Opening date announced for Sacramento train heroes’ movie

SACRAMENTO — A film about the thwarting of a Paris terrorist attack by three Sacramento men will hit movie theaters Feb. 9, 2018, Variety reported Tuesday.

Alek Skarlatos, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler will star as themselves in Clint Eastwood’s “15:17 to Paris,” named after a semiautobiographical book with the same title. The film details the three friends’ decision to intervene in an attempted terrorist attack two years ago, as well as their childhood growing up in Sacramento and Skarlatos’ and Stone’s military service.

Sadler, a Sacramento State senior at the time, had joined his former high school classmates on a trip through Europe following Skarlatos’ deployment to Afghanistan. The three were riding from Amsterdam to Paris on Aug. 21, 2015, when they heard the sound of a rifle cocking in a train restroom.

Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler tackled the would-be assailant as he exited the bathroom, subduing him until authorities arrived. The man was armed with an AKM assault rifle, a pistol and 270 rounds of ammunition. He slashed Stone’s face, neck and hand with a box cutter.

All three received the Legion D’Honneur, France’s highest decoration, and received a hero’s welcome at the White House. They appeared together on an episode of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and Skarlatos placed third on the 2016 season of “Dancing With the Stars.”