Tom Hanks Movie "The Terminal" - Snowden Is Living the Legend

Edward Snowden is a man fleeing justice in the US, but his unusual high drama international story is hardly original.

Tom Hanks movie "The Terminal" gets a respectable 7.2 stars on IMDb.  Still, this funny movie may not be comical anymore.  In fact, the fictional movie is now historic.

In the movie, an eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there. Director: Steven Spielberg

Storyline in "The Terminal"

Viktor Navorski, a man from an Eastern European country arrives in New York. However after he left his country war broke out. Suddenly Navorski is a man without a country - or one that the U.S. cannot recognize, thus he is denied entrance to the U.S. However, he also can't be deported so he is told by the Security Manager that he has to remain in the airport until his status can be fixed. And also Navorski doesn't speak English very well, so he cannot talk to or understand anyone. But he somehow adapts and sets up residence in the airport, which makes the man who placed him there unhappy, as it seems he is in line for a promotion but Navroski's presence might complicate that. So he tries to get Navorski to leave but Navorski remains where he is. Navorski makes friends with some of the people who work in the airport and is attracted to a flight attendant he runs into whenever she comes in.      

Here is the Edward Snowden translation:  

Edward Snowden, a man on the run from the United States who is on the lamb for suspicion of being a traitor, arrives in the Moscow, Russia Sheremetyevo Airport. He is a man who is fleeing his country.  But, he can't be deported because he has no status and, officially, according to President Putin, he has not officially entered Russia.  

Edward Snowden is still inside the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday – the first official word on the fugitive's whereabouts in more than two days. Putin said Russia has nothing to do with Snowden's plans, and appeared to pour cold water on demands from Washington to hand him over to U.S. prosecutors.

"As regards handing him in - we can hand over foreign nationals only to a country with which we have an agreement about handing over criminals," Putin told reporters at a press conference in Finland. "We do not have such an agreement with the United States."

Snowden doesn't speak Russian very well, so he has difficulty understanding people in the airport. Nevertheless, Snowden manages to set up a residence in the airport.  Snowden decides to stay where he is because, like Tom Hanks, he might very well become an airport star.  (I wonder if Snowden can claim royalties for any songs, stories, movies or news documentaries sold as a result of his true life saga.)

Eventually, and it's just a matter of time, Snowden will likely find a flight attendant and other sympathizers who are attracted to him, at which time, he'll likely find a way out of his transient life.

Meanwhile, Snowden has raised the bar for homeless refugees who find themselves stranded in holding cells in international airports, because they have no immigration status.  I wonder if Snowden has started a new idea for international homeless shelters?

Snowden is living the legend told in "The  Terminal", but his story is hardly entertaining anymore.  Rather, Snowden may have contributed to a less safe world by revealing information used to track and capture terrorists.  Eventually, Snowden will be forced to return to the United States, because his terminal situation cannot be permanent.