After the Events of September 11.. New York Movies Are No Longer What They Used to Be

- Director Barry Sonnenfeld was at Sony Studios in Los Angeles when the planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In the midst of trying to comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy and checking on friends and loved ones, he quickly realized he was facing a sensitive dilemma. Production was underway at the time on the film "Men in Black II," the sequel to the massive hit from 1997 starring Will Smith, which Sonnenfeld described as "truly a love letter to New York."

Parts of the film were shot in the city during the summer of 2001 before production continued in Los Angeles. As he stood in shock like the rest of the world, Sonnenfeld thought about the ending of his film; it was supposed to take place on top of one of the towers, where the agents played by Smith and Tommy Lee Jones confront an alien villain, using the top of the tower to return a space princess to her home planet.

Sonnenfeld said, "I chose the World Trade Center on purpose because they looked like magnets drawing the eye. And once the first tower fell, I realized the truth."

Every aspect of American life was affected in the days, weeks, and months following the attack, including the entertainment industry and culture in general. Sonnenfeld embarked on a journey to rethink the ending of his sequel, and he was not alone in this; in the months following the attacks, images of the towers were removed from various works of art, from the TV shows "Friends" and "Sex and the City" to the film "Zoolander" and the first trailer for "Spider-Man."

The reimagined ending never succeeded; with life in the United States coming to a halt, all studio shoots were canceled, and ultimately, the climax of "Men in Black II" was rewritten. Although the final scene still took place on the roof of a building, it was an ordinary roof with nothing distinctive about it, and they even managed to use many of the original sketches for the scene, according to Sonnenfeld. He continued, saying, "We wished we had come up with a completely different solution instead of placing the scene on the roof of another building. What happened happened, but the result was never successful." He added, "It's a very bad scene, and I believe that is partly because we weren't putting our hearts and feelings into the work."

It wasn't just the ending of the film; the towers were removed from between 8 and 12 shots of it, according to Sonnenfeld. He said, "I never enjoyed working on 'Men in Black II... No one wants to remember that production experience." He noted that they "might have held a wrap party," but he added, "I don't think I attended it; many people did not attend that party," the director said. "I can only reiterate that our sadness was small compared to the great sadness."

The comedy film "The Putney Swope," released in 1969, was one of the first films to feature the Twin Towers on the big screen, showing them in their early stages of construction. They also appeared while still under construction in films like "The French Connection" and Robert Redford's "The Hot Rock."

Upon their completion in 1973, they immediately became prominent icons in a city filled with icons, and they quickly became favorites among visual storytellers for their ability to convey much meaning without the need for words, only to suddenly disappear, becoming a reminder of a nightmare that changed the world.