History Film / Sully

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

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: A large number of aspects regarding the NTSB investigation were exaggerated, to the point that [[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/12/sully-clint-eastwood-hudson-river-plane-crash-ntsb the organization complained about their portrayal in the film]]. Even the memoir the film is based on, ''Highest Duty'', paints a very different picture to what is seen in the film.

* 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) apologizes to him.

* PresentDayPast: There are a few giveaways that the movie was made a few years after 2009; 432 Park Avenue (completed 2015) in the Manhattan skyline, and the 2013 American Airlines livery redesign in the background for example.

* 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 and grateful that 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, after being asked if he'd do anything different if forced to do it again, saying "I would've done it in July."

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

* MyGreatestFailure: Patrick Harten, 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 he sits for a post-incident interview with officials. It isn't until someone comes in and reveals that the crew and passengers are all alive and off that his expression and demeanor completely change.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Of a more pragmatic variety than most examples: Skiles acknowledges that Sully didn't go through the entire checklist when landing the plane, justifying his decision by stating that if he had, everyone would have died. One of the factors involved is that the checklist contemplated total engine failure at 30,000 feet, while Sully lost both engines at only ''2,800'' feet, giving him significantly less time to make a decision that would mean life or death for everyone aboard.

* 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. 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.

* AdultFear:
** You can board an airplane that is in good condition, designed to meet industry standards in terms of safety and reliability, with an experienced, even exceptional, pilot. However, just a few bird strikes and the entire plane goes down. Sure, everyone survived, but Sully's TheRealHeroes speech notes what could have happened otherwise. The success of the landing was dependent on a lot of variables, not just the people involved, but the fact that Sully had a conveniently-placed wide river with enough traffic so that there could be boats to rescue the passengers, but not so much traffic that the landing would endanger anyone.
** A more visceral example is the mother holding her baby boy who boards the plane. As the plane descends towards the river, the baby can be heard crying while the mother has braced for impact, and another man offers to hold her son for her in an attempt to calm him down.[[note]]To make Sully's miracle landing that much more impressive, see United Airlines Flight 232 for an emergency landing that didn't end as well for some of the children on board.[[/note]]
** A young man is seated much further back in the plane than his father and cousin, so when the plane crashes the former and latter can both be heard shouting for each other. It's once they're evacuated onto separate wings that the father truly starts to panic when he can't see his son anywhere. Thankfully, his nephew is able to dissuade him from going back into the sinking plane, saying that the flight crew will keep the son/cousin safe.

The film spends time depicting the events surrounding the incident, with particular note given towards the national transportation safety board's investigation on if the water landing was absolutely necessary. Sully himself is confident in his skills and experience that it was his only option, but is concerned that the impartial investigation might find fault.

* AcePilot: Sully downplays this, saying he simply ran on instinct and training to make the best of a bad situation, and was sure to give credit to the rest of the flight crew, Air Traffic Control, and those who responded after the landing.
* 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: 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.

A 2016 film BasedOnATrueStory, that of US Airways Flight 1549 and the emergency that occurred upon take-off from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's [=LaGuardia=] Airport on January 15, 2009, wherein they lost all engine power after hitting a flock of geese and had to make an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. Creator/TomHanks plays Captain Chesley Sullenberger (a.k.a. "Sully") and Creator/AaronEckhart plays his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles. It is directed by Creator/ClintEastwood. Screenwriter Todd Komarnicki adapted the story from Sullenberger's autobiography ''Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters''.

* IWillOnlySlowYouDown: Lucille, who is wheelchair-bound has trouble getting out of her airplane seat during the evacuation and tells her daughter Diane to go on without her. Diane refuses to do this; a moment later, a flight attendant comes over and helps both of them.

** Investigators said that [[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/08/sully-hudson-river-plane-crash-investigators-clint-eastwood Sully and Skiles were comfortable and cooperative]], and that they had no intent to embarrass them because they were practically certain they'd made the right decision. In the film, the investigators antagonize Sully and Skiles several times, calling him out for holding media appearances in the wake of the incident and implying that it was all his fault.

* BadassBoast: When Barry Leonard is on a rescue boat after almost freezing to death, he says he was sure he was going to die. A first responder replies, "Hey, [[EverybodyLives No one dies today.]]"

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: One of the passengers attempts to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but doesn't get very far before he realizes he's in subzero temperatures. While he manages to swim back to the life rafts, a woman falls into the water and has to be rescued by NYPD divers. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: One of the passengers attempts to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but doesn't get very far before he realizes he's in subzero temperatures. While he manages to swim back to the life rafts, a woman other has to be rescued by NYPD divers. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: One of the passengers attempts to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but both don't get very before he realizes he's in subzero temperatures. While he manages to swim/float back to the life rafts, a woman other has to be rescued by NYPD divers. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]

** Just look at the expressions on a New York man in his apartment and New York office workers as they look out the window to see the airplane flying much lower than any passenger jetliner has any business flying. Recall that this happened in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, little more than seven years after 9/11.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Chesley Sullenberger is known simply as "Sully", and referred to as such by nearly everyone in the film.

* TheRealHeroes: Sully's last words are saying that he alone shouldn't be commended but it was Skiles, the air traffic controllers, the flight attendants, the ferry crews, the emergency response teams, and even the passengers that made the event inspirational rather than a disaster.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Of a more pragmatic variety than most examples: Sully acknowledges that he didn't go through the entire checklist when landing the plane, justifying his decision by stating that if he had, everyone would have died. One of the factors involved is that the checklist contemplated total engine failure at 30,000 feet, while Sully lost both engines at only ''2,800'' feet, giving him significantly less time to make a decision that would mean life or death for everyone aboard.

* 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 onboard surviving (including the crew). The worst injury that happens is a laceration in Doreen Welsh's (one of the flight attendents) 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.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The water landing is seen at least three different times, each with a different perspective. The most comprehensive comes in the middle of the film, showing the initial boarding, take-off, landing in the Hudson, rescue efforts and accounting for all passengers. While not manipulative, it shows what happened from multiple perspectives including the air traffic controller and emergency response teams and that's why there's some doubt on Sully's actions. At the final hearing, [[spoiler: real time recording of the dialogue from the POV of the cockpit makes it clear that by the time they figured out what was going on and air traffic could coordinate an emergency airport landing zone they didn't have near enough altitude to make a return trip]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: One of the passengers attempts to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but both doesn't get very before he realize's he's in subzero temperatures. While he manages to swim/float back to the life rafts, a woman other has to be rescued by NYPD divers. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]

** The NTSB believed Sully almost right from the get-go, noting that the simulations brought back a 50% success rate. They, and not Sullenberger, suggested adding the 35-second decision-making time before running more simulations, which only bolstered their confidence that Sully made the right call. In the film, the board treats him skepticism, even after they run their simulations, until Sully points out that the decision-making time was an unrecognized factor and asks them to replay their simulations with that variable.

* 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) give him an apology.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Sully and Skiles' reaction to both the computer simulations and the piloted simulations, complete with calling out the Teterboro simulation as having an unrealistic bank angle, likely steeper than the A320 could reasonably achieve in a glide.
* DangerDeadpan: During the entire emergency, Sully only once raises his voice -- when calling out to any possible remaining passengers during one last walk-through of the downed and sinking plane. Sully' calmness initially caused the air traffic controller to refuse to take him seriously when he said he had to land the plane in the Hudson. This was actually TruthInTelevision.

* 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 onboard surviving (including the crew). The worst injury that happens is a laceration Doreen Welsh's (one of the flight attendents) leg.

* MyGreatestFailure: Patrick Harten, 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 he sits for a post-incident interview with officials. It isn't until someone comes in and reveals that the crew and passengers are all alive and off that his expression and demeanor completely change.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: One of the passengers attempts to swim towards the shore once the plane lands in the river, but both doesn't get very before he realize's he's in subzero temperatures. While he manages to swim/float back to the liferafts, a woman other has to be rescued by NYPD divers. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]

The film spends time depicting the events surrounding the incident, with particular note given towards the NTSB investigation on if the water landing was absolutely necessary. Sully himself is confident in his skills and experience that it was his only option, but is concerned that the impartial investigation might find fault.

* 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 flight crew, 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 skeptical antagonists 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 begrudgingly admit that he made the right call.

** A more visceral example is the mother holding a baby boy 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 him down.[[note]]To make Sully's miracle landing that much more impressive, see United Airlines Flight 232 for an emergency landing that didn't end as well for some of the lap children on board.[[/note]]
** A young man is seated much further back in the plane than his father and cousin, so when the plane crashes the former and latter can both be heard shouting for each other. It's once they're evacuated onto separate wings that the father truly starts to panic when he can't see his son anywhere. Thankfully, his nephew is able to dissuade him from going back into the flooded plane, saying that the flight crew will keep the son/cousin safe.
* 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.)

** The NTSB believed Sully almost right from the get-go, noting that the simulations brought back a 50% success rate. They, and not Sullenberger, suggested adding the 35-second decision-making time before running more simulations, which only bolstered their confidence that Sully made the right call. In the film, the board treats him with disdain, even after they run their simulations, until Sully points out that the decision-making time was an unrecognized factor and asks them to replay their simulations with that variable.

** In addition, it is illegal for the NTSB to release the actual cockpit recordings. They can only release the written transcript.
** 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.]] [[TakeThat And, that the film is as ridiculous as the "Sharknado" films.]]
* AsHimself:
** Vincent Lombardi, the captain of the ferry who was the first to reach the plane, is played by his real-life counterpart.

* BadassBoast: When Barry Leonard is on a rescue boat after almost drowning, he says he was sure he was going to die. A first responder replies, "Hey! [[EverybodyLives No one dies today!]]"
* 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 dismissal at worst. It isn't until the board hears the cockpit recording that they (or rather, one member) give him the closest thing to an apology.

* DangerDeadpan: During the entire emergency, Sully only once raises his voice -- when calling out to any possible remaining passengers during one last walk-through of the downed plane. Sully' calmness initially caused the air traffic controller to refuse to take him seriously when he said he had to land the plane in the Hudson. This was actually TruthInTelevision.
* 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.
* 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 onboard surviving (including the crew). The worst injury that happens is a laceration to the leg of one of the crewmembers.

* ForegoneConclusion: It is mentioned early in the film that everybody on board survived the crash. Moreover, this is a well-known fact about Flight 1549, so there is not a lot of suspense about the outcome of the accident.
* 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 Simulation at the end, after installing the prescribed 35 second delay, also have glimpses of what could have happened]].
* 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, after being asked if he'd do anything different if forced to do it again, saying "I would've done it in July."

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The cynicism 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 has trouble getting out of her airplane seat during the evacuation and tells her daughter Diane to go on without her. Diane refuses to do this; a moment later, a flight attendant comes over and helps both of them.
* InsistentTerminology: Sully himself asserts that they did not crash into the Hudson, it was a controlled water landing. "Crash" made it sound like an accident.
* MatchCut: As Sully is out running he sees an F-4 Phantom on display and flashes back to an incident where he landed a crippled F-4. After he gets it on the ground, his old plane flashes back to the one he's looking at.
* 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 he 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.

** Just look at the expressions on New York office workers as they look out the window to see the airplane flying much lower than any passenger jetliner has any business flying. Recall that this happened in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, little more than seven years after 9/11.
** The NTSB board also gets this once they realize that, after factoring in the 35-second "decision-making" process, the pilots in the simulations were unable to land the aircraft, with one plowing right into a populated suburb.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The water landing is seen at least three different times, each with a different perspective. The most comprehensive comes in the middle of the film, showing the initial boarding, take-off, landing in the Hudson, rescue efforts and accounting for all passengers. While not manipulative, it shows what happened from multiple perspectives including the air traffic controller and emergency response teams and that's why there is some doubt on Sully's actions. At the final hearing, [[spoiler: real time recording of the dialogue from the POV of the cockpit makes it clear that by the time they figured out what was going on and air traffic could coordinate an emergency airport landing zone they didn't have near enough altitude to make a return trip]].

* PresentDayPast: There are a few giveaways that the movie was made a few years after 2009; 432 Park Avenue (completed 2015) on the Manhattan skyline, and the 2013 American Airlines livery redesign in the background for example.
* TheRealHeroes: Sully's last words are saying that he alone shouldn't be commended but it was the air traffic controllers, the entire flight crew, the ferry ones, the emergency response teams, and even the passengers that made the event inspirational rather than a disaster.
* RealPersonEpilogue: While the credits roll, there is a video footage of the real Sully, his wife and the people who were on board of the plane.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Of a more pragmatic variety than most examples: Sully acknowledges that he did not go through the entire checklist when landing the plane, justifying his decision by stating that if he had, everyone would have died. One of the factors involved is that the checklist contemplated total engine failure at 30,000 feet, while Sully lost both engines at only 2,800 feet, giving him significantly less time to make a decision that would mean life or death for everyone aboard.
* 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. [[note]]Played straight in one case, not so much in another. One passenger flipped out because fuel was leaking from the wing tanks' vent lines and jumped in a panic. The other jumped from the door and swam because he thought that's what the crew was telling him to do; they were unaware the slide/raft hadn't deployed and thought he was balking the jump into the raft.[[/note]]
* 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 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 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 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.
* 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 is literally his greatest nightmare of that situation.

** 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 that didn't end as well for some of the lap children on board.[[/note]]

->''This is the captain. Brace for impact.''

!!'Sully'' provides examples of:

A 2016 film BasedOnATrueStory, that of US Airways Flight 1549 and the emergency that occurred upon take-off from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's [=LaGuardia=] Airport on January 15, 2009, wherein they lost all engine power after hitting a flock of geese and had to make an emergency water landing in the Hudson River. Creator/TomHanks plays Captain Chesley Sullenberger (aka "Sully") and Creator/AaronEckhart plays his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles. It is directed by Creator/ClintEastwood. Screenwriter Todd Komarnicki adapted the story from Sullenberger's autobiography ''Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters''.

!!Tropes:

*** In addition, it is illegal for the NTSB to release the actual cockpit recordings. They can only release the written transcript.

* 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 flight crew, 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 skeptical antagonists 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 begrudgingly admit that he made the right call.

* 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 flight crew, 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 skeptical antagonists 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 begrudgingly admit that he made the right call.

* 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 dismissal at worst. It isn't until the board hears the cockpit recording that they (or rather, one member) give him the closest thing to an apology.

* TheRealHeroes: Sully's last words are saying that he alone shouldn't be commended but it was the air traffic controllers, the entire flight crew, the ferry ones, the emergency response teams and even the passengers that made the event inspirational rather than a disaster.

* 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]] Since Clint Eastwood is a staunch conservative libertarian, it seemed obvious for him to blame a government agency for whatever wrongdoings actually occurred.

* 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 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, 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 begrudgingly admit that he made the right call.

->''"This is the captain. Brace for impact."''

* 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 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, 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 begrudgingly admit that he made the right call.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Charles Sullenberger is known simply as "Sully", and referred to as such by nearly everyone in the film.

* 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.

* AllJustADream: This is how the movie starts.

* EverybodyLives: Just like in the RealLife incident. The reason Sully and crew are considered heroes is, despite unbelievably bad circumstances, they managed to pull off a water landing with no lives lost and no severe injuries.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Sully, of course.

* BadDreams: Sully suffers from this throughout the film, envisioning several scenarios in which the plane crashes into downtown Manhattan. Additionally, he has a dream where Katie Couric muses about whether he made the right choice or not before he wakes with a start.
* 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 BadDreams and being separated from his family. Up until the public inquiry, the NTSB board treats him with cold respect at best and complete dismissal at worst. It isn't until the board hears the cockpit recording that they (or rather, one member) give him the closest thing to an apology.

* VisualPun: 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 is literally his greatest nightmare of that situation.