History Film / Sully

* StrawmanPolitical: The film makes the NTSB investigators look like skeptics towards Sully. In reality, their investigation ''cleared'' him.[[note]]While they always look for human error as a possible cause of an accident, their work in examining the second engine showed clearly the birds the engine ingested were more than enough to destroy it, despite the manufacturer insisting otherwise. In the engine that appeared to be running at idle, the geese (or something they'd broken on their way through) had disconnected the fuel line, causing the fuel to be injected and ignited in the slipstream, which understandably alarmed passengers who had a view of it. They also ran live-pilot simulations as to whether he could return to an airport, and unlike in the movie, nearly all the pilots crashed. Human error was ''definitively'' ruled out. The test pilots also attempted simulated water landings. None successfully made the water landing either, showing big gaps in training that Sully managed to overcome. Sully came out an even bigger hero than when the investigation started.[[/note]] Since Clint Eastwood is a staunch conservative libertarian, it seemed obvious for him to blame a government agency for whatever wrongdoings actually occurred.
* ThisIsReality: Sully notes that, in the initial simulations at the NTSB hearing, the pilots automatically know what kind of situation they were in, immediately heading for [=LaGuardia=] or Teterboro once the bird strikes take place. He reminds the NTSB that this was a real-life event without precedent, and that it took him and Skiles 3 minutes and 28 seconds to run through enough of the checklists (trying -- and failing -- to restart the engines, for instance) to realize the true nature of their situation. [[note]] In RealLife, even savvy simulation pilots had a 50-50 chance of crashing their planes with all souls lost. [[/note]] The NTSB conceded the point and introduced a 35-second time delay into the revised simulations.

* ForWantOfANail: Sully is haunted by nightmares of what could have happened had he not taken the course he had taken. [[spoiler:They involve flying so low that he would crash into buildings. The Flight Simulations at the end, after installing the prescribed 35 second delay, also have glimpses of what could have happened]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: In Real Life, the NTSB is the gold standard for investigating the how and why of transportation accidents. They're so good that, when other countries suffer this, they turn to the NTSB for help. Their professional position is "no fear, no favor" -- they don't cross-examine, they gather all the data they can before they start making conclusions, and in reality, worked closely with the flight crew, the passengers, the airline, ''and'' experts to try and determine the root cause. In real life, their investigation into the Miracle on the Hudson had the NTSB praising Sully and his crew, awarding all of them medals, and saying that the right call was made the whole time. In the movie, the NTSB as a whole are portrayed as skeptics towards Sully, who repeatedly insist that he didn't have to ditch into the river until the 35-second delay is brought up by Sully himself, and then only realize that he made the right call.

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Lucille, who is elderly and uses a wheelchair has trouble getting out of her airplane seat during the evacuation and tells her daughter Diane to go on without her. Diane refuses; a moment later, one of the flight attendants ''and'' another passenger helps both of them.

* YourWorstNightmare: Of a dramatic kind. The film opens with Sully having a nightmare where he attempted to reach an airport and ends up crashing into the city. It's literally his greatest nightmare of that situation.

* HeroicBystander: Vincent Lombardi and his NY Waterway colleagues. Commuter ferries aren't usually involved in large-scale rescue operations, but they end up playing a vital role in this one because the plane just happened to splash down near their boats.

* BeingGoodSucks: Despite being hailed as a hero worldwide and getting massive publicity and fame out of the deal, Sully is morose and distracted due to the NTSB investigation, his nightmares, and being separated from his family. Up until the public inquiry, the NTSB board treats him with cold respect at best and complete skeptics at worst. It isn't until the board hears the cockpit recording that they (or rather, one member speaking for all of them) apologize to him.

* EverybodyLives: The reason Sully and crew are considered heroes is, despite unbelievably bad circumstances, they managed to pull off an emergency water landing with all 155 people on board surviving (including the crew). The worst injury that happens is a laceration in Doreen Welsh's (one of the flight attendants) leg.
* FireForgedFriends: There is a very slight animosity between Sully and Skiles before take-off. Skiles affectionately calls Sully a "world-class bullshitter" [[note]]in being able to sell his private Airline Safety business as a huge industry when it was just him[[/note]] and Sully takes some offense to that. But their expert handling of the situation and Skiles' consistent defense of Sully's actions made them close friends by the end.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The skepticism of the NTSB was greatly exaggerated for the film, and they can be seen at several points making snide comments to both Sully and Skiles, despite their claims otherwise. Both computer simulations and humans in simulators actually recorded a 50% chance of success, and the real Sully insisted names be changed (they were) because every aspect of the investigation is standard. That said, no one was antagonizing Sully but was just bringing up issues of concern.

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Lucille, who is wheelchair-bound elderly has trouble getting out of her airplane seat during the evacuation and tells her daughter Diane to go on without her. Diane refuses; a moment later, one of the flight attendants ''and'' another passenger helps both of them.