The film also covers the experiences of government officials and air traffic controllers, many of whom are played by themselves, as they witness the other events of the attacks unfold that day.

[2][7] Ten percent of the gross income from the three-day opening weekend was promised toward a donation to create a memorial for the flight's victims.

[8] The film received two Academy Award nominations: Best Director for Greengrass and Best Film Editing for Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson, and Christopher Rouse On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda members Ziad Jarrah, Saeed al-Ghamdi, Ahmed al-Nami, and Ahmed al-Haznawi pray in a Newark, New Jersey hotel before boarding United Airlines Flight 93, bound for San Francisco.

Among the passengers are Tom Burnett, Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Richard Guadagno, Louis J. Nacke II, Lauren Grandcolas, and Mark Bingham.

As United 93 reaches its cruising altitude, and the passengers are served breakfast, Jarrah hesitates to give the sign to start the hijacking.

Ghamdi also loses his patience and grabs flight attendant Deborah Welsh at knifepoint as passenger Mark Rothenberg is mortally wounded by Haznawi.

As Haznawi and Nami force the passengers to the back of the plane, Ghamdi kills both pilots and Welsh, but not in time to prevent them from transmitting a mayday call, as Jarrah takes the controls.

Grandcolas (an emergency medical technician) tends to the dying Rothenberg as the hijackers jubilantly react to the text message indicating the success of the WTC attack.

Realizing the hijackers are on a suicide mission, Burnett, Bingham, Beamer, Glick (a former judo champion), Guadagno, Nacke, Grandcolas, passengers William Cashman, Patrick Driscoll and Alan Beaven form a plan to retake the plane, with assistance from Bradshaw, Lyles and the flight staff, gathering weapons.

As the group conspire, Haznawi and Nami realize that they are losing control of the situation and Jarrah and Ghamdi get agitated, as they are twenty minutes away from D.C. and cannot speed up.

As Nami, Ghamdi and Jarrah panic, Haznawi is killed by Bingham bludgeoning his head with a fire extinguisher with Nacke declaring the bomb a fake.

Additionally, several participants in the real-life events portray themselves in the film, including Thomas Roberts, Tobin Miller, Rich Sullivan, Tony Smith, James Fox, Shawna Fox, Jeremy Powell, Curt Applegate, Greg Callahan, Rick Tepper, and notably FAA operations manager Ben Sliney.

[12] Filming took place from October until December 2005, on a 20-year-old reclaimed Boeing 757 formerly operated by MyTravel Airways, at Pinewood Studios near London.

[13] The location was chosen both for its financial incentives and to shield actors from unwanted public scrutiny they might have received in the United States.

[15] The film was released in the United States on April 28, 2006, and opened second in the weekend box office behind RV, but it netted a slightly higher per-screen average.

[19] The timing of the events is changed for dramatic effect, with Jarrah making his final call to his girlfriend from the airport lounge, whereas he made it from his hotel room, and Mohamed Atta's “we have some planes” transmission being determined before Flight 11 crashed into the WTC; it actually happened after.

[20] In an interview, Ben Sliney said that Greengrass exaggerated other details for dramatic effect, such as he and various controllers swearing and shouting when in his recollection most people spoke quietly.

The hijackers' intended target is unknown, but the film depicts Jarrah taping a picture of the United States Capitol on the yoke.

[5] Sunday Times critic Cosmo Landesman mused, "Surely one of the passengers didn't phone home to point out that there was a cowardly German on board who wanted to give in?

"[34] Critic John Harris suggested in a Guardian blog, "there will surely be all kinds of cries about old European surrender monkeys, the United States' contrasting backbone etc.

[48] Alex von Tunzelmann of The Guardian gave the film a grade of C, saying: "United 93 is superbly made and authentic in feel, but the choices it makes about what happened on the plane – and who gets to be the heroes – are open to question.

Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal and Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer named it among the top ten best films of 2006.