OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN REVIEW

About The Movie:

Former U.S. Army Ranger Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is now a Secret Service agent assigned to head the Presidential Detail. He maintains a personal, friendly relationship with President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), First Lady Margaret Asher (Ashley Judd), and particularly their son Connor Asher (Finley Jacobsen). On a drive from Camp David on the snowy night of December 22, 2010, the car transporting the President and First Lady crashes; Banning saves Benjamin, but Margaret dies.

Eighteen months later, Banning works at the Treasury Department within eyesight of the White House, and wants to return to being a Secret Service agent on the Presidential detail, but Asher does not allow this as Banning brings up memories of the night Margaret died. During a meeting at the White House on July 5, 2012 between Asher and the South Korean Prime Minister, a Korean group leads a guerrilla attack against the White House. The assailants include an airplane attack against Washington D.C. by a stolen USAF AC-130 gunship, land forces disguised as citizens which initiate a car bomb attack, traitors within the security detail of the South Korean Prime Minister, and the current head of the Prime Minister's Detail, Dave Forbes (Dylan McDermott), who reveals himself to be a traitor. The assault ends with the Koreans capturing the White House and holding the President and several top officials hostage in the White House bunker, where they kill the South Korean Prime Minister. Agent Roma (Cole Hauser) informs Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett), the head of the Secret Service, that "Olympus has fallen" before being killed.

The group is lead by Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), an ex-North Korean terrorist who appears to hold allegiance to neither North nor South Korea but to the concept of a unified Korea by any means. Kang has two goals. The first is to use the President as a hostage to force the United States to withdraw from Korea, allowing the civil war to finish. Second, he seeks detonate all United States nuclear bombs in their silos and destroy the United States as revenge for the death of his mother, victim of an American landmine. To accomplish this, he requires the access codes to a system in the bunker called Cerberus, which are held by three top United States officials within the bunker, including the President. Asher orders the other two officials to reveal their codes to save their lives, certain that he will not give up his code.

During the assault, Banning sneaks into the White House and is the only defending survivor. He gains access to the President's satellite ear phone, which he uses to maintain contact with Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), the Speaker of the House who is now the acting President. His first act is to save Connor, who Kang plans to use to force Asher to reveal his Cerberus code. He finds Connor hiding in the walls thanks to the training Banning had given him, and sneaks him out of the White House through the vents. Banning then goes on a mission of obtaining intel on the assailants and reducing their numbers. He also kills Forbes, who has realized his error and repents before dying.

With Kang's forces dwindling, he fakes his own death, as well as Asher's, by sacrificing several of his men and the other remaining hostages. Kang, Asher, and the few remaining terrorists remain in the bunker, unknown to the outside world. Kang hacks Asher's code and activates Cerberus. As Kang attempts to escape, Banning kills off the remaining terrorists and kills Kang in a knife fight before disabling Cerberus with the assistance of Trumbull. Banning and Asher safely escape the White House, the United States begins repairing the damage to Washington D.C. and the White House, with Banning once again becoming head of the Presidential Detail.

What Is Good/Bad About The Movie:

It's still probably too soon for the 20-minute attack scene in Olympus Has Fallen. A full 11 years after 9/11 it is horrifying to see people in business suits running away from fireballs, to watch a major American icon (this time the Washington Monument) crumble, to watch people in power agog at the kind of destruction that's possible on their home turf. The improbable details of this attack-- which involves a North Korean plane with sophisticated missile-deflecting shields and a ton of North Korean moles in the South Korean government-- are irrelevant; this violent, visceral sequence is powerful and enraging. Director Antoine Fuqua is sharply raising the stakes of the action to come, offering not just a rah-rah adventure about saving the President, but the chance for retribution after what he's just put the audience through.

Is suffering through all that violence-- and the many, many acts of violence still to come-- worth it? Surprisingly enough, yeah. Gerard Butler's disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning as the only good guy left in action at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Once you get the initial attack out of the way, the film is contained to the shattered White House-- following both Banning and President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his top staff held hostage in the underground bunker-- and a situation room where the head of Secret Service (Angela Bassett) and the Speaker of the House-turned-acting President (Morgan Freeman) talk Banning through his rescue mission. 

This is the best movie for Butler since 300, as Banning Butler took this movie a fun place. His tongue proved to be quick and sharp as his skills as man of action. The crushing violence of North Korea's initial attack allows Banning to get away with cracking a whole lot of skulls, including one memorable fight in which a bust of Abraham Lincoln offers the final blow. Butler threads the very fine needle of playing a ready-for-everything action hero while also reflecting the toll of all this destruction; in an opening sequence we see just how much the President and his family mean to Banning, and Butler keeps that emotional tie alive through all of the film's noisy action.

Olympus Has Fallen is as brash as a Super Bowl halftime show, bloodier than Gettysburg, and more far-fetched than Dennis Kucinich's endless runs for President. It is, in other words, very American. If you love this big, obnoxious country despite itself, you might feel the same way about Olympus Has Fallen too.

Overall Grade: B+