World Trade Center (2006) * * *

 

Directed by:  Oliver Stone

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Jon Bernthal, Maria Bello, Jay Hernandez

World Trade Center was released the same year as Paul Greengrass' United 93.  There was debate over whether it was too soon for a movie about 9/11.  Five years was sufficient.  These are stories that were needed to be told to a wide audience.  We saw heroic actions from those who didn't ask to be heroes.  Both United 93 and World Trade Center exist in the moment without larger context, although United 93 is told with more ruthless precision than World Trade Center, which introduces a former Marine (Shannon) who answers a higher calling to leave his job and travel to Ground Zero to assist and his story distracts from the realism temporarily.  

The journey of the Marine is almost hagiography, and he comes across as more of a symbol than a human being.  However, this subplot does not derail World Trade Center's power.   The bulk of the movie centers on two Port Authority police officers trapped in the rubble of one of the collapsed towers.   John McLoughlin (Cage) and Will Jimeno (Pena) are two men who went into the tower trying to rescue people.  The building collapses and miraculously they survive the initial collapse although they are pinned down by rubble with explosions occurring all around them.   Will help arrive?  Their radios do not work and although they are several feet apart, they try to keep each other's spirits up in an unprecedented situation. Neither wants to lose hope, because that is all they have, since there is no water, food, medicine, and the pain of crushed limbs is agonizing. 

John and Will's families are at home anxiously awaiting any news of their fates.  These scenes also generate sympathy and inspire empathy.  These are just two of thousands of families who only want answers when none are forthcoming.  World Trade Center starts out with Tuesday September 11, 2001 as a quiet, normal day.  How could anyone, except the terrorists who hijacked the planes, possibly foresee the horror that would arrive in a few short hours?  What occurred next was surreal even to those thousands of miles away.  A plane deliberately hits the first tower, then another one the second?  

Director Oliver Stone captures the mood and atmosphere of this dark day plus the terrifying, claustrophobic danger of John and Will's dilemma.   So many things had to happen (plus a few like starvation, dehydration, illness, blood loss, shock, etc. which didn't happen) to allow for their rescue.  The scroll before the end credits shows us how these two were in the minority as far as surviving through this ordeal.  They went through countless medical procedures in order to be able to leave the hospital, and in 2006, the long-term effects of breathing in the glass, dust, dirt, and foreign particles were still not known.  But I'm sure they were happy to take that over the fate which befell nearly 3,000 people that day in New York.