Olympus Has Fallen



Olympus Has Fallen is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua, and written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. It is the first installment in the Fallen film series. The film stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, and Rick Yune. The plot depicts a North Korean-led guerrilla assault on the White House, and focuses on disgraced United States Secret Service agent Mike Banning's efforts to rescue the US President, Benjamin Asher.

The film was released in the United States on March 22, 2013, by FilmDistrict. It earned $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 violence and screenplay. Olympus Has Fallen was one of two films released in 2013 that dealt with a terrorist attack on the White House; the other was White House Down.

A sequel, titled London Has Fallen, was released on March 4, 2016, with the principal cast members reprising their roles. Another sequel, Angel Has Fallen, was released in 2019.

Plot
Former Army Ranger Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) leads the U.S. Presidential Secret Service detail, maintaining a personal, friendly relationship with President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), First Lady Margaret (Ashley Judd), and their son Connor (Finley Jacobsen). On a snowy Christmas drive from Camp David, the car transporting the First Family spins out of control on an icy bridge; Banning pulls Asher from the vehicle, but fails to save Margaret as she falls to her death.

Eighteen months later, having been removed from the presidential detail, Banning works at Treasury headquarters. During Asher's meeting with Prime Minister of South Korea Lee Tae-Woo (Keong Sim) at the White House, a North Korean terrorist organization, led by Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), mounts an air and ground assault and captures the building. The group is aided by members of the prime minister's own detail, including Dave Forbes (Dylan McDermott), a former Secret Service agent. Asher and several top officials are held hostage in the White House bunker; Prime Minister Lee is executed on live video. Before being killed, Agent Roma (Cole Hauser) alerts the Director of the Secret Service Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) that "Olympus has fallen".

Banning joins the White House's defenders during Kang's initial assault. He falls back into the White House, disabling internal surveillance and gaining access to Asher's satellite ear phone, which he uses to maintain contact with Jacobs and Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), now Acting President.

Kang seeks to use Asher as a hostage to force U.S. officials to withdraw the Seventh Fleet and U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula, thus removing American opposition to a North Korean invasion of South Korea. He also seeks to detonate the American nuclear arsenal, turning the United States into an irradiated wasteland. This requires access codes to the Cerberus system, held by three government officials including the President, all of whom are inside the bunker. Asher orders the other two officials to reveal their codes to save their lives, certain that he will not give up his own code.

Authorized to proceed, Banning's first act is to save Connor, whom Kang plans to use to force Asher to reveal his Cerberus code. Banning finds Connor hiding in the building's walls and sneaks him to safety. On reconnaissance, Banning kills several of the terrorists, including Forbes. Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg (Robert Forster) convinces Trumbull to order an aerial SEAL assault on the White House. Kang discovers the assault force and activates advanced Hydra 6 anti-aircraft system. Banning advises Trumbull and Clegg to abort the mission, but the new weapon system annihilates most of the assault force before Banning can stop it. Kang retaliates by killing Vice President Charlie Rodriguez (Phil Austin).

After Banning disables Kang's communications, Kang tries to execute Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo) outside the White House in front of the media, but Banning rescues her. With his forces dwindling, Kang fakes his and Asher's death by sacrificing several of his men and the remaining hostages, but Banning sees through the ruse. Kang eventually cracks Asher's code using a brute-force attack and activates Cerberus. As Kang and his remaining men attempt to escape, Banning ambushes and kills the remaining terrorists. Asher tries to break free from Kang's grip and is shot in the stomach. Banning confronts Kang, who quickly gains the upper hand, before Banning stabs him in the head and disables Cerberus with the assistance of Trumbull and his staff, with only seconds to spare.

Banning walks out with Asher and is received by the soldiers posted to await their arrival. In the wake of the attack, Banning once again heads the president's security detail.

Cast

 * Gerard Butler as Mike Banning, a former member of the 75th Ranger Regiment and now Secret Service agent
 * Aaron Eckhart as US President Benjamin Asher
 * Morgan Freeman as Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull
 * Rick Yune as Kang Yeonsak, a North Korean ultra-nationalist mastermind disguised as a South Korean ministerial aide
 * Angela Bassett as Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs
 * Robert Forster as US Army General Edward Clegg, Army Chief of Staff
 * Cole Hauser as Agent Roma, a Secret Service Special Agent in Charge
 * Finley Jacobsen as Connor Asher, the son of Benjamin and Margaret Asher.
 * Ashley Judd as US First Lady Margaret Asher
 * Melissa Leo as Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan
 * Dylan McDermott as Dave Forbes, a former Secret Service agent now working for South Korean Prime Minister's private security detail
 * Radha Mitchell as Leah Banning, a nurse and Mike's wife
 * Sean O'Bryan as NSA Deputy Director Ray Monroe
 * Lance Broadway as Agent O'Neil, a member of the President's security detail
 * Tory Kittles as Agent Jones, a member of the President's security detail
 * Keong Sim as South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo
 * Phil Austin as US Vice President Charlie Rodriguez
 * James Ingersoll as US Navy Admiral Joe Hoenig, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 * Freddy Bosche as Agent Mark Diaz, Secret Service.
 * Kevin Moon as Cho, Kang's henchman
 * Malana Lea as Lim, Kang's henchwoman who serves as the technical expert of the group
 * Sam Medina as Yu, Kang's henchman
 * Lawrence O'Donnell as himself

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. 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.

Score
The score was composed by Trevor Morris whose past projects included The Tudors and The Borgias. The score was recorded at Trevor Morris Studios in Santa Monica with the Bratislava Slovak National Orchestra.

The record was released on March 15, 2013 via Relativity Music Group label.

All music composed by Trevor Morris

Release
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 U.S. Emergency Alert System, and several cable companies were fined by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the ad.

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 earned $30.5 million finishing second at the box office, and exceeded predictions of $23 million.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 13, 2013, in the U.S. It earned $38.2 million in video rental sales in the U.S.

Dispute as to Authorship
There is contemporaneous evidence that suggests that Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt were not the sole authors of Olympus has Fallen, but in fact Mr. Rothenberger's former partner, John S. Green, a lawyer in Pennsylvania and a fellow University of Pennsylvania alumnus with Rothenberger, was the source of the movie's characters and material.

In 2013, Rothenberger sued Green in federal district court in California, seeking a declaration that he was sole author. Green counterclaimed that he was the source of substantial material in the 41-page treatment that was registered with the WGA in the year 2002. The project languished for several years, and the partners began working on it again in 2009. In 2012, the screenplay was completed and then sold, but Rothenberger failed to disclose that Green had been a co-author (violation of copyright law).

The California federal case between Rothenberger and Green was settled as to Olympus has Fallen for $175,000, the public later discovered in an unrelated Pennsylvania state court lawsuit involving the property sharing agreement in a divorce between Green and his ex-spouse. See

Reception
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 49% based on 191 reviews and a weighted average rating of 5.38/10. 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.

David Edelstein was much more negative about the film. While praising Butler's role as a "solid" character, Edelstein criticized the script and the violence of the film, writing "Olympus Has Fallen is a disgusting piece of work, but it certainly hits its marks – it makes you sick with suspense."

Sequel
Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett and Radha Mitchell returned for a sequel titled London Has Fallen revolving around a major terrorist strike on London during the funeral of the British Prime Minister. Production was scheduled to begin in May 2014 in London, with Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt returning to pen the script. Director Antoine Fuqua, however, did not return due to his commitments on The Equalizer.

On May 1, 2014, it was announced that Focus Features had acquired distribution rights to the sequel and would release it on October 2, 2015, though this was later pushed back to January 22, 2016. However, the film's release was delayed to March 4, 2016. On August 18, 2014, it was announced that Charlie Countryman director Fredrik Bond would take over direction from Fuqua, but Bond left the film on September 18, just six weeks before shooting was set to begin. However, on September 28, 2014, it was announced that Babak Najafi would take over direction of the sequel.

On October 10, 2014, it was announced that Jackie Earle Haley would join London Has Fallen as a Deputy Chief Mason. Filming for the sequel began on October 24, 2014. The film was released on March 4, 2016.