Pushing Tin
By John O'Brien, S.J. 1999. Director: Mike Newell. Actors: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thorton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie. Music: Anne Dudley. (Rated R for language and mild sexuality) "O what tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." – Sir Walter Scott Plot Pushing Tin opens in the control room at the New York's Terminal Radar Approach Center (TRAC), where a team of air traffic controllers coordinate some 7,000 flights a day that zip in and out of Kennedy, La Guardia, and Newark airports. It’s a hectic and high-pressure work-place. When a tour of kids comes through the facility they are told: “Air controllers are responsible for more lives in a single shift than a surgeon in a lifetime.” Nick Falzone (Cusack), known as “the Zone”, is the hotshot controller of the group, who owns his reputation of being top of the game. Nick relates to his suburbanite wife Connie (Blanchette) with the same short attention span that enables him to l...