CANNES, France – Hollywood is rarely known for its restraint, but it has decided that the first feature film to depict the September 11 attacks on New York will not use footage of the two planes exploding into the twin towers.

Oliver Stone, the director behind “Platoon,” “Wall Street,” and “JFK,” unveiled the opening 26 minutes of “World Trade Center” at Cannes yesterday as he voiced misgivings about showing an incomplete version of the movie to “the toughest audience in the world.”

While the first aircraft is seen as an ominous shadow passing over a skyscraper in Mr. Stone’s film, the second is missing completely, and is only referred to when a police officer learns of it on the phone from his wife.

Such a move is indicative of Hollywood’s awareness that any dramatization of the terror attacks will be minutely scrutinized. “United 93,” a film by British director Paul Greengrass, about the airliner downed in Pennsylvania when its passengers rushed the hijackers, has won acclaim from families of the victims for his sensitive direction.

After the screening yesterday, Mr. Stone received thunderous applause from a packed audience of critics.

“World Trade Center” is about two Port Authority officers trapped under the rubble of the twin towers.

Nicolas Cage stars as Sergeant John McLoughlin. The first footage ends with Mr. Cage leading his men into the towers. At the sound of a thunderous roar, he looks up to see debris and a mushrooming cloud of dust and ash hurtling at him and his men. The screen goes white. Seconds later, his terrified eyes are seen staring from the blackness. Then the screen goes dark.

Mr. Stone has compared the heroism he depicts in the film to that of his soldiers in the Vietnam War saga “Platoon.”

Noting the role played in the project’s development by the real people at the center of September 11, he said: “They gave us what I hope one day will be seen as the truth. Truth must exist in some way to confront power and extremism.”

“World Trade Center” will be released in August.