Reichelt's jump

The hesitation - the awful, awful hesitation -is the worst thing here. The man knows that his experimental parachute is just not up to the job...but the cameras are here; they stare him over. Or perhaps the worst thing is where they measure the dent his body made in the ground .

Comments

[Phil]

As the title card says:

"As if he'd had a presentiment of the horrible fate which waited him, the unfortunate inventor hesitated for a long time before throwing himself into the void."

("Had a presentiment" is clunky, but I can't think of a verb equivalent for "pressentir" - we haven't got a verb "to forefeel".)

[bert]

Pathos.
This Pathe stuff is a treasure trove, thanks Jamie. (And in this case, also, bloody.)

You can imagine Wan Hu having similar last-minute misgivings.

[ajay]

The concept of giving it a trial run with a sandbag first seems to have eluded him.