{"id":3175,"date":"2026-07-03T05:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:06:10","slug":"this-daredevil-couple-came-to-sundance-2-years-ago-now-they-just-got-engaged-during-an-unauthorized-climb-of-the-empire-state-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3175","title":{"rendered":"This daredevil couple came to Sundance 2 years ago. Now they just got engaged during an \u2018unauthorized\u2019 climb of the Empire State Building"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>For Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, the documentary \u201cSkywalkers: A Love Story\u201d was as much about their death-defying stunts as it was their romance. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3173\">The \u2018curse\u2019 Darryn Peterson will be facing with the Utah Jazz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When the documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, director Jeff Zimbalist described it as a story where extreme climbing served as a metaphor for romantic trust, \u201ccompelling us to choose each other on the most epic scale,\u201d according to a press release shared with the Deseret News at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Now, two years later, the daredevil couple has literally taken that concept to heart.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, July 1, the couple drew worldwide attention as they scaled the antennae of the Empire State Building \u2014 reaching 1,454 feet off the ground \u2014 and got engaged, and then arrested. <\/p>\n<h3>Daredevil couple climbs to the top of the Empire State Building<\/h3>\n<p>After ascending the 200-foot needle atop the Empire State Building, the couple unfurled a black banner with large white letters: \u201cWhen the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after, on a slightly lower platform that had a little more room for kneeling on one knee, Beerkus proposed to his longtime girlfriend. <\/p>\n<p>The couple posted photos of the once-in-a-lifetime moment, which has nearly 3 million likes on Instagram. <\/p>\n<p>They were arrested after their descent, and received several charges, including burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, CNN reported. <\/p>\n<p>Beerkus told police he wanted to \u201cdo something special\u201d for the engagement, per The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><svg><g><g><g><\/g><\/g><\/g><\/svg><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The pair were released without bail and are due back in court Aug. 24, according to CNN.<\/p>\n<p>Empire State Building management has said the climb was \u201cunauthorized\u201d and didn\u2019t endanger anyone in the skyscraper. A court complaint noted that police found a broken lock on a security door on the building\u2019s restricted-access 104th floor \u2014 the highest public floor is the observation deck on the 102nd, per The Associated Press. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3172\">The controversy \u2014 and fun \u2014 of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last thing that people who are responsible for the Empire State Building want is to turn this place into a target for that sort of activity, because ultimately it will end in some sort of tragedy. The danger here, the recklessness, is obvious and can\u2019t be overstated,\u201d Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, told CNN.<\/p>\n<p>The couple\u2019s attorney, Jason Krinsky, said he and his clients would determine their next steps once prosecutors provided evidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat a way to propose \u2014 something you can only dream of,\u201d he said outside court on Thursday, per The Associated Press. \u201cSo you\u2019ve got to, you know, give him some credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>What is \u2018Skywalkers: A Love Story\u2019 about? <\/h3>\n<p>The viral moment comes two and a half years after the couple appeared at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the world premiere of their documentary \u201cSkywalkers: A Love Story.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Filmed in six countries over six years, the documentary chronicles their illegal climb of Merdeka 118 in Malaysia \u2014 the second-tallest building in the world. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo save their career and their relationship, a daredevil couple journey across the globe to illegally climb the world\u2019s last super skyscraper and perform a life-or-death acrobatic stunt on the spire,\u201d per a plot synopsis for the documentary at the time of the Sundance Film Festival. <\/p>\n<p>The documentary also highlights Nikolau\u2019s rise to fame in the male-dominated field of rooftopping, and how she developed a relationship with Beerkus, one of Russia\u2019s top rooftoppers who has explored landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Sagrada Familia, Notre Dame and Shanghai Tower. Together, the pair developed the genre of \u201cskywalking.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Although \u201cSkywalkers: A Love Story\u201d didn\u2019t win any awards at Sundance, it was acquired by Netflix shortly after its debut and is available for streaming on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a passionate, amateur rooftopper in my youth before the activity had a name. When I discovered others were doing creative trespassing missions around the world, I took off my balaclava, put on my journalist hat, and dove deep, tracking the growth of the phenomena for two decades looking for a personal story in that world worthy of a film,\u201d director Jeff Zimbalist said in a statement at Sundance. \u201cThen I found Angela and Vanya and knew this was it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3170\">Brands poke fun at PlayStation following the company\u2019s big announcement<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who climbed the Empire State Building? Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus Empire State Buildling. Empire State Building climbing updates. &#8220;Skywalkers: A Love Story&#8221; documentary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This daredevil couple came to Sundance 2 years ago. 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