"Olympus Has Fallen" - Starring Morgan Freeman and Gerard Butler

Photo Credit: Millennium Films

The White House has been infiltrated by a terrorist group who capture the President (Aaron Eckhart) and several high ranking administration officials in the new film Olympus Has Fallen, from director Antoine Fuqua. The leader of the group, Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), sets up shop in the bunker far beneath the White House and plans to retrieve the security codes for the nation's nuclear weapons to unleash untold horrors around the country. Washington is seemingly paralyzed, but the acting commander in chief, Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), works with a former Secret Service Agent, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), who witnessed the attack and is looking for the terrorists inside the White House.

However, Banning, who is a former Special Forces operative, has a rather troubled relationship with the current President and has been assigned to desk duty after an accident that claimed the life of the First Lady (Ashley Judd). His first order of business is to find President Asher's son, Connor (Finlay Jacobsen), who is believed to still be in the White House and will likely be used as leverage if he is caught. Banning is a Jason Bourne type of character with supreme fighting skills that allow him to dispatch a large number of Kang's men and remain relatively unscathed. Banning is seemingly the last hope for the country, as the terrorists have obtained next generation weapons that keep all rescue attempts at bay. 

Olympus Has Fallen asks viewers to suspend their disbelief in a big way. If that is possible, the result is an entertaining effort that boasts a strong cast, including Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett, Dylan McDermott, as well as the aforementioned Freeman, Eckhart and Butler. Gerard Butler receives a great deal of screen time and is completely believable as the tough and capable Banning, thanks to his imposing physique and agility. He is likable and viewers will want to root for him to find and dispatch the terrorists. 

The film is action packed, but relies too heavily on gun play and explosions during the initial siege at the White House that quickly becomes overkill and lasts entirely too long. As is typically the case in those busy scenes, it is difficult to see what is happening, as the carnage takes numerous lives of characters who viewers do not know or care about. Of course, the good guys and bad guys are easily differentiated, which is both good and bad. It is good for viewers who are keeping score, but bad for those who may be sensitive about stereotyping certain groups of people. I doubt many people who see Olympus Has Fallen will look too deeply into the subtext. After all, this is simply entertainment, but from the reactions of some of the audience members in the screening I attended, one might think the attack was real. The support for the country was not unexpected, but the vocal reactions during the final act were a bit surprising for a work of fiction. Perhaps that is a reflection of the growing instability is some parts of the world.