America’s ‘Turn’

UNTIL 9/11, the trick to making a blockbuster action movie was pretty straightforward: invent a flawed but heroic main character, create a bloodthirsty villain, and come up with a terrorist plot so awful, so apocalyptic, that the only acceptable ending is a happy one. It is axiomatic in Hollywood action movies that nerve gas will not, at the last minute, be sprayed over the city; that a nuclear device will not, at the last minute, explode at the Super Bowl; that the World Trade Center will not, at the last minute, come crashing down on thousands of good and decent people.

Until the other day, Hollywood, like the rest of America, believed in the near miss and the last-minute save. Things change.

About the Author

Rob Long

Rob Long is a writer and producer and a co-founder of Ricochet.

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UNTIL 9/11, the trick to making a blockbuster action movie was pretty straightforward: invent a flawed but heroic main character, create a bloodthirsty villain, and come up with a terrorist plot so awful, so apocalyptic, that the only acceptable ending is a happy one. It is axiomatic in Hollywood action movies that nerve gas will not, at the last minute, be sprayed over the city; that a nuclear device will not, at the last minute, explode at the Super Bowl; that the World Trade Center will not, at the last minute, come crashing down on thousands of good and decent people.

Until the other day, Hollywood, like the rest of America, believed in the near miss and the last-minute save. Things change.