Paramount+ will exclusively premiere 11 Minutes, a four-part documentary that takes viewers inside the heart-stopping stories of terror and survival experienced by those who were at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas.
Directed by Emmy and Peabody-winning director Jeff Zimbalist (Momentum Generation, The Two Escobars, ReMastered, The Line), 11 Minutes will debut Tuesday, Sept. 27 on Paramount+, marking the week of the event’s fifth anniversary (Oct. 1).
11 Minutes features the first in-depth interview with country music superstar Jason Aldean, who was on stage when the first burst of automatic gun fire shattered the night. When it was over, 58 people were dead and more than 800 were injured.
Aldean remembers hearing a popping noise and thinking it was an equipment malfunction.
“When I turned around, my bass player was just looking at me like a deer in the headlights. And my security guy was on stage at that point, telling me to get down, waving me off the stage,” Aldean says.
The documentary highlights first-person narratives of officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police force, trauma teams at Sunrise Hospital and concert goers who all experienced the trauma of this mass-casualty event. Using never-before-seen police bodycam footage and 200 hours of cell phone video, 11 Minutes lets viewers accompany heavily armed officers on a hair-raising mission, as step-by-step they approach the shooter’s hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
“This situation was probably the highest level of intensity that I’ve ever been in,” says (Ret) SWAT officer Billy Marx.
At the heart of 11 Minutes are miraculous stories of survival as ordinary people undertake extraordinary acts to help strangers. The series investigates the legacy of the 11 fateful minutes of gunfire as subjects ask crucial questions about lone-wolf violence, prevention and the humanity that transcends.
“It’s important that people know the truth out of respect for those we lost, out of those who were injured, those who are still mentally and physically scarred … that everybody’s spirits and legacies remain intact. That friendships made that night in those 11 minutes were made for a reason,” says popular SiriusXM radio host and festival emcee Storme Warren. “The story, to me, wasn’t about a shooter. It was about people helping each other.”
Adds Josh Haynes, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police detective, “People stood up at that moment and they did what needed to be done at that time to take care of those on their left and right. Those stories should be told.”
Living with the aftermath of that night, Aldean, like so many, says he struggles with survivor’s guilt. “It’s hard not to feel a little guilty. I mean, those people were there to support us,” Aldean says.
Watch the official trailer for 11 Minutes.
Related posts:
