That something else

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2006)

"The World Saw Evil That Day. Two Men Saw Something Else." The memorable tagline for "WTC". At first one would think to himself initially that this "something else" is the hell and suffering that surrounds the darkest hours of the lives of two Port Authority Police officers, trapped deep beneath the now fallen twin towers. And until the final thirty minutes of this film, that's what i figured to be the meaning of it as well. But it wasn't until i remembered how i felt that fateful day that brought upon what i believe to be the truest, purest deciphering of this tagline. We can all recall the aura of feeling we held in our grasps as we watched with glued eyes on the television of that repetitious cycle of horrible footage that seemed to completely envelop the world of media, and perhaps the world itself. We, as the tagline states, "saw evil that day." which is the general gist of our mindset towards the rest of society to this very day: Evil Evil Evil. "An act of war", "America shall rise to its feet once more", and countless other all-too-familiar house-hold sayings that were catalysts to our now overly suspicious, militant points of view to our fellow man throughout the globe. That something else that these, and other men as well witnessed was the un-dying natural basic human instinct to help, care for, and assist your fellow human being in times of peril and woe. As these men are rescued from their prisons of twisted steel and concrete, they gaze upwards astonished at what they see: No world trade center towers. As if until that very moment, they never even considered ruling this string of events as a horrible act of evil. They excercised the very most basic instinct, to stay alive. While keeping each other awake while buried to have some chance of each other not bleeding to death and dying in their sleep. Every measure is excercised by complete strangers toward one another to console eachothers pain. Even an ex-marine, police officers, and volunteers from other states who are no where near this disaster feel this "need" to be at ground zero, to just do something, anything to help. That "something else" is the now somewhat forgotten, un-alienable need to help your fellow man in any way possible. The heroes who were of assistance throughout this ordeal weren't thinking of who had done this, why, or if it would happen again. Their primary focus was just to help. And this idea sheds light on a dimmed world filled with misery and depression fueled by warfare, politics, and a media driven by violence and suspicion. As Nicholas Cage surrealistically narrates at the film's conclusion, "Sometimes we are faced with the opportunity to help each other along for the sole reason of beleiving that it is the right thing to do."