MovieChat Forums > Down (2001) Discussion > September 11 references

September 11 references

posted 18 years ago by dargeniov
27 replies | jump to latest

Just wondering if anyone else picked up on the references to September
11 in this movie. The Military police carrying the stinger rockets say
terrorists might use planes now. Shortly afterwards, another cop says
has anyone seen Bin Laden. According to IMDb, this movie was released
for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2001. That's
prior to the terrorist attacks. I'm wondering if those lines in the
movie were just eerily coincidental, or if they were added after Cannes
and after the attacks. If they were added after the attacks, that is in
very poor taste IMO. Any thoughts?

[–] ghostbusters 18 years ago

The movie was obviously filmed before 9/11 as the World Trade Center towers are clearly visible in some shots of the NYC skyline.

So chalk this one up to eerie coincidence (and trust me, if was errie to hear those lines as I watched the film having seen the towers earlier in it).
--
Paul R.

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[–] dargeniov 18 years ago

Great point re the towers being in the film. Eeeeeeeeeeeeerie!

[–] tgemberl 18 years ago

And wasn't the film not released because it was considered in bad taste because of 9/11? I thought I read that somewhere. If so, really bad luck for the people who made it.

"Extremism in the pursuit of moderation is no vice."

[–] rhet_oric 18 years ago

have you never heard of recycled footage? just because they showed the WTC in the skyline doesn't mean they shot those images for this film. remember spiderman had the shots edited out after 9/11. yeah, the references in dialogue are meant to be the 1993 bombing, but it IS really creepy that the movie came out the year the towns went down. :( RIP.

[–] kris-langley 17 years ago

Sure, but when you have the actors in the film standing in front of the World Trade Center, and seeing as how the movie was filmed before the terrorist attacks, have you never heard of someone setting up a shot in front of a pre-existing building?

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] jwstewartii 18 years ago

I caught the reference to bin Laden this morning when I watched it on Showtime and wondered about that. Maybe Maas is an avid reader and already figured Osama would be up to something. Maybe the CIA and NSA should hire him on their payroll. He obviously was on the right track.

[–] springsteenuk 18 years ago

There have been lots of these references before 9/11 happened and people always think that is amazing etc, just like that Bible Code stuff. The truth is that because such a disastrous event happened people try to find coincidences in everything.
Even TAFKAP/Prince said in a 2000 concert: "USA watch your ass, Bin Laden is about to bomb you".

[–] dickhedtracy-1 18 years ago

the WTC was bombed in 1993, Bin laden was involved back then too,so im guessing those were the references ,not 9/11

[–] optimusprime12345 18 years ago

I just want too point out the first Spiderman movie that cam out in 2002 and they were going too have them in the film. Because in the special edition they have the ads they used with a big cob web between them but since the towers went down before the film was released they took it out and stoped those ads.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] disarrasin 18 years ago

I noticed the same thing. Its pretty freakin weird. Bin Laden was scarcely heard of before 9/11. Its also strange how we never see the Twin Towers until towards the end and the camera seems to focus on them a bit. I dont think it was added afterward. I think it was one of those strange presages that happen every now and then. Another example is the film the China Syndrome which preceded the Three Mile Island disaster by just a few months.

[–] studmufn 18 years ago

I found the whole thing very ironic. Incidently, the Twin Towers were shown in this film a couple of times. The first time was around the middle of the film and the last time was towards the end. One comment made by one of the SWAT team members was made in error and that being the reference that the terrorist tried to bring down the Towers 10 years earlier. This of course is wrong since at the time of the making of this film it was 2001 and ten years earlier would have been 1991; the first attack on the Towers was a few years after that. I wonder if anyone involved in the making of this film felt strange about their script after the events of 9/11.

[–] forsmeau 18 years ago

I came on this site for the express purpose of seeing if anyone else noticed the 911 references I noticed. You all wrote exactly what I was thinking. I'm glad I'm not crazy! It was the only intriguing part of an otherwise terrible film.

[–] ironwolf56 15 years ago

Bin Laden was well known by people who might have contact with his organization prior to 9/11. I remember in 2000 getting security briefings as a young PFC in the Marines about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. The civilian world may have been kind of unaware but this didn't come out of nowhere, ever hear of the USS Cole for example?

[–] thesnowleopard 15 years ago

Bin Laden was well known by people who might have contact with his organization prior to 9/11. I remember in 2000 getting security briefings as a young PFC in the Marines about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. The civilian world may have been kind of unaware but this didn't come out of nowhere, ever hear of the USS Cole for example?

Not to mention the bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. We definitely should have paid more attention to those. Bin Laden had been active since the '80s. Anybody who was well-read in world news knew about him long before 2001.

The Snowleopard's homepage http://www.geocities.com/rpcv.geo/other.html

[–] hans_gerlsma 18 years ago

Prior to September 11 Bin Laden was already the most wanted terrorist and he and Al Qaida had made a lot attacks already. I don't know how the american media spoke about him prior to September 11, but he was well known already internationally. There was a lot of information about Al Qaida planning to use planes months before the attack.

[–] sixpackrt 18 years ago

I was following this film from the start of it's production and keeping in touch with the production company to find out when it would get a theatrical release. TRUST ME, Mr. Maas did not film this after 9/11 and did not intend any of those references to be about it. In fact, Maas was hoping to finally get one of his films into wide-release over here but that's what killed the project. Nobody save for home video distributors would touch it after hearing the lines about terrorists in the film. What gets me is that there is little enough of it to where it could have easily been edited out.

"I've seen things in this city that make Dante's Inferno read like Winnie The Pooh."

[–] droopfozz 18 years ago

Yeah, I found that the scariest part of this movie. I thought the Bin Ladin line might have been added in post, because you don't see the man's face when he says it, but other than that it was kinda eerie.

[–] the_darkness_of_poetic_humor 18 years ago

It's eerie all right , but it all dates back in time. The Patty Hearst incident was all in a book written by some author three or five years before it happened. Stephen King wrote a novel about a kid going to school and shooting his classmates, (that actually happened after Stephen King wrote the book and the kid was most likely inspired, which could be the same for Patty Hearst). But everything is gestured within something. Like the dude that posted Prince saying "Watch out America, Bin Laden is going to bomb you" or whatever. Prince could've read the newspaper and did the math or just hearing old people talk outside of barber shops, restaurants, etc. The world is coming to an end and we're all going to be nuked....well even as simple as it sounds, it's very possible of happening!!!

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] suzycreamcheese1 16 years ago

Absolutely. I'm surprised it's even being shown.

[–] StoneGriffin 16 years ago

well according to some people associated with the film, the dialogue was NOT added in later (and if it was it would have been in really bad taste). :( Bin Laden was a primary suspect in a few terrorist attacks prior to 9/11, primarily the USS Cole bombing and the Bombing of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

However, I did find it pretty 'coincidental' that the SWATs mention airplanes being used by Terrorists and anyone seeing Bin Laden. Those lines were NOT seen actually spoken by anyone but were 'off screen' voice overs. I'm not going to second guess the production, but the film was definitely done way before 9/11. If it was screened in May 2001. Usually films are started at least one year prior to release (since it takes about that long to film it, edit it and do all the post production work, including score and special effects). And regarding the president blaming terrorism for the deaths in the elevator, in May 2000 when this production was most likely started, Clinton was still president so all that bluster about going after terrorists wasn't a slap at Bush. Weird huh? It was all pretty eerie.

Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Gmork76 11 years ago

Very eerie and sad reminder of 9/11.