Wingmen (2015) Movie Script
1
[wind buffeting]
[jumper 1] Okay, I'm ready.
Let me know when you guys are ready.
- Hurry up.
- [jumper 2] Yeah.
[jumper 2]
Just show us the exit direction.
- [jumper 1] That way.
- [jumper 2] That way, okay.
- [Jokke] Uh, Espen, are you ready?
- [Espen] I'm ready.
- [Jokke] Ludo, ready?
- [Ludovic] Ready.
[Jokke] Okay.
So three, two, one, see ya!
[peaceful music playing]
[Ludovic]
People always ask us to describe it,
but it's really hard to describe it.
You got to experience it.
It's so unique, so special.
You are actually flying.
[Jokke] You know, I like to look at life
as like an adventure game.
And you're playing your own character,
and you know
that to get to the next level,
you have to take some risk
and you have to pass by something
to get there.
[Espen]
This is the sport that you can't fuck up.
You never get a second chance.
The day you fuck up
is the day you die.
[alarm beeping]
It's too early to work.
So now it's 20 to,
or actually 20 past four.
And we're pretty much ready, huh?
Okay, I am ready, for a big day of action.
This was mainly my friend
Jokke Sommer's dream.
He had this idea of gathering
a small group of BASE jumpers
and pretty much travel the world,
go to those epic places
and really discover
how we could use the wingsuits
in urban areas
and very exotic areas around the world.
Looks good, huh?
[Jokke] I wanted to come up with a team,
a team that was mixed with people
that have different abilities in flying.
And on top of the list was Espen Fadnes
and Ludovic Woerth.
[Ludovic] My specialty is flying
with the camera,
so the guys want me to follow them.
I'm super happy they asked me
to be part of that adventure.
The same time as you feel the sun rise,
you also feel the tension
that you're actually gonna do
a pretty rad BASE jump.
- We're gonna do a three-way, the guys.
- Yeah, man!
- It's a special moment actually. It is.
- Finally, buddy.
I think it's moments
that we will remember.
This is the kind of jump
we really, really strongly remember.
- This one I'll remember.
- This one is a full experience.
[Jokke] Espen, he has been one
of the guys that...
that I saw wingsuit proximity flying
from in the early days
when I started skydiving.
- It's okay?
- Yeah.
I see him
as a very strong partner in this team
simply because
of his incredible experience.
The cameraman is starting to be nervous,
because it's gonna be
quite a hard one, this one.
[Jokke] I also wanted to bring
Ludovic Woerth,
uh, simply because
he is an outstanding flyer.
His filming is
one of the most incredible in the sport.
He is really in the terrain with you,
and he's getting always the shot.
Good jump.
- We can do it! Oh yeah!
- Good jump, buddy!
So I think, mixed together, it's gonna be
a perfect team with Ludo and Espen.
When we sat there
and we planned all these journeys,
we had this bucket list,
and on top of the bucket list
was Rio de Janeiro.
[rock music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Yeah, but I was thinking more like,
I might need those ten meters down there.
The whole idea of this trip to Rio
was to make something special out of it.
Because in that city you have
the Redeemer, the Jesus Christ statue.
And the idea was to fly and actually use
that Redeemer as a gate
to fly under the arms of Jesus Christ,
in a wingsuit, and over that city.
[Jokke] I really wanted to do
that Jesus Christ statue
because it's kind of like
to get that visual of that big statue
and that iconic structure
in the middle of Rio,
and you're flying there like a bird,
like, "Yeah, passing by."
The challenge was
that there are no mountains
we could jump off to fly by the statue.
So we had to use trikes,
these motorized hang gliders.
And you could only have one person
jumping off one trike,
and we only had two trikes.
So Ludo was the obvious number one
person to be on that jump
since he was the flying cameraman.
And then the second one
had to be either me or Jokke,
and both of us wanted to do this,
you know, desperately wanted to do this.
But a choice had to be made,
and I was fortunate. I got to do it.
[epic music playing]
- We got this shit, man!
- [Espen laughing] That was fun!
- Intercom system as well.
- So smooth.
Whoo!
[Jokke] I always had a dream about flying
since I was a little kid.
[Espen] Sometimes
when you actually do those jumps
with all your friends
and you just nail the line,
uh, it's a very good, forgiving,
humbling feeling.
[cheering]
[mother in Norwegian]
You were really good looking.
[mother in English] He talked about
that he wanted to be an astronaut.
[speaking Norwegian]
He was like a propeller.
Too much energy.
And he was a very polite little boy.
[Jokke] Your life gets so much more rich
and filled with joy
because it is not focused on the money,
it is more focused on having the smiles
and waking up in the morning
and just doing something you love doing.
[Ludovic] Jokke is special, you know.
He's like super stoked,
always positive, full of childish energy.
Okay, I'm gonna go from here, Espen.
[Ludovic] He had that childish, you know,
these blinking stars in his eyes
when he found something
that could be cool to do.
[laughs] That was fucking awesome!
Aroooo!
[Ludovic] And at the same time
he can be really pro
when he's preparing his jump.
Some of the jumps we did
were actually super technical.
Calculations were done, it was safe,
it was well performed.
Everything was nice,
like really well made, really pro.
Nothing that you would expect
from a child.
Where do you want to stand?
[Jokke] The fact is that I'm actually
really, really afraid of heights.
Anyway, it's a simple line,
it's straight right.
And that's maybe part of why I actually
started the BASE jumping thing.
I'm actually okay right now,
but... when I stand on the exit,
it's gonna be like, "Oh shit! Oh!"
In some places I get really freaked out.
Get like, almost like
on the balance to panic.
I'm like, "Oh, dude,
you have to hold my hand!"
I was like, "Espen, can you hear me?"
"Espen, Espen, Espen!"
I wanted to have someone to talk to.
[Jokke] Espen, he is for sure,
by far, one of the biggest reasons
why I'm actually
living my biggest dream today.
He is actually my co-worker.
And it's not everyone
that loves their co-worker,
even though they have to work
with that person.
When you feel it's time to go, just go.
Then you just do like this,
and, "Fuck yeah, see you, guys."
[Jokke] Me and Espen usually manage
to build each other's ideas up.
That's what makes this job so awesome.
With me and Jokke Sommer.
Whoo!
Espen is almost annoyingly normal,
like in a good way.
[Jokke] He is an incredible, calm,
and really nice guy to be around.
So we are on 2,005.
I don't know why I looked at my watch
because it doesn't tell the altitude.
It's not very productive
to say it like that.
The more productive way is to think ahead
and think, okay,
how are we as a group to act?
Be positive and happy
and motivated to jump.
He's kind of the glue in the group,
I would say.
[in Norwegian] I see myself
when I look at how Espen
has developed as a child and grown-up.
Already at the age of seven,
he joined me on a trip to Hjulsundet,
an area for climbing near Molde.
And I think that has molded him
into his later activities.
But I can't take responsibility
for the fact
that he started with BASE jumping.
[Espen] So the second stop on our journey
became Chamonix in France.
[rock music playing]
It's always sad to leave the sun
when you have perfect waves
and good weather.
And then you're coming to the Alps.
It looks like we'll have maybe
one or two days.
That's gonna be okay.
Hopefully we will have enough visual,
and especially no wind
to be able to do this stunt.
[Espen] And Chamonix felt like home.
[Ludovic] We were supposed to leave
15 minutes earlier.
- [Jokke] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Espen] Stop talking about the time, man.
[all laughing]
[Espen] I'd been living there
for several seasons skiing.
And for Ludo this was truly home.
He lives just down the valley
from the city of Chamonix.
From there you really see the size of it.
And in a way we wanted
to show Jokke this epic place.
On top of Aiguille du Midi is a bridge.
And it's about 20 meters under the bridge,
it's about 10-15 meters wide.
And I had this dream for five years,
and that is to fly under that bridge
with my wingsuit.
And just follow the couloir down
onto the glacier,
around, down to Chamonix.
It would look freaking rad.
I really like to do precision flying,
and that has kind of been my thing
for a long time.
So when I saw the Aiguille du Midi bridge
and what Espen had in mind,
I was extremely excited,
and I couldn't really wait
to get into the air.
[Espen]
You have this cable going down there,
uh, crossing the line that you need to fly
to get under the bridge,
but over the couloir.
[Jokke] I was standing
on top of this bridge,
and I could feel my fear
of heights kicking in.
I get sick to my stomach
just standing on this bridge.
- Why?
- Because it's so sketchy.
- Ah, come on.
- It's not sketchy to stand here.
- It has to be well prepared.
- It feels sketchy.
If you're actually in danger
of hitting the cable, you're way too low.
You're actually so low that you will hit
snow and rocks at the same time.
And it's true that it blocks half the way.
So it cuts our window in half.
But it's still big enough, I think.
And I have to say that I was quite nervous
on that first attempt because I had
brought my friends to Chamonix,
promised them that this was doable.
Honestly I didn't know if this was doable.
[Espen] Preparing for a jump
is the strangest thing.
The most,
if you can call it nerve-racking,
moment I have is when I wake up.
And I think it is because
that's the point of the day,
the time of the day,
where I have the most uncertainty.
Because I haven't seen the weather.
I haven't started
to mentally prepare for the jump yet.
I just know it's gonna happen.
The whole day becomes this steady pace
with less and less uncertainty
and a better and better plan
until the moment where I stand
on top of the mountain.
And that's actually the moment
where I am at the calmest.
Because then I know I have concluded,
I have done all the preparation I can,
and it just feels great.
- Are you guys focused?
- Yep.
- Good.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Sure?
But the feeling when I stand there
on the edge and let go
is a pure feeling of control.
[blades thumping]
From that bridge it's 2,800 meters
all the way down to the city of Chamonix.
And we wanted to jump out
of a helicopter, all three of us.
We're jumping over here.
[Ludovic] We're getting in position
over the bridge.
Jokke, Espen, are you focused?
All right, let's go!
[crowd cheering]
[man] Fuck, man!
They did it, they did it, they did it!
[dramatic music playing]
- [Espen] We finally made it!
- Whoo!
All of us managed to fly under the bridge.
And just the feeling
of going through the hole
and just feeling that exceptional
explosion of adrenaline rush
was such a huge moment for us.
[Jokke] That was the peak
of my life so far, you know,
to land down there
on the ground in Chamonix
and really feeling that we are going out
in the world with big plans,
and we nailed it, you know, every time.
We nailed Rio,
now we nail Aiguille du Midi.
[laughing]
After the jump in Chamonix
I was so fired up.
I was extremely proud of the whole team
that we pulled together
such a unique project
and a stunt that is so hard
to actually achieve,
and now it's all a wrap
and we can celebrate.
It's such a humbling unique feeling
and a joyful moment
where you know everyone is safe
and you can just live on those euphorias.
[in creole] You're going to take this film
to your country and show your family.
No French.
- [in creole] They're going to see my hat.
- [laughs]
[Espen] After Rio and Chamonix,
we kinda felt like we wanted
to go and fly some lines again
and just go out and explore new terrain
without having a focus
of doing a big stunt.
And we heard some rumors
about an amazing island
in the Indian Ocean
called Runion Island.
Oh! Paradise, huh?
Paradise without, like...
Even the fantasy sets your limits, dude.
It is the most beautiful place
I've ever been in my life.
[Jokke] The first thing we did
was to go down to ULM base.
There's ultralight airplanes.
Um, we wanted to go up
with the wingsuits
and just check out the place,
just get a feeling
of what we were about to do.
So we just wait for the command
from your pilots?
- Yeah. Always be a little too low.
- Yeah.
Um, so we flew up in one airplane each
because there can only be one person
in each airplane.
All of a sudden we came above the clouds,
and it was like paradise
just opened up to my eyes.
We found a line, and we knew where to go.
It was just to get the message
to the pilots.
Three, two, one,
and try out our new line.
[intense music playing]
Whoa!
Oooh! [laughs]
Okay. [chuckles]
[straining]
- [Jokke] How are you doing? Pain?
- [Espen] I fucked my knee, man.
[groans]
Oh, but that was beautiful, huh?
[Jokke] The idea about this trip
was to fly the nicest line,
find the perfect flight.
What's up, Ludo?
[Jokke] But, you know, realizing
that waking up in the beach house,
hearing the waves pounding on the beach,
and having my friends around,
that beautiful weather
on that super nice island,
you know, I realized
that's actually gonna be the memories
that will stay with me forever.
[wind buffeting]
Hello. [in French] Is it okay
if I call you back in ten minutes?
Okay. Thank you.
[Espen] Ludo, our camera flyer,
he is like my big brother.
He's really unique for us, because he...
Of course he can fly incredibly good
and he always gets the shot.
- Did you get that on the carve?
- I have the carve with both of them.
And that one was super nice!
It's sometimes frustrating,
but it's also rewarding
to be able to be that guy
that provides the good footage.
Because if it's not on camera,
it didn't happen.
[Espen] So for us as a team,
he is our most important tool
and our most important flyer.
[Jokke] What I can really see now after...
after the months
we have been working together
is that he has finally achieved
his biggest dream
to become a professional camera flyer.
[sighing]
Oh, my God! And you're still filming
when I'm having my smoke.
[Espen] That's who you are, man.
You should've seen the description
of you in the Norwegian newspaper.
Yeah, I have been told that it was funny.
[Espen] The chain-smoking,
hardcore dude from France
who took a morning beer
before the day starts.
I thought, like, the Norwegian guys,
they were, like, really on time.
The Frenchies, they're like...
Ludo, man, he's super on time, you know.
It feels just like my head is locked
on the really important things
and the rest is just chaos.
[Jokke] The funny thing
about our group is that Espen,
he always loses his stuff in the morning.
Jokke, Jokke, hello. Vamos, vamos.
[Jokke] I am the one that got born
five minutes late.
One hour late.
We were supposed to leave at 7:30.
[in French] Come on, Ludo!
[Jokke] And Ludo, he's the one
that is whipping us around.
We have a different approach
to the jump, you know.
You are like, "Yeah, it's gonna be fun,
whatever, you know,
if it's not now,
it's gonna be later, whatever,
it's a jump, it's always gonna be fun."
Horny and angry?
[laughing]
- You can't be serious for two seconds.
- I can't, dude.
It puts me into
an emotional roller coaster
because I'm a little bit more
stressed out.
Hey, if you are stressed out,
then, like, tell us, you know.
It's good, because I don't like
that jumpers are stressed out
or, like, they don't like that
or they, like...
I want everyone to be open
about exactly how they feel all the time.
You know that I actually
take longer than you to prepare.
- I just anticipate it.
- Yeah, you manage to wake up early.
And that's a problem Espen and me,
we have, you know.
[Ludovic] I am that early bird
because that is the only time in the day
when I can be alone with myself.
I like that moment when
I can hear the sounds of the mountain,
all the birds that are starting
to sing around
and that fog in the morning,
and that nature
that is waking up around me.
That is kind of a mystical moment.
And that is very important to me,
to keep myself concentrated,
and quiet and be ready
for the action that's coming.
Jokke, Espen and me,
we know each other now for a while.
We've been jumping together for some time.
And we kind of set up
kind of a ritual together.
I wake up early, I get my cup of coffee,
I get my cigarette in the morning.
And then we meet up together
in the morning
and start thinking about what we're doing,
look up at the mountains,
check out what the weather looks like.
And that's the kind of ritual
that we've put together,
and that makes us a good team.
That's actually a very good way
of working together
that puts us, everybody, in a good mood
for what we're going to do in the day.
[Espen] Deep in China you have
some almost weird mountains.
The mountain region
is called Tianmen Mountains.
And this was the location
for the film "Avatar."
That's how spectacular and different
those mountains are.
And very often you have this mist
low in the valley
so it looks like all these mountains
are just floating,
they're not even touching the ground.
And they're actually very good
for BASE jumping.
[speaking Chinese]
Very cool. [laughs]
- Whoo!
- Look at that.
- That's badass, huh?
- Yeah.
- Come here, Espen.
- Go on the other side, Espen. Or...
Fans?
[Espen] So there we went,
and even though I knew inside myself
that these are safe mountains,
you get this extra respect.
And I think it has something to do
with the unfamiliar.
[intense music playing]
[music continues over dialogue]
[man on radio] Are you guys ready?
No, we're not ready.
We are discussing the conditions.
[Espen] One of the biggest issues
we're facing
when jumping in the mountains
is the wind.
And one of the days in China,
it was extremely windy
when we came to the top.
Fuck, I had so many,
like, bad wide jumps.
[in Norwegian] I am, of course,
very afraid of him making mistakes,
but he is not one
to get affected by pressure.
And I told myself I'm never ever
gonna let a camera push me to do it
when I have a bad feeling.
I really have a bad feeling.
That is my main fucking problem now.
That is good to know.
Everything can float around him,
but if there's one job he takes seriously,
it's this one.
We had a lot of luck
and good things happening for us
so far on our trips,
but when we came to China,
suddenly things were actually
working more against us.
[man] Okay, just let us know.
[Espen] I know that people
that care about me worry
because I feel the same
when I see my friends do
very technical, difficult lines skiing,
or I see a good friend
pushing his limits as a BASE jumper.
Then I can just imagine
how much my mother worries,
and my father, my sisters,
brothers, good friends.
They don't jump themselves.
They don't know this sport.
They don't know
how I deal with risk management.
They are just worried.
[in Norwegian] When Espen started
BASE jumping, I worried about him.
That's only fair.
I have not tried to stop him, persuade him
to quit or anything like that.
I, for sure, see the risk in that,
but I haven't got any other strategy
in that regard than to talk to him,
see his movies, talk to the other people
in his social surroundings,
and just trust that Espen
is really careful about security.
Some of it is maybe suppression,
a father's conviction that my son
also has a strong sense of security
and risk management.
[Espen] This is the big downside
of doing this sport.
Because after all,
it's all about, for me, life.
It's about relations,
it's about the people we care about.
It's about the moments I have
with the people I like and love.
And it's a huge downside
that I bring this worry
upon the people I care the most about.
[man on radio] All is okay?
It's a go, yes.
We are in the cable car.
- Sweet.
- Okay.
Perfect, we're ready. Let's do this thing.
[epic music playing]
[garbled voice on radio]
[music fades]
[wind blustering]
[Espen] Ah!
Ah, goddammit!
Are you okay?
I remember I had this bad stomach feeling
for three to four days after.
I just constantly walked around
with this bad feeling,
this feeling of not doing
what I am supposed to.
I am not supposed to do those mistakes.
I am not supposed to put myself
in situations like that.
I am kind of looking straight
into a cable car.
I see people and it's really
coming fast towards me.
Whoa!
I don't know what I did.
I just acted intuitive
and bent up my arms,
my chest, everything I had,
and tried to move left.
I mean, I was seriously close
to that cable car.
If I had hit that cable car, I don't think
anyone would have survived.
It's just this moment of, out of control.
Rio, Chamonix and Runion
were all amazing destinations
where actually everything went perfect,
but after the incident in China,
things were starting to work against us,
and we were actually not even prepared
for what was actually coming.
[in English] I often think that one day
the police will call me and say,
"He's dead."
I try to prepare myself,
but of course you can't do that.
So if this happens,
I don't know what to do.
Well, two years ago,
I was flying with one of my friends,
and I actually filmed him going in.
He impacted in the trees.
And that was a really tough moment
for me, for sure,
because he was a very good friend of mine.
Well, it almost destroyed me, honestly,
because that was the first time
I was there filming.
I was filming him,
so I actually saw the accident.
That was a very close friend of mine.
So it was really, really hard
to cope with.
I must say I spent
a few months not jumping
because I didn't feel it.
It was too hard.
It was bringing back...
bringing bad memories.
But in the end, you know,
my passion came first.
After a few months,
I just started BASE jumping again.
I enjoyed it again.
And life goes on,
even if you lose some friends.
It's really hard in the moment, for sure,
but it's like all experiences in life.
You go through tough moments
and then you keep going.
It's really bad actually, because, uh...
The thing is that usually
the wind is not a big issue
because we jump in a big open space
in the mountains,
but in the city almost just
two meters per second can be horrible
and it can really fuck you up big time.
[Jokke] As this sport
is extremely dangerous,
I'm nowadays looking
for more reasons not to jump
than to actually jump.
So right now it's not jumpable.
At least not from my perspective.
So it needs to be perfect weather,
perfect conditions, safe exits,
or that everything that goes together
makes me feel 110% good.
We had a dream
of going to a spectacular city
and do something entirely different.
[Jokke] Jumping buildings in Bangkok
is definitely hard
because some of them,
you really need to have a good plan.
Now it feels like the wind
is coming from there,
but it's actually coming from over there.
So right here it so much rotors.
A little bit scary, 'cause I don't want
my canopy to land, like, on the highway
and then get snagged by one of those cars.
That would be the end of it.
[Espen] What?
- What did you say?
- It's annoying enough to... Well, it's...
[exhales sharply]
[Espen] I know it's scary, dude,
but we're gonna have a look around
and see if we can find something else.
- Okay?
- Yeah.
[Espen] It was quite interesting
to be in Bangkok,
because when we're in the mountains,
Ludo was the main man.
This is Piton des Neiges,
and this is a known,
really special part of France.
Home, sweet home.
[Espen] The most experienced,
the tough guy,
the guy that always knew the answer.
While Jokke, always quite insecure,
wondering where to go, what to do,
not sure if this is smart.
I'm kind of in between.
But when we were in Bangkok,
it was completely the other way.
I love jumping buildings, it's so fun.
It's like being inside an action movie
and you are the actual stuntman,
star and everything at once.
Jokke was the experienced one.
He has done quite a lot of building jumps.
And Ludo had done none.
He was obviously not comfortable.
[Ludovic] I must admit, I don't feel
super good with jumping buildings,
because I never did it.
I have mixed feelings,
and I'm a little bit nervous.
[Jokke] He didn't really wanna do it.
He was so nervous and so uncomfortable.
He could clearly see
that this was not his place.
I am mentally preparing to land
on that narrow street down there.
[Espen] You really have to put
your mind and effort
into being able to do a jump.
You have to actually come up
with a really solid plan and stick to it
and kind of just have the nerves
to live it through.
'Cause sitting and planning
a mission like that,
it's still a little bit like, oof,
you know, you can feel
the adrenaline building up,
but once you're committing,
once you're starting to play the game
and doing it in real life,
that's when the nerves start kicking in.
I'm a bit nervous, I must admit.
I'm about to do something I'm not used to.
- Are you stoked, man?
- Yep!
- Oh, man, nervous.
- Whoo!
Oh! I love my job though,
but it is pretty nerve-racking sometimes.
- All your cameras are good?
- Yep.
- All right?
- Yeah.
Are you good as well, my little friend?
Have a good one, huh?
Have fun, buddy.
Three, two, one, see ya!
[spectators clapping]
Yeah!
Yeah!
Good job, buddy! Whoo-hoo!
Perfect.
That was a very early exit.
But it was okay. [chuckles]
Whoo!
- Were you nervous?
- Yeah.
I was a little bit nervous up there.
[Ludovic] I decided to go with Espen,
just do a two-way and go straight.
[indistinct chatter]
- [Ludovic] How much you gonna run?
- As much as possible.
[Ludovic] I'd do it not that much.
- [exhales sharply]
- [Ludovic] Ready?
- [Espen] Yeah, I'm good.
- All right.
[intense music playing]
Three, two, one. Step!
[man] Calm down, calm down.
Yeah, just stay cool.
- Okay?
- [Espen] Fuck me!
I fell down probably seven to eight meters
vertically straight down into the street.
Landed on my feet.
Just got a big cut in one of my heels.
The other heel was broken.
Full of adrenaline,
I pretended that everything was fine.
Yeah, I am in pain
so I got to check out my legs.
Fuck!
I think it was more painful
mentally than physically.
Not good at all, not good.
My lowest moment in life
when it comes to risk management.
Totally embarrassing.
Fucking painful.
[medic] It may be broken as well.
[Jokke]
Things can go wrong so incredibly fast
that this sport scares me
more and more and more every year.
But I still have it as...
I feel the same every year.
I'm not more nervous
or something like that.
It's just that the sport in general
scares me the longer I am in it.
[Espen] Me and Jokke and Ludo
talked a lot about the future,
and what to do and what to not do.
Gimme a hug, buddy!
We pretty much agreed
that we were taking too big chances.
I kinda hit so hard on the ground
that it opened up here.
But Ludo didn't agree 100%, though.
He believed in proximity flying.
He was kind of in love with it,
I have to say.
It was his thing.
[alert beeping]
[Espen] It was the most horrible
text message I've ever received.
It was, I quote,
"Ludo is dead."
"Dan is dead."
"Brian is in a coma."
"I am sorry."
That was all it said.
I panicked.
Because...
it's just eight to ten words,
but those words...
to receive such a serious message
just in words,
I just couldn't believe it.
I almost felt like vomiting.
Jokke was down in his hotel room,
a few stairs down.
And I had to go down and talk to him.
I didn't know how to do it.
So I just ran down,
opened the door and...
[Jokke] I could see on his face
that he didn't have good news to bring.
And as soon as he said, "Ludo is dead,"
I kind of got the feeling
that I already knew it.
And it was this strange,
strange feeling that...
I had a feeling earlier that day
that something had happened.
And when he told me, I was like,
"Oh, that can't be true."
One of the most important guys
in our team was dead.
And we were there in Dubai
and he was supposed to be with us.
[Espen] It's the toughest hours
of my life, I think.
I knew almost instantly
that I was no longer a proximity flyer.
That journey we did in 2013
was supposed to be the beginning,
the beginning of a friendship
and journeys together.
[laughing]
Oh, shit!
- That was scary but fun.
- Oh, my God.
That was awesome.
That makes the end of the day.
[Jokke] What he experienced
in just the last two years of his life
is something that for some other people,
they don't even experience
in an entire lifetime.
So it's not about, like, how old you get,
it's actually about how many...
how many livable moments
do you have before it's your call?
Life and death is something
that for most people
is just looked upon as negative,
but no one really knows what it means.
So in the end it's something that...
I will just keep the good memories
of him alive and think about him.
And I think about him a lot when I jump
and when I travel around, you know.
I think about, like,
"Ludo would have loved this one,"
and, you know, "What would Ludo..."
"How would the stoke in Ludo's eyes
have been after this jump?"
And, you know,
those are the good memories,
and then we just have to hope
that he's doing something,
or he's on a new adventure,
on a new path, I don't know.
You never know,
like, life is an adventure.
I can see the wind is changing.
A lot of people in the community are
now stepping away from proximity flying.
There's only a small group of people,
maybe less than ten people,
that are profiled proximity flyers
still today.
The rest of us
is trying to find another path.
The reality is that you're gonna die
no matter what anyways.
So I think, if it's worth dying for,
it's only if it actually gives you
everything you dream of in your life.
- [Jokke] Ludo, ready?
- [Ludovic] Ready.
[Jokke] Okay? So three, two, one, see ya!
[intense music playing]
[music fades]
[wind buffeting]
[jumper 1] Okay, I'm ready.
Let me know when you guys are ready.
- Hurry up.
- [jumper 2] Yeah.
[jumper 2]
Just show us the exit direction.
- [jumper 1] That way.
- [jumper 2] That way, okay.
- [Jokke] Uh, Espen, are you ready?
- [Espen] I'm ready.
- [Jokke] Ludo, ready?
- [Ludovic] Ready.
[Jokke] Okay.
So three, two, one, see ya!
[peaceful music playing]
[Ludovic]
People always ask us to describe it,
but it's really hard to describe it.
You got to experience it.
It's so unique, so special.
You are actually flying.
[Jokke] You know, I like to look at life
as like an adventure game.
And you're playing your own character,
and you know
that to get to the next level,
you have to take some risk
and you have to pass by something
to get there.
[Espen]
This is the sport that you can't fuck up.
You never get a second chance.
The day you fuck up
is the day you die.
[alarm beeping]
It's too early to work.
So now it's 20 to,
or actually 20 past four.
And we're pretty much ready, huh?
Okay, I am ready, for a big day of action.
This was mainly my friend
Jokke Sommer's dream.
He had this idea of gathering
a small group of BASE jumpers
and pretty much travel the world,
go to those epic places
and really discover
how we could use the wingsuits
in urban areas
and very exotic areas around the world.
Looks good, huh?
[Jokke] I wanted to come up with a team,
a team that was mixed with people
that have different abilities in flying.
And on top of the list was Espen Fadnes
and Ludovic Woerth.
[Ludovic] My specialty is flying
with the camera,
so the guys want me to follow them.
I'm super happy they asked me
to be part of that adventure.
The same time as you feel the sun rise,
you also feel the tension
that you're actually gonna do
a pretty rad BASE jump.
- We're gonna do a three-way, the guys.
- Yeah, man!
- It's a special moment actually. It is.
- Finally, buddy.
I think it's moments
that we will remember.
This is the kind of jump
we really, really strongly remember.
- This one I'll remember.
- This one is a full experience.
[Jokke] Espen, he has been one
of the guys that...
that I saw wingsuit proximity flying
from in the early days
when I started skydiving.
- It's okay?
- Yeah.
I see him
as a very strong partner in this team
simply because
of his incredible experience.
The cameraman is starting to be nervous,
because it's gonna be
quite a hard one, this one.
[Jokke] I also wanted to bring
Ludovic Woerth,
uh, simply because
he is an outstanding flyer.
His filming is
one of the most incredible in the sport.
He is really in the terrain with you,
and he's getting always the shot.
Good jump.
- We can do it! Oh yeah!
- Good jump, buddy!
So I think, mixed together, it's gonna be
a perfect team with Ludo and Espen.
When we sat there
and we planned all these journeys,
we had this bucket list,
and on top of the bucket list
was Rio de Janeiro.
[rock music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Yeah, but I was thinking more like,
I might need those ten meters down there.
The whole idea of this trip to Rio
was to make something special out of it.
Because in that city you have
the Redeemer, the Jesus Christ statue.
And the idea was to fly and actually use
that Redeemer as a gate
to fly under the arms of Jesus Christ,
in a wingsuit, and over that city.
[Jokke] I really wanted to do
that Jesus Christ statue
because it's kind of like
to get that visual of that big statue
and that iconic structure
in the middle of Rio,
and you're flying there like a bird,
like, "Yeah, passing by."
The challenge was
that there are no mountains
we could jump off to fly by the statue.
So we had to use trikes,
these motorized hang gliders.
And you could only have one person
jumping off one trike,
and we only had two trikes.
So Ludo was the obvious number one
person to be on that jump
since he was the flying cameraman.
And then the second one
had to be either me or Jokke,
and both of us wanted to do this,
you know, desperately wanted to do this.
But a choice had to be made,
and I was fortunate. I got to do it.
[epic music playing]
- We got this shit, man!
- [Espen laughing] That was fun!
- Intercom system as well.
- So smooth.
Whoo!
[Jokke] I always had a dream about flying
since I was a little kid.
[Espen] Sometimes
when you actually do those jumps
with all your friends
and you just nail the line,
uh, it's a very good, forgiving,
humbling feeling.
[cheering]
[mother in Norwegian]
You were really good looking.
[mother in English] He talked about
that he wanted to be an astronaut.
[speaking Norwegian]
He was like a propeller.
Too much energy.
And he was a very polite little boy.
[Jokke] Your life gets so much more rich
and filled with joy
because it is not focused on the money,
it is more focused on having the smiles
and waking up in the morning
and just doing something you love doing.
[Ludovic] Jokke is special, you know.
He's like super stoked,
always positive, full of childish energy.
Okay, I'm gonna go from here, Espen.
[Ludovic] He had that childish, you know,
these blinking stars in his eyes
when he found something
that could be cool to do.
[laughs] That was fucking awesome!
Aroooo!
[Ludovic] And at the same time
he can be really pro
when he's preparing his jump.
Some of the jumps we did
were actually super technical.
Calculations were done, it was safe,
it was well performed.
Everything was nice,
like really well made, really pro.
Nothing that you would expect
from a child.
Where do you want to stand?
[Jokke] The fact is that I'm actually
really, really afraid of heights.
Anyway, it's a simple line,
it's straight right.
And that's maybe part of why I actually
started the BASE jumping thing.
I'm actually okay right now,
but... when I stand on the exit,
it's gonna be like, "Oh shit! Oh!"
In some places I get really freaked out.
Get like, almost like
on the balance to panic.
I'm like, "Oh, dude,
you have to hold my hand!"
I was like, "Espen, can you hear me?"
"Espen, Espen, Espen!"
I wanted to have someone to talk to.
[Jokke] Espen, he is for sure,
by far, one of the biggest reasons
why I'm actually
living my biggest dream today.
He is actually my co-worker.
And it's not everyone
that loves their co-worker,
even though they have to work
with that person.
When you feel it's time to go, just go.
Then you just do like this,
and, "Fuck yeah, see you, guys."
[Jokke] Me and Espen usually manage
to build each other's ideas up.
That's what makes this job so awesome.
With me and Jokke Sommer.
Whoo!
Espen is almost annoyingly normal,
like in a good way.
[Jokke] He is an incredible, calm,
and really nice guy to be around.
So we are on 2,005.
I don't know why I looked at my watch
because it doesn't tell the altitude.
It's not very productive
to say it like that.
The more productive way is to think ahead
and think, okay,
how are we as a group to act?
Be positive and happy
and motivated to jump.
He's kind of the glue in the group,
I would say.
[in Norwegian] I see myself
when I look at how Espen
has developed as a child and grown-up.
Already at the age of seven,
he joined me on a trip to Hjulsundet,
an area for climbing near Molde.
And I think that has molded him
into his later activities.
But I can't take responsibility
for the fact
that he started with BASE jumping.
[Espen] So the second stop on our journey
became Chamonix in France.
[rock music playing]
It's always sad to leave the sun
when you have perfect waves
and good weather.
And then you're coming to the Alps.
It looks like we'll have maybe
one or two days.
That's gonna be okay.
Hopefully we will have enough visual,
and especially no wind
to be able to do this stunt.
[Espen] And Chamonix felt like home.
[Ludovic] We were supposed to leave
15 minutes earlier.
- [Jokke] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Espen] Stop talking about the time, man.
[all laughing]
[Espen] I'd been living there
for several seasons skiing.
And for Ludo this was truly home.
He lives just down the valley
from the city of Chamonix.
From there you really see the size of it.
And in a way we wanted
to show Jokke this epic place.
On top of Aiguille du Midi is a bridge.
And it's about 20 meters under the bridge,
it's about 10-15 meters wide.
And I had this dream for five years,
and that is to fly under that bridge
with my wingsuit.
And just follow the couloir down
onto the glacier,
around, down to Chamonix.
It would look freaking rad.
I really like to do precision flying,
and that has kind of been my thing
for a long time.
So when I saw the Aiguille du Midi bridge
and what Espen had in mind,
I was extremely excited,
and I couldn't really wait
to get into the air.
[Espen]
You have this cable going down there,
uh, crossing the line that you need to fly
to get under the bridge,
but over the couloir.
[Jokke] I was standing
on top of this bridge,
and I could feel my fear
of heights kicking in.
I get sick to my stomach
just standing on this bridge.
- Why?
- Because it's so sketchy.
- Ah, come on.
- It's not sketchy to stand here.
- It has to be well prepared.
- It feels sketchy.
If you're actually in danger
of hitting the cable, you're way too low.
You're actually so low that you will hit
snow and rocks at the same time.
And it's true that it blocks half the way.
So it cuts our window in half.
But it's still big enough, I think.
And I have to say that I was quite nervous
on that first attempt because I had
brought my friends to Chamonix,
promised them that this was doable.
Honestly I didn't know if this was doable.
[Espen] Preparing for a jump
is the strangest thing.
The most,
if you can call it nerve-racking,
moment I have is when I wake up.
And I think it is because
that's the point of the day,
the time of the day,
where I have the most uncertainty.
Because I haven't seen the weather.
I haven't started
to mentally prepare for the jump yet.
I just know it's gonna happen.
The whole day becomes this steady pace
with less and less uncertainty
and a better and better plan
until the moment where I stand
on top of the mountain.
And that's actually the moment
where I am at the calmest.
Because then I know I have concluded,
I have done all the preparation I can,
and it just feels great.
- Are you guys focused?
- Yep.
- Good.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- Sure?
But the feeling when I stand there
on the edge and let go
is a pure feeling of control.
[blades thumping]
From that bridge it's 2,800 meters
all the way down to the city of Chamonix.
And we wanted to jump out
of a helicopter, all three of us.
We're jumping over here.
[Ludovic] We're getting in position
over the bridge.
Jokke, Espen, are you focused?
All right, let's go!
[crowd cheering]
[man] Fuck, man!
They did it, they did it, they did it!
[dramatic music playing]
- [Espen] We finally made it!
- Whoo!
All of us managed to fly under the bridge.
And just the feeling
of going through the hole
and just feeling that exceptional
explosion of adrenaline rush
was such a huge moment for us.
[Jokke] That was the peak
of my life so far, you know,
to land down there
on the ground in Chamonix
and really feeling that we are going out
in the world with big plans,
and we nailed it, you know, every time.
We nailed Rio,
now we nail Aiguille du Midi.
[laughing]
After the jump in Chamonix
I was so fired up.
I was extremely proud of the whole team
that we pulled together
such a unique project
and a stunt that is so hard
to actually achieve,
and now it's all a wrap
and we can celebrate.
It's such a humbling unique feeling
and a joyful moment
where you know everyone is safe
and you can just live on those euphorias.
[in creole] You're going to take this film
to your country and show your family.
No French.
- [in creole] They're going to see my hat.
- [laughs]
[Espen] After Rio and Chamonix,
we kinda felt like we wanted
to go and fly some lines again
and just go out and explore new terrain
without having a focus
of doing a big stunt.
And we heard some rumors
about an amazing island
in the Indian Ocean
called Runion Island.
Oh! Paradise, huh?
Paradise without, like...
Even the fantasy sets your limits, dude.
It is the most beautiful place
I've ever been in my life.
[Jokke] The first thing we did
was to go down to ULM base.
There's ultralight airplanes.
Um, we wanted to go up
with the wingsuits
and just check out the place,
just get a feeling
of what we were about to do.
So we just wait for the command
from your pilots?
- Yeah. Always be a little too low.
- Yeah.
Um, so we flew up in one airplane each
because there can only be one person
in each airplane.
All of a sudden we came above the clouds,
and it was like paradise
just opened up to my eyes.
We found a line, and we knew where to go.
It was just to get the message
to the pilots.
Three, two, one,
and try out our new line.
[intense music playing]
Whoa!
Oooh! [laughs]
Okay. [chuckles]
[straining]
- [Jokke] How are you doing? Pain?
- [Espen] I fucked my knee, man.
[groans]
Oh, but that was beautiful, huh?
[Jokke] The idea about this trip
was to fly the nicest line,
find the perfect flight.
What's up, Ludo?
[Jokke] But, you know, realizing
that waking up in the beach house,
hearing the waves pounding on the beach,
and having my friends around,
that beautiful weather
on that super nice island,
you know, I realized
that's actually gonna be the memories
that will stay with me forever.
[wind buffeting]
Hello. [in French] Is it okay
if I call you back in ten minutes?
Okay. Thank you.
[Espen] Ludo, our camera flyer,
he is like my big brother.
He's really unique for us, because he...
Of course he can fly incredibly good
and he always gets the shot.
- Did you get that on the carve?
- I have the carve with both of them.
And that one was super nice!
It's sometimes frustrating,
but it's also rewarding
to be able to be that guy
that provides the good footage.
Because if it's not on camera,
it didn't happen.
[Espen] So for us as a team,
he is our most important tool
and our most important flyer.
[Jokke] What I can really see now after...
after the months
we have been working together
is that he has finally achieved
his biggest dream
to become a professional camera flyer.
[sighing]
Oh, my God! And you're still filming
when I'm having my smoke.
[Espen] That's who you are, man.
You should've seen the description
of you in the Norwegian newspaper.
Yeah, I have been told that it was funny.
[Espen] The chain-smoking,
hardcore dude from France
who took a morning beer
before the day starts.
I thought, like, the Norwegian guys,
they were, like, really on time.
The Frenchies, they're like...
Ludo, man, he's super on time, you know.
It feels just like my head is locked
on the really important things
and the rest is just chaos.
[Jokke] The funny thing
about our group is that Espen,
he always loses his stuff in the morning.
Jokke, Jokke, hello. Vamos, vamos.
[Jokke] I am the one that got born
five minutes late.
One hour late.
We were supposed to leave at 7:30.
[in French] Come on, Ludo!
[Jokke] And Ludo, he's the one
that is whipping us around.
We have a different approach
to the jump, you know.
You are like, "Yeah, it's gonna be fun,
whatever, you know,
if it's not now,
it's gonna be later, whatever,
it's a jump, it's always gonna be fun."
Horny and angry?
[laughing]
- You can't be serious for two seconds.
- I can't, dude.
It puts me into
an emotional roller coaster
because I'm a little bit more
stressed out.
Hey, if you are stressed out,
then, like, tell us, you know.
It's good, because I don't like
that jumpers are stressed out
or, like, they don't like that
or they, like...
I want everyone to be open
about exactly how they feel all the time.
You know that I actually
take longer than you to prepare.
- I just anticipate it.
- Yeah, you manage to wake up early.
And that's a problem Espen and me,
we have, you know.
[Ludovic] I am that early bird
because that is the only time in the day
when I can be alone with myself.
I like that moment when
I can hear the sounds of the mountain,
all the birds that are starting
to sing around
and that fog in the morning,
and that nature
that is waking up around me.
That is kind of a mystical moment.
And that is very important to me,
to keep myself concentrated,
and quiet and be ready
for the action that's coming.
Jokke, Espen and me,
we know each other now for a while.
We've been jumping together for some time.
And we kind of set up
kind of a ritual together.
I wake up early, I get my cup of coffee,
I get my cigarette in the morning.
And then we meet up together
in the morning
and start thinking about what we're doing,
look up at the mountains,
check out what the weather looks like.
And that's the kind of ritual
that we've put together,
and that makes us a good team.
That's actually a very good way
of working together
that puts us, everybody, in a good mood
for what we're going to do in the day.
[Espen] Deep in China you have
some almost weird mountains.
The mountain region
is called Tianmen Mountains.
And this was the location
for the film "Avatar."
That's how spectacular and different
those mountains are.
And very often you have this mist
low in the valley
so it looks like all these mountains
are just floating,
they're not even touching the ground.
And they're actually very good
for BASE jumping.
[speaking Chinese]
Very cool. [laughs]
- Whoo!
- Look at that.
- That's badass, huh?
- Yeah.
- Come here, Espen.
- Go on the other side, Espen. Or...
Fans?
[Espen] So there we went,
and even though I knew inside myself
that these are safe mountains,
you get this extra respect.
And I think it has something to do
with the unfamiliar.
[intense music playing]
[music continues over dialogue]
[man on radio] Are you guys ready?
No, we're not ready.
We are discussing the conditions.
[Espen] One of the biggest issues
we're facing
when jumping in the mountains
is the wind.
And one of the days in China,
it was extremely windy
when we came to the top.
Fuck, I had so many,
like, bad wide jumps.
[in Norwegian] I am, of course,
very afraid of him making mistakes,
but he is not one
to get affected by pressure.
And I told myself I'm never ever
gonna let a camera push me to do it
when I have a bad feeling.
I really have a bad feeling.
That is my main fucking problem now.
That is good to know.
Everything can float around him,
but if there's one job he takes seriously,
it's this one.
We had a lot of luck
and good things happening for us
so far on our trips,
but when we came to China,
suddenly things were actually
working more against us.
[man] Okay, just let us know.
[Espen] I know that people
that care about me worry
because I feel the same
when I see my friends do
very technical, difficult lines skiing,
or I see a good friend
pushing his limits as a BASE jumper.
Then I can just imagine
how much my mother worries,
and my father, my sisters,
brothers, good friends.
They don't jump themselves.
They don't know this sport.
They don't know
how I deal with risk management.
They are just worried.
[in Norwegian] When Espen started
BASE jumping, I worried about him.
That's only fair.
I have not tried to stop him, persuade him
to quit or anything like that.
I, for sure, see the risk in that,
but I haven't got any other strategy
in that regard than to talk to him,
see his movies, talk to the other people
in his social surroundings,
and just trust that Espen
is really careful about security.
Some of it is maybe suppression,
a father's conviction that my son
also has a strong sense of security
and risk management.
[Espen] This is the big downside
of doing this sport.
Because after all,
it's all about, for me, life.
It's about relations,
it's about the people we care about.
It's about the moments I have
with the people I like and love.
And it's a huge downside
that I bring this worry
upon the people I care the most about.
[man on radio] All is okay?
It's a go, yes.
We are in the cable car.
- Sweet.
- Okay.
Perfect, we're ready. Let's do this thing.
[epic music playing]
[garbled voice on radio]
[music fades]
[wind blustering]
[Espen] Ah!
Ah, goddammit!
Are you okay?
I remember I had this bad stomach feeling
for three to four days after.
I just constantly walked around
with this bad feeling,
this feeling of not doing
what I am supposed to.
I am not supposed to do those mistakes.
I am not supposed to put myself
in situations like that.
I am kind of looking straight
into a cable car.
I see people and it's really
coming fast towards me.
Whoa!
I don't know what I did.
I just acted intuitive
and bent up my arms,
my chest, everything I had,
and tried to move left.
I mean, I was seriously close
to that cable car.
If I had hit that cable car, I don't think
anyone would have survived.
It's just this moment of, out of control.
Rio, Chamonix and Runion
were all amazing destinations
where actually everything went perfect,
but after the incident in China,
things were starting to work against us,
and we were actually not even prepared
for what was actually coming.
[in English] I often think that one day
the police will call me and say,
"He's dead."
I try to prepare myself,
but of course you can't do that.
So if this happens,
I don't know what to do.
Well, two years ago,
I was flying with one of my friends,
and I actually filmed him going in.
He impacted in the trees.
And that was a really tough moment
for me, for sure,
because he was a very good friend of mine.
Well, it almost destroyed me, honestly,
because that was the first time
I was there filming.
I was filming him,
so I actually saw the accident.
That was a very close friend of mine.
So it was really, really hard
to cope with.
I must say I spent
a few months not jumping
because I didn't feel it.
It was too hard.
It was bringing back...
bringing bad memories.
But in the end, you know,
my passion came first.
After a few months,
I just started BASE jumping again.
I enjoyed it again.
And life goes on,
even if you lose some friends.
It's really hard in the moment, for sure,
but it's like all experiences in life.
You go through tough moments
and then you keep going.
It's really bad actually, because, uh...
The thing is that usually
the wind is not a big issue
because we jump in a big open space
in the mountains,
but in the city almost just
two meters per second can be horrible
and it can really fuck you up big time.
[Jokke] As this sport
is extremely dangerous,
I'm nowadays looking
for more reasons not to jump
than to actually jump.
So right now it's not jumpable.
At least not from my perspective.
So it needs to be perfect weather,
perfect conditions, safe exits,
or that everything that goes together
makes me feel 110% good.
We had a dream
of going to a spectacular city
and do something entirely different.
[Jokke] Jumping buildings in Bangkok
is definitely hard
because some of them,
you really need to have a good plan.
Now it feels like the wind
is coming from there,
but it's actually coming from over there.
So right here it so much rotors.
A little bit scary, 'cause I don't want
my canopy to land, like, on the highway
and then get snagged by one of those cars.
That would be the end of it.
[Espen] What?
- What did you say?
- It's annoying enough to... Well, it's...
[exhales sharply]
[Espen] I know it's scary, dude,
but we're gonna have a look around
and see if we can find something else.
- Okay?
- Yeah.
[Espen] It was quite interesting
to be in Bangkok,
because when we're in the mountains,
Ludo was the main man.
This is Piton des Neiges,
and this is a known,
really special part of France.
Home, sweet home.
[Espen] The most experienced,
the tough guy,
the guy that always knew the answer.
While Jokke, always quite insecure,
wondering where to go, what to do,
not sure if this is smart.
I'm kind of in between.
But when we were in Bangkok,
it was completely the other way.
I love jumping buildings, it's so fun.
It's like being inside an action movie
and you are the actual stuntman,
star and everything at once.
Jokke was the experienced one.
He has done quite a lot of building jumps.
And Ludo had done none.
He was obviously not comfortable.
[Ludovic] I must admit, I don't feel
super good with jumping buildings,
because I never did it.
I have mixed feelings,
and I'm a little bit nervous.
[Jokke] He didn't really wanna do it.
He was so nervous and so uncomfortable.
He could clearly see
that this was not his place.
I am mentally preparing to land
on that narrow street down there.
[Espen] You really have to put
your mind and effort
into being able to do a jump.
You have to actually come up
with a really solid plan and stick to it
and kind of just have the nerves
to live it through.
'Cause sitting and planning
a mission like that,
it's still a little bit like, oof,
you know, you can feel
the adrenaline building up,
but once you're committing,
once you're starting to play the game
and doing it in real life,
that's when the nerves start kicking in.
I'm a bit nervous, I must admit.
I'm about to do something I'm not used to.
- Are you stoked, man?
- Yep!
- Oh, man, nervous.
- Whoo!
Oh! I love my job though,
but it is pretty nerve-racking sometimes.
- All your cameras are good?
- Yep.
- All right?
- Yeah.
Are you good as well, my little friend?
Have a good one, huh?
Have fun, buddy.
Three, two, one, see ya!
[spectators clapping]
Yeah!
Yeah!
Good job, buddy! Whoo-hoo!
Perfect.
That was a very early exit.
But it was okay. [chuckles]
Whoo!
- Were you nervous?
- Yeah.
I was a little bit nervous up there.
[Ludovic] I decided to go with Espen,
just do a two-way and go straight.
[indistinct chatter]
- [Ludovic] How much you gonna run?
- As much as possible.
[Ludovic] I'd do it not that much.
- [exhales sharply]
- [Ludovic] Ready?
- [Espen] Yeah, I'm good.
- All right.
[intense music playing]
Three, two, one. Step!
[man] Calm down, calm down.
Yeah, just stay cool.
- Okay?
- [Espen] Fuck me!
I fell down probably seven to eight meters
vertically straight down into the street.
Landed on my feet.
Just got a big cut in one of my heels.
The other heel was broken.
Full of adrenaline,
I pretended that everything was fine.
Yeah, I am in pain
so I got to check out my legs.
Fuck!
I think it was more painful
mentally than physically.
Not good at all, not good.
My lowest moment in life
when it comes to risk management.
Totally embarrassing.
Fucking painful.
[medic] It may be broken as well.
[Jokke]
Things can go wrong so incredibly fast
that this sport scares me
more and more and more every year.
But I still have it as...
I feel the same every year.
I'm not more nervous
or something like that.
It's just that the sport in general
scares me the longer I am in it.
[Espen] Me and Jokke and Ludo
talked a lot about the future,
and what to do and what to not do.
Gimme a hug, buddy!
We pretty much agreed
that we were taking too big chances.
I kinda hit so hard on the ground
that it opened up here.
But Ludo didn't agree 100%, though.
He believed in proximity flying.
He was kind of in love with it,
I have to say.
It was his thing.
[alert beeping]
[Espen] It was the most horrible
text message I've ever received.
It was, I quote,
"Ludo is dead."
"Dan is dead."
"Brian is in a coma."
"I am sorry."
That was all it said.
I panicked.
Because...
it's just eight to ten words,
but those words...
to receive such a serious message
just in words,
I just couldn't believe it.
I almost felt like vomiting.
Jokke was down in his hotel room,
a few stairs down.
And I had to go down and talk to him.
I didn't know how to do it.
So I just ran down,
opened the door and...
[Jokke] I could see on his face
that he didn't have good news to bring.
And as soon as he said, "Ludo is dead,"
I kind of got the feeling
that I already knew it.
And it was this strange,
strange feeling that...
I had a feeling earlier that day
that something had happened.
And when he told me, I was like,
"Oh, that can't be true."
One of the most important guys
in our team was dead.
And we were there in Dubai
and he was supposed to be with us.
[Espen] It's the toughest hours
of my life, I think.
I knew almost instantly
that I was no longer a proximity flyer.
That journey we did in 2013
was supposed to be the beginning,
the beginning of a friendship
and journeys together.
[laughing]
Oh, shit!
- That was scary but fun.
- Oh, my God.
That was awesome.
That makes the end of the day.
[Jokke] What he experienced
in just the last two years of his life
is something that for some other people,
they don't even experience
in an entire lifetime.
So it's not about, like, how old you get,
it's actually about how many...
how many livable moments
do you have before it's your call?
Life and death is something
that for most people
is just looked upon as negative,
but no one really knows what it means.
So in the end it's something that...
I will just keep the good memories
of him alive and think about him.
And I think about him a lot when I jump
and when I travel around, you know.
I think about, like,
"Ludo would have loved this one,"
and, you know, "What would Ludo..."
"How would the stoke in Ludo's eyes
have been after this jump?"
And, you know,
those are the good memories,
and then we just have to hope
that he's doing something,
or he's on a new adventure,
on a new path, I don't know.
You never know,
like, life is an adventure.
I can see the wind is changing.
A lot of people in the community are
now stepping away from proximity flying.
There's only a small group of people,
maybe less than ten people,
that are profiled proximity flyers
still today.
The rest of us
is trying to find another path.
The reality is that you're gonna die
no matter what anyways.
So I think, if it's worth dying for,
it's only if it actually gives you
everything you dream of in your life.
- [Jokke] Ludo, ready?
- [Ludovic] Ready.
[Jokke] Okay? So three, two, one, see ya!
[intense music playing]
[music fades]