Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Outline of Version 1

There are two separate versions of this film. Version 1 was uploaded to Google Video on June 1, 2005; Version 2 came out on January 16, 2006.

Because the two versions are substantially different (much more on that to come) I thought I'd put together a quick outline of Version 1 today.

(0:00-0:10) Dedication: Dedicated to the lives we lost on September 11, 2001

(0:11-0:28) Establishing shot shows Statue of Liberty and World Trade Center.

(0:29-0:47) Picture of quote from Fox News reporter who claimed he could not see windows on the second plane to hit the World Trade Center.

(0:48-1:47) Discussion of first plane hitting the World Trade Center. Claim is made that "a flash" occurs prior to the plane hitting the building.

(1:48-3:40) Discussion of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. Claim is made that "an extra piece of equipment is visible" on the underside of the fuselage. Claim is made that a missile was fired from the plane seconds before impact.

(3:41-7:20) Credits, along with a collage of video clips of the buildings crashing, and a radio interview with a conspiracy theorist (apparently Hunter S. Thompson).

(7:21-8:28) Discussion of the Pentagon attack. The claim is made that "Hani Hanjour allegedly executes a 330-degree turn at 530 miles per hour". (Note: A 330 degree turn in one direction is only a 30-degree turn in the opposite direction. This appears to be an obvious mistake.)

(8:29-10:47) Interview with pilot whom Hanjour requested to rent him a plane. Pilot explains that their insurance requires them to fly with anybody wanting to rent a plane to make sure they are competent to fly. About the only payoff here is that the pilot (who did not fly with Hanjour himself) said that Hanjour rated as average to below average in piloting skills.

(10:48-10:56) Claim that the air traffic controllers following American Airlines Flight 77 (the plane that crashed into the Pentagon) all thought that it was a military plane.

(10:57-22:00) This segment concerns the Pentagon and the plane that hit it. There are many claims in this part, including the folllowing: Claim that the plane did not bounce off the lawn. Claim that light poles are pointing away from the Pentagon and that there is no evidence they were hit by a 757. "Instead, they seem to have just popped out of the ground." Claim that the damage to the Pentagon is inconsistent with it being hit with a 757. Many, many more claims in this section. Especially the claim that the Pentagon was hit with a cruise missile.

(22:01-42:25) World Trade Center Collapses. Discussion of several major fires in steel buildings that did not lead to the collapse of the buildings. Many claims, including that 10,000 gallons of jet fuel could not have led to the collapse. Claims that a basketball dropped from the roof would have hit the ground at the same time that the roof did. Many, many more claims.

(42:26-1:00:55) The last part of the film deals with United Flight 93. Many, many more claims. Some mutually contradictory. Initially he appears to be claiming that the plane was shot down (he includes a clip of Howard Stern receiving a call that led Stern to believe that the military had shot down the plane). But later, he claims that the plane did not crash.

The cell phones calls come in for special attention starting at 52:25. Avery finds several of them "extremely peculiar".

For example, he comments on the Mark Bingham call, during which an obviously upset Bingham says "Mom, it's Mark Bingham." Avery snidely wonders when the last time any of us have introduced ourselves to our mother with our full names. Of course, to most of us, that just indicates how rattled Bingham must have been at the time, but to Avery it's a hint of something extremely sinister, that the government had somehow used voice-morphing technology to make it sound like Mark Bingham, when it wasn't him. Avery also mocks the flight attendant on the first flight for her published words:

"I see water and buildings. Oh my god! Oh my god!"

Believe it or not, Avery snidely says (53:16), "As if she had never seen the Manhattan skyline before in her life."

Let me say here that I live in Phoenix and have for 22 years. I have flown into Sky Harbor Airport many times. When I have a window seat, I generally look down and try to pick out landmarks and figure out roughly where we are. It's surprisingly hard to do, and remember that I'm also somebody quite accustomed to looking at aerial photographs and picking out the subject property (I work in commercial real estate).

He also expresses skepticism that Todd Beamer (54:07) would talk to a total stranger at Verizon rather than get through to his wife. Of course, the woman at Verizon had patched in the FBI on the call, so the focus was not on this being Beamer's last phone call, but reporting a major crime in progress and figuring out what to do about it.

Avery concludes (55:02) that the cellphone calls were fake.

(55:43-56:30) Avery announces that nine of the hijackers are still alive, including Mohammed Atta. Evidence for this latter? His father claims to have received a phone call from his son on September 12. Several of the other hijackers are claimed to be currently pilots or in training to be pilots.

The film concludes with a call to action that seems just a tad bizarre given all that's gone on:

America has been hijacked. Not by Al Qaeda, not by Osama Bin Laden, but by a group of tyrants, ready and willing to do whatever it takes to keep their stranglehold on this country. So what are we gonna do about it? Are we going to sit down, and take it, or are we going to stand up and fight for what little freedoms we have left? The story of Flight 93 is a perfect metaphor for the state of this country. A group of heroes, willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the nation, voted to take matters into their own hands, no matter the consequences. The time has come. Let's roll!


It sure sounds to me like he's calling for assassination or revolution there, doesn't it? And I thought the story of Flight 93 was a bunch of BS anyway? Note: I just listened to the ending of version 2 and it changes everything after "So what are we gonna do about it?"

Notes: It is my impression that Version 2 (which I have not seen all the way through) contains substantially different material. This would certainly suggest that Avery and company deleted some of the nuttier stuff from this original version, like the call to revolution at the end. I'll try to put up a post on specific differences between the two films.

2 Comments:

At 15 February, 2009 07:35, Blogger Unknown said...

"""""""For example, he comments on the Mark Bingham call, during which an obviously upset Bingham says "Mom, it's Mark Bingham." Avery snidely wonders when the last time any of us have introduced ourselves to our mother with our full names. Of course, to most of us, that just indicates how rattled Bingham must have been at the time,"""""""


My God, this argument of yours is just so preposterous, it's laughable, looooool.

 
At 15 February, 2009 07:35, Blogger Unknown said...

""""""For example, he comments on the Mark Bingham call, during which an obviously upset Bingham says "Mom, it's Mark Bingham." Avery snidely wonders when the last time any of us have introduced ourselves to our mother with our full names. Of course, to most of us, that just indicates how rattled Bingham must have been at the time""""""

Your argument is just so preposterous, it's laughable.

 

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