Snippets of a foreign tongue are picked up over the flight recorder, alerting them that something was seriously amiss in the cockpit. When it took off at 8:42, at least one hijacking was already well under way (American Flight 11 hit the north tower at 8:46). Twenty minutes earlier, the Boston control center had received the first suspicious transmission from the first hijacked aircraft: "We have some planes."

It's an hour into the film before the hijackers leap into action, slaying the pilots and a random passenger. After the hijackers take over United 93, the flight remains aloft for about 30 minutes, while passengers talk with loved ones on the ground by cell and air phones. Thomas E. Burnett (Christian Clemenson) is the first to recognize that their flight is another suicide mission and they must band together to retake the plane. Instigating the help of other passengers and the flying attendants, they rally together to retake the plane with the weapons at hand.

Scenes aboard the airplane appear as though they were culled from a series of black-box camera footage. You can almost taste the cabin air and smell the mix of colognes and deodorants of the passengers stacked beside you. Greengrass goes out of his way to be respectful and avoid sensationalism, refusing to belittle the events. So respectful was the director that he made sure that none of the dozens of actors used in "Flight 93" had a known face. A few government officials even agreed to play themselves, including top Federal Aviation Administration controller Ben Sliney.