Homeland Security (film)

Homeland Security is a 2004 made-for-TV film, which was intended as a pilot for a series which never materialized.

Homeland Security
Title screen
Written byChristopher Crowe
Directed byDaniel Sackheim
StarringScott Glenn
Tom Skerritt
Grant Show
Marisol Nichols
Kal Penn
Ross Gibby
Leland Orser
Theme music composerScott Gilman
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
Production
Producer(s)Ron Binkowski
Clayton Townsend
Running time98 minutes
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseApril 11, 2004 (2004-04-11)

Plot

Admiral McKee (Tom Skerritt) is retired, when following the events of 9/11 he receives a call from the White House informing him that his commander in chief requires him to serve his country once again. Shortly after this he is sworn into office as a senior member of the Office of Homeland Security under Tom Ridge. Once in office Admiral McKee faces the challenge of organizing this new office so as to prevent further terrorist attacks against the United States. With this in mind Admiral McKee's wife, Elise Mckee, recommends he speaks to his friend, NSA Agent Sol Binder.

Following a meeting with Sol Binder, Mckee recruits him into the Office of Homeland Security. After which Binder comes up with a plan for the new agency, all law enforcement agencies within the United States will have to put their rivalry aside and funnel all intelligence into the Office of Homeland Security. We first meet Agent Binder at the beginning of the film prior to the events of 9/11, where he is meeting with a group of NSA Agents with intelligence on a planned terrorist attack that is to take place in the United States where the number Nine and Eleven keep popping up, it is not until the day of the attacks that Binder was able to piece it together. It is Binder's belief that had there been a co-operative organisation such as the Office of Homeland Security the attacks could have been averted.

While the main concern of the film is the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security, which following Congress' approval would become the Department of Homeland Security, there are a number of subplots, out of chronological sequence, involved in the film. Such sub plots are, the invasion of Afghanistan, use of precision-guided air strikes with weapons such as GPS-guided JDAMs, the customs agent on the Canadian border stopping the vehicle carrying explosives for the failed Millennium bombing, the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and the destruction of Al'Qaeda training camps in the middle east, as well as in the beginning of the film. Admiral Mckees' Daughter, Melissa, is due to leave New Jersey for San Francisco on September 11, 2001, she was due to board United Airlines Flight 93, following hearing an announcement on the news that United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked and has gone down over Pennsylvania, the Admiral and his wife were distraught, shortly thereafter she contacted her parents and was upset and told them she was late and fortunately had missed her flight.

That is not all Melissa saw that day. After the Pentagon was attacked, military command had received the executive order to investigate various aircraft that were off course, including Melissa's later flight, and to shoot down any that failed to comply with visual command. In a fictional[1] engagement, three military jets engage the airliner, setting off the near collision alarm, one positioning itself in front of the airliner, another to the left. The nervous jet pilot behind the airliner nearly shoots it down before the airliner pilots comply with visual command[2] and respond. The jet pilot is ordered to stand down, take a deep breath, and escort the airliner to O'Hare Airport in Chicago, where Melissa first vigorously demands to know if they had almost been shot down. From a pay phone, Melissa called her parents and her boyfriend. Melissa demands from her mother, "Who is doing this to us?"

Cast

Reception

The film was poorly received and was cancelled even before it started as a TV show. As one review said "And don't be fooled by names like Tom Skerritt and Scott Glenn; Homeland Security is a bland and fairly tasteless bullet-point history lesson on how the 9/11 attacks happened, how a bunch of generic TV characters deal with it, and how many soaring musical strains can be employed while the rah-rah chest-thumping speechifying goes on in front of a flapping American flag." (DVDtalk.com)

Home release
Region 1 Region 2
August 23, 2005 N/A
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See also

References
  1. The fictionalized events were probably inspired by fighter jets from Ohio and Michigan being called to intercept Delta flight 1989, which was not a hijacked aircraft. Ohio and Michigan are also fairly close to Chicago Illinois, so the forced landing at Chicago O'Hare Airport, versus the actual landing in Cleveland Ohio, was easily fictionalized. From the wording of the report, it is not clear if the fighter jets went "weapons hot" on the flight, or nearly so, and may not have. 9/11 Commission Report, page 27-28, 44th and 45th pages of PDF document. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
  2. Interceptor rocks wings in a gentle roll back and forth up and down on each side, in which case the intercepted aircraft should also rock wings and then follow the interceptor.
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