In the film, survivors call the first responders who rescued them to give them a long-overdue “thank you.” We use archival images of the actual people on the call while we hear the unscripted conversations. A woman thanks a firefighter for pulling her from a fire; a father thanks a police officer for rescuing his children during Hurricane Harvey; a man expresses his gratitude to a firefighter who repelled down the side of a building to rescue him; and a hiker thanks a mountain rescue commander for saving her life when she fell down a 50-foot cliff.

Finally, we return to the woman pulled from the fire who begins to cry as she expresses her appreciation. The film closes with an invitation to the audience to share their own message of gratitude at AllOurThanks.com.

Finding the right photos and the survivors and first responders in them wasn’t easy. We used a mix of advanced databases (including TinEye and LexisNexis) and gumshoe detective work with a team of Researchers, Archivists, Journalists and Investigators used by the FBI. This process was made more difficult by the fact that many survivors are displaced from their homes and understandably hard to find.

We then attempted to reach both the survivors and first responders and bring them together over the phone. Getting first responders to participate was often difficult; they are hesitant to take any credit for their heroism. And finding people who were 1) in a great picture 2) willing to open up about their experience and 3) did not yet have closure regarding the emergency they were involved in were critical to getting the raw and emotional reunions used in the films.