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" everyone is capable of the extraordinary, and God has a plan for each of us."

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Three young Americans who are playing themselves in a Clint Eastwood-directed movie about how they foiled a terrorist attack in France say their actions were guided by God.

The 15:17 to Paris, which opens in the US and UK in early February, recounts the dramatic events of 21 August 2015 when the three friends launched themselves at a man carrying an automatic AK47 and other weapons on a crowded train.

The acclaimed actor-director asked the trio to play themselves in the movie, along with others involved in the incident. As well as focusing on the onboard action, the film tells the backstories of the childhood friends who were hailed as heroes.

On the day, Ayoub el-Khazzani, 25, a Moroccan national, allegedly launched the attack shortly after the train, with 500 passengers onboard, crossed into France en route from Brussels to Paris. As well as the assault rifle, he was armed with a pistol, a knife, a hammer and petrol.

Alerted by gunshots during an initial altercation with a passenger, Spencer Stone, then 23 and a medic in the US army, ran down the narrow aisle at Khazzani as the Moroccan lifted his AK47 and took aim. The assault rifle jammed.

Amid chaos and panic, Stone's friends, Alek Skarlatos, 22, also in the US military, and Anthony Sadler, 23, a college student, joined in the fight. By the time Khazzani was overpowered with the help of a British passenger, Chris Norman, Stone had been stabbed several times in the neck; another passenger, Mark Moogalian, 51, had been shot and was bleeding profusely. Moogalian survived.

The friends, who were on a tour of Europe, were instant celebrities. They met President Barack Obama, were awarded medals by France, Belgium and the US, appeared on talkshows, and Skarlatos took part in Dancing With the Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing. With the help of the author Jeffrey E Stern, they wrote a book, The 15:17 to Paris, now adapted for the big screen.

All three are practising Christians. They met in a Christian school in California and grew up attending church, and believe that their actions that day were part of God's plan.

"We know this series of events weren't coincidences. It's like our lives were leading up to that moment," Sadler, a pastor's son, told the Guardian. "You don't always know what plan God has for you. What we've come to realise with hindsight is that [this] was all part of a plan, of a bigger picture. That's where we were supposed to be that day."

According to Skarlatos, "if you look at the statistics of everything that happened, just the odds of being in a terrorist attack are astronomical. The odds of surviving it and being the ones that stopped it, and the odds of our exact situation happening to us, are too astronomical to believe that it was purely just chance. I really think God had a hand in it. We were vessels, being used."

They were all "pretty frightened" at the time, said Stone. "It's a pretty paralysing feeling - you look at a guy with a loaded, automatic AK47, and you think the only result is going to be your death. Running at him, we had no hope of actually making it to him. Yeah, we were all pretty scared that day."

Skarlatos said: "It was act or die. There wasn't any time to think about anything, because if you didn't do anything, you'd end up dead. We just kind of went for it. We all thought we were going to die anyway; we were on a moving train with nowhere to go."

The experience of playing themselves in the movie was "the funnest two months of our lives", said Stone. Eastwood - who has made several action movies about real-life heroes - was relaxed and down to earth, making it easy for them to relive the incident.

They said they had a positive message to impart: everyone is capable of the extraordinary, and God has a plan for each of us.

"I think it's our responsibility to take that message and be responsible with it and spread it as much as we can so we don't waste the opportunity that [God] gave us," said Sadler. "The fact that we're living, we're meant to spread the story and it's meant to touch people, and we're the three people that were chosen to do that."

But they also had practical advice for anyone caught in a similar situation. "I would say if you can run, run. But we didn't have the option to run," said Sadler.

Not all those involved in the incident shared the trio's faith in God. Moogalian, a French-American academic, who was bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound, was asked by Skarlatos if he wanted to pray. "He actually said no to me," Skarlatos said.

Stone and Skarlatos have now left the military and Sadler has graduated from college. Making the movie has given them the "acting bug", said Stone. "If we can make it a career, why not? So I think we're all going to give that a shot."

Khazzani is awaiting trial in France; two other men have been charged in Belgium in connection with the incident.
Topics

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Friends who foiled 15:17 to Paris train attack 'guided by God'

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Three young Americans who are playing themselves in a Clint Eastwood-directed movie about how they foiled a terrorist attack in France say their actions were guided by God. The 15:17 to Paris, which opens in the US and UK in early February, recounts the dramatic events of 21 August 2015 when the three friends launched themselves at a man carrying an automatic AK47 and other weapons on a crowded train.

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Can an average person become a hero?

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Who Was Rosa Parks?

Rosa Parks was a civil rights leader whose refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her bravery led to nationwide efforts to end racial segregation. Parks was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Award by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Early Life and Family

Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her parents, James and Leona McCauley, separated when Parks was two. Parks' mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards. Both of Parks' grandparents were formerly enslaved people and strong advocates for racial equality; the family lived on the Edwards' farm, where Parks would spend her youth.

Parks' childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. In one experience, Parks' grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street.
READ MORE: 16 Rosa Parks Quotes About Civil Rights
Education

Throughout Parks' education, she attended segregated schools. Taught to read by her mother at a young age, Parks attended a segregated, one-room school in Pine Level, Alabama, that often lacked adequate school supplies such as desks. African American students were forced to walk to the first through sixth-grade schoolhouse, while the city of Pine Level provided bus transportation as well as a new school building for white students.

Beginning at age 11, Parks attended the city's Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery. In 1929, while in the 11th grade and attending a laboratory school for secondary education led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, Parks left school to attend to both her sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level.

Parks didn't return to her studies. Instead, she got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. After marrying in 1932, she earned her high school degree in 1933 with her husband's support.

Marriage

In 1932, at age 19, Parks met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the NAACP.

After graduating high school with Raymond's support, Parks became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon - a post she held until 1957. The couple never had children.

Arrest

On December 1, 1955, Parks was arrested for refusing a bus driver's instructions to give up her seat to a white passenger. She later recalled that her refusal wasn't because she was physically tired, but that she was tired of giving in.

After a long day's work at a Montgomery department store, where she worked as a seamstress, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for "colored" passengers.

The Montgomery City Code required that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers had the "powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code. While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and Black passengers by assigning seats.

This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African American passengers in the back. When an African American passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get off and re-board the bus at the back door.

As the bus Parks was riding continued on its route, it began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the bus was full and the driver noticed that several white passengers were standing in the aisle. The bus driver stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row, asking four Black passengers to give up their seats.

The city's bus ordinance didn't specifically give drivers the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone, regardless of color. However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the custom of moving back the sign separating Black and white passengers and, if necessary, asking Black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers. If the Black passenger protested, the bus driver had the authority to refuse service and could call the police to have them removed.

Three of the other Black passengers on the bus complied with the driver, but Parks refused and remained seated. The driver demanded, "Why don't you stand up?" to which Parks replied, "I don't think I should have to stand up." The driver called the police and had her arrested.

The police arrested Parks at the scene and charged her with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code. She was taken to police headquarters, where, later that night, she was released on bail.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Members of the African American community were asked to stay off city buses on Monday, December 5, 1955 - the day of Parks' trial - in protest of her arrest. People were encouraged to stay home from work or school, take a cab or walk to work. With most of the African American community not riding the bus, organizers believed a longer boycott might be successful. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, as it came to be known, was a huge success, lasting for 381 days and ending with a Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation on public transit systems to be unconstitutional.

Nixon began forming plans to organize a boycott of Montgomery's city buses on December 1, the evening that Parks was arrested. Ads were placed in local papers, and handbills were printed and distributed in Black neighborhoods.

On the morning of December 5, a group of leaders from the African American community gathered at the Mt. Zion Church in Montgomery to discuss strategies and determined that their boycott effort required a new organization and strong leadership. They formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing Montgomery newcomer King as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The MIA believed that Parks' case provided an excellent opportunity to take further action to create real change.

When Parks arrived at the courthouse for trial that morning with her attorney, Fred Gray, she was greeted by a bustling crowd of around 500 local supporters, who rooted her on. Following a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty of violating a local ordinance and was fined $10, as well as a $4 court fee.

Inarguably the biggest event of the day, however, was what Parks' trial had triggered. The city's buses were, by and large, empty. Some people carpooled and others rode in African American-operated cabs, but most of the estimated 40,000 African American commuters living in the city at the time had opted to walk to work that day - some as far as 20 miles.

Due to the size and scope of, and loyalty to, boycott participation, the effort continued for several months. The city of Montgomery had become a victorious eyesore, with dozens of public buses sitting idle, ultimately severely crippling finances for its transit company. With the boycott's progress, however, came strong resistance.

Some segregationists retaliated with violence. Black churches were burned, and both King and E.D. Nixon's homes were destroyed by bombings. Still, further attempts were made to end the boycott. The insurance was canceled for the city taxi system that was used by African Americans. Black citizens were arrested for violating an antiquated law prohibiting boycotts.

In response to the ensuing events, members of the African American community took legal action. Armed with the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which stated that separate but equal policies had no place in public education, a Black legal team took the issue of segregation on public transit systems to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern (Montgomery) Division. Parks' attorney, Fred Gray, filed the suit.

In June 1956, the district court declared racial segregation laws (also known as "Jim Crow laws") unconstitutional. The city of Montgomery appealed the court's decision shortly thereafter, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling, declaring segregation on public transport to be unconstitutional.

With the transit company and downtown businesses suffering financial loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift its enforcement of segregation on public buses, and the boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956. The combination of legal action, backed by the unrelenting determination of the African American community, made the Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S ROSA PARKS FACT CARD

Life After the Bus Boycott

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. She lost her department store job and her husband was fired after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or their legal case.

Unable to find work, they eventually left Montgomery and moved to Detroit, Michigan along with Parks' mother. There, Parks made a new life for herself, working as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyer's congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1987, with longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele, Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The organization runs "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.
READ MORE: Rosa Parks' Life After the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Autobiography and Memoir

In 1992, Parks published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength, which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.

Outkast Song

In 1998, the hip-hop group Outkast released a song, "Rosa Parks," which shot up to the top 100 on the Billboard music charts the following year. The song featured the chorus:
"Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus."
In 1999, Parks filed a lawsuit against the group and its label alleging defamation and false advertising because Outkast used Parks' name without her permission. Outkast said the song was protected by the First Amendment and did not violate Parks' publicity rights.

In 2003, a judge dismissed the defamation claims. Parks' lawyer soon refiled based on the false advertising claims for using her name without permission, seeking over $5 billion.

On April 14, 2005, the case was settled. Outkast and co-defendants SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC and LaFace Records admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to work with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute to develop educational programs that "enlighten today's youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races," according to a statement released at the time.

Death

On October 24, 2005, Parks quietly died in her apartment in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 92. She had been diagnosed the previous year with progressive dementia, which she had been suffering from since at least 2002.

Parks' death was marked by several memorial services, among them, lying in honor at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., where an estimated 50,000 people viewed her casket. She was interred between her husband and mother at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery, in the chapel's mausoleum. Shortly after her death, the chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel.

Accomplishments and Awards

Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest award, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Award.

On September 15, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch.

TIME magazine named Parks on its 1999 list of "The 20 Most Influential People of the 20th Century."

Remembering Rosa Parks

Museum and Park

In 2000, Troy University created the Rosa Parks Museum, located at the site of her arrest in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. In 2001, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, consecrated Rosa Parks Circle, a 3.5-acre park designed by Maya Lin, an artist and architect best known for designing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Movie on Rosa Parks' Life

A biographical movie starring Angela Bassett and directed by Julie Dash, The Rosa Parks Story, was released in 2002. The movie won the 2003 NAACP Image Award, Christopher Award and Black Reel Award.

Commemorative Stamp

February 4, 2013 marked what would have been Parks' 100th birthday. In celebration, a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp, called the Rosa Parks Forever stamp and featuring a rendition of the famed activist, debuted.

Statue

Also in February 2013, President Barack Obama unveiled a statue designed by Robert Firmin and sculpted by Eugene Daub honoring Parks in the nation's Capitol building. He remembered Parks, according to The New York Times, by saying "In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world. . . . And today, she takes her rightful place among those who shaped this nation's course."
Watch "Rosa Parks: Mother Of A Movement" on History Vault

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Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Its success launched nationwide efforts to end racial segregation of public facilities.

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Who Was Emmeline Pankhurst?

Emmeline Pankhurst was born in England in 1858. In 1903, she founded the Women's Social and Political Union, which used militant tactics to agitate for women's suffrage. Pankhurst was imprisoned many times, but supported the war effort after World War I broke out. Parliament granted British women limited suffrage in 1918. Pankhurst died in 1928, shortly before women were given full voting rights.

Early Life

Emmeline Goulden was born in Manchester, England, on either July 14 or 15, 1898. (Her birth certificate said July 15, but the document wasn't filed until four months after her birth, and Goulden always stated she was born on July 14.)

Goulden, the eldest daughter of 10 children, grew up in a politically active family. Her parents were both abolitionists and supporters of female suffrage; Goulden was 14 when her mother took her to her first women's suffrage meeting. However, Goulden chafed at the fact that her parents prioritized their sons' education and advancement over hers.

Marriage and Political Activism

After studying in Paris, Goulden returned to Manchester, where she met Dr. Richard Pankhurst in 1878. Richard was a lawyer who supported a number of radical causes, including women's suffrage. Though he was 24 years older than Goulden, the two married in December 1879, and Goulden became Emmeline Pankhurst.

Over the next decade, Pankhurst gave birth to five children: daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, and sons Frank (who died in childhood) and Harry. Despite her children and other household responsibilities, Pankhurst remained involved in politics, campaigning for her husband during his unsuccessful runs for Parliament and hosting political gatherings at their home.

"Women are very slow to rouse, but once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible."

In 1889, Pankhurst became an early supporter of the Women's Franchise League, which wanted to enfranchise all women, married and unmarried alike (at the time, some groups only sought the vote for single women and widows). Her husband encouraged Pankhurst in these endeavors until his death in 1898.

The WSPU Takes Shape

Coping with straitened circumstances and grief consumed much of Pankhurst's attention for the next several years. However, she retained a passion for women's rights, and in 1903 she decided to create a new women-only group focused solely on voting rights, the Women's Social and Political Union. The WSPU's slogan was "Deeds Not Words."

In 1905, Pankhurst's daughter Christabel and fellow WSPU member Annie Kenney went to a meeting to demand if the Liberal party would support women's suffrage. After a confrontation with the police, both women were arrested. The attention and interest that followed this arrest encouraged Pankhurst to have the WSPU follow a more combative path than other suffrage groups.

At first the WSPU's "militancy" consisted of buttonholing politicians and holding rallies. Still, following these tactics led to members of Pankhurst's group being arrested and imprisoned (Pankhurst herself was first sent behind bars in 1908). The Daily Mail soon dubbed Pankhurst's group "suffragettes," as opposed to the "suffragists," who also wanted women to be able to vote in the United Kingdom, but who followed less confrontational channels.

Rise of the Suffragettes

Over the next few years, Pankhurst would encourage WSPU members to rein in their demonstrations when it seemed possible that a bill on women's suffrage might move forward. But when the group was disappointed-as in 1910 and 1911, when Conciliation Bills that included women's suffrage failed to advance-protests would escalate. By 1913, militant actions by WSPU members included window-breaking, vandalizing public art and arson.

"We were called militant, and we were quite willing to accept the name. We were determined to press this question of the enfranchisement of women to the point where we were no longer to be ignored by the politicians."

Throughout these protests, suffragettes were arrested, but in 1909 the women had begun to engage in hunger strikes while in prison. Though this resulted in violent force-feedings, the hunger strikes also led to early release for many suffragettes. When Pankhurst was given a nine-month sentence in 1912 for throwing a rock at the prime minister's residence, she too embarked on a hunger strike. Spared from being forcibly fed, she was soon freed.

Seeking to circumvent the hunger strikes, in 1913 the Prisoners' Temporary Discharge for Ill Health Act was enacted. The law said that prisoners who were released for health reasons could be rearrested and taken back to prison once they'd recovered. It became known as the "Cat and Mouse Act," with suffragette "mice" being pursued by the authorities.

"We shall fight against the condition of affairs so long as life is in us."

In 1913, after an incendiary device went off in an unoccupied house being built for the chancellor of the exchequer, David Lloyd George, Pankhurst received a sentence of three years of penal servitude for inciting the crime. She was released after a hunger strike, but the Cat and Mouse Act led to a series of rearrests and releases-during one furlough, Pankhurst proceeded to the United States for a fundraising and lecture tour-that continued into 1914. But everything changed with the arrival of World War I.

World War I and the Vote

Feeling that suffragettes needed to make sure they had a country to vote in, Pankhurst decided to call for a halt to militancy and demonstrations. The government released all WSPU prisoners, and Pankhurst encouraged women to join the war effort and fill factory jobs so that men could fight on the front.

"We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers."

The contributions of women during wartime helped convince the British government to grant them limited voting rights-for those who met a property requirement and were 30 years of age (the voting age for men was 21)-with the Representation of the People Act of 1918. Later that year, another bill gave women the right to be elected to Parliament.

Later Years

Though all her daughters had been members of the WSPU at some point, Pankhurst was only able to celebrate the achievement of (limited) suffrage with Christabel, her favorite. As a pacifist, Sylvia had disagreed with Pankhurst's attitude toward the war, while Adela had moved to Australia.

Pankhurst still desired universal women's suffrage, but her politics changed focus after the war. She worried about the rise of Bolshevism and eventually became a member of the Conservative Party. Pankhurst even ran for a seat in Parliament as a Conservative, but her campaign was disrupted by ill health (exacerbated by the public revelation that Sylvia had given birth to an illegitimate child). Pankhurst was 69 when she died in London on June 14, 1928.

Pankhurst did not live to see it, but on July 2, 1928, Parliament gave women voting rights on par with those of their male counterparts.

Voting Rights Centennial

On February 6, 2018, the U.K. commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act with a speech by Prime Minister Theresa May and a series of public exhibitions. However, some felt the tributes weren't enough, with Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn among those calling for official pardons for more than 1,000 suffragettes imprisoned for their activism a century earlier.

Emmeline Pankhurst's great-granddaughter Helen also surfaced in the news for the release of her book, Deeds Not Words. An activist in the mold of her famed ancestor, Helen Pankhurst expressed concern that U.S. President Donald Trump was using his position to reverse the tide of hard-fought progress for women: "I think it's really sad that in 2018 we have as the president of apparently the most powerful place in the world someone who has done the things that he has done and speaks the way that he does," she said.

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On the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in the U.K., equality campaigners are calling for the pardon of Emmeline Pankhurst and other suffragettes who were imprisoned fighting for women's suffrage. Meanwhile, Pankhurst's great-granddaughter warned President Trump may damage men's perception of women.

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Listen to the recording (you can look at the transcript for help)
1) Who are the people mentioned?
2) What decisive events took place and when?
3) What did the three Americans do?
4) What were the consequences for them? (in the short term and in the long term)
5) What other Clint Eastwood movies are mentioned? Why?
6) Why is this movie special?

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DAVE DAVIES, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. At age 87, Clint Eastwood shows little signs of slowing down. His last two films, "American Sniper" and "Sully," were hits, and with "The 15:17 To Paris" he continues the theme of ordinary people who become heroes. The title comes from the train on which three Americans, two of them soldiers, stopped a 2015 terrorist attack. In the film, all three play themselves. Film critic David Edelstein has a review.

DAVID EDELSTEIN, BYLINE: Clint Eastwood's "The 15:17 To Paris" celebrates old-fashioned American heroism, and I like it. The heroes and their story are well-known. On August 21, 2015, three friends - Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler - were traveling by high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris when a Moroccan gunman with known terrorist sympathies emerged from a lavatory armed with multiple weapons. The first good thing is that he didn't really know how to use them. The second is that several French passengers managed partially to disarm him, though one was critically wounded. The third is that Stone, on leave from the Air Force, barely hesitated before charging up the aisle towards a likely death.

The problem for any filmmaker is that all this went down fast, so a narrative has to be constructed leading up to the event, framing it, making sense of it. Eastwood gives you striptease-like flashes of the attack in the first hour, lingering in particular on the shooter's sneakers. But much of "The 15:17 To Paris" makes use of Eastwood's preferred template. Working from Dorothy Blyskal's screenplay based on a book by Stone, Skarlatos, Sadler, and Jeffrey E. Stern, he demonstrates how bureaucracies try to keep heroic individuals in check.

In a Sacramento middle school, an icy administrator informed Stone's mother, played by Judy Greer, that her son stares out the window too much. Citing statistics, she says he needs medication for ADD. The mother is incensed. My God, she says, is bigger than your statistics. The three boys bond in Catholic high school. They play in the woods with toy semi-automatic rifles, but constantly run afoul of over-officious teachers, principals, and coaches who don't like their independent streak. Later, Stone will be a square peg in the Air Force's round hole. When an active shooter alarm sounds, he refuses his instructor's order to hide under his desk and stands beside the classroom door, waiting to plunge a ballpoint pen into any invader. Stone's faith is individual, too. He believes that God has a purpose for him.

In "The 15:17 To Paris," Eastwood has made the audacious choice not to cast actors as Stone, Skarlatos, and Sadler. The men play themselves. After a night of partying in Amsterdam, the three sit in a cafe and contemplate the journey ahead.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE 15:17 TO PARIS")

ALEK SKARLATOS: (As Alek) You guys just want to skip Paris?

ANTHONY SADLER: (As Anthony) Or at least delay it a little bit.

SKARLATOS: (As Alek) I'm starving.

SADLER: (As Anthony) Maybe it's like you're saying, like, life's kind of catapulting you towards something.

SPENCER STONE: (As Spencer) Right now it's catapulting me towards some hangover food.

SKARLATOS: (As Alek) Wait. What'd you say?

STONE: (As Spencer) I don't know, man. It's something I said in Venice. I was caught up in that European high. I'm not going to lie.

SADLER: (As Anthony) No, no, no. You should have heard this guy. He was talking about how life is catapulting him towards something, like, some greater purpose or something like that.

SKARLATOS: (As Alek) Spencer said that?

SADLER: (As Anthony) I know. Deep, right?

SKARLATOS: (As Alek) Do you still think that?

STONE: (As Spencer) I mean, I guess, but nothing's actually stopping us. If we weren't meant to be on that train tomorrow, something would physically stop us. An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by a greater force.

SADLER: (As Anthony) I'm telling you, man, he's been deep as hell on this trip. I can't even deal with it.

EDELSTEIN: It's a cheap shot to say these three might have won the French Legion of Honor but won't win any Oscars, but I'll say it anyway to make a point about Clint Eastwood. It's well-known he hates rehearsing and doesn't work closely with actors, relying on them to get things right on the first or second take. To use non-actors, give them dialogue that wouldn't pass muster in a Sunday school pageant and throw them undefended in front of the camera seems reckless, though I'll add that the kids who play the men in middle and high school seem even more undirected and inept. It's a credit to Spencer Stone that he holds the screen as well as he does. He has real weight.

Much of "The 15:17 To Paris" is a travelogue with lovely, postcard-worthy shots of the heroes in Rome and Venice. But even at the movies slackest, Eastwood's intent comes through. Americans abroad might seem insignificant against the backdrop of Western European history and culture, but as we'll see, they're what stands between that civilization and dark forces of evil. In the train sequence, the film's rickety construct comes together. There's no music, just screams, shots and the sounds of flesh being stabbed and pummeled. Badly wounded himself, his thumb nearly severed, Stone still manages to stop a passenger shot in the neck from bleeding out.

And Eastwood brings the camera close to show how precarious the man's life is and, by extension, how dependent we all are on people like Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler who throw themselves into harm's way. The final sequence uses shots of the actual French Legion of Honor presentation. I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking I ought to stand up.

DAVIES: David Edelstein is film critic for New York magazine. On Monday's show...

KATE BOWLER: When you think you're going to die, you really start to feel like you're fading to gray and everyone else is still in color.

DAVIES: Kate Bowler was diagnosed with incurable cancer in her 30s. She's married, has a young child and teaches at Duke Divinity School. Her new memoir is about how religion has affected how she deals with illness and how illness has affected her faith. Hope you can join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANAT COHEN'S "HAPPY SONG")

DAVIES: Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support from Julian Herzfeld and Joyce Lieberman. Our associate producer for digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Dave Davies.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANAT COHEN'S "HAPPY SONG")

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Clint Eastwood Celebrates Old-Fashioned Heroism In 'The 15:17 To Paris'

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DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. At age 87, Clint Eastwood shows little signs of slowing down. His last two films, "American Sniper" and "Sully," were hits, and with "The 15:17 To Paris" he continues the theme of ordinary people who become heroes.