What does it take to do the impossible?  To step up and take on an enterprise that is way beyond most people’s imagination?

A new movie about Steve Jobs in opening soon in the US.  WIll the movie capture Jobs particular genius of anticipating what his market wants before they know they want it?

In the meanwhile, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, opened the New York Film Festival.  It captures the daring spirit in a beautifully moving and incomparably arresting rendition of the story of Philippe Petit, who walked a hire wire between the two towers of the World Center before it opened in 1974.

A part of the ultimately indescribable Zemeckis’ genius is his willingness to tell the story of one person and imbed it in a thrilling, grand visual adventure.  Ten years ago, Zemeckis said he would only make films in 3D from now on.  Yet he does not adopt the form as a hokey was of drawing an audience in.  He extends the emotional experience with his digital visualizations.

Walking a high wire 100 stories above New York City is a terrifying, mind-blowing experience the filmmaker and artist generously share with the audience.  Audiences weep and vomit.  One member of Petit’s team has the fear of heights many of us share, and somehow his experience helps us get through this quiet roller coaster ride.

We were interested to read that Joseph Gordon Levitt, the actor who plays Petit, thinks that Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the National Security Agency’s transgressions, has that same daring spirit.  Gordon-Levitt met with Snowden while he was in Russia.  He will appear as Snowden in a 2016 film by Oliver Stone.  Hollywood may be the best whistleblower we have.

Go see this extraordinary Walk, and contemplate what it takes to boldly take on the world.