Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen is a 2013 American 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 in March 2016, with the principal cast members reprising their roles, and a third film, Angel Has Fallen, was released in August 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 to a campaign fundraiser, the Presidential Limo transporting the First Family spins out of control on an icy bridge. Banning pulls Asher from the vehicle, but Margaret falls to her death. 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 an air attack (with an AC-130 gunship) and a large group of ground assault mercenaries to capture the building and kill most of the White House defense force. Aided by rogue members of the prime minister’s own security detail,

including 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 Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs 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 Jacobs and Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull, now acting president, in the Pentagon’s emergency briefing room, who authorize him to proceed. Kang uses Asher’s hostage status to force Trumbull to withdraw the Seventh Fleet and the U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula, removing American opposition to a third Korean War. He seeks to detonate the American nuclear arsenal to turn the United States into an irradiated wasteland, as revenge for the death of his mother.

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To do this, he needs the access codes to the Cerberus 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 several of the commandos, including Forbes. Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg convinces Trumbull to order an aerial SEAL assault on the White House. The KUF discovers and decimates the assault force using the advanced Hydra 6 anti-aircraft system. Kang retaliates by executing Vice President Charlie Rodriguez.

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 (also about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and to 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.

Release, Home media,

Olympus Has Fallen was released in the United States on March 22, 2013. It was initially scheduled for an April 5, 2013 release, but moved to avoid competition with The Heat, which was to open at the same time (its release was later pushed back to June 28). FilmDistrict distributed the film. The film’s trailer was criticized for using the Emergency Alert System, and several cable companies were fined by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the ad. The film was released to home video in the United States on DVD and Blu-ray formats on August 13, 2013. It earned $38.2 million in video rental sales in the U.S.

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.

Critical response.

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. Richard Roeper compared Olympus Has Fallen with the Die Hard series for sharing the same style and momentum, calling it as “just too much of a pale Die Hard ripoff.” He gave the film a C.