Video of rooftopper's death-defying stunt will make your palms sweat

Jul 13 2023, 4:52 pm

A terrifying viral video shows a daring rooftopper flirting with death atop a Toronto skyscraper, and the internet is reacting with horror at the uncomfortably dangerousĀ stunt.

The clip has been making waves on multiple social media platforms as millions of viewers find themselves weak in the knees in a primal response to the performer’s apparent disregard for the rules of gravity.

The unsanctioned stunt was pulled atop the roof of The Prestige at Pinnacle One Yonge, a 65-storey condominium tower that completed construction in 2022.

A man can be seen performing a seemingly harmless back flip against a glass wall on the tower’s roof before propelling himself over the roof’s railing, clinging to the outside edge of the building with nothing but certain death below, and striking a pose for good measure.

The tower’s peak, just a few metres above the roof, measures 217 metres, or 712 feet, above street level. From this height, it would take an average of 6.6 agonizing, panicked seconds for a person to hurtle to their death.

In an early-morning July 12 repost to Twitter that has since been viewed over 2.5 million times, commenters‘ reactions are universally uncomfortable.

Hundreds of comments echo the same feelings of unease watching the clip.

blogTO reached out to the Toronto Police Service via email seeking immediate comment on the clip, but there has been no response as of writing.

Rooftopping comes with some fairly obvious risks, and it was only a few months ago that a 22-year-old rooftopper was killed in a fall from a Toronto building.

The May 2023 death of Conrad Rybicki revived debate about the dangerous hobby, which is reported to have originated right here in Toronto in the mid-2000s, taking the city by storm before spreading across the globe.

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