World Trade Center

World trade center

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Running Head: WORLD TRADE CENTER

World Trade Center

Ana C Miranda

Liberty University

Staying Alive

Although the movie, "World Trade Center", directed by Oliver Stone is named after the buildings brought down by a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, it is not a depiction of political reasons or sensational events brought to the screen to startle. It is the touching real life story of the ways two men helped each other survive in the most unseemly crisis. "It's not about the World Trade Center, really. It's about any common man or woman faced with the end of their lives, and how a tragedy as big as this brought people together, united as one big nation with strength and compassion in an attempted to evacuate the World Trade Center towers after they were struck by airliners piloted by terrorists.

I loved the simplicity and modesty of this movie" (qtd. Halbfinger, 2006). Out of the five assigned officers from the New York City's Port Authority that were deployed to the rescue mission, only two of the last people were found alive amidst the wreckage, Sergeant John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and William J. Jimeno (Michael Peña), the ordeal of being trapped inside the fifth building of the World Trade Center beneath the rubble after the towers had collapsed. This movie “World Trade Center” reveals the experience, the coping techniques, the faith, hope and the resilience of these two brave men and their families as they deal with the crisis.

At the end of the movie, Nicholas Cage, who plays Sergeant John McLoughlin, sees his wife as he is being wheeled to the hospital and tells her, "You kept me alive" (World Trade Center, 2006). Remembering and talking about his wife during the time he was trapped was one of the coping mechanisms Sergeant John McLoughlin used to deal with the tragedy. Though there is no way to predict or to be prepare for this kind of crisis that happened on September 11, 2011, it would seem to be a good idea to offer classes to policemen and firemen in crisis coping skills or to provide some sort of special training specifically for these type of trauma.

There is a program that is being used to train first responders in the event of a traumatic situation called Acute Traumatic Stress Management (ATSM). This model