Trivia

Based on Patrick James Carson's award winning play "Elevator", which premiered in October 2011 at the Red Barn Theater of Tucson, Arizona.

Contrary to popular belief, the Elevator story in this film and the people trapped in it are entirely fictional. No such thing happened during 9/11. In reality, a small group of men got trapped in an elevator car but quickly broke through a sheet-rock wall into what was a public restroom within the building after which they ran away to escape the building, and several people were trapped in an elevator car on the first floor of one of the towers; promptly the car opened and everyone was able to get out before the buildings collapsed. The story in this film is highly dramatized and not based on any real person's experience in the elevators of the World Trade Center.

Sheen had expressed interest in having the film premiere at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, on September 11th, but it was not completed in time.

Was widely considered to be highly offensive and distasteful upon its release for a number of reasons, most notably its release date on the anniversary of 9/11 and its casting of Charlie Sheen, a self-proclaimed "9/11 truther" infamous for his conspiracy theory beliefs that the official story of the tragedy isn't the real one. Despite the film making these choices and becoming a notorious box office flop in 2017, the play it was adapted from, which went by the title "Elevator", was critically-acclaimed and won several awards.

9/11 is the second full-length feature film of the September 11th Attacks to be adapted from a play. The first was a 2005 film titled "The Great New Wonderful", which was more successful upon its release but quickly faded into obscurity after its DVD release in 2006. Both films featured prominent actors and actresses.