World Trade Center: Director Oliver Stone Takes on a Story from 9/11

Paramount is the first movie studio to release a big budget movie covering the events of September 11, 2001, and eyebrows were raised when director Oliver Stone – better known for his violent, political/conspiracy theory movies such as Platoon, Salvador Natural Born Killers, Nixon and JFK was chosen as the man at the helm – especially in the wake of the disaster that was his last movie, Alexander.

World Trade Center is not so much a story of that day, but more of two Port Authority police officers who were pulled out of the rubble of the twin towers. John McLaughlin (played by Nicholas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Peña) were number 18 and 19 of just 20 people who survived the chaos that claimed over 2,700 lives.

Part of a team who entered one of the towers when it was thought that a plane had “accidentally” crashed into it, they were almost immediately running for their lives when the tower collapsed, and only three of them made it into the relative safety of a nearby elevator shaft.

McLoughlin and Pena were almost entirely buried, and after unsuccessfully trying to help Jimeno, the their officer was then crushed himself by another fall of debris and, in agony, shot himself, leaving McLoughlin and Jimeno trapped many feet underground.

Back in their respective homes, their wives and children deal with the horror of the incident itself, then the realization that their men were in the towers and are probably dead. Allison (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is pregnant with their second child and convinced that Will is dead, whereas Donna (Maria Bello) seems unaffected at first. Her marriage to John had hit a rocky patch, and she doesn’t know quite how to feel.

As the world watches on in disbelief, Sgt Dave Karnes (Michael Shannon) a marine in Wilton, Connecticut, tells his work colleagues that America is now at war, and after praying in church he feels sure that God wants him to go to New York and help.