History Film / Sully

* TheGlomp: The employee at the Marriott Hotel in New Jersey does this to Sully after he attempts to downplay his role in the incident, telling him that he's a hero in her eyes and he can ask for any requests from the hotel.

* EurekaMoment: While watching a news report on the incident, Sully hears someone mention good timing and realizes that's what made the difference between the simulations and the actual flight.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In-universe, the accusations against Sully.

* MyGreatestFailure: The air traffic controller at [=LaGuardia=] Airport gets this when he thinks the airplane has crashed into the river (or worse), and spends several minutes blaming himself as sits for a post-incident interview with officials. It isn't until someone comes in and reveals that the crew and passengers are all okay that his expression and demeanor completely change.

* StrawmanPolitical: The film makes the NTSB investigators look like skeptics, trying to bring Sully down. 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. 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 looking an even bigger hero then when the investigation started.[[/note]]

** In the scene where NYPD Scuba Team members Michael Delaney and Robert Rodriquez jump out of the helicopter, the stunts are performed by the real Delaney and Rodriquez.

* TheCaptain: Sullenberger does everything he can to get his passengers and crew out alive, including being the last one to exit the plane.

* HeroicBystander: Vincent Lombardi and his NY Waterway colleagues. Commuter ferries aren't usually part of 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.

* AsHimself: Vincent Lombardi, the captain of the ferry who was the first to reach the plane, is played by his real-life counterpart.

* GallowsHumor: Loads of it. A son got separated in the evacuation from his dad and cousin and called them after they got to shore, they both found themselves laughing hysterically just grateful everything turned out okay. The flight crew are shown on Creator/DavidLetterman and they laugh over the cliche of "Brace for impact." Skiles ends the film saying "I would've done it happened in July."

* HellIsThatNoise: ''[WHOOP WHOOP]'' "PULL '''UP.'''"[[note]]This is the voice of the GPWS system, and generally once it begins uttering this specific phrase, it's every pilot's worst nightmare.[[/note]]

* HellIsThatNoise: ''[WHOOP WHOOP]'' "PULL '''UP.'''"

* AsHimself: Vincent Lombardi, the captain of the ferry who was the first to reach the plane is played by his real-life counterpart.

* EurekaMoment: While watching a news report on the incident, Sully hears someone mention good timing and realizes that's what made the different between the simulations and the actual flight.

* ThisIsReality: Sully notes that, in the initial simulations at the NTSB hearing, the pilots are far too GenreSavvy, as they automatically know what kind of situation they are 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 35 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 the GenreSavvy 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.

** A more visceral example is the mother holding a child who boards the plane. As the plane descends towards the river, the baby can be heard crying while the mother screams, and another man offers to hold the child for her in an attempt to calm it down.[[note]]To make Sully's miracle landing that much more impressive, see United Airlines Flight 232 for an emergency landing [[AdultFear that didn't end as well for some of the lap children on board.]][[/note]]

* AdaptationDistillation: The actual investigation of the incident is barely touched on, which is a shame; NTSB detective work showed that the bird-strike tests on the engines were woefully insufficient for real-world conditions, and that a bird strike that could take out both engines could ''easily'' happen again.
* AdaptationalVillainy: The NTSB is depicted as this and it's one of the biggest criticisms of the movie. In Real Life, the NTSB is the gold standard for investigating the how and why of transportation accidents, so good that, when other countries suffer this, they turn to them 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 flight crew, passengers, the airline ''and'' experts to try and determine the root cause. In the movie, they simply end up as skeptical antagonists towards Sully.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: One of the flight attendants, Doreen Welsh, gets this when the airplane lands in the Hudson, causing a support strut to snap, punch through the cabin floor, and lacerate her lower leg. (This was the worst injury of the incident, both on film and in reality.)
* AllJustADream: This is how the movie starts.

** A more visceral example is the mother holding a child who boards the plane. As the plane descends towards the river, the baby can be heard crying while the mother screams, and another man offers to hold the child for her in an attempt to calm it down.[[note]]To make Sully's miracle landing that much more impressive, see United Airlines Flight 232 for an emergency landing [[NightmareFuel that didn't end as well for some of the lap children on board.]][[/note]]

** A more visceral example is the mother holding a child who boards the plane. As the plane descends towards the river, the baby can be heard crying while the mother screams, and another man offers to hold the child for her in an attempt to calm it down.[[note]]See United Airlines 232 for an emergency landing that didn't end as well for the lap children on board.[[/note]]

** A more visceral example is the mother holding a child who boards the plane. As the plane descends towards the river, the baby can be heard crying while the mother screams, and another man offers to hold the child for her in an attempt to calm it down.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The NTSB is depicted as this and it's one of the biggest criticisms of the movie. In Real Life, the NTSB is the gold standard for investigating the how and why of transportation accidents, so good that, when other countries suffer this, they turn to them for help. In the movie, they end up as skeptical antagonists towards Sully.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Two of the passengers attempt to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but both don't get very before they realize they're in subzero temperatures. While one manages to swim/float back to the liferafts, the other has to be rescued by NYPD divers.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: One of the flight attendants gets this when the airplane lands in the Hudson, causing her ankle to fracture.

** At least one real NTSB investigator Robert Benzon claimed [[http://www.grunge.com/53877/movies-angered-real-life-characters/s/sully/ that the film has overall smeared his reputation.]]