United 93

Paul Greengrass' thrilling, chilling and deeply moving real-time drama about the heroes who derailed the terrorists' plans for the fourth jet on 9/11.

Paul Greengrass' thrilling, chilling and deeply moving thriller about the heroes who derailed the terrorists' plans for the fourth jet on 11th September 2001. Presented in real-time, the film follows events on that fateful day, when hijacked jets were ploughed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Despite knowing it would mean certain death, a group of passengers on United 93 decide to take on the terrorists and thwart their plans.

Wisely eschewing the use of well-known actors, and made with participation of victim's relatives, United 93 is a respectful, objective take on events that nevertheless also works as thrilling entertainment, even if most will know the conclusion beforehand. Over the course of his Bourne trilogy, Paul Greengrass had become Hollywood's go-to director for imbuing action-thrillers with a documentary-style realism. His British background also gave him a useful semblance of cultural distance from a story that was still painfully raw for American audiences, five years after the event. He proves to be the perfect choice, finding the perfect balance between vérité disorientation and the story's inspiring emotion, while never going the gung-ho route.