Risk | Extreme Sport Documentary | Full Movie | Base Jumpers

The netherworld is so unusual, it's where you're not supposed to be. It's this magical fairyland where the rules that we live by every day don't exist. You're stepping into this really weird place, like right on the edge of this cliff where everything becomes surreal in slow motion. It has so much of a charge it can really give you. You can reach out and just grab this big funky energy. When you get to a stage where you're not afraid of the jump, you can enter this world. It is through base jumping that I've learned how to challenge what is possible, what is possible, what isn't possible. You shouldn't jump off cliffs. Why not? You can. I'm on my way to Queenstown, New Zealand. It may look like Sleepy Hollow, but actually it's the risk capital of the world. I studied anthropology for four years and it made me curious about what motivates society. This town is a magnet for risk-takers like Fem. She comes here just to take risks. But what is it about risk-taking that is so addictive? Oh gosh, I've missed this place. So you excited? Oh, it's so great to be back. I met Fem in Sydney a few years ago when she was jumping off the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ready? Sweet. That's Fem. Even though I'm not a risk-taker myself, I'm fascinated by those who are. You love her. Fem first came to New Zealand four years ago on a base jumping trip. All right. It was at that time that she met Chuck, the free spirit of Queenstown. So what's Chucky like then? Well, that's a very difficult question to answer. Well, you're never quite sure. And I haven't seen him for about four months, so... Their relationship had run into trouble, but they were now giving it another chance. How are you? Hey, how are things? I thought you were a redhead. As I arrived at Chucky's little farmhouse, I had the feeling the next few weeks of my life were going to be distinctly different. Welcome to the clinic. Why is it called the clinic? Well, this is where we issue all the therapy that people need. Yeah, right. I felt like I was entering the world of Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. And Fem knew exactly what I was thinking. I call him a freak, but I call him that in the nicest sense. Chuck loves attention. Loves attention. And always wants to be centre of attention. That's always causing some sort of havoc and mayhem and carnage. I admire Chucky greatly. Well, because he's done so much with his life, and he's still doing so much with his life. He's got goals. He's got these wonderful goals. And he always seems to actually reach his goals. Here it goes. You've got a fib in here. So tell me, Chuck, why did you decide to grow this while I was away? Oh, I want to make myself really unappealing to anyone else. That's so sweet. Isn't it? Yeah, not too bad. The world that I come from, we try and manage risk, avoid risk. We even insure against risk. And what we have in Queenstown is a group of people who are yelling in the face of life, and they're actively going out there and seeking risk. Queenstown is this theme park, this massive playground where tourists come to take safe pseudo risks. It seems like it's taken gravity, which costs nothing, and turns it into profit. But the image of risk that is sold in Queenstown is actually based on the real risk takers. At the core of Queenstown, there's this group of extremists who epitomise everything Queenstown is about. They're the ones taking the real risks, where there's an X factor that they can't control, and they seem to be prepared to gamble with their lives. Chuck was a main player in that group. If an ad agency came to town, Chuck would be sought out. Everyone knew that he was prepared to do almost anything just for the thrill of it. Risk is obviously attractive to some people. Personally, I wouldn't choose to go skydiving, but I knew in order to find out any answers, I would have to become a guinea pig myself. How do most people feel when they do their first tandem? Pretty good. Yeah, most people fizz. But at this stage now, most people are really nervous. Yeah, yeah. If you can just enjoy the whole experience rather than trying to be afraid of it. OK, now Chuck's probably going to hop out, and he'll be standing on the wing, and we'll get some photos of that. Now, just before we go, I'm going to grab your hands, cross them over. I'm going to pull your head back. When your head comes back, hips forward, banana, arch. Out we go. Tap, tap, tap. Hands out. Chuck is an experienced skydiving cameraman with over 1,000 jumps under his belt. This was how he made his living. I still can't get it into my head, but in a minute, I'm going to be jumping out of a plane. Pull these down. Yeah, I'm going to talk to you. OK. OK, it's no problem, mate. Just forget about that side of it. Woo, that was amazing. Yeah, door open. The hardest bit is when the door opens, there's that kind of rush, because you're over the mountains, and it's really cold. And then you're like, oh my God, oh my God, I'm going from this nice, safe little cabin out into those mountains. And then you're out before you know it, and you're just falling. Chuckie made filming look easy when I knew it wasn't. He had to maintain the same speed as us, aim his camera at us, manoeuvre himself into the best position, and doing all this whilst falling to earth at the speed of gravity. You're kind of like it's sensory overload. You know, you've got the air in your face, and you're falling really quickly, and you don't know how you happen to get up there. And then all of a sudden the parachute goes, and you're kind of like whoosh, and then it all slows down. And then you're just gliding, and you're safe. The land's coming up to you very fast. And then just like that, it's over. And it's like, wow. You look lovely. The other thing that everyone has to do when they come to Queenstown is a bungee jump. Backpackers come all the way from England to do this jump. For them, it represents a rite of passage into the ranks of revered risk-taker back home. The drive itself is often the most cherry part of the trip. You know, the road is far more dangerous than the bungee jump. She's not going to. She can't. Well, she lets go of the bar. She's still on the platform, you know. She makes the final choice whether or not she's going to jump to the edge. She's not. She's not. Is she? I think about 2% turn around and go back. I think she's got about one chance left, and then... Four, three, two, one. She'll probably do it. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it. I'm going to jump. I've made that decision. I can't be talked out of it. It's rainy. It's wet. It's miserable. But hey, let's go jump off a bridge. What's your weight, mate? Nine. Nine stone. Couple more, mate. You need a good feed, don't you? Jakey, Jakey. What started in Vanuatu with islanders jumping off bamboo towers had developed into big business in Queenstown, offering risk as a consumer item. Put a wave to everyone back home there, Lorna. Here she is, Lorna at the pipe. But what is the attraction? Looking out towards the trees. I know it's perfectly safe. So why is there this voice inside me screeching out, don't jump? There's real risk and perceived risk. Bungee is perceived risk. The fear is real, but actually it's totally safe. There's never been a bungee death in Queenstown. Base jumping, on the other hand, is real risk. It can, and sometimes does, end in death. Building up to a jump, you get yourself into a mental state where you really feel part of everything that's around you. Especially with jumping off cliffs, because the cliff is part of the landscape. You're jumping off part of the landscape. You become really aware of your senses. All your senses, you're just so aware of what's going on. And it's really nice being able to see everything that's out there, and notice the birds and the trees and the wind that's blowing, and you're hearing the smells. It's just stepping off something, like you've let go of everything. You've run out of excuses not to do what it is you're doing. The jump is perfect. And it's the right thing to do, and it's no longer a wrong thing to do. You're just surrounded by lots of thin air. And when you do look down, you can see the exact point where you're going to smack into the ground. And you can actually see it, and that's the weirdest thing, because that's where you're going to hit. But you have parachute on, so it gives you the ability to actually be out there. Every bridge and ledge was coveted by Chucky. He was the thief of gravity. Chucky is the jester laughing in the face of death. Is this the ultimate power, or is it just pure self-indulgence? I've had 12 near-death experiences. Two base jumping ones. Oh, Chucky. Merry Christmas. Welcome to Christmas Day. Well, we sort of started on Christmas Day in 97. See you out there. Okay. Gary and I came up to Fox and went to Cone Rock and did three jumps each on Christmas Day. We sort of treated base jumping like a bit of a joke. It was a light way of approaching death and carnage. And Gary had a good sense of humor, especially for Yank. All right, boys. Here we go. Three, two, one. On the ground. It was full moon, Christmas evening. But we got too pissed, and we were quite knackered, and we had a really, really cool day. We were going back to work on Boxing Day, so we decided we'd get one jump in before we went back. So we got up quite early, clowned around, and went walking up Cone Rock. Are we there yet? This was Gary's 113th jump. On the day, on the morning, I was jumping first. And so I jumped, and the canopy opened, turned around to the left. So as soon as you open, all I could see was all this rock in front of me, like right there. Bounced and hit the rock wall quite hard with my bum and legs. Oh, Chuck. Just couldn't figure out where I was going to stop. And stuck it on my second hit. Chuck, Chuck, Chuck. Jesus Christ, what are you doing there? Well, Gary's at the top. He was on the end of the launch point. He was looking down at me, just going, dude, dude, how are you? I'm OK. And he says, OK, dude, I'm going to jump, and we'll sort something out. I went, yeah, yeah, that's fine. So we just got our stuff together and jumped off the launch point. Jesus Christ. He carried on descending in a spiral below where I was. And because of where I was sitting, he went down past a rocky outcrop, which is right by where I was. And I lost sight of him completely. And that was all I saw. I didn't hear anything. I was listening for thumps and bangs and yells. And didn't hear any of that. So I just saw Gary just spiraling past with his black canopy with a line over it, just spiraling down. Until he disappeared. I was really happy to be rescued on one hand, and then being told that my friend had died on the other. So yes, I got two conflicting emotions happening at all at once. Not wanting to jump up and down and go, yahoo, I'm alive. And then go, well, ----, my mate has just died. Gary died pursuing this thing that gave him so much. And I don't see that because he died at a young age that he's been cheated out of an additional 50 years of life. I see that he has packed so much into the life that he's doing. And he's really living every day, every minute. And I think that's so precious. If gravity kills some people, then it rewards others. Henry Van Asch has made a killing out of risk. With his partner, AJ Hackett, he developed Bungee as a commercial risk-free operation. More than a million people worldwide have gone off on AJ Hackett Bungee, paying on average $100 each for a hiss of adrenaline. So how do you sell it? What are you selling to someone? Well, we sell it as on the basis of a personal challenge. That's really what we look at it as. It's not Bungee, it's not a sport or a hobby. For a lot of people, it's just a one-off activity. And it's a challenge for them to do it. So is risk in Queenstown just a commercial operation? Or is it actually there is a culture there of risk? I think that risk-taking is really part, it's a basic instinct. And it's part of humanity is that you do these things and the risk-takers in the primitive times would have got the most food. And in extreme times, they would have been the ones which survived. Henry's tapped into a primitive need to take risks and he still does it himself. He understands that we've descended from a long line of risk-takers. But what is it that makes them so attractive to some women? When they do the land dive in Vanuatu, you know, in the South Pentecost Island, if they have a good land dive, which is their equivalent of a bungee jump, then it means that it's going to be a good harvest next year. The economics is intertwined with the yam harvest. So I was just thinking that it's just like you've got loads of yams because the jump's going so well all the time and you've got all these cars and all these toys for boys. So you've just, you're the guy in Queenstown who has the most yams. Motorbike accident about four weeks after the accident at Fox. Riding my motorbike up the west coast of New Zealand. Out of the four twisting nozzle, fizzle off a motorbike and then fast asleep. This is starting to look like a hospital. Yes, it is. John, how are you? I'm horizontal. I'm still breathing. It feels pretty sore. So just raise your left arm for me. Left arm's pretty weak. It's not doing much. Try your right arm. Yep, that's fine. So what you've got is a C4-5 fracture subluxation, which is basically a dislocated neck. And we're really going to have to keep you on that brace for about 10 weeks to see how it goes. Oh, that sounds like fun. After I had my bike accident, I had my neck brace on and I hadn't really dealt with jumping much since then. And Fem had heard about me from a friend of mine. And where did these two guys meet? We met in Queenstown. I was walking along the road and I saw him in this funny little neck brace. And I thought, that must be Chuck because I know that he's just smashed himself up. So yeah, like I walked up to him and I sort of introduced myself. Were you impressed? Yeah, I was actually. I thought he looked like a very interesting person. Like what? Impressed by what when you first saw him? I'm sorry? Impressed by what when you first saw him? Probably his eyes. Yeah, he's got magical blue eyes. Here's this woman asking, oh, you're Chuck. And started talking about BASE jumping and found out Fem was a BASE jumper. And it was the first time I'd been around a BASE jumper since I had my accident. So I still got my brace on. We're talking about jumping and he says, oh, I'll take you jumping tomorrow. Fabulous. Good God. This is it. Yeah, so where did you jump from? I see that bit that sticks out right up there. We went to Cone Rock and Fem had known the story with Gary dying there. And I wasn't in a position to jump. I was still injured. So where did you land? Underneath where the launch point is. You come down, you can see there's a light grey part of the rock and a dark part of the rock. That's a demarcation between an old piece and a new piece. Ended up right in the middle of the dark grey stuff. Right. Yeah, funny place to be. Yeah. We won't do that. No. No, I have no desire to whatsoever. We walked up Cone Rock together. Fem was mindful of this is where Gary died. So what about winds? Don't really want any wind at the top. So what are you looking for though here? Like, are there any thermally winds around this area? It's not too bad at this time of day. It's not too hot. So there's not going to be any thermals. Just with the glaciers. Sometimes you get winds coming down from the glacier. Yeah, life. Life just has a fascination for him, I think. He seems to take an interest in everyone. He seems to be interested in everything. This is a forgotten little forest. It is. It's just like a fairyland. It's just magic. So are there any dangerous snakes or spiders around here? No, no. The nastiest thing you'll find around here is an angry sheep. So how do you feel being up here? Oh, I feel great. I feel so alive. Yeah. I just can't wait. Wait till you see it. To see it. And then I can't wait until I actually step off it. You'll have fun. Feel that wind. Yeah. In my face. There's a lot of landing area down there. Yeah. This woman came up to me one day and she says, I'm awfully glad you're not my son. So I told her I was glad she wasn't my mum. And how long has it been since you were up here with Gary? Christmas. Boxing day. Well, I hope I never have to experience that. No. I did last time I was there. But that's inescapable. That's an inescapable thing. Because there'd been a bit of breeze, Fema's a little bit unsure about jumping. OK. Ready? And then all of a sudden, I could just see Fema change. I mean, she'd just decided that she wanted to jump. Is everything all right? Velcro's on? Velcro's on. Tablet on? Yeah. Happy face. It's looking really happy. It's all winking at me. It's poking its tongue out. See you later. Have a safe one. Will do. It was like a sort of a time where I had to actually sit down and say to myself, OK, this is what can really happen. You know, people can really die. You know, is it really worth it? And then I thought about it and I said, yeah, yeah. Like it is worth it because it makes me feel so alive. That, yeah, I think it is definitely worth dying for. After she'd gone and watched her jump open, I spent five minutes at the top just reflecting pretty much. And then it was time for me to walk back down. I'd never walked down that track on my own before. And all of a sudden, it struck me as being really unusual. The only time I'd ever been on this track has been going up to go jumping and normally with some friends. And that's when I really, it really hit me that Gary wasn't there. And it was just the Boxing Day incident just all came back. I mean, I was sitting down on the side of the track and cried and just really remembered Gary. It's not a bad place. Then she did release me. It's like giving someone a present. And I loved the reasons she was jumping for. And I loved her passion. Amazing. It's awesome. So what was your first date with Chucky? Like, oh, God, the first date. Well, we went forward driving because we're looking for something that we could maybe base jump off. Going to the Dart River in a four wheel drive. And it basically ended up with us being both in the water and the four wheel drive being drowned and us losing quite a lot of our gear. Yeah, it was very interesting. Oh, by then I thought, great, because you never have sort of a dull moment really with Chuck. You know, it's always go, go, go. You're always doing things or seeing things. For the first three months when I was actually seeing Chucky, it was very intense. Like we did everything together. We were always sort of with each other. Well, I think he's got a very nice body. Nice pecs. And his bum is divine. I love Shane because she is who she is. And she happened to be base jumping, which is like the cream on the top. Risk taking is a trait that seems to be untouched by evolution. But why does something that can potentially jeopardize life still continue? Evolutionary psychologists like David Buss would argue that women are unconsciously attracted to risk takers. Risk taking is a cue that men have access to resources. And these resources are necessary if women have dependent offspring. There's one group of risk takers in Queenstown who are reputed to be irresistible to the opposite sex. They're the whitewater river guides, the river gods. Anthony Williams, a Queenstown psychologist, wrote his thesis on them. It's hearsay around town that if you're a river guide, you sleep with many women and you're very popular, which, you know, in the past has had a lot of truth, I think. There's been various articles written about it. And if there is any truth to it, I guess you could say, well, let's look at a river guide. They're someone who is often very extroverted, definitely a sensation seeker. So I could see why a group of females, perhaps getting on a boat with a handsome river guide, might actually sort of think, wow, this guy's incredible because he's, you know, he's taking all these risks and he's in control of this whole raft and oh my goodness, we're safe. So yeah, perhaps there might be a certain element of relief at the end of the trip, which I think the river guide is indeed a legend. Do the river guides get the checks? I guess. I guess if you've got the gift of the gab, you can talk yourself into just about anything, but I don't know. Just watch the bump, guys. How's that, Lorna? It's great. As long as your mascara doesn't run. As long as your mascara doesn't run, you're fine. Actually, is mine all right? Do you think women are attracted to risk takers? Oh, definitely. Definitely. If you really want to put the spadework in, then you can dig yourself a hole and hopefully get to fill it in later. Where's this interview going? Sexual selection would say that, you know, we all have these unconscious sexual strategies going on, so we don't know why we're attracted to them. We just are attracted to them. But in sort of stone age times, to be a risk taker would have been great, because it meant that you would have, you know, social status and power, but also, most importantly, you'd have access to resources so you could be that provider. I think I've got some spare stuff in my makeup bag here. Have you? But, you know, that's stone age minds, and we're now dealing with modern circumstances, and those river gods aren't going to be providers, you know? This is a transient society. The next day, there's going to be another busload of backpackers coming through. Oh, lipstick? I missed it, darling. Get those girls. Back her up. Yeah, I decided to go to Australia, and we became lovers. Fantastic. And being in love with a woman who jumps off cliffs. Three friends of Epheme's came up from Victoria to near Sydney, and we went base jumping together, and it was like five of us going on a rampage. Sure does. Go, Chucky! It's a bit freaky. It's just checking it out. Started south of Sydney, then went west of Sydney, and between us, we did 36 base jumps in three days. And it was just a big indulgence. And on the last day, this was the last jump before everyone went back, four of us did a jump off a cliff at the same time. Off a 960-foot cliff. And one guy, Torben, had a bad opening, was facing the wrong direction, and flew into the cliff and bounced twice on the cliff and got stuck on a ledge. And he died there. And it was a little bit like deja vu. It was after the second accident that the love affair ended, and Chuck returned to Queenstown. Hey, I like this garden. Who's responsible for this? Neat roses. I know that what I do can worry Mum. Oh my god, what is that? Mum, meet Mr Peterson. Welcome to the clinic. Which is your room? I often don't tell her what it is I'm doing to save her from worry that I might create. What the hell? If I really sat down and thought very hard about what he does, I would get very worried, probably to the point of making myself sick. Hungry? Oh, what? Soup? Yeah. But do you think, like, a risk taker's a special breed? Because there's this novelty-seeking gene that they've isolated, which, I don't know, when I look at you, you do extreme endurance stuff, and Chucky's sister does mountaineering and mountain biking. And does it come from that? I mean, could it be this inherited thing? I think there's some of it there. We introduced the children to tramping at quite a young age. According to recent research in Israel, 50% of the risk-taking trait is inheritable. Other studies suggest that risk-takers are a particular personality type. They are physiologically different, and they require constant stimulation. So therefore, maybe Chucky's destiny is already written in his DNA. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of not living. And when you're jumping, you never feel so alive. When you jump, you can see everything and taste everything. How long? Just for that second before you've chewed open? No, especially afterwards when you reflect on the jump. Because these are the things I've got to try and understand. Yeah. And it helps me. Helps me to know these things. What about the people from Queenstown who've died pursuing their dreams? There's been a few. More than anywhere else, than anywhere I've lived, there have been people I've known who've died. Andy Harris, Bruce Grant, Krusty, Denny Reed. And when they do die, it's really tragic, and everyone in Queenstown feels it. But everyone also knows that they were doing their own special thing. So in a sense, it's not so tragic because they were following their passion. In a park in the heart of town is a memorial to the gods of Queenstown. Their spirit lives on through adventurers like Mark Fetty, who has twice climbed Mount Everest. The people they knew certainly continue to talk about them as if they're here in some form. And I think spiritually, they'll be here for a long time. We used to live in a world that was inhabited by gods, and now we've abandoned those gods. And it seems to me that in Queenstown, those gods have been replaced by the spirit of adventure. You can be your own god, surely. Why look to an external source for direction and guidance when you can find it from within? And perhaps it was this godlike spirit of adventure that was pulling them back to Chuck to try and renew their relationship. So when Chucky came back to New Zealand and you were still in Australia, did you really miss him? Yeah, I did. I really missed him. I miss his zest for life and his energy, but I don't know if I could actually live with it all the time. Because that's him. Like, I don't want to change him at all because he's just wonderful exactly the way that he is. Chuck and Faye were planning a new challenge together to become a world champion aerial ballet combination. Him as cameraman, her as his model. It's an excellent professional partnership as far as love goes. In our case, I think it would work. We exit, what I do is I go leg out, leg in, and then we leave. I leave in an inverted stag. We could do these activities together and we could build an excellent relationship with one another on a professional level where we're working together and playing together. Like, it would be better if you filmed me and my back layouts from the side. We just get eyeball cues. Back into a V seat, then into a Chinese seat. It's just an excellent match of skills. I can do camera work for Femme and it just becomes a symbiotic relationship between us. Isn't that nice? Yeah, the sun's nice. What do you think of that? Is that Mount Cook? Yep. Looks like a big mountain. Well, I would love to go up there, up the top. Yeah, imagine doing a skydive down the front face of Mount Cook. Tallest mountain in the country. Oh, it sounds great. Gosh, got no sunlight left. Wow, look at that. All right. It's so magic. Yeah. Gosh, what a view. West Coast sunset. This is the most beautiful island. I'm glad you came over. Hmm, so am I. So, they could skydive. But why not combine aerial ballet with base jumping? Because that was their real passion. All they needed was a high enough mountain with a sheer cliff. Look at you. You look like six seconds worth of free fall. Chucky right next to me. Yeah, that's all that I want out of life at the moment. With Mark Vetter as our mountain guide, we began our climb in search of a perfect jump. It was my first time on a mountain. For them, it was a walk in the park. But for me, it pushed me to my limits. Mark kept telling me, don't fight your fear, utilize it. But it didn't help much. I was just too cold to feel anything. Inspired by them, I climbed over 5,000 feet, over a kilometer into the sky. That's an amazing view. It's unreal, eh? I mean, great view, so cool. Especially seeing as you walk down this way. I know. I mean, how outrageous is this here to jump off? Is this... Oh, you'd kill yourself for sure. You wouldn't. Oh, you haven't got enough rope? No, it's not high enough. I think we have to climb higher. Higher, higher. Up and on, upwards. But I had reached my limit, and I left them to go on. I'd come to Queenstown to try and find out why people take risks, and I was beginning to understand why. I had this tantalizing glimpse of my own potential, and I could take that potential back into my daily life. Sure, I was in awe, but I couldn't help wondering whether risk-taking could be more constructive and less destructive, and whether really there was a limit to how much self-indulgence we are allowed. Chuck and Pam continued with Mark, but the perfect jump eluded them. As far as the nature of the terrain goes, all the rock around here is really fragmented, and it's really shattered, and there's so much stuff that's so steep and so almost jumpable, but just not quite vertical. So after all that effort of walking up here, it's just not on. Been a wee mission really, hasn't it? It has been a mission. It's one of those things, you hear about something, and it sounds so good, and you never know whether you can actually do it or not until you come and look. Yeah. It's not on, eh? No. So what are we going to do then? Doesn't look it. What about this hot air balloon idea? Is that feasible? I mean, is that a concept? Yeah. So a base jump became a balloon drop over the Southern Alps, a first for Chuck and Pham. He knows what I'm actually thinking, and I know what he's thinking. It's just one of those things that just seems to work, which is a very rare thing, I think, to find. So I think I should probably grab on with both hands. Life is such a precious thing. I think it's a really precious gift, and I really like to live my life and live it properly. Should we get ready then? Five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. Okay, ready, set, go. So they got their chance to dance on mountain peaks and fly with the gods. Now they could work together to prepare for another challenge, the world championships of aerial ballet. Risk transmuted into art. There have always been risk-takers, and there always will be. It's human nature. Perhaps after all, their world and mine weren't so dissimilar. It was not that we want a risk-free society, but rather that we want to choose the risks we take. As another busload of backpackers arrive to bungee jump, and as the river guides continue attracting women, as Chucky jumps off another mountain, we see that risk-taking is the fine line we tread between fear and opportunity. I still hear my mama. No, no, no. Can't catch up to me now. The feeling's so beautiful. All the way down.