Review of United 93 (2006) by William T — 04 Mar 2013

This review is dedicated to the heroes of flight United 93 who gave everything to save others. Rest in Peace and God bless. I never cry during movies, never, unless it is a true story or based highly off a true story. I have seen United 93 a few times and every single time I try to fight the tears, but they come out. I love this movie not for what it's about but for what it is. This is based on real events with real people and some people who were actually involved with 9/11 are in this movie, and that just makes it that much better.

9/11 is the biggest tragedy in American history, in my opinion. I was in 1st grade and I had no idea what was going on. A few years ago I watched at least 10 History Channel specials on 9/11 and I was fascinated. I don't really believe in the conspiracy behind the attack, but I'm not going to talk about that. Back to the movie, it starts with the terrorists who hijacked United 93 praying and shaving in their hotel room. That was their ritual or something, they did what they believed was right, and now their burning in hell. There are some subtleties in this movie. The pilot and copilot are talking about their future plans and the audience just has this uncomfortable feeling because you know this doesn't happen. It's hard to watch this movie knowing everybody dies.

The flight takes off from there the events are in control of the director because nobody knows what really happened. The director also focuses on the flight control people from New York and Boston, I think. There were so many it was hard to follow. I just listened for the accents. Slowly, the tragedy unfolds. We get the first few hijackings and the first plane crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. From then, chaos ensues. Most of these people played themselves in the movie and basically recreated what happened in the movie, and wow, the audience sees how confused these people were and they really had no idea what was going on. They did all they could but America was really rendered useless. They tried to contact the terrorists, planes were appearing, disappearing, then reappearing. The audience then sees the second plane crash into the tower and then everybody realized that America was under attack.

I loved seeing the chaos in the control rooms and what America was trying to do to deal with this problem. We almost resulted to shooting down these commercial planes. The White House and Capitol Building were evacuated. The Sears Tower in Chicago was evacuated. Meanwhile, United 93 passengers were just casually eating breakfast completely unaware of the world around them. The only thing I could think was that this was their last meal, and tears started flowing. Every scene in the plane was just so emotional, between everyone saying goodbye to loved ones, to the terrorists being anxious and struggling to maintain control.

I'm glad the movie didn't focus on the World Trade Centers and we didn't see them collapsing. This movie is about United 93 and what happened on that plane. Possibly the best part of the movie is that there are no major actors involved. There are a few 9/11 movie with big name stars in them and it is a different feeling. These actors are all nobodies and that is how it needs to be. It shows how these regular people took matters into their own hands and risked everything. These passengers are heroes and how they realized they were in danger by what their loved ones have told them.

Unfortunately the plane ended up crashing in a field in Pennsylvania and there were no survivors. This isn't a spoiler, it's just history and everybody probably knows this. The last scene is the passengers attacking the cockpit and killing two of the four hijackers. They try to take control of the plane but the last shot is the plane going down into the ground. The ground gets closer and closer and the music gets more and more intense and then it just ends, black screen, a soft chorus, and information about 9/11 comes on the screen, then cue the credits.

Overall, United 93 is an emotional rollercoaster and really depicts the events of 9/11 really well. It was horrible but in a day of darkness there was a small glimpse of sunlight. These people took matters into their own hands and even though they didn't survive, they made the terrorists fail in their mission and made that day that much less horrible. It was assumed the plane was going towards Washington and thanks to the passengers of United 93, that did not happen. This movie has my respect and should not be judged with an award or a seal of approval. It should stand on its own and be what it is. See this move and appreciate how America stood strong n the face of terrorism. Again, this review is dedicated to Flight 93 and all of its passengers and passengers who lost their lives, along with every other American who lost their lives on 9/11/01.