Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
These guys saved a lot of lives.. Like most people I’d probably have hidden under my seat
IT sounds like the script of a movie. Three pals backpacking across Europe risk death to foil a gun attack on a packed train, saving hundreds of lives. Except that it’s true...
Clint Eastwood has now cast them as the stars of a film which has been setting UK box offices alight.
And with refreshing candour the veteran Hollywood star, 87, confesses he wouldn’t have matched their bravery when the gunman struck, saying: “I think like most people, I probably would have jumped under my seat.”
US Army Specialist Alek Skarlatos, Staff Sergeant Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler stared death in the face to grapple with a suspected terrorist after he opened fire on an Amsterdam to Paris train in 2015.
Their bravery made headlines around the world, earned them France’s Legion of Honour, a clutch of military awards and a trip to the White House.
Two years on, the men, who have never acted before, seized the chance to star in The 15.17 to Paris, which was released in the UK last week.
Clint, who became a household name as tough cop Dirty Harry, said: “There were four, five hundred people on that train. The terrorist had nearly 300 rounds of ammunition, this could have been an unprecedented horrific attack.”
It was what made the men decide not to take cover that intrigued film-maker and movie icon Clint.
The three friends were aboard Thalys’s train 9364 at 5.45pm on August 21, 2015, when the suspect, Moroccan-born Ayoub El Khazzani, got on as it crossed from Belgium into France.
The 25-year-old was allegedly armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, a bottle of petrol, a box-cutter, a hammer and 270 rounds of ammunition.
The pals acted on instinct.
Instead of fleeing in panic, they rushed at the man and, thanks to his gun jamming, were able to tackle him and hold him until police arrived.
Just one passenger was shot and another two injured, and all later recovered.
El Khazzani is now awaiting trial in France.
For Clint, it was vital to tell the men’s story as accurately as possible.
After months of auditioning seasoned actors, and just three weeks before shooting started, he decided it was best to cast the men themselves. Clint explains: “I’d been speaking with good actors, good actors who would have served their story well but this is their story. Who better to tell their own story than the men who actually lived it?
“All three seemed like they were extremely smart and I thought, ‘If I can get them approaching this thing without too much thought and too much worry and anxiety, they could do it. This is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”
Clint first met Alek, Spencer and Anthony, now all 25, when he presented them with the Hero Award at the 2016 Spike Guy’s Choice awards.
They jokingly asked if he would like to make a film of the book they had written and he asked them to send it to him.
They did, expecting it would come to nothing, but soon they had a call– saying Clint was going to make it his next movie and wanted them to star in it.
The pals, who grew up in Sacramento, California, were anxious but realised it was too good a chance to miss. Anthony says: “We kind of looked at each other in disbelief. But we all were pretty set that we couldn’t tell Mr Eastwood ‘no’ ”.
Spencer adds: “Are you really going to look 20 years down the line and say you could have been in a Clint Eastwood movie but you’re not?”
The movie doesn’t just tell the story of that day in 2015 but returns to their childhoods to explore their friendship.
Alek, a former member of the Oregon National Guard’s Charlie Company, has been good friends with former US Air Force Airman First Class Spencer since childhood. They became friends with Anthony, who was studying athletic training at university, at middle school.
Alek had just returned from nine months in Afghanistan, while Stone was on leave from his base in Portugal.
The trio had met up for a trip round Europe, travelling from Amsterdam to Paris, when their lives changed for ever. Anthony and Spencer were both asleep, when the attack started... Alek s “They were both passed out and I h a gunshot and breaking glass behind A train employee comes running a from the noise at a full sprint from front of the train.
“Spencer was awake at that time we both kind of looked back. There a man standing there with an AK47
Spencer continues: “He shirtless, with a backp strapped to the front of him w like 300 rounds of ammuni He picked up the gun – and I know h going to kill everyone on board. We h got to do something now.”
He says: “I just took a leap of f [and] sprinted at him. He raised the to fire at me and it didn’t go off.” The
jamming gave him just enough time to tackle the assailant. Spencer adds: “I attacked him and Alek and Anthony ran up.” During the struggle, Spencer was hit in face with the AK-47 and on the neck with the boxcutter before Alek managed to grab the man’s handgun.
They restrained him with the help of British businessman Chris Norman, who also stars in the film. Spencer says of the gunman: “We kicked him into the aisle and choked him unconscious.”
Anthony adds: “It seemed like forever but it was probably only about a minute of a fight.”
Another passenger, Mark Moogalian, who also features in the film, suffered a gunshot wound to the neck, so Spencer used his Army medical training to stem the blood. Alek then grabbed the AK-47 and searched the train for other potential terrorists or victims, as Anthony grabbed first aid equipment.
Anthony says: “Replaying that scene in the film, almost triggered an adrenaline rush in me, which made it easier to feel the same emotions I felt that day. We used a lot of things we actually said in real life.”
All three, now based in LA, hope to continue acting. But at 87, is there any sign of Clint slowing down? How does he keep up with the younger stars?
“I think I absorb that energy from the people around me,” he says, laughing. “That’s how I keep going. I’ve had suggestions I should retire but it’s what I do.
“Why would anyone want to quit what they do?”