Review: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
People generally donāt react well to horrific events. Only in recent years has the personal torment of PTSD come to light, and there are still some cases where years of therapy do nothing. Though the majority of PTSD sufferers are war veterans, other circumstances have led many down the same dark road. Olympus Has Fallen is a film that uses terrorism to push one normal, albeit regretful man into a situation with little to no options. This isnāt a groundbreaking premise, nor does it show theatergoers a world unfamiliar to them. Still, there is a nostalgic quality about Olympus that is rarely seen nowadays, and this old trip back to the action flicks we remember fondly makes for a good 120 minutes.
Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is part of the secret service team that guards U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), First Lady Margaret Asher (Ashley Judd), and their son Connor (Finley Jacobsen). There is a comfortable rapport between Mike and the first family; they act like old friends and joke endlessly. On a routine trip out of Camp David, inclement weather causes the presidential limousine to slide on black ice and crash through a bridge guardrail. Mike jumps into action immediately, but despite his efforts, the First Lady cannot be reached in time and plunges into the frigid waters below. The President is devastated over the loss of his wife and Mike spirals into a world of guilt and self-loathing. Months later, Mike is working a desk job, far from the reflex-heavy duties of his former detail.
On a day like any other, the White House is suddenly attacked by a group of vigilantes. Multiple explosions happen in quick succession and the entire landscape is devastated within minutes. Mike watches the drama unfold from his high-rise window and races to the street in an attempt to do something. Every tactic for defending the crown jewel of DC proves futile, and before long, the militants force their way inside to take the President and his immediate staff hostage. Mike sneaks in undetected but knows virtually nothing about the terrorist group or why the attack has happened. Nevertheless, the leader of the organization, Kang (Rick Yune), has made himself and his demands known to the government. Failure to comply means the Presidentās execution ā and time is running short.
I mentioned earlier that this premise is somewhat old. Itās true ā we have seen this before. The idea of the government being attacked and threatened with extinction has been around for a while. It has even played out in UFO-based films. Our film-going intuition tells us that somehow, everything will be okay. We never actually imagine an outcome where the enemy wins and the United States is reduced to ashes. It just isnāt part of our psyche. Something big is going to happen; someone will rise and lead us to victory. They have to; America doesnāt lose! Well, that sentiment might be fine for the movies, but real life has taught us that an attack can always be imminent.Ā Whatever sense of security we may have, the fragility of it all is very frightening. Olympus Has Fallen preys on this fear. The opening sequence demonstrates how quickly a situation can escalate, and the second opening sequence shows how quickly our world can fall apart.
What made this film work, for me, is the fact that it summoned the ghost of films past. Think back on the most beloved action films of the 80s and 90s, films like First Blood and its sequel, where Sylvester Stallone managed to defeat the entire Vietnamese army singlehandedly. Sure, such an idea is ludicrous and could not happen in a world that depends on logic, but we never batted an eye. This is similar to how Mike Banning in Olympus maneuvered through the underground mazes and hidden tunnels of the White House. Do we care that any terrorist cell smart enough to infiltrate the United States in seconds would probably never allow itself to be unraveled by one man? Ehhā¦why bother with details like that? That isnāt the reason weāre watching the movie in the first place; weāre watching because we know Gerard Butler is going to unleash the fury of Hell ā and we want to see it happen.
The promotion for Olympus Has Fallen isnāt doing the film any favors. In fact, when I first began hearing about this film and saw the first trailer, I thought nothing of it. I wasnāt enticed to see it and I certainly didnāt care enough to read more about it. Its placement in the barrage of trailers fired at the audience was haphazard; and aside from some solemn imagery like the U.S. flag being thrown to the ground like an old sock, Olympus looked as though it would be forgotten almost immediately. Looks can be deceiving.
For his part, Gerard Butler was a great action star. I enjoyed his performance here and had no trouble believing him. Some actors simply cannot fit certain roles no matter how perfect Hollywood believes them to be. Butler seems effortless here and even gives us a few moments of levity without compromising the mood of the plot. My audience was extremely vocal during a lot of the action sequences, which obviously made the whole experience more entertaining.
Olympus succeeds on the big screen, so I recommend seeing it in the theater rather than waiting for the DVD. If youāre on the fence about which road to take, I hope I just pushed you over to the right side.
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