“The Looming Tower” is a slow-burning, character-driven drama about the rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the late 1990s — and the bureaucratic rivalry between the CIA and FBI that made the tragedy of 9/11 possible. Based on Lawrence Wright’s 2006 book, the 10-episode Hulu series premiered on February 28, 2018, and it follows the I-49 Squad in New York and Alec Station in Washington, D.C., as they chase leads across the world while fighting each other for control of information.
The show is not a thriller. It is a tragedy about men and women whose instincts are right and whose systems are broken. Jeff Daniels plays John O’Neill, the FBI agent who knows the enemy better than anyone in the room. Tahar Rahim plays Ali Soufan, the Lebanese-American FBI agent who becomes O’Neill’s protégé and the series’ moral center. Together they lead an ensemble cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg as Richard Clarke, Peter Sarsgaard as Martin Schmidt, and Bill Camp as Robert Chesney.
Trailer, via Amazon Prime Video UK & IE.
The Lead Role
Daniels is the engine of the show. His O’Neill is a man who has spent decades studying terrorism, and he carries the weight of that knowledge in every scene. He is funny, sharp, and exhausted — a veteran who has seen too much and now watches his colleagues waste their energy on turf wars. Daniels spent significant time researching the role, speaking with people who knew O’Neill personally. He spent an evening at a bar in Lower Manhattan with ten of O’Neill’s colleagues, who had worked with him for years. That experience gave him the sense of place he needed to play a man who understood the stakes.
The performance is anchored in that preparation. Daniels never overplays the tragedy of O’Neill’s fate. He plays the man as he was, a dedicated professional who believed he could stop the attack if only he were given the tools to do it. The show respects that belief, even as it shows how the system failed him.
The Ensemble Around Him
Rahim’s Ali Soufan is the show’s conscience. He is young, brilliant, and deeply committed to justice, but he is also a man who is underestimated by his superiors because of his background. The show tracks his rise through the FBI, and Rahim captures the tension between his ambition and his sense of duty. Soufan is the one who understands that the fight against terrorism requires trust, not suspicion — and the show makes that case forcefully.
Stuhlbarg’s Richard Clarke is a career civil servant who sees the government’s failures from the inside. He is a bureaucrat who knows the system is broken, but he cannot fix it on his own. His scenes with O’Neill are the heart of the series, because they represent two men who understand the problem but belong to different institutions. Sarsgaard’s Martin Schmidt is the villain of the piece — a CIA officer who believes in the agency’s primacy and will stop at nothing to keep the FBI from having access to intelligence. Camp’s Robert Chesney is a quieter presence, a lawyer who helps manage the bureaucratic mess but is powerless to change it.
The supporting cast fills out the world. Virginia Kull, Ella Rae Peck, Louis Cancelmi, Sullivan Jones, and Wrenn Schmidt round out the FBI team, giving the show a sense of institutional life rather than just a collection of talking heads. The show moves between New York, Washington, and overseas locations, and it uses those settings to build a sense of scale — this is not just a story about a few agents, but about a failure of national leadership.
The CIA vs. FBI Struggle
The central conflict is not a personal rivalry between O’Neill and anyone else. It is an institutional one. The FBI and CIA both want to be the lead agency in counterterrorism, and they treat each other as competitors rather than partners. The show makes this clear from the first episode, and it never lets up.
O’Neill wants to bring down al-Qaeda. The CIA wants to keep the FBI from doing it. The show dramatizes this through specific scenes — meetings where information is withheld, phone calls where cooperation is refused, and briefings where the truth is spun. The tension is not abstract. It is shown in real, human terms.
The show’s premise is simple: the rivalry between the FBI and CIA during the late 1990s may have inadvertently contributed to the 9/11 attacks. That is the thesis statement, and the show spends ten hours building its case. It does not argue this point directly. It shows it through the actions of the characters.
The Writing and Direction
The show was created by Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, and Lawrence Wright. Futterman served as showrunner, and Gibney directed the first episode. The writing is dense and talky, full of policy arguments and bureaucratic jargon. Some viewers will find this exhausting. Others will find it gripping.
The pacing is deliberate. The show unfolds slowly, letting the characters breathe and the relationships develop. This is a show about ideas, and it treats its audience as intelligent enough to follow complex arguments. It is not a popcorn drama. It is a serious piece of television that demands attention.
The direction is solid. Gibney’s first episode sets a tone of grim professionalism, and the show maintains that throughout. The cinematography is clean and unobtrusive, focusing on the faces of the actors rather than flashy visual effects. The show looks like a serious piece of work, and it feels like one.
The World Before 9/11
The show is set in the late 1990s, a period often forgotten in the rush to remember 9/11 itself. The show takes its time establishing the world — the Clinton administration, the rise of al-Qaeda, the failed embassy bombings in Africa, the USS Cole attack. It shows the world before the attack, and it makes the audience feel the loss of what was lost.
The show’s title, “The Looming Tower,” comes from the Koranic verse that bin Laden used as a call to arms. The show opens with a reading of that verse, and it returns to it periodically. The verse is a reminder that the story is not just about American institutions. It is about the forces that drove bin Laden to act.
The show does not romanticize its subject. It shows the brutality of terrorism and the fear it creates. But it also shows the humanity of the victims and the dedication of the investigators. It is a balanced portrait, and it holds its nerve.
The Tragedy of O’Neill
The show ends with O’Neill’s death. It is not a happy ending. It is a tragic one. The show has spent ten episodes showing O’Neill’s frustration, his anger, his despair. And then it shows him die. The final scenes are powerful, and they leave the viewer with a sense of loss.
The show’s final message is that the system failed O’Neill. It failed him because it was built on competition rather than cooperation. It failed him because the people in charge were more interested in power than in results. The show does not offer solutions. It offers a warning.
The Cast’s Work
The ensemble cast delivers uniformly strong performances. Daniels is the standout, but Rahim, Stuhlbarg, Sarsgaard, and Camp all hold their own. The show benefits from a deep bench, and it uses that depth to explore multiple perspectives on the same events.
The show also benefits from its directorial choices. Gibney’s direction in the first episode sets a tone of grim professionalism, and the show maintains that throughout. The cinematography is clean and unobtrusive, focusing on the faces of the actors rather than flashy visual effects.
The Final Verdict
“The Looming Tower” is a flawed but important work of television. It is flawed because it is slow, dense, and talky — some viewers will find it hard to sit through. It is important because it tells a story that is rarely told, and it tells it with integrity. It does not blame individuals. It blames institutions.
The show is a tragedy, not a thriller. It is a tragedy about the best people in the country failing to stop a catastrophe because they were caught in a bureaucratic nightmare of their own making. It is a tragedy about a man who knew the enemy and could not save his country.
The show is worth watching for anyone interested in history, politics, or the human cost of war. It is a difficult watch, but it is a rewarding one.
Key Facts Box
– Title: The Looming Tower
– Network: Hulu
– Creator: Lawrence Wright, Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney
– First aired: February 28, 2018
– Last aired: April 18, 2018
– Episodes: 10
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