United 93 (film)

On the morning of September 11, 2001, four al-Qaeda terrorists, Ziad Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami and Ahmed al-Haznawi, drive to Newark International Airport to board United Airlines Flight 93, planning to hijack the plane and crash it into the United States Capitol as part of the attacks planned for that day. Among the passengers are Tom Burnett, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Richard Guadagno, Louis J. Nacke II, William Joseph Cashman, and Patrick Joseph Driscoll. Meanwhile, air traffic control personnel arrive at work.

As Flight 93 is taxiing on the runway towards take-off, air traffic controllers in Boston lose communication with American Airlines Flight 11 bound for LAX over New York City. They investigate the flight's disappearance as a suspected hijacking and notify the National Air Traffic Control Center in Virginia, the Northeast Air Defense Command Center in New York, and the FAA. They notice One World Trade Center burning in the distance, and a television report reveals the extent of the incident. 16 minutes later, they see United Airlines Flight 175 crash into Two World Trade Centre. The pilots aboard Flight 93 are notified of these attacks.

Onboard Flight 93, Jarrah, who has doubts over the attacks, is hesitant to start the hijacking. Impatient, al-Haznawi assembles a bomb in the airplane bathroom. al-Ghamdi grabs flight purser Deborah Welsh at knife point. Passenger Mark Rothenberg is mortally wounded by al-Haznawi and the first-class passengers are forced to the back of the plane in a panic. The pilots send out a mayday call but are quickly killed by the hijackers, along with Welsh. Taking the plane's controls, Jarrah changes its course to their intended target. Al-Ghamdi berates Jerrah for not hijacking sooner. Via a message transmitted to the cockpit, they learn that the World Trade Centre attack was carried out successfully.

American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, and the United States airspace is shut down. Flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw observes the bodies of the pilots and Welsh. After overhearing this, passengers soon learn from family members via airphone of the other attacks. They decide to organize a revolt against the hijackers, to retake the plane, learning that passenger Donald Greene has a license to pilot small planes and passenger Andrew Garcia is a former air traffic controller. al-Nami witnesses the passengers whispering and informs al-Ghamdi and Jarrah in the cockpit. A scared Jarrah tells al-Ghamdi that they are twenty minutes away from their target. Ghamdi begins to panic, as they may not be able to keep the passengers under control for that long. After agreeing to fight back, the male, able-bodied passengers go to the back of the plane with the stewardesses and arm themselves. The remaining passengers pray (mirroring Jarrah and al-Ghamdi's own prayers in the cockpit), and make final phone calls to their families and the police.

Beamer says "Let's roll" and the revolt begins. Jeremy Glick leads the charge towards al-Haznawi, who is quickly overpowered and beaten to death by Bingham with a fire extinguisher. Nacke rips the bomb from al-Haznawi's body, revealing it to be a fake. Alerted by al-Nami, Jarrah shakes the plane violently to throw the passengers off balance in an effort to thwart the revolt and reach his target. al-Nami attempts to resist the passengers, pushing a serving cart up the aisle into the passengers to block their path, and spraying Mace in an attempt to blind the onslaught; ultimately, like al-Haznawi, he is overpowered and killed. A distressed al-Ghamdi watches from the cockpit as Glick breaks al-Nami's neck. The passengers then use the cart as a battering ram against the cockpit door.

Realizing they will never reach their target, Jarrah decides to crash the plane rather than cede control, putting it into a nosedive. The passengers breach the cockpit, overpower al-Ghamdi, and attack Jarrah. As Jarrah starts to become overwhelmed, and Burnett gets controls back, the plane rolls upside down and Beamer yells as the aircraft plummets to the ground. al-Ghamdi and Jarrah scream "Allahu Akbar!" as the ground approaches before the plane impacts into a Shanksville field, killing everyone aboard, and preventing the terrorists from reaching their intended target.

A closing text states that the plane was the only one to not reach its target, and that by the time the military discovered the hijacking four minutes after the crash the nearest fighter jets were 100 miles away.

Additionally, several people portray themselves in the film, including Thomas Roberts, Ben Sliney, Tobin Miller, Rich Sullivan, Tony Smith, James Fox, Shawna Fox, Jeremy Powell, Curt Applegate, Greg Callahan, and Rick Tepper.

The film was the first Hollywood feature to draw its narrative directly from the September 11 attacks of 2001. Passengers were portrayed in the film mostly by professional but relatively unknown actors. (Tom Burnett, for instance, is played by Christian Clemenson, who has since appeared on Boston Legal and CSI: Miami). Some participants in the real-life events played themselves, notably FAA operations manager Ben Sliney.

The dialogue, which was mostly improvised during rehearsals Greengrass held with the cast, was based on face-to-face interviews between actors and the relatives of those they portrayed. Almost none of the passengers in the film are referred to by their names. Their identities remain anonymous, emphasizing the co-operation between the passengers rather than any individual heroics (as well as recognizing the fact that strangers on an airplane would not know each other's names).

Filming took place from October until December 2005, on a 20-year-old reclaimed Boeing 757 formerly operated by MyTravel Airways, at Pinewood Studios near London. The cockpit was built by Flightdeck Solutions.[8] The location was chosen both for its financial incentives and to shield actors from unwanted public scrutiny they might have received in the United States.[9] Action was filmed with handheld cameras, chosen for their versatility on the close-quarters sets and to create a sense of immediacy. Exterior airport sequences were shot on location at Newark Liberty International Airport, while interiors were shot back in England at London Stansted Airport. A few scenes were also shot in Washington, D.C. and Boston. Additionally, an opening sequence set in Afghanistan was shot in Morocco, but it was cut from the film before release.[10]

The film was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America for "language, and some intense sequences of terror and violence".[11] The film was released in the United States on April 28, 2006, and opened second in the weekend box office behind RV, but it netted a slightly higher per-screen average.[2]

Initial screenings ended with the closing credits line "America's War on Terror had begun". This was replaced in the release version with "Dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001".[12]

After trailers for the film began circulating in cinemas, there were calls for Universal Studios to pull them, due to the upset and surprise caused to some audience members.[13] Universal did not heed that call, although one theatre in Manhattan pulled the trailer after audience complaints.[6]

The Iraqi-born, London-based actor Lewis Alsamari, who plays hijacker Saeed al-Ghamdi, was reportedly denied a visa by United States immigration authorities when he applied to visit New York City to attend the premiere, despite having already been granted asylum in the United Kingdom since the 1990s. The reason reported to have been given was that he had once been a conscripted member of the Iraqi Army — although this was also the grounds for his refugee status after his desertion in 1993.[14] Other sources say that he applied late for his visa and that it was not denied.[15]

The real United Airlines Flight 93 was a Boeing 757-222 flight that regularly flew from Newark International Airport (now known as Newark Liberty International Airport) in Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. On September 11, 2001, the aircraft on that flight was one of the four planes hijacked as part of the September 11 terrorist attacks, possibly intended to crash into and destroy the United States Capitol building or the White House in Washington, D.C.[16] It was the only plane of all four hijacked that failed to reach its intended target; instead, it crashed in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, near Shanksville, about 150 miles (ca 240 km) northwest of Washington.

The cockpit voice recorder tape from United Flight 93 has never been made public; however, a transcript was made public after the film was completed, shedding more light on what actually happened in the final 30 minutes before the plane crashed. Some parts contradict the filmmakers' choices in terms of some dialogue and specific aspects of the event. For example, the pilots, Jason Dahl and LeRoy Homer Jr., are shown in the film being killed by the terrorists immediately during the hijacking. Some statements made by the terrorists in the cockpit voice recorder transcript,[17] as well as moans heard in the background inside the cockpit,[18] raised doubts that both pilots were dead before the plane crashed; however, other documentary evidence from the 9/11 Commission Report indicates that at least one passenger reported in a cell phone call seeing two bodies, possibly the pilots, lying dead on the floor outside the cockpit after the hijacking.[19]

Marion R. Britton is seen handing her mobile to fellow passenger Honor Elizabeth Wainio so she can call her mother. It was actually Lauren Grandcolas that handed Waino her phone.[20]

There is some controversy between some of the family members of the passengers and the investigative officials as to whether the passengers managed to breach the cockpit before the plane crashed. The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that "the hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them". However, many of the passengers' family members, having heard the audio recordings, believe that the passengers did breach the cockpit[21] and struggled with the hijackers for control of the yoke (which the movie depicts).[22][23]

United 93 was released to DVD on September 5, 2006, in both widescreen and fullscreen. Also released was a 2-disc Special Limited Edition in widescreen. A Blu-ray Disc version was released on September 6, 2011.[37] A second Blu-ray release from Universal Studios for the film was released on June 5, 2012, as a part of Universal's Universal 100th Anniversary releases. This version included the same Blu-ray Disc (same transfer and same bonus features) found in the first 2011 release in addition to a DVD and digital copy included in the pack with a brand-new sleeve that was not available with the previous release.[38] Both Blu-ray Disc sets for the film are region free.

• List of cultural references to the September 11 attacks
• Flight 93 (disambiguation)
• United 300
• World Trade Center (film)

• Greengrass, Paul (2006). United 93: The Shooting Script. Newmarket Shooting Script. New York: Newmarket Press. ISBN 978-1557047526.

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• Official website
• United 93 at IMDb
• United 93 at Rotten Tomatoes
• United 93 at Metacritic
• United 93 at Box Office Mojo
• United 93 at ReelFaces
• "United 93". Archived from the original on January 10, 2006. Retrieved January 6, 2006.
• Investigating United 93: Researching and Honoring a Catastrophe: Part I by Uri Lessing
• Investigating United 93: Researching and Honoring a Catastrophe: Part II by Uri Lessing
• Interview with Andrew Bernstein
• German 9/11 Victim Defamed in United 93 – review focusing on the stereotyping and politics
• Hijacking the Hijacking, the problem with the United 93 films by Ron Rosenbaum, on Slate.com