Sully is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, co-produced by Frank Marshall, Time Moore and Allyn Stewart, written by Todd Komarnicki, and based on the autobiography Highest Duty by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow. The film stars Tom Hanks as Sullenberger, with Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, Autumn Reeser, Holt McCallany, Jamey Sheridan and Jerry Ferrara in supporting roles.
Sully premiered at the 43rd Annual Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. on September 9, 2016, in conventional and IMAX theaters.[2] The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $100 million worldwide, but stoked controversy in its portrayal of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Plot
On January 15, 2009, US Airways pilots Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffery Skiles board US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, taking off within minutes. Barely three minutes into the flight, at an approximate altitude of 2,800 feet (approx. 850 m), the Airbus A320 hits a flock of Canada geese, disabling both engines. Without engine power or any airports within a safe distance, Teterboro Airport being the closest, Sully decides to ditch the aircraft on the Hudson River. Sullenberger manages to land the aircraft in the Hudson without any casualties. The press and public immediately hail him as a hero, but the experience leaves him with PTSD, repeatedly envisioning the plane crashing into a building.
Afterwards, Sullenberger learns that tests conducted for the National Transportation Safety Board suggest that the left engine was still running at idle. Theoretically, this would have left Sullenberger with enough power to return to LaGuardia or land at Teterboro. Furthermore, the board of inquiry claims that several confidential flight simulations created from all available data conclude that the plane could have been able to safely land at either airport even with both engines disabled. Sullenberger, however, maintains that he lost both engines, which left him without sufficient time, speed, or altitude to safely land at any airport.
Sullenberger realizes that the NTSB is angling to have the accident deemed pilot error, which would effectively end his career. In a bid to save his reputation, he arranges to have the simulator pilots available for live demonstrations at the public hearing on the accident. When both simulations land successfully, Sullenberger counters that the simulations were unrealistic because the pilots immediately knew what actions to take, thus removing the human factor. When pressed, the inquiry board admits that the simulator pilots were allowed multiple practice sessions (17 in one case) prior to the successful airport landing simulations shown at the hearing.
Conceding Sullenberger's point, the inquiry board orders these simulations reflown to include a 35-second pause after the bird strikes before any emergency diversions are attempted. This interval approximated the amount of time that real-life pilots would have needed to assess their situation and attempt unsuccessfully to restart failed engines, as Sullenberger and Skiles in fact did. In contrast, the pilots in the successful simulator restagings diverted instantly to LaGuardia or Teterboro upon loss of engine thrust, thus rendering these forensic restagings inaccurate. When revised accordingly, the LaGuardia simulation ends with the simulated flight plowing through the lead-in lights short of the runway, and the Teterboro simulation with the flight crashing into a building short of the airport.
After a short break, the board of inquiry reveals that the left engine has been recovered from the Hudson River, showing indisputable signs that it was completely destroyed by the bird strikes. In light of these findings, the National Transportation Safety Board officially finds that the loss of US Airways Flight 1549 was unavoidable, and that Sullenberger acted correctly in performing the single viable option available to him as pilot in command to save the lives of all aboard.
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger
- Aaron Eckhart as Jeff Skiles
- Laura Linney as Lorraine Sullenberger
- Anna Gunn as Dr. Elizabeth Davis
- Autumn Reeser as Tess Soza
- Ann Cusack as Donna Dent
- Holt McCallany as Mike Cleary
- Mike O'Malley as Charles Porter
- Jamey Sheridan as Ben Edwards
- Jerry Ferrara as Michael Delaney
- Molly Hagan as Doreen Welsh
- Max Adler as Jimmy Stefanik
- Sam Huntington as Jeff Kolodjay
- Wayne Bastrup as Brian Kelly
- Valerie Mahaffey as Diane Higgins
- Jeff Kober as L. T. Cook
- Katie Couric as herself
- Michael Rapaport as Pete the Bartender
- Captain Vince Lombardi as himself
- Cooper Thornton as Jim Whitaker
- Noelle Fink as Emma Cowan
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