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9/11: The Twin Towers | |
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Also known as | Inside the Twin Towers |
Genre | Documentary History Docudrama |
Written by | Max Chalko |
Directed by | Richard Dale |
Starring | William Hope |
Narrated by | Harry Pritchett (DSC); Terence Stamp (BBC) ; Jean Reno (France TV) |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Editor | Peter Parnham |
Running time | 90 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | Discovery Channel BBC One |
Release | 3 September 2006 |
9/11: The Twin Towers (also billed as Inside the Twin Towers) is a movie based on the 9/11 attacks which uses re-enactments and computer-generated imagery to re-create a minute-by-minute account of what happened inside the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City during the September 11 attacks. In the United States it premiered on the Discovery Channel on 3 September 2006, narrated by Harry Pritchett. In the United Kingdom it premiered on BBC One on 7 September 2006, narrated by Terence Stamp.
The film won the 2007 British Academy Television Craft Award for Sound Factual, and was nominated (but did not win) for Editing as well. [1] It was also nominated for the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Made For Television Movie. [2]
The documentary revolves around several WTC workers/rescuers as they retell their experiences from the 9/11 attacks, beginning from the moment of when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center to the aftermath of the collapse of both Twin Towers.
Frank De Martini was the construction manager of the World Trade Center, known for helping rebuild the building after the 1993 bomb attack. He was with his wife Nicole on the 88th floor when Flight 11 crashed a few floors above them. He told Nicole to escape and he and two other co-workers, Pablo Ortiz and Mak Hanna, began going up the North Tower to rescue trapped workers. They eventually came to the 89th floor where they rescued several trapped workers including Rick Bryan, a manager at MetLife, and secretary Dianne DeFontes. De Martini sends Hanna down the tower with an injured, elderly Port Authority worker on his back while Bryan and his co-workers begin to make their way downwards. Making their way towards the impact zone, De Martini and Ortiz report structural damage that could lead to catastrophic results. Bryan and his group are nearly out of the building when they feel the tremors caused by the South Tower's collapse. They manage to make it out alive along with Hanna. De Martini and Ortiz are both killed when the North Tower collapses. 77 people were saved thanks to their efforts, including Bryan and DeFontes.
On the morning of the attacks, Christine Olender is in charge of a conference at Windows on the World, a restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. She calls the PAPD for help several times as the smoke from the impact zone leaks onto their floor. She sends Melanie de Vere and two other delegates who are attending the conference up to the roof to try and evacuate from there, but the doors are locked and Port Authority employees in a command center on the 22nd floor of the building are unable to remotely unlock them due to damaged systems. Eventually, people begin jumping to their deaths to escape the flames. Christine makes three more calls for help afterwards, but neither she nor anyone else from Windows on the World is heard from again after 9:40 AM. Olender, de Vere and everyone else in or above the North Tower impact zone eventually lost their lives that day whether it was from the smoke, jumping, or the collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 AM.
Harry Ramos and Hong Zhu were two workers from May Davis on the 87th floor when Flight 11 hit. While Ramos and a few other co-workers decided to evacuate, Zhu opted to stay in his office and wait for instructions. He eventually gives up by 9:00 am and chooses to evacuate. He meets up with Ramos around the 59th floor along with another stockbroker named Victor Wald, who made it down 24 flights above from around the 83rd floor. On the 52nd floor, Zhu volunteers to try an elevator to speed up the evacuation. It works, but only goes down to the 44th floor sky lobby. Once they reach the Sky Lobby, Zhu and Ramos learn from passing firemen that the Pentagon got hit and that the day's events are all part of a terrorist attack. Wald calls a random woman and tells her to pass a message on to his wife, Rebecca, telling her that he's okay. When he learns about the Pentagon attack, Wald theorizes that Al Qaeda is behind the attacks. Firemen escort Zhu, Ramos, and Wald to another stairwell. After the collapse of the South Tower, the trio were on the 36th floor when Victor said he could not move anymore. Zhu, determined to escape, became impatient with Wald, and a member of a small group of firemen ascending past them likewise told Zhu to go ahead. Afraid for his life, Zhu took the advice and fled, while Ramos stayed behind to help Wald. Zhu ultimately made it out alive, while Wald and Ramos both died in the collapse of the North Tower. Ramos was the only person from May Davis who did not survive.
Jay Jonas, Captain of Ladder 6 from the FDNY Dragon Fighters out of Chinatown, is one of six New York firemen who went into the North Tower to save trapped workers. After the South Tower was hit, Jonas and his group (which included Salvatore D'Agostino, Matt Komorowski, Bill Butler, Mike Meldrum, and Tommy Falco) were given clearance to start ascending the stairs to reach trapped workers. While taking a rest on the 27th floor, the South Tower collapsed, shaking the North Tower. Jonas immediately decided that they too needed to evacuate. They encounter a woman named Josephine Harris, who is suffering from an injured leg on the 20th floor, and he decides to bring her down with them. They make it to the fourth floor, where they meet port authority officer David Lim. He offers to help when the North Tower collapsed, but they all miraculously survived. They were eventually rescued by fellow firefighters over 3 hours later.
Al Smith, Jan Demczur, John Paczkowski, Colin Richardson, Shivam Iyer, and George Phoenix were trapped in an express elevator in the North Tower. Realizing that the walls were made of sheetrock, Demczur used one of his janitorial tools to chip a large hole into the wall. They managed to bust through the wall and into a washroom on the 50th floor. A fireman directs them to a functioning elevator where Al convinces Jan not to take the stairs, arguing that it would take too long. They all manage to make it out alive.
Stanley Praimnath worked at Fuji Bank on the 81st floor of the South Tower. Before his building was hit, he attempted to evacuate with several other employees fearing for their safety, but was instructed by security guards in the lobby to return to his office. Stanley was on the telephone in his office when he saw a commercial airliner approaching him. Just before the plane struck the building, he screamed "Lord, I can't do this, you take over!" and dove under his desk. In the impact zone, Praimnath miraculously survived the explosion and crawled along the burning floor, but was stopped by an upright sheetrock wall.
Brian Clark worked at EuroBrokers on the 84th floor of the South Tower, and was making his way down with a handful of other colleagues who survived the initial impact when a man and woman coming up the stairs stopped them and told them that the stairs below were impassable. As he and his workers debated on what to do, he heard Stanley Praimnath shouting for help in the ruins of his office and decided to help him. He grabbed fellow co-worker Ronald DiFrancesco to help Praimnath. DiFrancesco decided to turn back and go with the rest of the group upstairs. He turned back on the 91st floor and was the last person to escape the South Tower. Unfortunately, everyone else with Clark and DiFrancesco died as they remained upstairs. Clark made his way into the office and pulled Praimnath over a sheetrock wall he was stuck behind. Praimnath thanked Clark for saving him and told him that they would be brothers for life. They managed to get down the stairs and evacuate the South Tower shortly before it collapsed. Twenty-three workers from Praimnath's company Fuji Bank lost their lives, as did 61 workers from Clark's company EuroBrokers.
Praimnath is one of five Fuji Bank employees to be in the impact zone and escape (the other four were Julie Davis, who was on the 83rd floor, Felipe Oyola, who was also in the 81st floor, and Christine Sasser and Silvion Ramsundar, who both were in the sky lobby on the 78th floor) while Clark, DiFrancesco and another man, Richard Fern, were the only people from EuroBrokers to survive the impact zone and escape, all from the 84th floor.
Alayne Gentul was Director of Human Resources at Private Banker's Fiduciary Trust. She was on the 97th floor of the South Tower when the second plane hit along with several other co-workers. She calls her husband Jack and relays information on what she and her co-workers were trying to do in light of the situation. Jack tells Alayne and her co-workers to hit the sprinkler systems to try to get some water flowing, but they were unsuccessful. Knowing that she may not make it out, Alayne tells Jack to inform their sons that she loved them. After hanging up, Jack calls his local priest and asked him to set up a prayer chain. Alayne and her co-workers were killed in the collapse of the South Tower.
Country | Channel | Premiere date |
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United States | Discovery Channel | 3 September 2006 |
United Kingdom | BBC One | 7 September 2006 |
Russia | Channel One | 2006 |
France | France 2 | 4 September 2006 |
Canada | ICI Radio-Canada Télé | 11 September 2006 |
Spain | Cuatro (TV channel) | 2007 |
Australia | Nine Network | 2006 |
Germany | RTL | 11 September 2006 |
The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center elicited a large response of local emergency and rescue personnel to assist in the evacuation of the two towers, resulting in a large loss of the same personnel when the towers collapsed. After the attacks, the media termed the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero", while rescue personnel referred to it as "the Pile".
United Airlines Flight 175 was a domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in California that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-200 carrying 51 passengers and nine crew members, was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone aboard and causing the deaths of more than 600 people in the South Tower's upper levels in addition to an unknown number of civilians and emergency personnel on floors beneath the impact zone. Flight 175 is the second-deadliest plane crash in aviation history, surpassed only by American Airlines Flight 11.
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Marwan Yousef Mohamed Rashid Lekrab al-Shehhi was an Emirati terrorist hijacker from al-Qaeda who served as the hijacker-pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, crashing the Boeing 767 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks. He was one of five hijackers aboard the aircraft and one of two Emiratis to take part in the attacks, the other being Fayez Banihammad, who helped him hijack the same plane.
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The World Trade Center in New York City was destroyed on September 11, 2001, as a result of al-Qaeda terror attacks. Two commercial airliners hijacked by terrorists were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers of the complex, resulting in a total progressive collapse that killed almost 3,000 people. It was the deadliest and costliest building collapse in history.
Windows on the World was a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues on the top floors of the North Tower of the original World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States.
The New York Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel within the original World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in April 1981 as the Vista International Hotel and was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. In November 1995, it was bought by Marriott Corporation and renamed to the Marriott World Trade Center. It was unofficially known as the 3 World Trade Center.
Brian Clark is a Canadian businessman and survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Clark worked for the American international brokerage firm Euro Brokers Inc., which lost 61 employees that day, nearly one-fifth of its New York branch.
Stanley Praimnath is a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He worked as an executive for Fuji Bank on the 81st floor of the South Tower, the second tower struck that day. He was one of only 18 survivors from within or above the impact zone of United Airlines Flight 175.
Jules Clément Naudet and brother Thomas Gédéon Naudet are French-American filmmakers. The brothers, residents of the United States since 1989 and citizens since 1999, were in New York City at the time of the September 11 attacks to film a documentary on members of the Engine 7, Ladder 1 firehouse in Lower Manhattan.
The Survivors' Staircase is a granite and concrete staircase that was the last visible remaining original structure above ground level at the World Trade Center site. It was originally an outdoor flight of stairs and two escalators, which connected Vesey Street to the World Trade Center's Austin J. Tobin Plaza. During the September 11 attacks, the stairs were an escape route for hundreds of evacuees from 5 World Trade Center, a 9-floor building adjacent to the Twin Towers. The staircase was moved from its original location in 2008, and in 2010 it became part of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing everyone still alive aboard the flight and resulting in the deaths of more than one thousand people in the top 18 stories of the skyscraper in addition to causing the demise of numerous others below the trapped floors, making it not only the deadliest of the four suicide attacks executed that morning in terms of both plane and ground fatalities, but also the single deadliest act of terrorism in human history and the deadliest plane crash of all time. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-200(ER) with 92 passengers and crew, was flying American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts to Los Angeles International Airport in California.
Welles Remy Crowther was an American equities trader and volunteer firefighter known for saving as many as 18 lives during the September 11 attacks in New York City, during which he lost his own life.
The original Two World Trade Center was one of the Twin Towers in the original World Trade Center Complex in New York City. The Tower was completed and opened in 1973 at a height of 1,362 feet (415 m) to the roof, distinguishable from its twin, the North Tower, by its outdoor observation deck and the absence of a television antenna. Both the South Tower and the North Tower had mechanical floors, and the same type of walls. On the 107th floor of this building was a popular tourist attraction called "Top of the World Trade Center Observatories," and on the roof was an observation deck accessible to the public and a disused helipad at the center. The address of this building was 2 World Trade Center with the WTC complex having its own ZIP code of 10048.
The September 11 attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,600 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. Two hundred miles southwest in Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities included the ninety-two passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the sixty-five aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the sixty-four on American Airlines Flight 77 and the forty-four who boarded United Airlines Flight 93. The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower alone made the September 11 attacks the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built primarily between 1966 and 1975, it was dedicated on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. At the time of their completion, the 110-story-tall Twin Towers, including the original 1 World Trade Center at 1,368 feet (417 m), and 2 World Trade Center at 1,362 feet (415.1 m), were the tallest buildings in the world. Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center, 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space and, prior to its completion, was projected to accommodate an estimated 130,000 people.
Pablo Ortiz was an American construction superintendent, and former Navy SEAL. He worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the organization that managed the World Trade Center, and is credited with playing a central role in rescuing people who were trapped in the North Tower's upper floors during the September 11 attacks. Survivors describe last seeing him ascending a stairwell to go rescue more people with his friend and colleague Francis "Frank" De Martini.
Francis Albert De Martini was an American architect employed by the Port Authority of New York, the agency that managed the World Trade Center. He perished when the North Tower collapsed on September 11, 2001.
Benjamin Keefe Clark was an American chef and a victim of the September 11 attacks. Clark was working as the only corporate chef for hundreds of employees on the 96th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center that day. He urged people down the stairs, possibly saving hundreds of lives while losing his own in the process.