Inside the Twin Towers - Discovery Channel Special

The image of featureless steel structures catastrophically crumbling into a fatal dust storm was indelibly imprinted on the minds of millions of people around the world. Yet the enormous plumes of smoke, the soaring balls of fire and the sheer scale of the buildings masked the human face of the tragedy. For the first time, through drama supported by interviews and archival footage, TV audiences will be invited to venture inside the towers to follow the stories of more than a dozen individuals whose daily routine is swept aside by events that changed the world forever.

Based on the testimonies of survivors, victims’ families, emergency workers and city officials, Inside the Twin Towers opens with a glimpse of the everyday world of work and office life. It is easy to relate to Melanie de Vere, the 30-year-old British publishing executive helping to host a conference in the North Tower, and also with Stanley Praimnath, a banker devoted to his religion and family. We meet Hong Zhu, the broker who was caught up in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and Jan Demczur, the window cleaner who knows so many faces throughout the buildings.

In an instant, fate decrees who will have the opportunity to escape and who will not. Some have the option of being able to leave, but not all have the strength to do what is required to survive. On Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and in the following 17 minutes, Melanie, Hong and Jan find that they are among the thousands of people suddenly confronted by confusion and uncertainty. While they search for answers, individuals such as construction manager Frank De Martini are fighting to rescue those trapped by tons of debris. Frank, supported by his colleagues Pablo and Mak, are pushing their way up into the wreckage of the dying building, rolling back the boundary between life and death.

Outside the North Tower, New York officials, supported by the Port Authority, are mobilizing the largest rescue operation in the city's history. Well over 1,000 emergency staff are being deployed, an organized evacuation has begun, and the critical decision that the fire cannot be fought has been made. Most of the North Tower’s elevators have stopped working and any firefighter attempting to reach the seat of the blaze will take more than an hour to climb up to the 91st floor. It is at this level that the three emergency stairwells have been severed by the direct force of the remnants of the aircraft. Rescuers will not be able to climb any farther – nor will anybody be able to descend from the higher floors. At least 1,300 people are trapped on the 19 floors above and immediately below the point of collision. Then the second tower is hit.

Stuck in elevators, confronted by dark and smoky exit routes, or hemmed in by burning wreckage, office workers in both towers were beyond the immediate help of the outside world. Individuals were forced to rely on their own resources in making the best of the options available to them. In buildings 110 stories tall, where fires burning at 1,300 degrees Centigrade were melting the steel floor supports, it was a perilous journey down to the ground. Not everybody would escape before the towers collapsed.

INSIDE THE TWIN TOWERS. Discovery Channel

Among the month's many 9/11 documentaries, Discovery Channel's "Inside the Twin Towers" stands apart for two reasons.

One, it does generally credible (that is to say, horrifying) re-creations of the tragedy. Two, it gives more time than usual for survivors to speak their piece and share their memories.

By now, if you've been absorbing the other anniversary documentaries - and there are many more to come - some of these faces and stories are familiar, especially from History Channel's "The Miracle of Stairway B."

But their stories are told here with an urgency, a reverence and an attention to detail that makes this a gripping two hours.

That doesn't make it any easier to watch.

Here, more than in most treatments, there are reasons not to sample "Inside the Twin Towers." One is that the actual footage melded into the narrative is no less brutal five years later. The explosions and implosions are shown unblinkingly - and the ghastly images include one jumper free-falling from one death sentence to another.

To me, it's hard to see even one frame of jumper footage without feeling queasy and questioning whether it needs to be shown again, however good the intentions.

Re-creations usually spark the same reservations. They must be done really well to be acceptable. In both of these instances, "Inside the Twin Towers" acquits itself.

It takes a few minutes because initially there's both skepticism and resentment once it's realized the documentary's title is to be taken literally. Special effects and a re-created set take us, and keep us, inside: trapped with panicked patrons trying to break the Windows on the World, trapped in an elevator on the 50th floor of the North Tower, and from the heart of the impact zone in the South Tower.

We see the plane zooming toward us, and are blinded by debris and smoke - but there's no attempt to exploit the tragedy, just explain it. And that's where the survivors, telling their stories and those of the less fortunate but no less heroic, are such an invaluable, unforgettable part of "Inside the Twin Towers."

"We're dead men walking," FDNY Capt. Jay Jonas recalls thinking midway through a rescue mission in the North Tower as the South Tower fell. He's eloquent and honest about what he felt, thought and feared, as are the others who stare into the camera and tell their tales.

Rick Bryan, a lawyer, marvels at and expresses gratitude for his blue-collar rescuers who knew enough to punch escape paths through plasterboard. Hong Zhu, a trader, speaks in a whisper about his feelings of survivor's guilt. Bryan Clark and Stanley Praimnath, strangers until one rescued the other and they fought their way out of the South Tower before it collapsed, display another emotion: the sheer joy at having survived and connected with one another the way they did.

"Inside the Twin Towers" tells many such stories and honors some who didn't survive, as well: Melanie de Vere, Pablo Ortiz and other victims are remembered nobly.

If you can take a Twin Towers documentary, this is a very good one. But if you don't think you can, go with your instincts.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/448692p-377721c.html

It is an awesome program originally aired by CBS.
The intent of the brothers was to pick a rookie fireman and a do a documentary about whether he could make it through his probationary period.
One of the brothers had a relationship with one of the firefighters that served in the shadows of the tower.
After gradutation they happened to pick the the rookie headed to the very department house that was assigned a gas leak just down from the towers the morning of 9/11.
One of the french brothers turned and got American 11 going into the north tower.
It is the only footage you'll see of the command post being set up in the north tower minutes after the impact, watching wave after wave of firefighers arrive and be deployed including the fire house's brother.
I can't recommend it strongly enough.
I would also heavily recommend seeing World Trade Center.
I saw it last night and it was not "sanitized" to not show the planes going in, it was shot from the perspective of where the PAPD (Port Authority Police Department) were that day and to start the day they were not near the towers.

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