World Trade Center

World Trade Center Film Zooms in on Teams
By Steve Singleton

Dormant strength and courage
World Trade Center, the Paramount motion picture directed by Oliver Stone and starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Peña, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon helps us remember, not "a day that will live in infamy," but the strength and courage that lies dormant in every human heart, ready to spring into action when summoned.

Narrowing the focus
Unlike several other 9/11 projects, this film does not document the timeline of events from multiple perspectives, choosing instead to follow two men drawn to the scene of the disaster by their sense of duty as Port Authority police officers.

Sergeant John McLoughlin leads his unit of volunteers through the lower concourse just as the first tower starts coming down. A split-second assessment of what is happening prompts him to thrust his team into a side hallway next to an elevator, just as the entire building collapses around them. The rest of the film focuses on the claustrophobic space surrounding the trapped men, their waiting families clinging to fading hopes, and the heroic workers attempting to rescue them.

Finding their place
The common thread throughout the movie is how the human beings reacting to 9/11 coalesced into teams. The police assembled a team to assist in the building evacuations. The firemen teamed up to effect rescues. The families came together to offer encouragement and support. The military personnel, EMTs, and others formed up to search for survivors. Everyone cooperated, finding his or her place in the common effort. And the results can be awesome.