After 9/11, New York movies like ‘Men in Black II’ were never the same

Barry Sonnenfeld was on the Sony studio lot in Los Angeles when planes hit the Twin Towers on September 11. In the midst of trying to absorb the scale of the tragedy and check on friends and loved ones — the director grew up in Washington Heights and his daughter was living in Chinatown — he soon realized he had a delicate problem on his hands.

Filming was underway on “Men in Black II,” the sequel to the wildly successful 1997 Will Smith-led mega blockbuster that, in Sonnenfeld’s words, was “really a love letter to New York.” The sequel filmed in the city during the summer of 2001 before continuing production in Los Angeles.

As he stood shocked alongside the rest of the world, Sonnenfeld thought about the ending of his movie. It was set to take place on the roof of one of the towers, where the agents played by Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were to face off against an alien villain and use the top of the tower to send a space princess, revealed to be the character played by Rosario Dawson, back to her home planet. But that was no longer an option.

“I picked the World Trade Center on purpose because they almost looked like a magnet,” Sonnenfeld said. “As soon as the first one fell, I knew.”

Every aspect of American life was affected in the days, weeks and months following the attack, including in the entertainment industry and culture more broadly.

The 1969 comedy “The Putney Swope” was one of the first films to feature the Twin Towers on the big screen, seen during the very early stages of their construction. They also appeared in movies like “The French Connection” and Robert Redford’s “The Hot Rock” mid-build. When they were completed in 1973, they were instant icons in a city full of them, quickly becoming favored among visual storytellers because they accomplished so much with no words at all. Then they were gone, suddenly reminders of a nightmare that had changed the world so drastically that even fictional characters couldn’t live in a world that hadn’t.

Fred Prouser/Reuters/File

Sonnenfeld embarked on a journey to rethink the ending of his sequel — and he was not alone. In the months following the attack, the towers were removed from everything from “Friends” and “Sex and the City” to “Zoolander” and the first teaser trailer for “Spider-Man.”

The towers were meant to appear in scenes throughout “Men in Black II.” “We had definitely set up that the World Trade Center was going to be not only the big surprise but also make you think, oh, of course, where else could it be?” Sonnenfeld said.

“It was all a plan and it was part of the sort of ‘MIB’ folklore,” he said, nodding to how the first “Men in Black” ended at another iconic New York location — the World’s Fair pavilion in Queens.

Sonnenfeld was with his good friend and co-producer on the sequel, Graham Place, when the towers fell.

As the country came to a standstill, all filming at the studio was canceled. Not knowing what to do with themselves, Sonnenfeld and Place decamped for the Ivy, ordering gimlets despite the early hour.

Ultimately, the script’s climax was rewritten. The final scene still took place on a roof, albeit a nondescript one, and they were even able to use a lot of the same storyboards, Sonnenfeld said.

Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection

“We almost wished we had come up with a totally different solution than putting it on the roof of a different building,” he continued. “It is what it is, but it never worked.”

“It’s a really terrible scene in part, I think, because we kind of didn’t have our hearts in it,” he said.

It wasn’t just the ending of the film — the towers were erased from eight to 12 shots throughout the film, Sonnenfeld said.

Filmmakers who captured 9/11 as it unfolded reflect on that day

“I so didn’t like doing ‘Men in Black II,’” he said. “No one wants to remember that production.”

He said they “probably did have a wrap party,” but “I don’t think I went to it. A lot of people didn’t go.”

“I can’t keep stressing enough,” the director added, “ours was a small sadness compared to the big sadness.”

9 月 11 日，飞机撞击世贸双塔时，巴里·索南菲尔德正在洛杉矶的索尼影业片场。在努力消化这场悲剧的规模并查看朋友和亲人的情况时——这位导演在华盛顿高地长大，他的女儿住在唐人街——他很快意识到自己面临着一个棘手的问题。

《黑衣人2》的拍摄工作正在进行中，这部续集是1997年由威尔·史密斯主演的票房大片的续集，用索南菲尔德的话来说，它“实际上是一封写给纽约的情书”。续集于2001年夏天在纽约拍摄，之后在洛杉矶继续制作。

当索南菲尔德和全世界一样震惊地站在那里时，他开始思考电影的结局。原本的设想是，故事发生在其中一座塔楼的楼顶，由威尔·史密斯和汤米·李·琼斯饰演的特工们将在那里与外星反派决战，并利用塔顶将一位太空公主（由罗莎里奥·道森饰演）送回她的母星。但现在，这个方案已经行不通了。

“我特意选择了世贸中心，因为它们看起来就像一块磁铁，”索南菲尔德说。“第一座大楼倒塌的那一刻，我就知道了。”

在袭击发生后的几天、几周和几个月里，美国人生活的方方面面都受到了影响，包括娱乐业和更广泛的文化领域。

1969年的喜剧片《普特尼·斯沃普》是最早将世贸双塔搬上大银幕的电影之一，影片展现了双塔建造初期的景象。在《法国贩毒网》和罗伯特·雷德福的《热石》等影片中，双塔也以建造中期的画面出现。1973年竣工后，它们迅速成为这座遍布地标的城市中的标志性建筑，并很快成为视觉叙事者的宠儿，因为它们无需任何言语就能传递丰富的信息。然而，它们却突然消失了，仿佛成了噩梦的见证者，提醒着人们这场彻底改变世界的灾难，以至于即使是虚构的人物也无法生活在一个没有经历过这场灾难的世界里。

Fred Prouser/路透社/档案

索南菲尔德开始重新构思续集的结局——而且他并非孤身一人。在袭击事件发生后的几个月里，从《老友记》和《欲望都市》到《超级名模》以及《蜘蛛侠》的首支预告片，所有影视作品中的世贸双塔画面都被移除。

索南菲尔德说：“我们之前就明确表示，世贸中心不仅会是最大的惊喜，还会让你想，哦，当然，还能是哪里呢？”

“这一切都是一个计划，也是‘黑衣人’系列故事的一部分，”他说道，同时点头示意第一部《黑衣人》的结尾是在另一个标志性的纽约地点——皇后区的世界博览会展馆。

索南菲尔德当时正和他的好友兼联合制片人一起拍摄续集《格雷厄姆广场》，就在这时世贸双塔倒塌了。

随着全国停摆，制片厂的所有拍摄工作都被取消了。不知所措的索南菲尔德和普莱斯去了常春藤酒吧，尽管时间尚早，还是点了金酒。

最终，剧本的高潮部分被重写了。索南菲尔德说，最后一幕仍然发生在屋顶上，尽管是一个毫不起眼的屋顶，而且他们甚至还能使用很多相同的分镜头脚本。

哥伦比亚电影公司/埃弗雷特收藏

“我们几乎后悔当初没想出一个完全不同的解决方案，而不是把它放在另一栋楼的屋顶上，”他继续说道。“事情就是这样，但这方法从来行不通。”

“我认为这场戏拍得非常糟糕，部分原因是我们当时并没有全身心投入，”他说。

索南菲尔德说，不仅仅是电影的结尾——在整部电影中，有 8 到 12 个镜头抹去了双子塔。

拍摄9/11事件始末的电影制作人们回顾了那一天

“我非常不喜欢拍《黑衣人2》，”他说。“没人想记住那部电影。”

他说他们“可能确实办了杀青派对”，但是“我想我没去。很多人都没去。”

“我怎么强调都不为过，”导演补充道，“与更大的悲伤相比，我们的悲伤只是小小的悲伤。”