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Commander John
Storm just wants to be left alone to complete his DNA collection, and
explore the uncharted regions on planet
earth. But he always seems to be
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Olympus Has Fallen is a 2013 American political action thriller film directed and co-produced by Antoine Fuqua from a screenplay written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, and is the first installment in the Has Fallen film series. The film stars Gerard Butler (who also co-produced), Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman with Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, and Rick Yune in supporting roles. The plot depicts a North Korean-led guerrilla assault on the White House, and focuses on disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning's efforts to rescue U.S. President Benjamin Asher.
The film was released in the United States on March 22, 2013, by FilmDistrict, and grossed $170 million against a $70 million production budget. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Fuqua's direction and Butler's performance, but criticized the overt violence and screenplay. Olympus Has Fallen was one of two films released in 2013 that depicted a terrorist attack against the White House; the other was White House Down.
A sequel, titled London Has Fallen, was released on March 4, 2016, with the principal cast members reprising their roles, and a third film, Angel Has Fallen, was released on August 23, 2019
PLOT
Former U.S. Army Ranger, Mike Banning, is a Secret Service agent and detail leader in the Presidential Protection Division, maintaining a personal, friendly relationship with President Benjamin Asher, First Lady Margaret, and their son Connor. On a snowy Christmas drive from Camp David, the Presidential Limo transporting the First Family spins out of control on an icy bridge after a tree branch hits the leading vehicle. Banning pulls Asher from the vehicle, but the limo plummets to the frozen river, killing Margaret.
Eighteen months later, Banning works at the Treasury Department, having been removed from the presidential detail. During Asher's meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo at the White House, the Koreans for United Freedom (KUF), a North Korean terrorist group led by Kang Yeonsak, mounts a full-scale assault to capture the building and kill all the White House security force. Aided by ex-Secret Service agent-turned-private security contractor Dave Forbes, they hold Asher and several top officials hostage in the PEOC, executing Lee on live video. Before being killed, Agent Roma alerts the Pentagon that "Olympus has fallen".
Banning joins the White House's defenders during KUF's initial assault. He falls back into the White House, disabling internal surveillance, and using Asher's satellite earphone to contact Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs and Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull, now acting president, in the Pentagon's emergency briefing room.
Kang uses Asher's hostage status to demand Trumbull to withdraw U.S. Forces from the Korean Peninsula. He also seeks to detonate the American nuclear arsenal to turn North America into an irradiated wasteland as revenge for the death of his parents. To do this, he needs the access codes to the Cerberus nuclear arsenal system, held only by Asher, Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Joseph Hoenig, all of whom are inside the PEOC. Asher orders McMillan and Hoenig to reveal their codes to save their lives, certain that he will not give up his own code.
After finding Connor hiding in the building's walls and sneaking him to safety, preventing Kang from using him to force Asher to reveal his Cerberus code, Banning kills many commandos, including Forbes. Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg convinces Trumbull to order an aerial assault on the White House. The KUF discovers and destroys the assault force using the advanced Hydra 6 anti-aircraft system. Kang retaliates by executing Vice President Charlie Rodriguez.
Banning disables Kang's communications and forces him into bringing his operatives into the open when they attempt to execute McMillan in front of the media, killing more of them before Kang retreats to the bunker. With their numbers dwindling rapidly, Kang fakes his and Asher's death by sacrificing several of his commandos and the remaining hostages in a helicopter explosion.
Banning sees through the ruse and heads to the bunker. With two codes already in hand, Kang eventually cracks Asher's code and activates Cerberus. Banning ambushes and kills all the remaining terrorists when they attempt to escape with Asher, and Banning kills Kang by stabbing him in the head. Asher informs Banning about Cerberus, and Banning deactivates it just in time with the assistance of Trumbull and his staff. Banning escorts Asher out after retaking the White House. Afterward, Banning is reinstated as head of the presidential security detail while Asher speaks about the aftermath of the attack, assuring the public that America will rebuild stronger than before.
CAST
- Gerard Butler as Mike Banning, Secret Service agent and former Army Ranger
- Aaron Eckhart as Benjamin Asher, President of the United States
- Morgan Freeman (Hollywood
actor) as Allan Trumbull, Speaker of the House
- Rick Yune as Kang Yeonsak, a North Korean ultra-nationalist mastermind disguised as a South Korean ministerial aide
- Angela Bassett as Lynne Jacobs, Director of the U.S. Secret Service
- Robert Forster as General Edward Clegg, Chief of Staff of the United States Army
- Cole Hauser as Agent Roma, United States Secret Service agent in charge
- Finley Jacobsen as Connor Asher, son of Benjamin and Margaret Asher
- Ashley Judd as Margaret Asher, First Lady of the United States
- Melissa Leo as Ruth McMillan, Secretary of Defense
- Dylan McDermott as Dave Forbes, former United States Secret Service agent now working for the Prime Minister of South Korea's security detail.
- Radha Mitchell as Leah Banning, a nurse and Mike's wife
- Sean O'Bryan as Ray Monroe, Deputy Director of the National Security Agency
- Lance Broadway as Agent O'Neil, member of the president's Secret Service security detail
- Tory Kittles as Agent Jones, member of the president's Secret Service security detail
- Keong Sim as Lee Tae-Woo, Prime Minister of South Korea
- Phil Austin as Charlie Rodriguez, Vice President of the United States
- James Ingersoll as Admiral Joe Hoenig, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Freddy Bosche as Mark Diaz, United States Secret Service agent
- Kevin Moon as Cho, Kang's henchman
- Malana Lea as Lim, Kang's henchwoman and technical expert
- Sam Medina as Yu, Kang's henchman
In addition, the MSNBC news anchor Lawrence O'Donnell appears, uncredited, as an unnamed news anchor reporting on the developments in Washington, D.C.
PRODUCTION
Olympus Has Fallen was directed by Antoine Fuqua, based on a script by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt in their first screenwriting effort. The production company Millennium Films acquired the spec script in March 2012, and Gerard Butler was cast later in the month as the star of the film. The rest of the characters were cast throughout June and July.
In 2012, Millennium Films competed against Sony
Pictures, which was producing White House Down (a twin film about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and begin filming.
Filming began in Shreveport, Louisiana, in mid-July 2012. Because Olympus Has Fallen was filmed so far from its actual setting of
Washington,
D.C., the entire production relied heavily upon visual effects, particularly computer-generated imagery. For example, computers were used to create nearly all of the opening sequence in which the First Lady is killed in a car accident, with chroma key greenscreen technology used to composite the actors into the computer-generated snowy scenery. For scenes where actors walked in or out of the White House, a first-floor façade and entrance were built; computers added the second floor, roof, and downtown D.C. cityscape. Action scenes with the White House in the background were filmed in open fields and the White House and D.C. were added in post-production.
SCORE
The score was composed by Trevor Morris whose past projects included The Tudors and The
Borgias. The score was recorded at Trevor Morris Studios in Santa Monica with the Bratislava Slovak National Orchestra.
CRITICS & BOX OFFICE
Olympus Has Fallen grossed $98.9 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $71.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $170.2 million, against a budget of $70 million.
In its first weekend the film grossed $30.5 million, finishing second at the box office and exceeded predictions of $23 million.
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 200 reviews, and an average rating of 5.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's far from original, but Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Antoine Fuqua's tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard
Butler - which might be just enough for action junkies." Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Katey Rich of CinemaBlend praised the "lean low-budget approach", and called the film "both captivating and queasy". Richard Roeper gave the film a C, calling it "just too much of a pale Die Hard
ripoff". David Edelstein was more negative; while praising Butler's role as a "solid" character, he criticized the script and the violence, writing "Olympus Has Fallen is a disgusting piece of work, but it certainly hits its marks
- it makes you sick with suspense".
PICTURES
A - Z
1. Crimson Tide (1995) - 116 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
2. The Sum of All Fears (2002) - 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
3. Planet of the Apes (1968) - 112 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 137 min | Action, Adventure,
Sci-Fi
5. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
6. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb (1964) - 95 min | Comedy, War
7. Unthinkable (2010) - 18 | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
8.
Tomorrow
Never Dies (1997) - 119 min | Spy, Action, Thriller
9.
Goldfinger
(1964) - Blockbuster | Spy, Action
10.
Lord
of War (2005) - Crime | Drama
11.
War
Games - (1983) - Techno-Thriller
12.
Olympus
Has Fallen (2013) - Political, Thriller
13.
White House Down (2013) - Political, Thriller
14.
Die Hard 4 (2007) Cyber, Action, Thriller [Live Free or Die Hard]
15. SALT, (2010) - Spy, Action, Thriller
CHAPTERS
| CHARACTERS
| MEDIA
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MOVIE REF |
SCREENPLAY
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