{"id":13006,"date":"2018-02-02T17:50:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T22:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13006"},"modified":"2018-02-02T18:01:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T23:01:07","slug":"real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html","title":{"rendered":"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"French<\/a>
French President Fran\u00e7ois Hollande poses with the four men who thwarted a terrorist attack on a French train during a Legion of Honor ceremony at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e in Paris Aug. 24, 2015. (U.S. Air Force photo\/Tech. Sgt. Ryan Crane)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On August 21, 2015, an Islamic terrorist attacked the passengers on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The terrorist was successfully subdued by his would-be victims Airman First Class Spencer Stone, Specialist Alex Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler. Now, Clint Eastwood brings this story of heroism to the big screen with some unexpected stars, the heroes themselves. Skarlatos, Sadler and Stone will be portraying themselves in Eastwood\u2019s \u201cThe 15:17 to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three men had written a book about their experiences, \u201cThe 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train and Three American Heroes,\u201d and were ecstatic when they heard that Eastwood was going to make their story into a film. The biggest bombshell, however, was that Eastwood wanted them to play themselves in the film. \u201cWe\u2019re all fans of Clint Eastwood going back into childhood,\u201d said Skarlatos, \u201cWe\u2019re obviously incredibly grateful, and then when he asked us to play ourselves, we were just shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadler agreed. \u201cI thought we had reached the mountain top when he decided to pick up our story. Then to have him ask us to play ourselves? It was out of the whole realm of possibility\u2026I\u2019m thankful that he even gave us the opportunity and thankful for God that he gave us this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stone also said that he felt they were very fortunate that it was Eastwood who picked up their story. \u201cWe knew he was going to tell our story right\u2026It wasn\u2019t even a decision. It was a given, and we trust him and he couldn\u2019t do us wrong. He fully included us from the beginning to the end\u2026Even before he asked us to play us we were very included in the story\u2026Then having him ask us to play ourselves was just a huge blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three men said it was an incredible experience reliving the European vacation that made them unexpected heroes. \u201cIt was super cool [to revist those sites.],\u201d said Sadler. \u201cIt made it easy to put us back in 2015. We\u2019re in the same clothes with the same bags, same luggage\u2026it made for an easy transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really cool,\u201d said Stone. \u201cIt felt like a closing of a chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film version of this chapter of the three heroes\u2019 lives has stayed very true to the real events. \u201cThe fight scene was 100 percent accurate,\u201d said Stone. \u201cA lot of things that went in our favor shouldn\u2019t have\u2026It\u2019s a very genuine film. It\u2019s very true to what we did, even on our trip beforehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skarlatos spoke positively of the film\u2019s accuracy as well. \u201c[It\u2019s accurate] especially when it comes to the train. [Eastwood] wasn\u2019t trying to hype it up. Our story was good enough for him to see something in it, and he just wanted it to be that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The true story is amazing, inspiring and truly filled with impossible coincidences. All three men felt that God was with them in those moments when they became heroes. \u201c[His hand] was just all over the whole thing,\u201d said Skarlatos. \u201cThe gun didn\u2019t go off, and the primer was bad. It\u2019s just not something that happens\u2026Looking back, I think our lives were preparing us for that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe movie, it shows a lot of my failures,\u201d said Stone. \u201cI hope that people, even if they aren\u2019t feeling content in their lives, that they can take ease knowing that even the little things they\u2019re doing right now\u2026at some point you\u2019re going to realize why you did all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadler agreed. \u201cI want [people] to feel inspired and confident. Inspired from what we did and\u2026that it\u2019s possible\u2026Confident in a way that maybe they can do something themselves if they find themselves in an extraordinary situation. Really I just want people to take from this\u2026it\u2019s not just us. It\u2019s in everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 15:17 to Paris\u201d premiers in theaters on Friday, February 9, 2018, and the trailer<\/a> is currently available online. The book <\/a>by Sadler, Stone and Skarlatos is available through multiple outlets, including Barnes and Noble. Take some time to follow the journey of three ordinary men as God placed them in a situation that would make them nothing short of extraordinary heroes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On August 21, 2015, an Islamic terrorist attacked the passengers on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. The terrorist was successfully subdued by his would-be victims Airman First Class Spencer Stone, Specialist Alex Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler. Now, Clint Eastwood brings this story of heroism to the big screen with some unexpected stars, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[1332,3615,1864],"class_list":["post-13006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-movies","tag-inspirational-movies","tag-heroism","tag-inspiring-films"],"yoast_head":"\nReal Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Clint Eastwood\u2019s film about the 2015 Thalys attempted terrorist attack premiers on February 9. The film stars the 3 American heroes who portray themselves.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clint Eastwood\u2019s film about the 2015 Thalys attempted terrorist attack premiers on February 9. The film stars the 3 American heroes who portray themselves.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-02T22:50:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-02T23:01:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/150824-F-RN211-147-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen","description":"Clint Eastwood\u2019s film about the 2015 Thalys attempted terrorist attack premiers on February 9. The film stars the 3 American heroes who portray themselves.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen","og_description":"Clint Eastwood\u2019s film about the 2015 Thalys attempted terrorist attack premiers on February 9. The film stars the 3 American heroes who portray themselves.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2018-02-02T22:50:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-02T23:01:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/150824-F-RN211-147-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html","name":"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/150824-F-RN211-147-300x200.jpg","datePublished":"2018-02-02T22:50:37+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-02T23:01:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126"},"description":"Clint Eastwood\u2019s film about the 2015 Thalys attempted terrorist attack premiers on February 9. The film stars the 3 American heroes who portray themselves.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/150824-F-RN211-147-300x200.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/150824-F-RN211-147-300x200.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/real-life-heroism-comes-silver-screen.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Real Life Heroism Comes to the Silver Screen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126","name":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","caption":"Stephanie Hertzenberg"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/authors\/s\/stephanie-hertzenberg.aspx"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/shertzenberg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13011,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13006\/revisions\/13011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}