Remember Those Who Fell

9/11: The Falling Man (2006), above in its entirety, is a moving and thought-provoking documentary about the people who had no other option but to jump from the windows that terrible day, and specifically about the search for the identity of one particular man from an iconic* photo. Perhaps you remember, as I do, that as the horrific events were being broadcast live, numerous people ("up to 200," the narrator informs) were seen falling from the burning buildings, forced to make "lonely, ten-second journeys... a very public way of dying... the only visible fatalities in a day that claimed thousands." Those horrifying images were soon largely excised from the public memory.

One point needs clarification, without giving away any details of the story. The Catholic family interviewed is theologically mistaken; it should not be presumed that those forced to jump were suicides and thus their souls in danger for that last act of their earthly lives. (We should still pray for them, both now and in that moment eight years ago; God is outside of time.)

In contrast, the Baptist sister of a victim who closes the documentary has a reflection that is, I think, more Catholic, and is certainly more charitable and may even be beautiful. Her thoughts and the remarkable story behind them prompt this eloquent meditation of author Tom Junod from the conclusion of his article upon which the documentary is based — The Falling Man:

But maybe he didn’t jump from the window as a betrayal of love or because he lost hope. Maybe he jumped to fulfill the terms of a miracle. Maybe he jumped to come home to his family. Maybe he didn’t jump at all, because no one can jump into the arms of God.

Oh, no. You have to fall.

*Eastern Christians please note that no sacrilege is implied by the use of this term, which, used metaphorically, is simply a part of the English language and conveys a meaning that near-synonyms do not.