"United 93" Captures the Horror of 9/11

Back in 2006



Yesterday was a day I was looking forward to. It was Tuesday, and it was new release day at the video store. But today was different—today was the day United 93 was being released on DVD. Now, the thing with United 93 that you must understand before walking into the movie is that you're not supposed to enjoy it. This movie was not made to entertain you. Some people who have not seen this film are claiming that this is Hollywood's way of milking money off a tragedy, but it is really a tribute and love letter to the brave Americans who took down a plane that was headed toward the White House with the full intention of crashing into it. Since United 93 is based on the event that changed the world just five years ago, there is no need to go into what the movie is about.

We all know how this thing begins, and we all know where it will end up, so I'm not going to discuss the (so-called) story. Instead of being a movie, this ends up being an experience where we get some idea of what must have happened on that hijacked plane, and it gives us a chance to experience some of the emotions that the passengers might have felt while they were coming up with the plan to take back the plane. United 93 is not so much about the hijackings as it is about the people. We know nothing of these people. We follow them on the plane, watch in horror as the plane is hijacked, and watch them with tears in our eyes and pride in our hearts as they set out to do what they must do.

I've said several times that this will most likely be our next Best Picture winner, and I see no reason to back down on that now. This is a very powerful and emotional film—the most important piece of filmed history since Schindler's List. By the end of the movie, you are filled with sadness at what the passengers had to go through, but you also feel proud that they did what they had to do and saved more lives by taking down the plane than there would have been had they done nothing at all. Watching the movie again, I was amazed at how God set up little things to ensure that this plane did not reach its target. United 93 was the plane that was intended to hit the White House. But amazingly enough, the plane got delayed by thirty minutes.

This thirty-minute delay was enough time so that when the plane did get hijacked, the people on the plane were able to find out what was going on when they called their family members, gathering enough information to realize that this was a suicide mission. If the plane had left on time, who knows if the people on the plane would have had the opportunity to find out enough about the situation to realize what was going on. If anything, this movie shows how God set up small things to help His children do what He intended them to do.

We also see Ben Sliney on his first day on the job at the FAA. Keep in mind, this is a guy who JUST got promoted as the head of air traffic operations, and one of the first things he did when he found out something wasn't right was to shut down the airspace. Considering that the airlines stood to lose millions of dollars on this call, we should be thankful that he was willing to take this chance. What also strikes me as interesting is that this flight—the most important flight (for the terrorists, anyway)—had only four hijackers, whereas the rest had five.

If anything, this film proves that God was helping us out in small ways even in the middle of a great tragedy. Through all this, good does prevail, even if in a small way. In the end, I think United 93 is something I will be revisiting on a yearly basis, come 9/11 every year. This movie is a gift to the people who died on United 93, and their wonderful gift to us. It's something I want to remember and honor forever, and this movie is just one of the ways I can. If you haven't seen this movie yet, please do. It will leave you breathless in ways you never thought possible.

20 Years Later



As I write this update, it is 9/11/2026, and it has been 25 years since the September 11th attacks took place. It is both a surreal memory and a defining moment in my life (as it was for many who experienced it). The loss of innocence, the feeling that you were no longer safe, and the sheer destruction, devastation, and loss of life that I witnessed on the news were unlike anything I had ever seen before. If I were to describe the day, I would describe it as a day that simultaneously went by in a blur while also feeling like a nightmare that didn’t end. I remember my dad (who worked for the Air Force at the time) coming home, giving me a hug, and simply saying, “A lot of people died today.”

It was such a raw moment that when the inevitable moment for Hollywood to start making movies about the attacks came around, there were true questions being asked about whether it was even appropriate to make “entertainment” about the attack. For the most part, most of the films played it safe and were sentimental, with even bold and daring filmmakers like Oliver Stone turning down the dial to pay tribute to the rescue workers who (mostly) gave their lives on America’s darkest day. Of all the films that tackled the subject, though, from my perspective, there has never been one that has come close to matching Paul Greengrass's United 93.

I looked back at the review I wrote 20 years ago when I was just starting my critic journey, and looking back at what I originally wrote, I see a bunch of structural problems, overzealous statements, and a tendency to want to write as many quotable lines as possible. One thing that hasn’t changed is my opinion of the film, which remains, to this day, probably the best film about the day that comes the closest to capturing the feeling of what it was like to live through that day. Paul Greengrass has a unique style where his films come off feeling almost like surreal documentaries. If you have watched any of the Bourne movies starring Matt Damon, you’ll know that those films employed shaky cam, long shots, and quick edits that made you feel like you were part of the action.

Greengrass took those techniques and applied them to a movie where feeling like you were experiencing the events onscreen as an unwilling participant was more crucial than ever. Greengrass’s film doesn’t care much about story or even character development. Instead, United 93 introduces us to people cold turkey, as if we were on the plane with them for the first time. The scenes at the airport and flight control are calm and cordial, as if it were just another day at the office. Then, a plane disappears. Then everyone witnesses the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. There is panic at the airport. The military is scrambling to assess the situation.

Finally, United 93 is hijacked, and the passengers soon realize that the plane is destined to crash in a terrorist attack, and everyday citizens decide to take a chance and do a very brave thing. When I first saw it in theaters, my heart raced, and tears flowed freely, especially at the end, which I believe is one of the most impactful final twelve minutes of any movie I’ve ever seen. Twenty years later, not only does it still create those feelings, but for a new generation that either didn’t live through it (or were too young to really notice what was happening), United 93 is a permanent time capsule to the terror, panic, and sadness that was felt living through the event.

Of course, as time has gone by, the film has come under new scrutiny. There is no nuance behind the terrorists' reasons for the attacks, and the political and social fallout is not touched upon. This is entirely the point: Greengrass wasn’t making a movie about what was behind the attack or what resulted from it, only that the attack happened and left America united in how shaken we were. For those who want to see more nuance, many films have been made since dealing with said nuance. There have been movies about everyday people, foreigners who watched the attacks from a distance, and documentaries that have gone over the factual (and, in some cases, non-factual) information about the attacks.

Some of those movies are good, some are not, and most have their place in the world. United 93 holds a place in history as one of the few films about the attacks that does more than recreate an event: it manages to make you feel the weight of the day, and for a couple of hours we forget that we know how all of this will end, and we cross our fingers hoping these everyday people can successfully pull off a dangerous (but necessary) plan. For those reasons, it is still a difficult film to watch, and I can’t imagine being one of the family members of victims of 9/11 being able to watch it to this day. In another 25 years, we will still remember the events of 9/11, and United 93 will remain one of the films people watch to understand how raw the day felt. 

P.S. In my original 2006 review, I wrote that United 93 was headed toward the White House. While that was a commonly reported theory at the time, the prevailing conclusion is that the plane was most likely headed toward the U.S. Capitol. I’m leaving the original wording intact because this section is being preserved as the review I wrote 20 years ago, but I wanted to clarify the point here.