Tom Hanks stars as hero pilot in the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s ‘Sully’

Deep in the heart of summer, it can prove difficult to find a good reason to go to the movies — save for the air conditioning. But if you’re tiring of big-budget popcorn fare, fear not: Awards season is only a few months off, and the trailer for Clint Eastwood’s new film is here to remind you of that.

“Sully,” which hits theaters Sept. 9, is the director’s first movie since his Oscar-nominated “American Sniper” came out two years ago. The film stars Tom Hanks as Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the white-haired airline pilot who was hailed as a hero after successfully landing a US Airways flight on the Hudson River in 2009.

If you followed the breathless news coverage after the incident, you probably think the situation was pretty black and white: Just 2,800 feet above land, a flock of geese flew into the plane’s engines, causing them to fail. Sullenberger was forced to attempt a water landing, and all 155 passengers aboard the Airbus A320 survived.

But as the trailer reveals, there was actually a lot more going on behind the scenes. Following the miraculous landing, Sullenberger was scrutinized for his decision by airline officials who questioned whether the pilot could have made it all the way to LaGuardia Airport without hitting the water.

The movie also promises to explore the difficultly Sullenberger had reconciling himself as a hero. Shortly after the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson” occurred, the pilot became a household name, sitting for interviews with Katie Couric and other prominent journalists.

“It was one of those events, in the first couple of seconds, I knew it was going to be unlike anything I had ever experienced,” he told “CBS This Morning” in 2014. “It was going to define my life into before and after. I knew it was going to be a challenge of a lifetime that was mine to solve, but it also provided opportunities, like this one, to have a greater voice about things.”

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