Make and Model
At the 40-second mark in the just-released traiier for Stephen Daldry‘s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Warner Bros, 12.25), we see Thomas Horn, who plays the son of Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, react to the sound of an overhead jet. As this is a 9/11-related drama, it’s naturally presumed that Horn is hearing (and perhaps seeing) American Airlines #11, the Boeing 767-223ER jet that hit the North Tower at 8:54 am that morning.
But the jet we briefly see in the trailer has twin engines mounted on the rear of the fuselage — a characteristic of an MD-80 jet. Boeing 767 engines are mounted on the wings. So…I don’t get it.
Presumably this is an error that’s exclusive to the trailer, and that everything will be fixed when the film appears three months hence. (It’s inconceivable that Daldry could make a mistake this obvious and elemental in the film itself.) But it still boggles the mind that persons involved in assembling the trailer chose to use footage (or a CG simulation) of a flying MD-80 jet when they had to know that people like me would spot this right away.
United #175, the plane that hit the South Tower at 9:03 am, was a 767-200, which also has its engines mounted on the wings.
Even if the portion of the trailer in question is based on a sequence in the film in which Horn is looking at some random jet passing over and imagining that it’s one of the two jets that hit the towers, it’s needlessly misleading to show us an aircraft of this type, certainly in the context of a trailer in which the information and associations are expected to be simple and direct and easy to process. What could possibly be the point?
“What could possibly be the point?”
If I had to guess (not having read the book) — it’s that even just the sound of a plane, no matter what type, will forever remind him of that day. Or alternately, it’s foreshadowing.
However, I also disagree that it’s “inconceivable” that such a mistake could be made… if it is in fact a “mistake” and supposed to be one of the two hijacked planes.
Most people don’t know one plane from another. See Top Gun (where they used U.S. F-5 Tiger Sharks as the Russian MiGs) for an example.
Wells to Mr. F.: That’s what I’m figuring….that ANY plane flying overhead has a powerful effect on Horn’s character in the wake of 9/11…but why show a plane that’s clearly different than the ones that actually hit the towers? Why muddle things up? What would be the harm in showing a plane with engines mounted on the wings? Why incite the conversation that we’re having now?
“Most people don’t know one plane from another”? Or, by extension, they also don’t know one kind of military rifle from another. So the next time Hollywood makes a World War II battle film, the soldiers should carry Vietnam-era M16s instead of M1 carbines, right? Nobody knows or cares so why not?
Wells: I’m not saying it’s the RIGHT choice for a trailer… but if the larger point in the movie is that even prop planes or fighter jets make him think of 9/11, it was so tragic for him… that is a MUCH more meaningful thing to say than “the sound of 767-200′s will forever haunt him.”
But we’ll see in a couple months…
Hey, I”m not saying they shouldn’t get it right. The F-5 thing literally ruined Top Gun for me. When Maverick was bragging to his buddies that he had faced the Russians, I thought he was lying because I recognized the planes. It was only several minutes later that I’d realized they dropped the ball.
I’m just saying that most people don’t know the difference. And if they don’t know the difference, 99 times out of 100, the suits will go with the cheapest alternative. Not every filmmaker is Kubrick or Mann.
I liked it when it was called Millennium Actress.
Wells: “but why show a plane that’s clearly different than the ones that actually hit the towers?”
Insert Truther crack here.
Why is it necessarily cheaper to show an MD-80 flying overhead than a 767?
“Hey, I”m not saying they shouldn’t get it right. The F-5 thing literally ruined Top Gun for me. When Maverick was bragging to his buddies that he had faced the Russians, I thought he was lying because I recognized the planes. It was only several minutes later that I’d realized they dropped the ball.”
I has the same reaction to Top Gun after the volleyball scene, when it was later revealed that Maverick and his friends were heterosexual. Took me out of the movie.
(hat tip to Tarantino)
Mr. F: Actually, that was Roger Avary’s material.
“Why is it necessarily cheaper to show an MD-80 flying overhead than a 767?”
I don’t know. Maybe it’s the stock footage they had on hand. Shades of Ed Wood.
If it’s not one of the two that hit the towers it’s possible that any plane overhead startles him after that day and that’s precisely the reason it’s NOT a 767 but instead just another plane?
Wells to Billy: If so (as I stated a few minutes ago) that’s a distinction or wrinkle or a level of intrigue to use for a film, not a trailer. Trailers are supposed to be simple, plain and unmuddled.
I finally watched the trailer. Right before that shot of the jet going overhead, the kid is wearing a knit cap and there’s snow on the ground. Make of that what you will.
I’m going to assume that the plane at the 40 sec mark is not (in the context of the film) a 9-11 plane. But I did pause the trailer several times, because the rear-mounted jets stand out that much. The plane in the trailer almost looks like a video game image. Anyone who remembers 9-11 images to any degree recognizes that the engines are wrong. It was my immediate reaction.
I was bothered by the fact that their was snow on the ground in the park scenes and people were wearing big coats and stuff when obviously 9/11 happened in September so it would have been some what warm. but hey it’s a movie not a documentary that can’t replicate everything exactly because they filmed it this past winter.
Wow, RobbyH sure is a FORGIVING type, isn’t he?
Asperger’s.
JLC, TOP GUN was made at the height of the Cold War. It’s not like filmmakers (or the U.S. Navy that helped them) had lots of access to Soviet hardware, let alone FIGHTER JETS, to make movies back then.
It’s called SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF. It’s why watching PATTON or BATTLE OF THE BULGE sucks for us tankheads.
P.S. crazy enough, the U.S. military did fly Soviet planes….. IN SECRET:
http://christopher-eger.suite101.com/secret-migs-flown-by-the-usaf-a18369
“”Most people don’t know one plane from another”? Or, by extension, they also don’t know one kind of military rifle from another. So the next time Hollywood makes a World War II battle film, the soldiers should carry Vietnam-era M16s instead of M1 carbines, right? Nobody knows or cares so why not?”
THAT’S why Jeff loves SPIELBERG: the man went the extra mile to actually BUILD realistic-looking replica German tanks (from Soviet, Czech and Swedish tanks).
Right??
@Ray, I totally get that. But also, at the height of the Cold War, the Top Gun school was flying F-5 Tiger Sharks to mimic MiGs. I go to see a movie called “Top Gun” and the first thing I see is Tom Cruise flying an F-14 Tomcat against an F-5 with Soviet markings. I assumed he was flying against some Top Gun guys, not actual Russians. My suspension of disbelief was shot at that point.
As HE’s resident aircraft expert…..
I’d like to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that it’s another plane that reminds him of 9/11.
For some reason I can’t get the trailer to work but based on the frame above that looks like 727-100 or a regional jet. Way to squat to be of the DC-9 / MD-80 family.
Movies and TV figure airplanes are airplanes. Can’t tell you how often a character will take off in one plane, then we’ll get an in-air shot of a different type, then a third different type when it lands.
I was watching some of the 9/11 coverage last month and they played some of the original news reporting on it. Witnesses as well as journalists were describing the planes they saw hit the tower as anything from a 737 to a DC-10 to a DC-9, etc. Like they knew those were airplane names so they just threw them out there. (DC-10!?)
Good call on the 60′s WW2 movies that used 60′s era tanks.
Spielberg etc. knocked it out of the park on “Saving Private Ryan”. Even getting the ball bearing-deprived sound of the German tanks correct.
“Spielberg etc. knocked it out of the park on “Saving Private Ryan”. Even getting the ball bearing-derived sound of the German tanks correct.”
Be careful — I have a feeling you’ve inspired an upcoming post about how Wells initially loved the sound design in SPR, but in hindsight thinks it was all bullshit because “El Beardo” (or is that Lucas?) used American ball bearings rather than German, thereby ruining the effect.
To make it really accurate, there should be a mysterious pod on the fuselage of the plane.
Don’t know anything about plane types, but I am a little annoyed by the appearances of model-year 2006+ cars in the NYC scenes that seemingly take place in 2001… Seems like even more of a no-brainer than the plane specifics.
Sigh…
Can we all agree that it is more than likely that the scenes and details in this trailer are NOT set in 2001? Please?
It’s like debating the use of automobiles in Citizen Kane by arguing “But he was born in 1863!”
“Why muddle things up?”
If the point is that any plane makes him think of 9/11, it seems to me that showing a plane that is definitely, even at a casual glance, NOT the same as the planes from 9/11 would make that clear and distinct, while showing a plane that does look exactly the same would muddle the point a whole lot.
Jeff did they already call it Asperger’s when you were growing up?
I’m more bothered by the fact that the key ends up being to his father’s porn collection.
God, I hope that’s true, SS.
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