On September 11th 2001, 44 people boarded United Airways Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. While they are still in the air the plane is taken over by four hijackers. As the hijacked plane flies towards its intended target, passengers learn that earlier that day two previously hijacked planes have flown into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon.
The passengers are faced with a dilemma - sit tight and hope the plane returns to the airport or overpower the hijackers and try to land the plane themselves.
In this film, director Paul Greengrass makes an honest attempt at depicting what might have occurred on that fateful day on United Airways Flight 93, the only one of the four hijacked planes not to reach its target on September 11th.
Greengrass masterfully builds the tension leading up to the plane's hijacking, showing ordinary American and foreign airline passengers going about their ordinary business on what should have been an ordinary flight. He continually cuts between the, at-first blissfully unaware passengers on Flight 93, to the pandemonium breaking out on the ground between air traffic controllers who are slowly starting to realize that their country is under attack.
"United 93" is a nail-biting roller-coaster ride of raw emotions and Greengrass' build-up to the inevitable conclusion leaves you sweating and squirming in your seat. For those of you who have looked at the release of this film with a certain degree of skepticism, leave it at the door and watch it anyway - you'll be thankful that you did.
