White House Down (2013)
Jonathon Burnside
White House Down is a 2013 American political action thriller film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by James Vanderbilt. In the film, a divorced US Capitol Police officer attempts to rescue both his daughter and the President of the United States when a destructive terrorist assault occurs in the White House. The film stars Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, and James Woods.
Released on June 28, 2013, by Sony Pictures Releasing, White House Down received mixed reviews from critics with criticism going towards the screenwriting and the clichd storyline, although the performances and action sequences were praised. The film grossed over $205 million worldwide at the box office, against a budget of $150 million. White House Down was one of two films released in 2013 that dealt with a terrorist attack on the White House; the other, Olympus Has Fallen, was released three months earlier.
U.S. President James Sawyer makes a controversial proposal to sign a peace agreement with other nations to remove military forces from the Middle East. Divorced John Cale works as a Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson, whose nephew he saved while serving in Afghanistan. Cale hopes to impress his daughter Emily by interviewing for the Secret Service, getting tickets for them to tour the White House. His interviewer, Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Carol Finnerty, a college acquaintance, deems him unqualified for the job.
A bomb is detonated in the United States Capitol, sending Washington, D.C. into lockdown. Finnerty escorts Raphelson to an underground command center in the Pentagon, while Vice President Alvin Hammond is taken aboard Air Force One. A paramilitary team led by ex-Delta Force operative Emil Stenz infiltrates the White House, kills the Secret Service, and seizes the building. The tour group is taken hostage in the Blue Room by white nationalist Carl Killick, but Cale escapes to search for Emily, who was separated during the tour. Retiring Head of Presidential Detail Martin Walker brings Sawyer to the PEOC beneath the White House Library. Inside, Walker kills Sawyer's detail, revealing himself as the leader of the attack, apparently seeking vengeance against Sawyer for a botched mission in Iran that killed his Marine son the year prior. Cale kills a mercenary, taking his weapon and radio, and rescues Sawyer after overhearing Walker.
Walker brings in ex-NSA analyst Skip Tyler to hack the PEOC's defense system but requires Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. Killick catches Emily filming the intruders on her phone and takes her hostage. Cale and Sawyer contact the command structure via a scrambled satellite phone in the residence and try to escape via a secret tunnel but find the exit rigged with explosives. They escape in the presidential limo but are chased by Stenz and crash into the White House pool. With Sawyer and Cale presumed dead in an explosion in the cabana, the 25th Amendment is invoked; Hammond is sworn in as president. Cale and Sawyer, still alive, learn Hammond has ordered an aerial incursion to retake the White House, but the mercenaries shoot down the helicopters with Javelin missiles. Learning Emily's identity from the video, Stenz takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Hacking into NORAD, Tyler launches a laser-guided missile at Air Force One from Piketon, Ohio, killing Hammond and everyone on board. Raphelson is thus sworn in as president and orders an airstrike on the White House.
Sawyer surrenders himself to save Emily. Walker, blaming Iran for his son's death, demands Sawyer use the football to launch nuclear missiles against various Iranian cities. Cale sets fire to several rooms as a diversion. Tyler inadvertently triggers the tunnel explosives and is vaporized. Cale kills most of the mercenaries and frees the hostages, one of whom bludgeons Killick. He fights Stenz and blows him up with a grenade belt. Sawyer attacks Walker, but in the fight, Walker uses Sawyer's handprint to activate the football and shoots Sawyer. Before Walker can finally launch the missiles, Cale crashes a reinforced Chevrolet Suburban into the Oval Office and kills him with the car's mini-gun. Emily runs outside and waves off the incoming fighter planes with a presidential flag, calling off the air strike. Sawyer survives thanks to a pocket watch once belonging to Abraham Lincoln that stopped Walker's bullet.
White House Down is directed by Roland Emmerich and written by James Vanderbilt, who is also one of the film's producers. Sony Pictures purchased Vanderbilt's spec script in March 2012 for $3 million, in what The Hollywood Reporter called "one of the biggest spec sales in quite a while". The journal said the script was similar "tonally and thematically" to the films Die Hard (1988) and Air Force One (1997).[14] In the following April, Sony hired Roland Emmerich as director.[15] Emmerich began filming in July 2012 at the La Cit Du Cinma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[16] Cinematographer Anna Foerster shot the film with Arri Alexa Plus digital cameras.[17]
I found White House Down to be the more plausible in its siege scenes. The White House is a goddamned fortress. Assault from the outside seems a little ridiculous, especially when you take into account the amount of security outside the house and even in the surrounding neighborhood. Olympus made it look relatively easy for the Koreans to just saunter on over and wreak havoc. There are snipers positioned everywhere around the city, which was acknowledged nicely by White House Down by the way, that would put down any forces trying to take the building from the outside. The terrorist plot here at least felt like it took less suspension of disbelief.
Things happen, Tatum says funny things, and now we are given a cleverly disguised buddy cop movie as Tatum and Foxx on-line their way all over the White House. In the ensuing chaos, they must avoid the terrorists, try to get Foxx to safety, disarm some nukes, and save Tatums daughter.
White House Down is an American action-thriller film directed by Roland Emmerich, written by James Vanderbilt and starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, and James Woods. The film was released on June 28, 2013. The film was in competition with another Die Hard in the White House film, called Olympus Has Fallen.
In this film, U.S. Capitol Police officer John Cale (Tatum) and his most iconic sidekick 14 year old name Bandguy and his creature Habo a robot, Lacey the ape, Thingy as a fish, and the bird name Girdy takes his estranged daughter Emily (King) on a tour of the White House after being rejected to join the Secret Service. When the White House is taken over by a paramilitary mercenary group, led by vengeful United States Secret Service presidential detail chief Martin Walker (Woods) and embittered ex-Delta Force commando Emil Stenz (Clarke), Cale has to save President James Sawyer (Foxx), Emily and also prevent the start of World War III.
John Cale is a Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson, whose nephew he saved from an IED explosion while on a tour in Afghanistan. He is struggling to develop a better relationship with his daughter Emily, who has a strong enthusiasm for politics, and tries impressing her by getting a job with the Secret Service. However, his hopes are dashed when the interview is conducted by Carol Finnerty, a former college acquaintance of his who believes him to be unqualified due to a lack of respect for authority and follow-through. After lying to Emily about the outcome of the interview, she and Cale join a tour of the White House guided by Donnie Donaldson.
Meanwhile, white nationalist Conrad Cern disguises himself as a Capitol janitor and detonates a bomb at the center of the Capitol building, resulting in the collapse of the rotunda. Raphelson, who is on a call from Sawyer discussing the peace treaty's impact on the military-industrial complex, remains unharmed and is taken by Finnerty to an underground command center in the Pentagon, while Vice President Alvin Hammond is taken aboard Air Force One. All of Washington, D.C. is put on lockdown, separating Cale from Emily, who has left the tour group to use the restroom. A band of mercenaries led by ex-Delta Force operative Emil Stenz infiltrate the White House disguised as video technicians for the home theater, and kills off most of the Secret Service, seizing control of the estate. The tour group is thus taken hostage in the Blue Room by Cern's associate Carl Killick, but Cale manages to take a gun from dead agent Ryan Todd and escapes via Red Room to go find his daughter. Following protocol, retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker escorts Sawyer and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once Sawyer gains access, however, Walker kills his detail, revealing himself to be the leader of the attack, apparently seeking revenge for his son Kevin, a Marine who was killed in a botched black ops mission in Iran the year prior. Cale, who fails to find Emily, kills Killick's associate Ritter and takes his gun and radio. Overhearing Walker on the radio, he locates and rescues President Sawyer.
When Cale and Sawyer reveal they are still alive, they learn that Hammond has ordered an aerial incursion to take back the White House. Knowing the mercenaries have FGM-148 Javelin missiles, Cale tries but fails to stop the them from shooting down the helicopters. He gets into a fight with Stenz and ends up dropping his White House passes for himself and Emily while escaping. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz, knowing that she is Cale's daughter, takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Tyler finishes the upload into NORAD and launches a missile at Air Force One from the outskirts of Piketon, Ohio, killing everyone on board including Hammond. Raphelson is then sworn in as acting President and orders an airstrike on the White House.
c80f0f1006