When the terrorist with the bomb sits down, you can see an old man reading a paper and discussing it with a person next to him, which exaggerates the fact that all the passengers are oblivious, even though the attack is only a few seconds away. The terrorist with the bomb starts getting out his knife from his waist, and you can see Ziad Jarrah looking tense, as he knew the attack was only a few seconds away. As the attack is about to begin, you can see the face of the terrorist with bomb changing and getting tenser, and his face gets wetter with sweat. You can also see Ahmed al-Nami getting a nod from the terrorist next to him, then he looks at Jarrah, and gets a nod from him too, then he moves up to give the terrorist next to him some space to stand up and walk. The terrorist then walks rapidly up to the flight attendant, and he puts a knife to her throat. As this is done, he shouts out; “Allahu Akbar!” As he does this, the terrorist with the bomb screams out and slits the man who was reading the paper’s throat. There is brutal violence as the terrorist with the bomb kills the man as you can see blood going everywhere. At the same time, the flight attendant with the knife at her throat screams and you can see the shock in her face. When this happens, the camera is very jerky, as if to get us involved, and thus, creates more tension as well as sympathy. The terrorist with the bomb walks up to the front and then throws off his jacket and shirt to reveal the bomb that was made in the lavatory. A passenger in the compartment t shouts out “He’s got a bomb!” The people in the other compartment are confused, and are looking around to see if anyone knew what was happening. This was a sudden attack as there was a relaxed atmosphere, and suddenly someone gets stabbed. This makes the passengers even more scared as they were all relaxed, then suddenly; they see horrid scenes of violence. A hijacker pushes everyone out and attacks them so that they could get out of their seats and goo to the other compartment. As the people run out towards the back, the other passengers are bewildered and shocked to see people with faces so scared and terrified. And one of them shouts out “He’s got a bomb2, then another man in the other compartment asks; “What’s going on”. This shows that they are completely innocent. The viewers also feel shocked by what the passengers had to go through, and then we feel even more sympathetic as the passengers run, even though we know that there is nowhere to run to. Throughout all of this shocking violence, there is screaming and shouting, which makes the atmosphere even more shocking. Ziad Jarrah does nothing, but sits there and looks at what is happening, then gets up and says to the flight attendant; “Open the door and no one will get hurt! Open the door!” Ahmed al-Nami is pushing the passengers and this gives a tenser atmosphere as it is shocking and brutal. You can see the flight attendants hurriedly pushing the drinks trolley out of the way to make way for the massive stampede of passengers to come out from First Class. The terrorists are making the passengers obey them by using the element of fear, so that they are too shocked to even think about what is happening. The terrorists are also using Arabic as a code for themselves, as the passengers cannot understand this language. Everyone is rushing to get out of the First Class cabin, and are all pushing each other out of the way to get as far away as possible. As Jarrah tells the flight attendant to open the door, she quickly knocks the on the door of the cockpit; the knock that they had planned before the boarding, and then, the pilot on the right says; “I’ll get it”, and goes to make his way. When he opens the door, the pilot gets stabbed many times on the torso by the terrorist who was holding the flight attendant. As the pilot gets stabbed, the other one shouts “Get outta here!”, and this is heard in the ATC room. Then, the terrorist runs at the other pilot, followed by Ziad Jarrah, who runs to the pilot’s seat to take control of the flight. After this had happened, the flight jerks downwards and everyone go toward the floor, as if the plane had been tilted very steeply, then the remaining pilot gets stabbed and then went back to normal. Then the terrorist with the flight attendant says “We should kill her now. We don’t need her”, then followed by some Arabic with no subtitles. Jarrah replies back in Arabic, and the terrorist says; “In the name of God!”, then slits her throat, even though we do not see this part. The terrorist then takes a red bandana out and writes something on it, while Jarrah takes out a picture of the White House and sticks it to the steering wheel. At the back of the plane, the flight attendants try to phone someone to inform them of what is happening, but do not seem to be able to get through. Back in the cockpit, Jarrah informs his fellow hijacker that there is fifty minutes, maximum, before he reaches the target. When ATC try getting through to UA – FL 93, the hijackers just ignore it, and then see on the screen that the World Trade Centre has been hit, with this piece of information, Jarrah says, “The brothers have hit both targets”, then the other hijacker says, “Should I go and tell them”. When Jarrah says, “Tell them that our time has come”, we feel nervous, as we know what that means; they are going to die soon. Paul Greengrass creates even more tension by showing us that the flight attendants still cannot get through to the ATC, and they keep on trying. This creates tension because we do not know if they are going to get through or not. To make us feel a bit like the passenger of United Airlines Flight 93, we were not given subtitles to the Arabic, but there were some parts that were, so we can have a hint as to what is going on. Greengrass creates tension like this so we can feel how the passengers felt, and we would also feel very uneasy if we were not to understand the Arabic, or anything that they hijackers were saying. In the ATC and FAA, you can see that everyone is getting stressed, and the camera keeps on shifting from person to person. This makes us feel more anxious, as we know what is going to happen next, and we are getting ready to see what is happening.
There is a big screen in the ATC, and it has a breaking new; The Pentagon was hit by American Airlines Flight 77. There is a scene of devastation, as The Pentagon represented power and authority to America. Due to this, it was being evacuated. When they read this unfortunate piece of news, everything is silent. Then, after a while, everyone is confused and talking over one another. This makes us confused, as we try to listen to everything, but cannot. The camera is also shifting form people faces, to the news flash. On the screen, we can see that there is a large fire there, and a huge plume of smoke coming out. Everyone is too shocked to say anything, and they are also looking tense, as if ready for another attack to come. Everyone stops doing the work they were doing, and starts to just look at the screen – at the news flash – in disbelief. Everyone is acting as they are because The Pentagon was a symbol of America. After the shock had gone from people, the man tells everyone to get back to work. When this happens, they got a call; “Confirmed Hijackings”. This shows that they were not sure as to what they were dealing with until now, as they now knew that they were dealing with a hijacking. Everyone is still confused and bewildered, and asks; “What are we going to do now”, this makes us feel the same way, as we know that they are gob smacked and are finding it too hard to do anything. After all this had happened, ATC say that they were to shut down all international flights, and that they could not take any more risks. They say that they have to go back where they had come from and that they were to shut down all of America. ATC say that they were to shut off all flights from all the borders of America, including Canada. This all means that they are going to shut down the whole country and that they were at War with somebody. They took this decision because, due to the shock and disbelief, they could not come up with anything, and until they did, the country was to be shut down.
When the passengers learn the truth about the hijackings, they start of from learning about the fact that two planes had hit the World Trade Centre. This fact was from an Airfone, taken by the wife of a man. The message is then sent through the back of the plane, to get to the Stewardess. This piece of information is heartbreaking for them as they think that they might go the same way; crash into a building. This also creates sympathy for the viewers because we see people crying and breaking down in tears. Then, they also hear about the Pentagon, but that there was an explosion, not a plane crash. The, the camera shifts back to the terrorists, where one of them is praying, then the radio say; “United 93, I understand you have a bomb on board. Go ahead.” After this transaction, Ziad Jarrah turned the radio off, and then says “We must go lower.” Whine this happens, the engines whine, and the passengers all fall backwards, as the plane is going lower. At this moment in time, the camera moves as if it is really happening, to get us involved in the plane and feel as if we were the passengers, this creates tension as we feel as if we are on board the plane. When the plane goes back to normal, a passenger realizes it’s a suicide mission, and informs his view to another passenger. Then they say that they have got to do something, as they are going to get flown into a building, then the German passenger says that they should not interfere, but the others disagree. A passenger then tells a stewardess to get as many weapons as possible from the kitchens at the back of the plane. Ahmed al-Nami then shouts at them in Arabic, to stop them from communicating with each other, which does not work, as he is still talking to the stewardess, who us sitting in a seat in the row next to him. She then goes to the back to get the weapons, and the passenger says “We need every big guy”. This tells us that they are going to fight back soon, and this creates tension as we know that the fight is about to begin. As this happens, passengers are giving their love to loved ones on the Airfone, as they know that they might not be able to survive. This creates a lot of sympathy as we also know, but we know the truth; they are all going to die. At the kitchens, the weapons that were going to be used were; wine bottles, fire extinguisher, hot water, knives and forks. A stewardess then informs the others that someone said that the bomb may not be real. Some of them are worried, as they are uncertain what is about to happen. Then, one passenger runs to the back, and the hijackers look worried, as they think that they might fight back. One by one, the two other passengers go to the back of the plane, to get ready to fight back. The terrorists get even more worried, and then they start shouting in Arabic. There are many whispered phone calls, saying their love and that they love each other. After this happens, the terrorists tell the other two flying the plane that the passengers are talking at the back of the plane, and that they might be planning an attack. With this piece of information in mid, Jarrah says “Oh God! Oh God!” Then, we hear that there is twenty minutes left until they reach the target. Ahmed al-Nami then goes to attack someone to try and get them to listen to the terrorists by trying to scare them. A man then goes quickly to the lavatory to call 911 and tell them that there is a hijacking on United Flight 93. This creates a sense of sympathy as we realize how desperate they are; going to the lavatory so that they could call 911. In the compartment, they are saying their final goodbyes to their loved ones. A sense of hope is raised greatly as they find out that they have a pilot on board and someone who done eight years ATC. Everyone is praying; the hijackers are praying to hit their target in Arabic, and in English, the passengers are praying to get out of all this alive and safe. After all the praying and the finishing touches to the plan, and the phone call home, the fight begins.
As the fight starts, the terrorist with the bomb is looking into the cockpit, which is the time that the passengers chose to start the fight. One passenger shout out “GO!”, and then this is followed by shouts. The terrorist with the bomb is then lashing out with his knife wildly, but then gets kicked down by the passenger that shouted go. He then gets taken to the floor and gets beaten up by all the passengers. The terrorist gets hit on the head by the extinguisher, and then you can see a lot of blood getting spattered across the wall. A passenger then shout out; “I got it! I got it!” followed by “It’s a fake!” and he is holding out the bomb ripping out the clay and red tape. As all of this was happening, Ahmed al-Nami went to the cockpit and informed the two at the front that there was a fight, but all in Arabic with no subtitles. You can see that both passengers and terrorists are desperate, but now the power is going slightly towards the passengers, as they had realized that the bomb is a fake. In the cockpit, the terrorist says something in Arabic to Ziad Jarrah, and then Jarrah straps himself to his seat, so as not to get taken out of his seat when the passengers come in. There is rapid beeping, to give the effect that we too are in the plane, and this makes us more anxious, and thus, creates tension. Jarrah then controls the plane and everyone falls down. The camera is very jerky, and you can hardly see things, but just the important things. This make us think, and then we see many people really scared and sad, creating sympathy. Ahmed al-Nami then takes a drinks trolley and charges out towards the passenger, while the terrorist in the cockpit holds the door closed, and the camera is still jerky. There is hardly any music, but just the sounds of people screaming and the sound of fighting. Ahmed al-Nami then sprays something into the eyes of the passengers, so as not to attack him, but they carry on. He then sprays them with the fire extinguisher, as they had gotten rid of the drinks trolley and were charging towards him. Al-Nami then gets taken down, and killed. In the cockpit, there is continuous beeping, and the camera is even jerkier, as if every time their lives end gets closer, the camera gets jerkier.
To enter the cockpit, the passengers use the drinks trolley. When they succeed in banging open the cockpit door, Ziad and the other terrorist are really shocked. They are all screaming. Then Ziad Jarrah screams out “Allahu Akbar!” The terrorist is trying to push back the passengers with the piece of the broken door, and is screaming in Arabic. Ziad Jarrah is also screaming, and the plane is going straight downwards. There is a lack of music, and you can only see body parts, no faces. Then the passengers mange to get into the cockpit and try to get Jarrah out of the controls, but he is strapped in. Then everyone shouts. After this, there is a peaceful music, and you an extreme – long shot of the piece of land that they are going to crash into. Then everything goes quiet and blank.
In the blackout, there is no need to film the actual crash, as we know that it is the end of their lives. There is a haunting music, so that we could think about what they and done, and t is put at the end of the film to act like a tribute to the passengers. You are made feel that the passengers were brave and to male you feel proud of them and mournful.
In conclusion, I think that the director Paul Greengrass succeeded in creating tension. He did this by the use of many techniques, for example like; the jerky camera movements, the lack of music, and the close-up camera shots. In my opinion, he ended up creating more sympathy than tension. This is because we feel really sad, as we have just watched what would have been the ending of more than forty people.
