United 93

Joe and I finally saw United 93 last night. Where do I begin?

As a movie, it's a little slow. Showing the people getting onto flights, the air traffic controllers, the military, everyone. Starts off as if it's just another day in the aviation world.

But tension slowly unfolds. You know what lies ahead but you're still waiting for things to happen. All the sudden the first plane hits the WTC. Then the second. Then the Pentagon gets hit. It's only a matter of time till the hijackers finally take over. They murder the innocent pilots of Flight 93 and a few other passengers are killed. They threaten passengers with a bomb. And the whole time, they're praying to God. Somehow they feel He wants this.

To think these passengers were able to fend off the hijackers and divert the plane is astonishing. The plane was twisting all over the place but they somehow managed to get through. It's hard enough walking down an airplane aisle when it's on the ground. Just going having it rapidly turn. But as quickly as the commotion started, it ends. You don't need to told what happened. You just know.

It also shows the pandamonium taking place in the country. The FAA didn't know what was going on, the air traffic controllers didn't know, the military didn't know. The people on the doomed flights didn't know what was happened, everything just happened too fast.

One thing I liked about this film is the portrayal of the terrorists. These guys were smart young men. They weren't wearing turbins or another, they looked like everyone else. Yet their moves were cold and calculated and you saw they were nervous. After all, they thought they were doing what God wanted. Fortunately, this film doesn't show sympathy for them. They were accurately shown as cold hearted savages. They had a plan, were focused and had the skills to carry out their mission.

Luckily, on Flight 93, the terrorists ran into some fearless people. These people acted quickly and decisively, even while facing death. We'll never know how many other lives they saved. But this movie was a great memorial to the thousands that perished that day.

The part that got me was when the passengers talked about getting the former pilot up front. If the plane hadn't been so low and they could have gotten the hijacker out quicker, the passengers could have been saved. You keep hoping it will happen. But in the end, you know their fate.

See this movie. Not so much for the movie itself. Rather, it's a wakeup call for what happened that day. I know many people thought this movie came out "too soon." Others thought it was Hollywood cashing in on tragedy. But we should be reminded of what happened on September 11, 2001 and pray such an attack never happens again.