World Trade Center (2006)

Director:

Oliver Stone

Writers (WGA):

Andrea Berloff (written by)
John McLoughlin (true story) ...

Release Date:

9 August 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

The World Saw Evil That Day. Two Men Saw Something Else.

Plot:

Two Port Authority police officers become trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Rescue Team | Trapped | Rubble | Police

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Nicolas Cage	...	John McLoughlin
Maria Bello	...	Donna McLoughlin
Connor Paolo	...	Steven McLoughlin
Anthony Piccininni	...	JJ McLoughlin
Alexa Gerasimovich	...	Erin McLoughlin
Morgan Flynn	...	Caitlin McLoughlin
Michael Peña	...	Will Jimeno
Armando Riesco	...	Antonio Rodrigues
Jay Hernandez	...	Dominick Pezzulo
Joe Starr	...	Subway Rider
Jon Bernthal	...	Christopher Amoroso
William Jimeno	...	Port Authority Officer (as Will Jimeno)
Nick Damici	...	Lieutenant Kassimatis
Jude Ciccolella	...	Inspector Fields
Martin Pfefferkorn	...	Homeless Addict #1

Also Known As:

September (USA) (working title)
Untitled Oliver Stone/September 11 Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense and emotional content, some disturbing images and language.

Runtime:

129 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Ireland:12A | Singapore:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #42823) | UK:12A | Finland:K-11 | Argentina:16 | Canada:14A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M | Hong Kong:IIA | Italy:T | Spain:13 | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U | Brazil:12 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Clifton, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Test audiences believed that Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon), the former Marine, was a Hollywood invention. This is, in fact, a true story that occurred. Karnes later re-enlisted in the Marine Corps and served two tours of duty in Iraq. Also, as reported by the Associated Press on August 14, 2006, the Marine identified only as Sergeant Thomas (who disappeared shortly after 9/11) has been identified as Jason Thomas, a former Marine who grabbed his uniform and immediately drove to Ground Zero to help. Because his identity was unknown at the time of filming, Sgt. Thomas - who is black - was portrayed by William Mapother, a white man. The producers have since apologized to Sgt. Thomas for the miscasting. Thomas has laughed it off and told them not to be concerned, stating, "I don't want to shed any negativity on what they were trying to show."

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the rescuers are lifting the concrete slab off of John McLoughlin, the first slab they remove is quite obviously made of painted cardboard and/or styrofoam.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Radio announcer: You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world
[1010 WINS Radio]
Radio announcer: .

Movie Connections:

References The Last Castle (2001)

Soundtrack:

Theme from Starsky & Hutch (Gotcha)

A classless play on emotions

I know that many people who don't like this movie say so just because they thought it was made at an inappropriate time. Personally, I hated this movie on its own merit as poor film-making. It seems that Oliver Stone just decided he wanted to make a movie, any movie, about 9/11, and didn't care about the content of the movie. The end result was a movie of such pitiful quality that one could go though the script and replace the term "police officer" with "miner" and "World Trade Center" with "a coal mine" and the entire script would work perfectly as a cave-in disaster movie. It's that generic. Stone tries to carry the movie just by showing how sad the families were and how scared the policemen were, meanwhile allowing the audience no interesting plot points to hold on to, nor any significance to the tragedy. In the end, I have to conclude that Oliver Stone just wanted to get some cheap emotional reactions from the crowd, because at one point the movie says that it is about the potential for good in humanity and how strong we can be in the face of adversity. Stone quickly forgets this, because only about 15% of the movie even shows people coming together to help one another. The other 85% of the movie is spent watching the families argue or seeing flashbacks to their happy memories, which is a good way to get audience reaction but hardly lends any significance or depth to the plot. I don't in any way want to belittle the pain that these families had to endure, which is why I am disappointed that that pain was exploited to make a bad movie. September 11 was the most important and tragic event in my lifetime, and I think it deserves more respect than to be made into a generic, poorly-written disaster movie less than five years after it happened.