It’s been 25 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, one of the most devastating days in American history. On that Tuesday morning in 2001, terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two into New York City’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a fourth, United Airlines Flight 93, into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back. Nearly 3,000 people were killed on this day, including 2,753 in New York, and the attacks forever changed the country.
As the nation remembers, Robin Roberts Presents Angel in the Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story, a new Lifetime film, turns its attention to one of 9/11’s most extraordinary stories of survival.
Genelle Guzman-McMillan was working for the Port Authority on the 64th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower when the first hijacked plane struck the building. She and her colleagues began the long, dangerous trek down the stairs, nearing an exit before the 110-story tower collapsed around them. Guzman-McMillan was buried beneath concrete and steel for 27 hours.
When rescuers finally pulled her from the wreckage on September 12, she became the last person found alive in the World Trade Center rubble. Now, a quarter-century later, her remarkable story of survival, faith and what happened during those 27 hours is at the center of Angel in the Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story, starring Sherri Shepherd.
Seeing Guzman-McMillan at the film’s New York City premiere Wednesday evening at The Whitby Hotel, it was hard to imagine the petite-framed woman among the guests as the one who survived this unimaginable ordeal. But Angel in the Rubble is as much about what kept her alive as what happened to her: her persistent faith, the family desperate to find her and the strangers who cared for her and refused to stop searching.
Roberts, an executive producer on the film, acknowledged Guzman-McMillan during the screening. “Genelle, the moment I met you, I wanted a night like this for you,” Roberts said. “I thank you and bless you for your trust and patience.”
Shepherd, who also executive produced the film, takes on the title role in the film, based on Guzman-McMillan’s 2014 memoir. Recounting the harrowing, disorienting moments inside the World Trade Center after the planes hit, workers struggled to understand what was happening and make their way to safety. It also follows the anguish of Roger McMillan, Guzman-McMillan’s future husband, as he desperately searches for her after the attacks.
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The movie also remembers the remarkable network of first responders and volunteers who converged on Ground Zero. Among them was Trakr, a German Shepherd search-and-rescue dog who traveled from Canada with his handler, James Symington. Trakr detected signs of life in the North Tower debris, helping focus rescuers on the area where Guzman-McMillan was ultimately found.
“That was a tragic time in our America, but people from all over came to help their neighbor that they had never met,” Shepherd said.
The film is part of a broader slate of programming marking the anniversary. Roberts is also an executive producer of 102 Minutes: Inside the Towers, which uses firsthand accounts from survivors, including workers and first responders, to reconstruct the 102 minutes between the first plane striking the North Tower and its collapse.
On September 11, Roberts will join Diane Sawyer and David Muir for 9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan, ABC News’ first live national broadcast built around New York City’s annual Tribute in Light. The one-hour special will honor those who died while reflecting on the survivors, families and first responders whose lives were forever changed.
102 Minutes: Inside the Towers airs Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m. ET on The History Channel.
9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan airs on Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m. ET across ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic, ABC News Live and participating ABC stations.
Angel in the Rubble: The Genelle Guzman Story premieres Saturday, September 12, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime and streams the following day.