9-11 World Trade Center

(CBS) NEW YORK Retired Port Authority Police Lt. John McLoughlin stood next to Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage and talked about him like an old friend."Nic's a great guy," McLoughlin said. "Getting to know him has been a really good thing."The men bonded over the past several months, as Cage worked on Oliver Stone's new film, "World Trade Center." The movie had its world premiere Thursday at the historic Ziegfeld Theatre in Midtown.The movie tells the story of McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, also a Port Authority cop. The men were trapped in the rubble when the Twin Towers fell on 9/11, and were the last to be rescued alive at Ground Zero."We tried as hard as we could to make everything right," said Stone, sweating on the red carpet on a hot and humid night.Stone's critical comments about the U.S. after the 9/11 terror attacks prompted many to wonder if he was the right man to direct such a sensitive story.Scott Strauss, a retired NYPD officer who was the first to reach McLoughlin in the rubble, said he worried, too."I am so glad that I was proved wrong about my original perceptions," Strauss said. "He's a fantastic director. It was important for him to make this movie right as it was for us to have it right."Strauss was one of many real-life 9/11 heroes who consulted with Stone during the making of the film. Many of them attended the premiere Thursday, bringing family and friends with them to walk the red carpet."I thought the movie was incredibly done," said McLoughlin. "It was accurate. They got the feel what was going on with us that day."Jimeno also had high praise for the film, which he's already seen six times."Our main goal as survivors was to tell the story of our teammates, the rescuers who came in, and the strength of our wives," Jimeno said.Jimeno's wife, Allison ,attended the premiere, along with Maggie Gyllenhaal, the actress who portrays her."I was more interested in showing the role all the families played that day, rather than where I went and what I did," Allison Jimeno said. "I think everyone involved with this film did an incredible job."