United 93: The Shooting Script

At what point does it become acceptable to portray such a painful time on the screen? According to writer/director Paul Greengrass—informed with interviews from more than 100 family members and friends of the fallen passengers and crew—the right time is when the families say yes, which they all did. "Forty ordinary people had thirty minutes to confront the reality of the way that we're living now, decide on the best course of action and act . . . they were the first people to inhabit the post-9/11 world," writes Greengrass in his treatment explaining why and how he wanted to make this movie.

The treatment appears in this scriptbook, along with an astonishing article by Michael Bronner about the U.S. Air Force response to the hijacking, film reviews by Martin Amis, Peter Bradshaw, David Denby, and Stephen King, a Q&A with Paul Greengrass, production notes, and more.