Steve Buscemi’s New Documentary Goes Inside a Life-or-Death Rescue in New First Look

Every day, emergency medical services personnel save countless lives when disaster strikes. Now, a new documentary produced by Steve Buscemi, a former firefighter himself, is taking a close look at the day-to-day lives of these unsung heroes. Collider is proud to exclusively present a new preview clip from Into the Unknown, which will be released on digital platforms next month.

Into the Unknown was directed by Tom Putnam, who previously helmed the firefighting documentary Burn and its sequel, Detroit Burning. It was given unprecedented access to the lives of a number of paramedics in several jurisdictions over the course of a year; the resulting footage was then compiled into a remarkable documentary film. The movie features Dr. Richard Carmona, Pat Coyle, Heather Edwards, Nicole Jagers, Niki Johnson, Anthony Judkins, Anne Kellogg, Trevor Oakley, John Tinsley, and Jenn Vazquez, EMS personnel from Santa Barbara, California; Sparks, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Crozet, Virginia.

In the clip, we see a harrowing rescue in process: a medical evacuation, via helicopter, from an offshore oil platform off the coast of California. After we see the stricken patient carefully hoisted into the aircraft, the clip cuts to an interview with a Santa Barbara air medic, who notes a key difference in working an air ambulance versus a conventional one; even a speeding ambulance may take 20 minutes to reach its destination, while a helicopter can get there in less than five, giving the paramedic less time to work on the patient. For more fascinating looks at the day-to-day lives of these life-savers, you can watch Into the Unknown when it hits digital platforms on December 4, courtesy of Monkey Wrench Films

• Meaning over drama, honesty over aesthetics.
• The discipline to stay present when the department is at its worst.
• A tolerance for weight that does not get put down at the end of the day.

• Each episode covers roughly one hour of the same emergency-department shift, in order.
• Noah Wyle has now won the lead drama actor Emmy for it twice, in 2025 and again in 2026.
• It reunites the ER team of Wyle, John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, thirty years on.

• Reliability above brilliance, every single shift.
• Faith in a structure that is visibly imperfect.
• The stamina to treat the hundredth patient like the first.

• Fifteen seasons and 331 episodes, from 1994 to 2009, created by Michael Crichton.
• It holds the record for the most Emmy nominations of any drama series, with 124.
• George Clooney, Julianna Margulies and Noah Wyle all broke out of County General.

• A willingness to feel all of it rather than seal any of it off.
• Colleagues who become family, with everything that costs.
• Comfort with mess, in the OR and everywhere else.

• Shonda Rhimes’ series passed ER to become the longest-running primetime medical drama
  on US television.
• It is on season 22, with ABC having already renewed it for a twenty-third.
• Ellen Pompeo has played Meredith Grey across three decades of television.

• Thinking harder than anyone else in the room, then defending it.
• A high tolerance for being disliked while you are right.
• Interest in the puzzle that outlasts your interest in being comfortable.

• Eight seasons built on Sherlock Holmes: House and Holmes, Wilson and Watson, and an
  apartment at 221B.
• Hugh Laurie taped his audition in a hotel bathroom in Namibia while shooting another film.
• By 2008 it was the most-watched television show on earth, with an audience around 82
  million.

• Humor that never curdles into cruelty.
• The honesty to admit you are still learning how to do this.
• People you can lean on, and the willingness to be leaned on.

• Nine seasons from Bill Lawrence, filmed largely inside a real decommissioned hospital in
  North Hollywood.
• Working doctors have repeatedly named it the most accurate medical show on television.
• Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke returned for an ABC revival that premiered in
  February 2026.

Who Are the Producers of ‘Into the Unknown’?

Before breaking out as an actor, Buscemi worked as a firefighter in New York City for four years; after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Buscemi temporarily rejoined his old company to assist in the search and rescue operation. He has also frequently advocated for firefighters and was named an honorary FDNY battalion chief in 2014. In addition to Buscemi, the documentary is also produced by Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth, who starred in the 1970s action series Emergency! A predecessor to shows like 9-1-1, Emergency! followed a crew of California paramedics at a time when the concept of emergency medical services in their current form was a reasonably new idea. The series is credited with raising awareness of paramedics and helping to spread EMS across the country.

Into the Unknown will be released digitally on December 4. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.