Anthony Sadler

Anthony Albert Sadler Jr. (born July 13, 1992) is an American author and television personality. Sadler, along with his friends Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone and several other passengers stopped a gunman on a Paris-bound train travelling from Amsterdam via Brussels in August 2015, gaining international recognition for their role in the event. Recognized by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and French President François Hollande, Sadler received several awards and decorations for his actions. He, along with his friends, was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French president which is the highest French order for military and civil merits. After the event, Sadler made several television appearances, including a guest appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and honored with the 2016 Spike Guys Choice Award on Spike TV, among other appearances. He, Skarlatos and Stone co-authored a memoir, titled The 15:17 to Paris, published in August 2016, which detailed the events leading up to the attack, which occurred a year prior to the release of the book. Clint Eastwood directed a biographical film with the same title based on Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone's memoir, starring them, along with actresses Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer. The film was released in early 2018 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Sadler graduated from California State University, Sacramento in 2017. 2015 Thalys train attack On August 21, 2015, Sadler and his childhood friends Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, were traveling together during a sightseeing vacation in Europe when they boarded Thalys train 9364 from Amsterdam bound to Paris via Brussels. A 25-year-old Moroccan man, believed to be Ayoub El-Khazzani, was in train car No. 12, armed with an AKM assault rifle and equipped with 270 rounds of ammunition. Another passenger tackled the gunman, but failed to stop him. Sadler reported that they heard a gunshot and breaking glass behind them, seeing an employee sprint down the aisle followed by a man with an automatic rifle. Stone woke up from the breaking glass. He tackled the armed suspect, and was stabbed in the neck and eyebrow and almost lost his thumb. Skarlatos took action and seized the assailant's rifle, beating him in the head with the muzzle of it until he was unconscious. Skarlatos stated that "I was thinking about survival," and "[i]t was to survive and for everybody else on the train to make it." Sadler and British man Chris Norman helped to subdue the gunman.