Tom Hanks stars as Sullenberger, with Aaron Eckhart as Jeffrey Skiles, and co-stars Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Holt McCallany, and Jamey Sheridan.

The film follows Sullenberger's 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, in which all 155 passengers and crew survived, and the subsequent publicity and investigation.

[2] The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $240 million worldwide, but created controversy with its fictionalized portrayal of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as "prosecutorial and closed-minded."

Sully is heralded by the public and media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, but experiences aftereffects, and finds himself unable to escape the attention of the press, which is targeting not only him but also his family.

Still in New York City for investigation reasons, Sully learns that preliminary data from ACARS suggest that the left engine was still running at idle power.

David Letterman appears via archive footage from the night he interviewed the real crew of Flight 1549 who are digitally swapped with their film counterparts.

The film is based on Sully's autobiography Highest Duty, the rights to which were optioned by producers Frank Marshall and Allyn Stewart in 2010.

[10] From the start, Sullenberger wanted the film to encompass "that sense of our common humanity", noting that the incident had taken place shortly after the 2008 Great Recession.

[13] Much of the rest of the cast was announced in August (with Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Holt McCallany, and Jamey Sheridan joining),[14][15][16][17] September (Jerry Ferarra),[18] and October (Max Adler, Sam Huntington, and Wayne Bastrup).

However, this meant that the release coincided with the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which made executives wary as the film contains a dream sequence in which the plane crashes into Manhattan skyscrapers.

But Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Jeff Goldstein and his team nevertheless decided to release at that time because "Sully is a story of hope and a real hero who did his job.

"[30] However, according to Komarnicki, the release date was coincidental rather than planned, and he attributed it to box-office logistics, principally the limited availability of IMAX screens during the summer and at Christmas time.

The weekend after Labor Day has historically been a lackluster period for film revenues, although Deadline Hollywood noted that this doesn't apply to the "more intriguing titles".

[3] It earned $1.35 million from Thursday previews at 2,700 theaters, which marked the biggest of Hanks's career,[40] and was considered strong by Box Office Mojo given that it coincided with the first NFL game of the season.

[46] The film continued to dominate the box office, with only a modest decline of 36% to post $21.6 million in its second weekend, despite competition from three new wide releases: Blair Witch, Bridget Jones's Baby and Snowden.

[48] Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow were thrilled by these results, as were theater owners, particularly as September tends to see a fall in box offices as schools re-open and new TV shows are marketed.

[50] Deadline Hollywood pointed out that the marketing effort had been key to the robust opening (as well as good reviews and positive word of mouth), despite the absence of both Eastwood and Hanks on social media.

The website's critical consensus reads, "As comfortingly workmanlike as its protagonist, Sully makes solid use of typically superlative work from its star and director to deliver a quietly stirring tribute to an everyday hero.

With his snowy white hair and moustache to match, Hanks conveys a man confident in his abilities, yet humble in his actions, which could also be said of Eastwood as a director.

"[64] IGN reviewer Simon Thompson awarded 9/10, writing: "Sully is a beautifully balanced, classily nuanced and hugely engaging film that avoids all the clichéd pitfalls it could have slipped into.

[67] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave 3.5 out of 4 stars and wrote, "the movie earns your attention and respect by digging deep, by finding the fear and self-doubt inside a man who'd never accept being defined as a hero.

"[68] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded it 4 out of 4 stars, praising the film as "an absolute triumph" and saying that Hanks "delivers another in a long line of memorable, nomination-worthy performances.

That, and a little soggy, given that the storyline is rooted not in the few seconds of Sullenberger's defining act of heroism, but in the way his conscience, and the National Transportation Safety Board, plagued him in its aftermath.

[75]Hanks told the Associated Press that Sullenberger was also disturbed by the fictionalized version, having reviewed an early draft of the script, going so far as to ask that the NTSB investigators' real names be removed from the characters.