Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Antoine Fuqua, Roadshow Entertainment.
An engrossing, tightly-crafted political thriller from Fuqua (Replacement Killers, Training Day) which sees brisk action as a group of North Korean terrorists infiltrate the White House and take hostage the US President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart).
The only hope of saving the president and preventing a potential nuclear disaster lies in the hands of Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler). Banning was once the top presidential protector for the Asher family, until a tragic event led him to be transferred to a pedestrian Secret Service job in the Treasury Department.
It’s when Asher meets with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo (Keong Sim) at the White House that a North Korean terrorist group led by Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune) – the Koreans for United Freedom (KUF) – mounts an air attack and hundreds of ground assault mercenaries to capture the building and kill most of the White House defence force.
They are aided by rogue members of the prime minister’s own detail, including former Secret Service agent-turned-private contractor Dave Forbes (Dylan McDermott).
Before being killed, agent Roma (Cole Hauser) alerts Secret Service director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) that “Olympus has fallen”. Banning joins the White House’s defenders during KUF’s initial assault and falls back into the White House, disabling internal surveillance and gaining access to Asher’s satellite earphone, which he uses to maintain contact with Jacobs and Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), now acting president.
While the storyline is nothing new (and unthinkable in reality), this is a convincing celluloid assault on the heart of Washington D.C. with exceptional visuals adding to the suspense.
