Flight 93 (TV film)
| Flight 93 | |
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 Theatre poster |
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| Directed by | Peter Markle |
| Produced by | Clara George |
| Written by | Nevin Schreiner |
| Starring | Jeffrey Nordling Brennan Elliott |
| Music by | Velton Ray Bunch |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Editing by | Scott Boyd |
| Release date(s) | 30 January 2006 (USA) |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Canada USA |
| Language | English Arabic |
Flight 93 is a 2006 made-for-TV film, directed by Peter Markle, which chronicles the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93 during the September 11 attacks. It premiered January 30, 2006 on the A&E Network and was re-broadcast several times throughout 2006.
The film focused heavily on eight passengers, namely Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Lauren Grandcolas, Donald Greene, Nicole Miller, and Honor Elizabeth Wainio. It features small appearances from many other passengers, namely Donald Peterson and his wife, Jean, and also from flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw.
The film was rated PG-13 for some violence and emotional depiction of the hijack situation. The DVD version was released on June 26, 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film opens early on the morning of September 11, 2001 with First officer LeRoy Homer Jr. getting dressed in the F.A.A. official uniform then kissing his wife and leaving for work. Then hijackers Ahmed al-Nami and al-Haznawi, United 93's skyjacking ringleader Ziad Jarrah, and Saeed al-Ghamdi are shown shaving in their hotel room and doing their final rights to them selves in Islamic tradition and then leaving for Newark International Airport. At the airport, the passengers and crew board United Airlines Flight 93 along with the hijackers. Shortly after boarding, Flight 93 is delayed for 30 minutes because of the high volume of traffic. The other three hijacked flights take off.
Air traffic controllers monitoring all current flights notice that American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, has taken a southern turn toward New York City and Mohamed Atta makes a suspicious threatening transmission from the flight deck. Shortly after, Flight 11 descends into Lower Manhattan and crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, though air traffic controllers are not aware of it. After Flight 11 crashed, United Airlines Flight 175 begins to descend and turn toward New York City as well. Air traffic controllers then realize they are dealing with a hijacking. American Airlines Flight 77 is also hijacked. The traffic controllers alert the U.S. Air Force, who debate whether or not to shoot down all suspected hijacked flights. The air traffic controllers and Air Force then watch as Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the WTC on live television, reported by CNN.
Word of the planes that hit the World Trade Center reaches Flight 93, and the terrorists then decide to begin the hijacking. After Ahmed al-Haznawi assembles a fake bomb out of clay and plastic during breakfast, the other three hijackers wrestle their way into the cockpit and overpower the pilots. By this time, Flight 77 has crashed and created a huge fireball at the Pentagon. Footage of the South Tower collapsing is also seen on TV at the home of one of the victims' family.
To the growing consternation of Ben Sliney and his staff, coordination with the Air Force is haphazard and there are not enough planes ready, or armed, to respond to an in-air hijacking. Sliney ultimately decides to shut down all airspace in the United States and ground every flight.
The hijackers do not prevent the people from making phone calls through the on-board system. After hearing about the planes crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon, the passengers and crew understand that if they do nothing, they will also die, and eventually elect to storm the cockpit and attempt to retake the plane. The passengers make one last set of phone calls to family, in which they declare their intentions. The remaining crew assemble what makeshift weapons they can: cutlery, wine bottles, a fire extinguisher and hot water.
Learning that one of the passengers can fly a plane (although he has not flown a commercial aircraft), the group pin their hopes on his being able at least to control the plane. They debate whether the bomb is real or fake before deciding to start their counter-attack by overpowering Saeed al-Ghamdi. He is killed by the passengers with a bash to the head with a hot water container after boiling water is thrown at him. Having seen this, Ahmed al-Nami, Jarrah and Ahmed al-Haznawi prepare for invasion by the passengers and debate whether to take the flight down.
Ziad Jarrah shakes the plane violently to throw the passengers off balance, but nonetheless they manage to smash the door with the food cart. As the passengers wrestle with two hijackers to get in the cockpit, Ziad Jarrah puts the plane into a nosedive and flips the plane upside down towards the ground as the passengers finally gain entrance into the cockpit. The plane misses a private propeller plane and a barn, then crashes into a old strip mine. The crash is not seen, instead a cloud of smoke and the crash crater are seen. Footage of the North Tower collapsing is shown on TV as the families of the victims are seen in their houses comforting each other.
The crash site is then seen and time moves on as the ground where the plane crashed recovers. When the crash crater is no longer visible some writing appears on the screen. It says, "On September 11 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 was one of the four planes hijacked in midair. Three planes succeeded in hitting their targets. With great courage and resolve, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 prevented their plane from reaching its likely target, the White House or the Capitol Building. This film is dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93, and to their families." The names of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 then appear on screen before the film ends.
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