to expect that in a real-life situation such as this that people would start doing Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris impressions is unrealistic. That is Hollywood BS. Most people in a real-life situation like this would be scared crapless. I can certainly see how someone with martial arts training might feel a little braver than the average slob...but most people have no martial arts training.
Totally agree with you. Seems to.be a lot if big talkers when it comes to this movie and how brave people would be, but unless someone actually starts getting violent and not just talking, most people will try and ignore the situation. Then, if it does move to violence, it might scare more people for fear of their own lives. Until someone encounters a situation like this, they dhould keep theory brave mouths closed, because odds are, it's all talk.
I just watched the film on TCM. I agree that you never know what you’d do until you are in the situation. I live in manhattan, which is where most of the film takes place. In real life, the people would not have been that passive. It was two unarmed (until the end) men agains a car load full of people. In NYC people tend to band together in such cases. Like in Flight 93.