United 93

United 93 (2006)

Timing: 1:51 (111 min)

7.123/10
1425

7.209/10
16420

7.6/10
115000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 31

Actors and characters

Release date

2006-04-28

Country

France, United Kingdom, United States

Production

Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, StudioCanal, Working Title Films, Working Title Films

Genre

Drama, History, Crime, Thriller, Action

Budget

$15 000 000

Revenue

$76 286 096

Website

Director

Paul Greengrass

Actors

J.J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Polly Adams, Opal Alladin, Starla Benford, Trish Gates, Nancy McDoniel, David Alan Basche, Richard Bekins, Susan Blommaert
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Lloyd Levin, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Greengrass, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin, Bruce Toll

Operator

Barry Ackroyd

Composer

John Powell

Artist

Rachid Quiat

Audition

John Hubbard, Amanda Mackey, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond

Editing

Richard Pearson, Christopher Rouse, Clare Douglas
All team (153)

• For authenticity, the film was shot using portable cameras, rather than expensive digital equipment.
• Real U.S. military air traffic controllers appeared in some scenes. In turn, controllers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) starred in scenes involving civilian aviation.
• During filming, actors playing terrorists and those portraying passengers on the flight stayed in separate hotels. Moreover, they even ate in separate locations and maintained their fitness in different gyms. This way, the director sowed distrust, fear, and contempt between the “hunters” and the “victims”.
• The film's producers donated a certain percentage of the money earned by the film during its opening weekend to a memorial for the victims located near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The amount donated totaled $1.15 million.
• At the request of the filmmakers, American cinemas refused to show advertisements and trailers before screenings of 'Flight 93'.
• The actor who played the leader of the terrorist group, Luis Alsamari, was born in Iraq but resides in London. When he wanted to attend the film's premiere in New York, U.S. immigration services denied Luis a visa, despite the fact that he had been granted asylum in Britain since the early 1990s. Immigration services explained the refusal by stating that Luis had once been a member of the Iraqi army.
• The film "United 93" features actual flight attendants and pilots. Some of them even work for United Airlines.
• "Flight 93" is the first Hollywood feature film to recreate the events of September 11, 2001.
• Filming took place inside the cabin of a Boeing 757 that had been retired 20 years prior and was located near London. According to Tim Bevan, co-producer of the film, the location was chosen for two reasons: to reduce costs and to avoid conflicts between the actors and the inevitable special interest and pressure from the public if filming had taken place in the United States, a country that had recently experienced tragedy.
• The working title of the film – "Flight 93" – was changed to "United 93" because a television film with the same title premiered on the "A&E" network in late January.
• The initial end credits of the film – "America's War on Terror Began" – were later replaced with a more sensitive message: "Dedicated to the memory of those who perished on September 11, 2001."
• Following the start of the film's trailer showings in US cinemas, the studio was inundated with angry calls from viewers demanding they be stopped. People explained this by saying that the wounds from the tragedy were still too fresh. One of the largest cinemas in Manhattan ceased showing the trailer. Additionally, the ability to download the trailer was removed from the film's official website.
• Families of the 40 passengers who died on this flight cooperated with director Paul Greengrass in creating the film, helping to recreate details such as the clothes their loved ones wore, the books or music they might have been listening to, and the food they might have ordered on board.