Later today (well, tomorrow in Taiwan), “Free Solo” climber Alex Honnold will start his ascent on the 1,677-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper — without ropes — by carefully making his way up the tower’s slab base. But that’s the easy part. From there, he’ll get on the building’s middle section, designed like eight-story “bamboo boxes,” which will require steep climbing over these overhanging sections.
On the corner of those boxes are dragon figures, which Honnold will mount to get to the next level. It’s the most visually dramatic way to ascend, but he’ll be completely exposed, with the drop right below him. Then there’s the top part of Taipei 101, which has overhanging sections where Honnold’s legs will be dangling, and he has to use his upper body strength to scale up.
“There’s this massive steel ring section, which we call the crown of Taipei 101, where he’s saying he might bat hang,” says James Smith, the head of adventure at Plimsoll Prods. Ltd. “You kind of put your knee into a hole, and then you can lean backwards and just rest and stretch your arms and things get the blood going.”
Nervous yet? If not, just wait until Honnold gets to the small, four-foot platform at the top of Taipei 101. “For a climber, you want to summit properly,” Smith says. “You want to be the highest human for miles around.”
Yikes. So much could go wrong — or hopefully, right — and obviously Netflix and Plimsoll execs are counting on the latter as “Skyscraper Live” kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on Friday night (that’s 9 a.m. Saturday in Taipei). “There is a massive focus on how do you guarantee that this is entertaining, but obviously the other element is safety,” says Plimsoll Prods. CEO Grant Mansfield. “I have chaired as many safety meetings as I have creative meetings.”
The January date for the climb was chosen because it’s dry season in Taiwan right now — although rain is still possible, and the forecast right now calls for a 30% chance of moisture the morning Honnold starts his climb.
“Our main contingency planning is we can delay the broadcast by maybe an hour, maybe slightly longer,” Smith says. “If there’s been a light shower and the building’s drying off, the temperature here is pretty good, there’s often a light breeze, so the building will dry relatively quickly. If it is deemed too wet, if there’s too much moisture on the building, we will probably delay to the next day, which would be a Saturday night transmission in the U.S. We could even delay another day if we needed to. Obviously Alex has to be 100% comfortable and happy in himself and in the conditions. And then our safety team likewise have to.”
Netflix unscripted series VP Jeff Gaspin compares the live telecast window to “launching a space shuttle. We’ll be on site for a few days after if, for some reason he doesn’t go on that day,” he says. “But after that, it’s probably a bigger reschedule. There’s only certain times of year you can actually climb the tower because it’s rainy season between April and September.”
Viewers of 2019’s Oscar-winning Nat Geo doc “Free Solo” saw Honnold call off his landmark climb up El Capitan at first when he didn’t feel ready; similarly, Smith, Mansfield and Gaspin’s teams have reiterated to the athlete that there’s no shame in postponing if he’s not up to it.
“There’s a two-tick system,” Mansfield says. “First and foremost, he has to feel good about it. And we’ve said to him repeatedly, if you’re not feeling it, despite the fact it’s a live broadcast, and there’s a bunch of TV people hanging around, you are under no pressure to do this climb. And the second tick is, if we get in a situation where he’s saying, ‘Yeah, I’m going for it,’ but there are things that bothering us, we have the right to say ‘no.’ He won’t be on that building unless we’re all comfortable. But there’s been a huge amount of planning for this. He said he’s the fittest he’s ever been. He’s really been training for this. We’re feeling good about it at this stage.”
Joe DeMaio is the director behind “Skyscraper Live,” while Al Berman is showrunner and executive producer. Mansfield also credits risk management firm Secret Compass for being a big part of Plimsoll’s gameplan in mitigating any potential problems. “They are acknowledged experts in this field,” he says.
“Every scenario has been mapped out, as you might expect,” Mansfield adds. “The main focus has been on keeping Alex safe. This is a building he knows very well. It’s a building which is very well suited for climbing. If at any point he decides that he’s too tired when he’s on the building, we can get him off there as well. But Alex really knows what he’s doing. He’s an extraordinary kind of athlete.”
Should the unthinkable happen, yes, Netflix has planned for the worst-case scenario. “It’s obviously a conversation that everybody has,” Gaspin says. “You can imagine what we’ll do. It’s nothing momentous. We’ll cut away. We have a 10-second delay. Nobody expects or wants to see anything like that to happen. But we will cut away, and it’s as simple as that.”
Of course, no one is expecting that. Given the complexities of some of his past free solo climbs, observers say they believe Taipei 101 will be a piece of cake for Honnold.
“I think the main thing is, we trust Alex,” Mansfield says. “As he says in a number of his packages, he doesn’t have some kind of a death wish. He is an incredibly talented climber and an elite sports person. It would be an insult to say he takes mad risks. I don’t think he’s ever denied that he feels fear, but he’s found a way of processing it and managing it. The comfort I will take in that control room is that I know we’ve got the show very well-planned. And if he gets on that building to climb it, Alex will be completely confident he can do the climb. And if he’s completely confident, we’re completely confident.”
The live event is the culmination of something Honnold has been aiming to do for years; as a matter of fact, he announced a similar live televised climb on the Taipei 101 in 2013, until Nat Geo, uneasy about the safety of it, pulled the plug.
But in recent years, Plimsoll — a part of ITV Studios — has developed a tight relationship with Honnold, having worked with him on series such as “The Devil’s Climb” and “Arctic Ascent With Alex Honnold,” both for Disney+ and National Geographic. Plimsoll has also been big in the live space, with shows such as “Earth Live” and “Yellowstone Live,” both for Nat Geo. So when Honnold told Smith that he was still itching to follow through on his Taipei 101 dream, the Plimsoll folks got to work.
“It was just the right idea at the right time,” Mansfield says. “The trick is if you’re not televising live sports events, you have to create something of significant scale. So a man climbing a very tall building without a rope is a pretty compelling proposition, right? When it’s probably the greatest climber who’s ever lived and a guy that we formed a really close relationship with the last four years, all the stars were aligned.”
Knowing how fixated Honnold was on Taipei 101, Smith knew it had to be that skyscraper. Plus, the more he researched the tower, the more he knew it was perfect for an event like this. “It’s almost like it was built to be free solo climbed,’ he says. “It’s got fantastic architecture. It’s got lots of intricacy. Some skyscrapers are quite uniform and rather boring. But this has got twists and turns and little challenges almost at every level. As Alex says himself, it’s a world class climbing objective, and just deserves to be climbed.”
Securing Taipei 101 for the special wasn’t easy, however. “Taipei 101 was always the number one choice, but started to look for other buildings around the world just in case this one didn’t come through. It took a while before I could get in the room and really try and convince them that this was a great idea,” Smith says.
Meanwhile, at Netflix, even before Honnold and Plimsoll pitched the idea of “Skyscraper Live,” the streamer was looking for a live stunt event akin to classic TV moments like 1974’s attempt by Evel Knievel to ride his motorcycle across the Snake River Canyon.
“All those things sound horrific and scary, but they’re experts, and that’s their livelihood,” Gaspin says. “We heard a bunch of different pitches, and then Alex’s came in. I was a fan of the ‘Free Solo’ movie, and the idea that he’s going to climb this building was both terrifying to me, but was thrilling. When we were choosing between some of the ideas that had come through, this one really stood out.”
Of course, it had to be live — a field Netflix has tried to corner over the past few years with the WWE, Christmas Day NFL, boxing events, the Tom Brady roast and now, even, the reboot of “Star Search.” “If you don’t do it live, then it’s really just a clip on the news,” Gaspin says. “That’s not something that you need Netflix for. Part of why you want to go live is there’s some danger involved. It just makes it a more compelling viewing experience.”
Live TV is such a priority for Netflix that the streamer hired ESPN’s Elle Duncan as its first sports anchor. Her first gig will be hosting “Skyscraper Live,” “trying to entertain people at the same time that we’re watching someone do something that could kill him,” she recently told Variety.
It’s also a logistical feat for the producers, who say Taipei 101 lends itself well to the production since the structure’s features — like those dragons — make for good camera angles. For the special’s four main camera operators, it’s also going to be a marathon: As they film Honnold, once he climbs past them, the camera crew will sprint to the elevator and get above him again to resume shooting. “They’re going to leapfrog each other,” Smith says. “That looks great on paper, our next challenge is to see whether it works in practice.” The producers are also relying on remote cameras, drones and a helicopter with a stabilized camera for the higher section.
“I do love the process of live television,” Smith says. “I love the meticulous planning that all comes down to that one moment. It’s more akin to kind of putting on a play or a live concert. I love the fact that you have to spend months and months, really getting into the detail, thinking through all these different scenarios. But then when you’re on air, it’s all about being in the moment and being reactive and making decisions very quickly.”
Meanwhile, for Netflix viewers who can’t catch “Skyscraper Live,” the streamer has asked Plimsoll to quickly put together a shorter, cut-down version of the broadcast featuring highlights. And actually, that shorter post-game version of “Skyscraper Live” might come handy for Gaspin himself, as he admits that he’s a bit spooked by the stunt.
“I have a little bit of vertigo, so just hearing the idea terrified me,” he says. “I will be truly honest: I’m not sure how much of it I can watch. Not that many things make me anxious, but that that truly does make me anxious!”
