“It’s over,” my wife says. “You can come back now.”
She’s on the couch. I’m standing behind her, looking away. We’re watching POV footage of Dean Potter walking a slackline in Yosemite National Park, untethered, thousands of feet off the ground. He falls. He catches himself and stands back up on the line mid-chasm. To see it like this is so dizzying, so stomach-churning, I can’t look. Being uncomfortable is kind of the point of the film.
On April 14, 2026, you’ll see what I mean when HBO airs what my wife and I are already watching, a four-part docuseries called The Dark Wizard. It offers an “unflinching” account of Potter’s life, the big wall climber, slackliner, and late BASE jumper who was as brilliant and gifted as he was troubled and controversial. The filmmakers, Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, the Sender Films duo behind The Alpinist, have given me a sneak peek of the series. After all, Outside played a big role in Potter’s story.