Reportedly a stunt as part of a Pan Am Games promo video, we wont see the final product of last week’s mysteriously under-the-radar CN Tower BASE jump until the big event begins on July 10.
But the jump, which was made by the French pair Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet, wasnt the first of its kind to be caught on camera. That honour goes to the American stuntman Dar Robinson who doubled for Christopher Plummers character falling from the structure in an unabashedly literal film called High Point, which was shot in 1979.
Robinson returned a year later to do the jump again, only this time he did it like a true madman would: without a parachute. Attached to a 3 mm steel cable around his waist, Robinson completed the terrifying stunt even after a test run with an equally weighted bag of water crashed into the ground.
You can see just how wild the whole thing was, plus plenty of stomach-churning views from the CN Towers top deck, in this segment from a documentary that came out after Robinsons death while working on another film in 1986.
Watch the clip, courtesy of Retrontario, below:
The footage is truly bewildering (as is the narration by Chuck Norris) and by comparison, makes the CN Tower Edge Walk look like a trip to 360 Restaurant for sorbet.
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