On August 21, 2015, three American friends, Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, while traveling through Europe got on a train to visit the French Capital. On the train, a gunman got on board and began opening fire. The three Americans began to charge the gunman to overpower him. The accounts of this story are retold in Clint Eastwoods, 15:17 to Paris. Eastwood has been doing a series of films detailing the lives of extraordinary yet also everyday Americans from the films, American Sniper and Sully. He directed the 15:17 to Paris to better show the world the events that transpired that day.

In a move that wouldn’t have worked for any other film, the three Americans who were on board the train were cast to play themselves and reenact what happened. These guys had no prior acting experience and while at times it appeared lackluster, these are the people who lived it and no one other than them could have acted it out.

The film 15:17 to Paris details the trios childhoods from when they met at a young age to the trip to Europe. Then while on the trip they board the train. The events that transpire are the ones that happened. There are no explosions or big action scene, just the events as they happened. While under fire from the gunman, the three charge him receiving injuries yet still subduing him. In the actual events it was later revealed that for some reason the attackers’ rifle had jammed around the time the Americans rushed him.

While all movies are made to earn millions of dollars, this one was made with a second purpose: To tell the lives and the story of these everyday people who had the chance to do something more.  Personally, I enjoyed the movie as I enjoy nonfiction accounts of events that I may not know a lot about. 15:17 to Paris isn’t very long, only running to about 90 minutes but still accurately shows the events that occurred and that were prevented by Spencer Stone, Alek