Director: Paul Greengrass
Stars: David Alan Basche, Olivia Thirlby, Liza Colón-Zayas (Full Cast)
Studio: Universal Pictures

The Plot: A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.

Review by Reel

Is it too soon or simply too late for a movie about the horrific events of 9/11? That's been the overriding question in the pre-release buzz about United 93, Universal's gutsy docudrama about the hijacked plane that fatally crashed in a Pennsylvania field before reaching its intended target, the U.S. Capitol Building. Whatever one's feelings are about the timing of such a big-screen effort, United 93, written and directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy) is an undeniably remarkable piece of filmmaking. more..
 

Review by USA TODAY

United 93 (* * * * out of four) is an unflinching, powerfully visceral and haunting portrait of the tragic events aboard one of the terrorist-commandeered flights on the fateful morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Painstakingly researched from reports of flight recordings, air traffic controllers and aviation officials, as well as cellphone calls made to family members by some of the passengers, it is undeniably the most gut-wrenching and captivating film released this year. more..

Review by Cynthia Fuchs

The focus is unsettling. United 93 insists on looking at 11 September in a way that is at once expected, familiar, and startling. It is relentlessly in progress, in time and bodies. The movie doesn't pretend to figure out "what happened," but does provide a sense of what happens, in its own ongoing present -- abstract, visceral, and sometimes overwhelmingly immediate.

The movie begins in a motel room, where Ziad Jarrah (Khalid Abdalla), who will pilot United 93, and Saeed Al Ghamdi (Lewis Alsamari) quietly prepare themselves with two fellow hijackers-to-be (Omar Berdouni and Jamie Harding): they pray, they shave, they tuck in their shirts, with knives. Their approach to the airport is fragmented and tense-making, highway signs marking their course, cameras tipping up to look at the bright blue sky.   more..