\u2019s one really obvious way this could go wrong, and it is horrifying to think about. Many dangerous sports exist (football, MMA, ski jumping), but they\u2019re TV mainstays, so there\u2019s infrastructure for what happens if a competitor gets horrendously injured: medics to send to the athlete\u2019s side, ads to cut away to. What happens if Honnold careens off the skyscraper? There\u2019s no contingency plan there. Even just writing about it is giving me a stomachache.<\/p>\n
However: If there\u2019s one person who could do this kind of climb in his sleep, well, it\u2019s Honnold. He\u2019s an icon in the climbing community for both his roped and rope-free ascents, and he never takes on anything he isn\u2019t confident he can safely tackle. All those decades of experience don\u2019t eliminate the slim chance that something catastrophic might occur on January 23, when Netflix will be livestreaming his climb up Taipei 101<\/a>. Hopefully not! We are really, really hoping not! But as further reassurance before you watch, here are four \u201cseriously, these people know what they\u2019re doing\u201d film recommendations. Consider this your exposure therapy.<\/p>\n The 2018 documentary that introduced Honnold to the mainstream was produced by a crew who were largely, like co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin<\/a>, also climbers and friends of Honnold\u2019s, adding an extra layer of intimacy and concern to the work. Honnold\u2019s challenge for himself felt impossible: be the first person to free solo the wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He would climb a 3,000-foot route, Freerider, that he had climbed previously using ropes. But now, no harness, no ropes, no carabiners, no nothing; if he slipped, it would be a many-seconds-long fall. It\u2019s a task that everyone in the documentary, especially Honnold\u2019s recurring climbing partner, Tommy Caldwell, speaks about in hushed tones, like it\u2019s so outlandish that no one can really wrap their heads around it. (Including me; I\u2019ve watched this documentary about a dozen times, and I still don\u2019t understand how Honnold grips the minuscule holds and tiny foot chips that he does.)<\/p>\n Free Solo then breaks down how Honnold went about it, which is obsessively. He trained, he practiced, he went over the route, he quit one time when it didn\u2019t feel right. Of course, you\u2019re going into this viewing experience knowing that Honnold made it out alive, but the people who made Free Solo \u2014 which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Film in 2019 \u2014 didn\u2019t know that as they were filming Honnold climbing in real time. Everyone involved had nerves of steel, and you can watch it to get into that mind-set before Skyscraper Live, too.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also an important reveal in this film: Honnold\u2019s amygdala processes fear differently than the rest of us. (The science magazine Nautilus conducted its own interesting tests<\/a> with Honnold about this.) That doesn\u2019t mean that he acts recklessly, but that he\u2019s going into these challenges already at an advantage. Frankly, for us as viewers, what a relief. (Streaming on Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix)<\/p>\n More climbing without ropes, this time in urban areas. Rooftopping is a combination of urban exploring, climbing, and parkour, in which people climb urban structures \u2014 radio towers, cranes, chimneys \u2014 and often livestream or post about their exploits. It\u2019s sort of like if Tom Cruise climbed the Burj Khalifa for Instagram likes instead of for Mission: Impossible \u2014 Ghost Protocol.<\/p>\n