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This past Saturday Stretch and I went to see United 93. I planned on writing a review in the coming days, but I think that Stretch himself said it better than I probably would have, so I'm going to let him tell you in his own words. All I am going to say is, go see this film, we have forgotten but we need not let that continue.

The movie was quite long. The actors were quite human. The screenplay seemed quite real. The movie wasn't about the twin towers or the pentagon. It was about the people aboard flight 93 who recognized what was going on and demonstrated that they were willing to give up their lives to avoid a great disaster.

Normally I wouldn't give away the plot, but since we all know what happens anyway...

The focus of the movie was that these people aboard the plane were real. There was nothing poetic, nothing glamorous, nothing staged. The movie was numbing. It was hard to remember that this did happen... In sad movies, there's always the solace that its all just fake. There was no comfort in this movie. There was no show of hope. But these people, led mainly by Todd Beamer, became heroes that every congressperson owes their lives to.

The movie boils down to the last 5 minutes. It is in almost every sense a Shakespearian tragedy. The scene switches back and forth between the terrorists reciting their Islamic prayers, asking Allah for courage and strength. Almost, as if in parallel, the scene switches to the passengers reciting the Lord's prayer- specifically "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us".

The passengers assault the first terrorist with the bomb. They effectively kill him and find the bomb is fake. They press on to the next terrorist and kill him as well. They reach the cockpit door and start to break it down. When they breach the cockpit, they lose control of the plane and so begins the eeriest shots ever..

The plane rolls over and aims directly at the ground. All is silent as it plummets to the ground. There is no impact.. just black and silence. Then the credits roll.

I write that because I almost have to relive it to process what happened... Maybe 75% of the people got up and quietly walked out. There was no shouting or fooling around. The rest of the people just sobbed in their chairs.

There is no promise that that won't ever happen again. This movie showed that these were real people in a real life or death situation. The terrorists overestimated the human desire to preserve one's self above all else. They were expecting the Americans to react like the Frenchman who tried to convince people to just let them do what they wanted.. that doing nothing would save themselves.

The ironic part is that by doing something, they saved everyone else.

Just remember that 2000 years ago, a man boarded a plane knowing what would happen. He knew that the terrorists wanted to destroy all of humanity. He was tempted to just .. leave things alone.. let them work out- and he would be safe.

Instead, he, rather, He, took down the plane that was on a collision course with us. WE were the targets. And yet we react to it exactly like we do now. We do nothing. We sit comfortably thinking that it was just all on tv or in a book. Congress doesn't praise the name of Todd Beamer each day, do we praise Jesus Christ for what He did?

United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we're lying in the dark
There's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King?
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping

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