United 93

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Written and directed by Paul Greengrass, United 93 was released into theatres five years after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon to much critical acclaim. As You Know (we assume), the film is Based on a True Story. United 93 was one of the hijacked planes on 9/11; after the plane had been hijacked and word got out that the other hijacked planes had been crashed into the Twin Towers, the passengers rose up and took out the terrorists, leading to a Heroic Sacrifice when the plane crashed in a field in Pensylvania instead of its intended target, killing all aboard but doubtless saving many other lives. Greengrass approached the daunting challenge of retelling the events of the titular flight with the same cautious, apolitical tone with which he guided Bloody Sunday.

Using largely unknown actors and real professionals, the film was denounced as Too Soon by many, but lauded by many others as a gentle, much-needed catharsis. It plays out in Real Time across nearly two-hours and was filmed Faux Documentary style using separate isolated stages.

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This movie contains examples of:

• Artistic License Physics: When the plane is moved from side to side, the actors roll accordingly - however when the plane is moved up and down, the actors don't move along with that. Simulating the weightlessness and things flying around the cabin can be expensive and/or dangerous to the actors.
• Autobiographical Role: In line with the Faux Documentary method, several of the air-traffic controllers and military officers are played by professionals who do those jobs for a living.
  • Even more impressive is that they got Ben Sliney to re-enact his first day on the job.
• Based on a True Story: Artistic license had to be used in regards to the specifics of events on the plane, but otherwise the entire movie is kosher.
• Bias Steamroller: Many critics and audience members were soured on the whole movie by the Villainous Valor.
• Bilingual Bonus: Many of the terrorist's conversations (both casual and panicked) are untranslated.
• Black Dude Dies First: One of the two pilots is black. Guess.
• Call Forward: A very dark variety occurs in the first few minutes of the film as a camera focuses in on a storage yard with the Twin Towers in the background.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Triggered by two military aircraft being launched the completely wrong direction.
• Double Meaning Title: The story is about United Flight 93, and how the passengers united against their aggressors.
• Downer Ending: See Based on a True Story.
• Dramatic Pause: As air-traffic controllers helplessly watch a pair of planes nearly collide.
• Enforced Method Acting: During filming, the four actors playing the hijackers were kept separate from the rest of the actors to encourage animosity between the two groups.
• Family Unfriendly Deaths:
  • A passenger is stabbed in the neck and bleeds out.
  • One of the terrorists is beaten to death with a fire-extinguisher.
• Faux Documentary
• Fog of War: Confusion is the only constant in the movie - impressively, the narrative remains coherent.
• Foregone Conclusion: Everybody knows how this will end.
• Foreshadowing
• Gory Discretion Shot: Averted
• Heroic BSOD: Everyone on the ground after United 175 smashed into the South Tower.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Christian Clemenson and David Rasche are the most recognisable faces in the film.
• Improvised Weapon
• Kill'Em All: Kind of obvious, innit?
• Live Action Escort Mission: Getting the pilot to the cockpit from the back of the plane.
• Lockdown: 4,200 planes in the air. Who knew which ones had terrorists waiting to strike? There was only one solution: ground every aircraft.
• Monumental Damage: Well duh.
• Mood Motifs:
  • Horns of Battle
  • Drums of Dread
  • Strings of Suspense
• No Name Given: Very few of the passengers on the plane's names are mentioned. This was done for several reasons:
  • Because realistically no one on the plane knew they were part of a historic group, so they probably shared their names with the group of strangers about as much as anyone on a routine flight - not much.
  • To keep it so no character seems to be singled out as a hero. Even Todd Beamer's famous "Let's Roll" line is kept subtle - and it's hard to even tell which character is Todd Beamer until he says it.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: For quite a while, no one can find the military liason at the National Air Traffic Control Center.
• Oh Crap: The beginning of the Terrorist's Villainous Breakdown as they start losing control of the passengers.
• One Child Wail
• Playing the Heart Strings: As the Pennsylvania field rushes up towards the cockpit window, the sounds fade away to a single string chord at the moment of impact.
• Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Subverted: Todd Beamer's famous, "Let's roll" was treated as an anxious throw-away line.
• Post 9/11 Terrorism Movie
• Present Day Past: Despite taking place in 2001, the film includes a billboard advertising the film Chicken Little, UPS' 2003 logo, and a 2004 Embraer Jet.
• Ramming Always Works: Discussed as one of the options by military officers after learning that the only fighter jets near a hijacked airliner were sent up without ordinance.
• Real Time: the entire film (though the time the plane is in the air is actually slightly longer than it was in real life)
• Reality Ensues
• Refuge in Audacity: Accurately being depicted as the reason for slow response from official channels.

"When was the last time we had a hijack?" "It's been quite a while..."

• Retirony: A variation in that he's taking a vacation, not a pension.

"My anniversary's coming up - I'm taking my wife to London for a couple days."

• Shown Their Work: All the inaccuracies of 9/11 were accurately portrayed. It is commendable that rather than stripping down the confusion to make things easier for an audience to follow, all of the misinformed pieces of information are out there, just as it was in real life. Different groups were referring to the wrong planes by the wrong numbers. There were differing reports on how many planes were out there. The news reported a fire on the National Mall when there was none.
• Storming The Cockpit
• Strawman European: There's a German fellow aboard who advocates that the passengers just let the terrorists do their task. When the passengers ignore him, he even goes so far as to shout a warning to the terrorists before being subdued by the passengers.
  • It's worth pointing out that while it might seem insane now, official policy on all airlines prior to 9-11 was that passengers should not interfere if there is a hijacking, under the assumption that if the hijackers intended to blow up the plane they'd have already done so, and dealing with hijackers should be left to professionals.
    • This is a real national/cultural divide. America has long had a firm policy against negotiating with criminals or terrorists. A number of European countries are entirely willing to negotiate in order to get hostages released. The result is that hostage situations in European usually end with negotiated releases. It's not unreasonable that a European would want to wait for a deal to be struck rather than everyone getting killed.
• Villainous Breakdown