About This Archive

From 1973 to 2001, the World Trade Center's Twin Towers were simply part of the New York skyline — the backdrop to thousands of hours of film and television, most of the time without anyone intending to make a statement about them at all. This site documents those appearances: the establishing shots, the background cameos, the handful of films where the towers were the plot.

This is a film-history and nostalgia project, not a 9/11 memorial site and not a place for footage or discussion of September 11 itself. Our subject is the towers as they were seen on screen while they stood — “gone but not forgotten,” in the most literal sense.

Every entry is reviewed before publication: a specific film, a specific appearance, a timestamp where possible, and a line or two of context. We link out to Amazon and streaming services so you can actually watch the films, and we keep screenshots to a single representative frame per appearance, always captioned — documentation and commentary, not reproduction for its own sake.

Know a film that belongs here? Use the submission form — every tip is checked by hand before anything is added.

This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, or any film studio.