---
title: "United 93"
year: 2006
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/united-93"
fi1m_id: "united-93"
imdb_id: "tt0475276"
tmdb_id: 9829
wikidata_id: "Q282804"
fi1m_score: 88
critics_score: 77
critics_reviews: 6
published: "2026-09-15"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:45.642884+00:00"
region: "BE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# United 93 (2006)

Directed by Paul Greengrass · 1h 51m · Drama, History, Thriller

## Identity

United 93

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/united-93
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** united-93
- **IMDb ID:** tt0475276
- **TMDB ID:** 9829
- **Wikidata ID:** Q282804
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475276/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9829, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q282804

**Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 77 from 6 reviews

*In a sentence:* People trying to do their jobs, while we sit there wishing we could warn them

> Paul Greengrass’s *United 93* is a frightening, disciplined reconstruction that deserves to be seen, though not casually. Its attention to people working through a crisis is patient and humane, but it tells us little about the hijackers’ motives.

## Synopsis

On 11 September 2001, four planes are hijacked. *United 93* follows the people aboard one of them and those trying to respond from command centres, as information arrives in fragments and an ordinary working day becomes an emergency. J.J. Johnson plays Captain Jason M. Dahl, with Gary Commock as First Officer LeRoy Homer, Polly Adams as Deborah Welsh and Opal Alladin as CeeCee Lyles. Written and directed by Paul Greengrass, the film moves between the aircraft and the response on the ground, following passengers, crew and officials as they try to understand what is happening.

## Review

Paul Greengrass’s *United 93* is a film we recommend strongly, with the warning that its naturalism can make watching it acutely distressing. It reconstructs the hijacking of one of the four planes taken on 11 September 2001, keeping close to people facing events they cannot yet understand. Greengrass, who also wrote the screenplay, resists giving them the perspective that comes with knowing the history. At 111 minutes, it asks us to spend a sustained, uncomfortable stretch in their uncertainty.

The command-centre sequences are particularly effective because work continues while the situation becomes harder to grasp. Voices overlap, and the film makes listening itself difficult without making the people speaking seem foolish. We felt helpless during these exchanges, because we could hear people trying to understand a crisis whose significance we already knew. Greengrass lets their attempts to respond occupy the screen for long enough that the work itself becomes frightening.

Barry Ackroyd’s unsettled camera keeps us close enough to register the strain without settling into a comfortable view of it. The movement can be wearing, and there are moments when we would welcome a steadier look, but smoothness would also make this material easier to consume. Editors Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse and Richard Pearson use the cross-cutting to keep separate efforts to comprehend the emergency in play. We have time to follow the work, even as the cutting denies us much relief from it.

Dominic Watkins makes the aircraft and command centres look like workplaces, which helps keep our attention on the people using them. John Powell’s score adds solemnity that we do not always need; we would have trusted those overlapping voices to carry still more of the strain. The film hardly needs encouragement to be upsetting. Even so, the craft generally avoids the grand presentation that could have made the reconstruction feel like an occasion for admiring the filmmakers.

The ensemble approach also matters. J.J. Johnson as Captain Jason M. Dahl and Gary Commock as First Officer LeRoy Homer belong to a film that gives professional roles more weight than star entrances. Polly Adams’s Deborah Welsh and Opal Alladin’s CeeCee Lyles fit the same restrained approach, in which speech sounds necessary rather than prepared for an audience. Their restraint makes the film’s view of ordinary people convincing, even when we learn little about them.

There is a cost to staying so close to the immediate emergency. Greengrass gives the hijackers too little beyond their part in it, and leaving their motives largely unexplored makes the film narrower than its seriousness might suggest. A reconstruction this convincing also risks being accepted as a complete account, when parts of it are necessarily speculative. We do not think either problem invalidates the film, but both should stop us treating it as a substitute for understanding the history.

As a historical thriller, it is unusually careful about the temptation to turn fear into excitement. The lack of jingoism matters, as does Greengrass’s reluctance to make ordinary behaviour sentimental. Those choices allow the distress to register without a speech explaining what we ought to feel. Give it an uninterrupted evening, and do not choose it simply because a thriller sounds relaxing.

*Fi1m score 88, published 15 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics respond strongly to Paul Greengrass’s restrained, intensely immediate reconstruction, praising its seriousness and attention to human decisions under pressure. The praise centres on the stripped-down docudrama approach: jagged camerawork, overlapping dialogue and cross-cutting make the confusion palpable without relying on conventional dramatic flourishes. Several reviews find that the avoidance of hindsight, sentimentality and jingoism gives the depiction of passengers, crew and officials its force.

The disagreement concerns what this realism explains, and whether reconstruction alone is enough. Empire admires the command-centre sequences but finds the treatment of the hijackers’ motivations limited; Slant Magazine goes further, judging the film ideologically muddled and its frenetic camerawork exploitative rather than illuminating. The spread is therefore substantial despite the predominantly positive response: most critics see sensitivity and discipline in Greengrass’s methods, while the strongest dissent questions the ethics of turning these events into an immersive experience.

## Straight answers

**Is United 93 worth watching?**

*United 93* is worth watching for anyone prepared to spend 111 minutes in real distress, and we scored it 88. Paul Greengrass reconstructs the hijacking without heroics or jingoism, staying close to passengers, crew and officials who do not yet know what we know. It tells us little about the hijackers' motives, and it is not a film for a relaxing evening.

**How long is United 93, and what is it rated?**

*United 93* runs 1h 51m. It is a drama and history film.

**Where can I watch United 93 in Belgium?**

*United 93* is streaming on Netflix in Belgium, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from €2.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is United 93, and is it suitable for children?**

*United 93* is a UK 15 and not suitable for children, less for graphic violence than for sustained, realistic fear. Greengrass refuses to turn the hijacking into excitement, so the distress is steady and close rather than shocking in bursts, and we found it acutely upsetting. Older teenagers who understand what they are watching may cope; the squeamish should think carefully.

**How does United 93 compare to The Battle of Algiers?**

*United 93* and [*The Battle of Algiers*](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers) are both reconstructions that make collective fear real without a single hero, though the earlier film is the broader and more politically lucid of the two. Greengrass stays with individuals working through one emergency, while Pontecorvo follows a whole campaign and sometimes loses sight of the people caught in it. Choose Greengrass for immediacy, Pontecorvo for scope and argument.

**What should I watch after United 93?**

After *United 93*, try [*Bloody Sunday*](https://film.one/film/bloody-sunday) (2002, Fi1m 83): Greengrass uses crowd movement and confusion to make public catastrophe painfully immediate. Then [*The Battle of Algiers*](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers) (1966, Fi1m 93): Another reconstruction that makes collective fear palpable without relying on a single hero; and [*A Night to Remember*](https://film.one/film/a-night-to-remember) (1958, Fi1m 85): Procedural detail and an ensemble cast give a historical disaster its human scale.

### Reviews we read (7)

- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (95/100, inferred): Paul Greengrass delivers a blazingly powerful and gripping real-time recreation of the hijacking that is the film of the year. The director singles out the docu-style intensity and the passengers' desperate uprising for particular impact in this ordeal cinema memorial. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/jun/02/1)
- **Empire**, Dan Jolin (80/100, inferred): Greengrass delivers an intensely real-time docudrama focused on the human decisions amid the crisis, with standout moments in the command centers. It serves as a vital historical document and cathartic portrayal but falls short in exploring the hijackers' motivations. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/united-93-review/)
- **The New York Times**, Manohla Dargis (80/100, inferred): The film is a persuasively narrated, scrupulously tasteful re-creation of the events aboard the fourth plane hijacked on Sept. 11. Greengrass employs jagged camerawork, overlapping naturalistic dialogue, and cross-cutting to deliver visceral, combat-zone verisimilitude while following the 9/11 Commission Report's trajectory. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/movies/defiance-under-fire-paul-greengrasss-harrowing-united-93.html)
- **The Independent**, Thomas Sutcliffe (75/100, inferred): The film prioritizes restraint and naturalism over dramatic flair to respectfully depict the events. Its power comes from a determined avoidance of hindsight and artistic embellishment in portraying the passengers and crew. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/thomas-sutcliffe/thomas-sutcliffe-the-height-of-filmmaking-6098051.html)
- **Slant Magazine**, Keith Uhlich (2/4): The critic finds the film ideologically muddled and exploitative, with frenetic handheld camerawork and a focus on recreation over clarity that turns the tragedy into a somber sideshow. He singles out the involvement of victims' families and the film's commercial tie-ins as particularly unsettling. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/united-93/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Ali Jaafar: Greengrass recreates the events of the hijacked flight with serious-minded sensitivity and a stripped-down docudrama aesthetic, consulting victims' families and using real air-traffic officials. The film avoids jingoism and mawkishness while conveying the threat of the day and the bravery of ordinary people. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/3315)
- **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (85/100, inferred): The review finds the film a compelling, if inevitably speculative, real-time reconstruction of events on the doomed flight that encapsulates the anxieties and sorrows of the age. It places viewers directly in the harrowing scenario of the War on Terror and confronts them with questions about their own responses to rapidly evolving horrific circumstances. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/united-93-film-review-by-anton-bitel)

## Details

- **Director:** Paul Greengrass
- **Director:** Paul Greengrass
- **Writer:** Paul Greengrass
- **Cinematography:** Barry Ackroyd
- **Editor:** Christopher Rouse, Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson
- **Music:** John Powell
- **Production design:** Dominic Watkins
- **Costume design:** Dinah Collin
- **Producer:** Lloyd Levin, Eric Fellner, Paul Greengrass
- **Cast:** J.J. Johnson as Captain Jason M. Dahl; Gary Commock as First Officer LeRoy Homer; Polly Adams as Deborah Welsh; Opal Alladin as CeeCee Lyles; Starla Benford as Wanda Anita Green; Trish Gates as Sandra Bradshaw; Nancy McDoniel as Lorraine G. Bay; David Alan Basche as Todd Beamer
- **Runtime:** 1h 51m
- **Release (Belgium):** 5 July 2006
- **Genres:** Drama, History, Thriller
- **Budget:** $15 million
- **Box office:** $76 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHdqw6scuIc

## Where to watch in Belgium

- Netflix: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: rent €2.99, hd
- Apple TV: rent €3.99, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy €9.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy €9.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-15.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2007: Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated)
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film 2006: Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film (won)

## If you liked this

- *Bloody Sunday* (2002), Fi1m 83: Greengrass uses crowd movement and confusion to make public catastrophe painfully immediate. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/bloody-sunday.md)
- *The Battle of Algiers* (1966), Fi1m 93: Another reconstruction that makes collective fear palpable without relying on a single hero. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers.md)
- *The Guilty* (2018): A confined thriller about making consequential decisions with only fragments of information.
- *A Night to Remember* (1958), Fi1m 85: Procedural detail and an ensemble cast give a historical disaster its human scale. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-night-to-remember.md)
- *The Assistant* (2019), Fi1m 81: Routine work becomes disturbing as an institution’s priorities emerge through ordinary behaviour. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-assistant.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/united-93