The Looming Tower

Based on Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book, The Looming Tower tells the story of the rising threat of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in the late 1990s, and how the rivalry between the FBI and CIA during that time may have inadvertently set the path for the tragedy of 9/11.

Episode one: Now It Begins

1998. A seized al-Qaeda computer drive reaches 'Alec Station' in CIA HQ, Langley, Virginia. The coldly calculating, cardigan-wearing section chief Martin Schmidt (Peter Sarsgaard) keeps its contents from the FBI, where his New York-based counter-terrorism counterpart is brash, suited and booted John O’Neill (Jeff Daniels).

Determined not to be sidelined, O’Neill has recruited rookie agent Ali Soufan (Tahar Rahim), an Arabic-speaking Muslim (albeit one with a taste for alcohol) to aid his team, while well-seasoned Bob Chesney (Bill Camp) heads to Nairobi, Kenya.

Soufan recognises that a TV interview given by ‘UBL’ [Usama bin Laden - sic] is a final warning before retribution against the US is unleashed. Bob Chesney visits a man who used to work for ‘UBL’ and nets an old computer through at the American Embassy in Nairobi, where flirtatious Deb Fletcher (Leslie Silva) works.

Clues suggest an al-Qaeda cell is gearing up in Tirana, Albania, and O’Neill pushes National Security co-ordinator Richard Clarke (Michael Stuhlbarg) to both confirm the CIA is launching a raid there and push to let Soufan join the mission. Dragged away from a date with teacher Heather (Ella Rae Peck), the young agent is whisked off to a dangerous situation in the Balkan state.

In Africa another two terrorist cells are able to finish prepping for destructive, bloody action…

Pictured: John O Neill (Jeff Daniels)

Publicity contact: HF