World Trade Center is a 2006 American docudrama disaster film[3] directed by Oliver Stone and written by Andrea Berloff.

Starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña, the film is based on the experience of a team of Port Authority Police Officers during the September 11 attacks, in which they were trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center.

On September 11, 2001, members of the Port Authority Police are dispatched to Downtown Manhattan in response to the North Tower of the World Trade Center having been hit by a plane.

Sergeant John McLoughlin, veteran of the 1993 bombing, assembles a group of volunteers; officers Antonio Rodrigues, Will Jimeno and Dominick Pezzulo, to retrieve rescue equipment from Building 5.

Pezzulo is fatally injured when a concrete slab crushes his torso, but manages to fire his sidearm once into the air, in an attempt to alert rescuers to their whereabouts just before dying.

Two United States Marines, Dave Karnes and Jason Thomas, who are searching for survivors, hear the noise produced by Jimeno and find the men, calling for help to dig them out.

The Port Authority police officers portrayed by Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, and their wives, played by Maria Bello and Maggie Gyllenhaal, were involved with the writing and overall production.

John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno said they wanted to have a film made to honor their rescuers and comrades who died on September 11, not for personal gain.

The real ESU (Emergency Services Unit) police from New York who are depicted in the film—Scott Strauss and Paddy McGee—were on set as technical advisers.

He, the producers, and the real McLoughlin and Jimeno, have said the film is a simple dedication to the heroism and sadness of the day with little-to-no political themes.

[5][6][7] The film has been accused of not providing a fair portrayal of the character and motives of rescuer Dave Karnes and paramedic Chuck Sereika.

They did not participate in the making of the film and felt their roles of being the first rescuers to reach the trapped men did not receive enough screen time.

Sereika began treating and extricating Jimeno a full 20 minutes before officers from the New York City Police Department's Emergency Services Unit arrived.

For instance, the film depicts McLoughlin's team being completely oblivious to the crash into the South Tower, having arrived at the World Trade Center site and entered the concourse before United Airlines Flight 175 struck; in reality, Will Jimeno has clarified in interviews that they were well aware of the second impact as it occurred while they were en route to the complex.

[9] John McLoughlin graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego, where he was a member of the Sigma Tau Chi fraternity.

He left his accounting office at Deloitte and Touche in Wilton, Connecticut soon after witnessing the attacks on television to assist in the rescue efforts.

Despite having left active duty in August 2001, Thomas drove to Manhattan to assist in the rescue efforts,[19] telling the Associated Press: "Someone needed help.

On September 2, 2013, Channel 4 broadcast The Lost Hero of 9/11[23] which detailed Thomas's involvement in the rescue operation following the collapse of both towers.

The website's critics consensus states: "As a visually stunning tribute to lives lost in tragedy, World Trade Center succeeds unequivocally, and it is more politically muted than many of Stone's other works.

"[26] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Governor George Pataki, and then-Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, as well as representatives from the NY Port Authority, were at the premiere of the film at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan.