March 24, 2013



I was so psyched when this came out. And I was not disappointed. It is quite possibly one the best action/suspense films I’ve seen in a really long time. I admit that the first hour or so is a little hard to watch, as the terrorists take over the White House and wreak havoc through Washington, D.C., but I felt it necessary to make the film more realistic.

The film starts at Camp David around Christmas time. The president (Aaron Eckhart) and his family are on their way to a fundraiser during a bad snowstorm. A few cars crash on a bridge and Secret Service agent, and friend to the president, Mike Banning (Gerald Butler) is unable to save the first lady (Ashley Judd).



Eighteen months later, Banning has been re-assigned to a desk job at the Treasury Department. As tensions in North and South Korea increase, the president plays host to the South Korean prime minister. During the meeting, a fighter plane breaks into restricted air space and opens fire on the White House and all of D.C. While the plane is shooting up the area, more assailants are on the ground, including car bombs and suicide bombers. The president is quickly ushered to a secure bunker, and with his insistence, the South Korean prime minster and security detail are also with him. Meanwhile, the group of Korean terrorists continues to take over the White House and kill everyone in their path.



In bunker, the prime minister’s security detail, including a former Secret Service agent (Dylan McDermott), turns on the president, his aides and the prime minister, taking them all hostage. They are lead by Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), an ex-North Korean terrorist. His goal is to not only have the U.S. call off their troops in the Korea, but also to detonate the country’s nuclear bombs in their silos, so that the U.S. can feel the suffering like North Korea.

Yeosak communicates with U.S. officials, including Speaker and acting president Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), through a secure video feed coming out of the White House. But unbeknown to Yeosak, a long Secret Service agent has made his way through the White House, Banning.  Banning manages to make it to the Oval Office and lets Trumbull know what is going on. His first goal, besides not getting caught, is to find the president’s son, who Yeosak is after in order to get the codes to activate the nuclear bombs. His second goal is essentially to stop Yeosak before more people get killed.



This movie has it all, suspense, drama, slight comedic relief, such as when Banning caught two of the assailants and got them to reveal information about Yeosak, and a great script. And the movie didn’t stop until the very end. It kept you on the edge of your seat, because you really didn’t know where it was going. Was the bad guy going to get away? Was he going to kill the president, as he did so many others?

It was frightening to think about if that could really happen. The character of Yeosak obviously did his homework on the inner workings of the White House, with I’m assuming help from the former agent-turned bad guy. He made a comment to the president that it takes the Army 15 minutes to get to the White House, and he brought it down in 13 minutes. I wonder if there is any truth to that statement. The whole sequence where the terror group is taking down the White House is the part I could see people not liking, as it is very, very realistic. It was hard to watch, I guess because it hits close to home for many. It definitely makes people wonder if it could really happen.



Regardless, this film was very well done through to the end. It had great actors, including Freeman, Butler, Angela Bassett and Eckhart. And Yune as the bad guy was phenomenal. You really believed he hated the U.S. that much to essentially destroy it.

I recommend everyone head to the theater to see this on the big screen. I fear that it might not be out for very long though. So hurry up!