Behind the Scenes: On the Set of We Are Marshall

Big Mack

As for Mackie, he plays captain Nate Ruffin, who missed the flight because he was injured. Mackie was able to spend time with Nate's family prior to filming. Nate passed away in 2001 and was buried with the six unidentified bodies from the crash in Huntington at the obelisk.

"There were nine players who didn't get on the plane," explains Ruffin. "Four were hurt and five were freshman. Nate -- who was the captain of the team --had a calcium build-up on his shoulder, so he was injured and wasn't allowed to travel. That's why he missed the plane.

"The most emotion moment of filming had to be when we shot the plane crash. It was weird because you know it's a movie. You're acting. We show up, we eat lunch, we chill for about an hour, shoot, go home. But the way the scene is set up, we come across this hill and there's a valley and on this valley is the plane crash. And literally, I came across the hill and saw the plane crash and got sick to my stomach. Like I had never before. And then once they turned the flames on... I just had never experienced anything like that. You know, this is make-believe, but sometimes it's very real. So that affected me, it affected everyone. Everybody that saw it was kinda shook."

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