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One thing we love about smartphone technology is how it helps make everyday an adventure, whether it’s recording a buddy’s skateboard moves or directing us to the best surf. Sometimes though adventuring require some inspiration. What better way to find it than to check out amazing movies of real life daredevils. Trust us, these films will make you restless, excited and ready for something other than tea and sleepy TV time. Hold onto your hats!

Touching the void (2003)

This truly is a film about the strength of the human spirit. Adventure = daring = dangerous but for some people, it doesn’t stop their drive to conquer and explore. Watch a man fall from the Siula Grande Mountain in Peru and then against all the odds, spend four days crawling back to base camp – to understand how far you can push yourself. Joe Simpson admitted to uttering a few Hail Marys: ‘25, fit, strong, ambitious, crippled and stuck in a place I was going to die.’ Amazing stuff.

Flying over Everest (2004)

 30,000 feet up in the air! In a hang glider! Over Everest, the highest mountain summit in the world! The ‘human condor’ Angelo d’Arrigo took with him two Himalayan eagles he was releasing back into the wild. He was towed by a microlight. Everest climbers saw an amazing sight. Was it a man or bird hovering above them? ‘There is only one way to live with birds,’ said d’Arrigo. ‘They have to believe you are a bird, too!’ I think he achieved that. Sadly he died in 2010 – but he left quite a legacy.

Riding Giants (2004)

 Director Stacy Peralta was an insider – a real surf obsessive. He made a detailed film about the history of the sport, with amazing visuals and attention to detail. Great names appeared from decades of surfing legend, like Greg Noll and Laird John Hamilton. Why should you see this film? As Peralta says: ‘There’s life and death, discovery, and adventure.’ Noll talked about ‘…the ferocity, if it’s under control. I’m talking about sunset at 15 feet or something like that…sometimes you’re under the water and it’s just beautiful-the bubbles, and it’s like a waterfall…’ Convinced?

Man on a wire (2008)

Walking across the Twin Towers in New York in 1974 without a harness, on a tightrope shot across with a bow and arrow? It made sense to one man. ‘If I die, what a beautiful death,’ uttered Philippe Petit. That gives you some idea of the lyricism of the whole concept. Not one to be tried at home, obviously. But why not do something that makes your heart do the rhumba? Petit said that he was never afraid but ‘…felt an immense elation…that I was actually venturing in another world.’ You will too.

Revolution (2012)

 Four years in the making. Travelling to 15 countries. I defy you not to be inspired by the sheer passion of young conservationist filmmaker Rob Stewart. Biologist, photographer and a man on a mission: ‘I ended up making this movie by setting off across the world, with just my camera.’ He wanted to show the world – a beautiful world – and the danger it faces. Without preaching or depressing the viewer. Instead, we get astonishing cuttlefish that he followed in Malaysia for three weeks. Or his most-loved creature in the world, Hammerhead sharks. Awesome.

These are the five that get our blood racing most, but what about yours? Let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: aspearing