| White House Down | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Roland Emmerich |
| Written by | James Vanderbilt |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Anna Foerster |
| Edited by | Adam Wolfe |
| Music by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 131 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150 million[2] |
| Box office | $205.4 million[2] |
White House Down is a 2013 Americanpoliticalaction thriller film directed byRoland Emmerich and written byJames Vanderbilt. In the film, a divorcedUS Capitol Police officer attempts to rescue both his daughter and thePresident of the United States when a destructive terrorist assault occurs in theWhite House. The film starsChanning Tatum,Jamie Foxx,Maggie Gyllenhaal,Jason Clarke,Richard Jenkins,Joey King, andJames Woods.
Released on June 28, 2013, bySony Pictures Releasing,White House Down received mixed reviews from critics with criticism going towards the screenwriting and the clichéd 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 theMiddle East. Divorced veteran John Cale works as aCapitol Police officer assigned toSpeaker of the House Eli Raphelson, whose nephew he saved while serving inAfghanistan. Cale hopes to impress his daughter Emily by interviewing for theSecret Service, getting tickets for them to tour theWhite House. His interviewer, Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Carol Finnerty, a college acquaintance, deems him unqualified for the job.
A bomb is detonated in theUnited States Capitol, sendingWashington, D.C. intolockdown. Finnerty escorts Raphelson to an underground command center inthe Pentagon, whileVice President Alvin Hammond is taken aboardAir Force One. A paramilitary team led by ex-Delta Force operative Emil Stenz infiltrates the White House, kills various Secret Service agents, and seizes the building. The tour group is taken hostage in theBlue Room bywhite nationalist Carl Killick, but Cale escapes to search for Emily, who was separated from the rest of the tour group. Retiring Head of Presidential Detail Martin Walker brings Sawyer to thePEOC beneath theWhite House Library. Inside, Walker kills Sawyer's detail, revealing himself as the leader of the attack. Walker is apparently seeking vengeance against Sawyer for a botched mission inIran that killed his Marine son a year ago. 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 he needed Sawyer to activate thenuclear football. Killick catches Emily filming the intruders on her phone and takes her hostage. Cale and Sawyer contact the command structure via ascrambledsatellite phone in the residence and try to escape via a secret tunnel, but find the exit rigged with explosives. They escape in thepresidential limousine, but are chased by Stenz and crash into the White House pool. With Sawyer and Cale presumed dead, the25th Amendment is invoked and Hammond is sworn in as president. Cale and Sawyer, still alive, learn Hammond has ordered an aerial incursion to retake the White House. Despite Cale's protests, the mercenaries shoot down the helicopters withJavelin missiles. Learning Emily's identity from the video, Stenz takes her to Walker in theOval Office. Hacking intoNORAD, Tyler launches a laser-guided missile at Air Force One fromPiketon, Ohio, killing Hammond and everyone on board. Raphelson is sworn in as president and orders anairstrike 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 while trying to escape and is vaporized. Cale kills most of the mercenaries and frees the hostages, one of whom (White House tour guide Donaldson) bludgeons Killick. Cale 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 reinforcedChevrolet 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 apresidential flag, and the lead air strike pilot aborts the attack. Sawyer survives thanks to a pocket watch once belonging toAbraham Lincoln that stopped Walker's bullet.
With Finnerty's help, Cale realizes that Raphelson was Walker's accomplice, having acted at the behest of the corruptmilitary–industrial complex. Believing Sawyer dead and that Cale will never be believed, Raphelson is tricked into confessing and is arrested fortreason. Sawyer names Cale his new special agent and takes him and Emily on an aerial tour of D.C. onMarine One. During the tour, Sawyer receives word that other nations have agreed to his peace deal after learning of the events at the White House, calling for an end to all wars.
White House Down is directed byRoland Emmerich and written byJames Vanderbilt, who is also one of the film's producers. Sony Pictures purchased Vanderbilt'sspec script in March 2012 for$3 million, in whatThe 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 filmsDie Hard (1988) andAir Force One (1997).[14] In the following April, Sony hiredRoland Emmerich as director.[15] Emmerich began filming in July 2012 at the La Cité Du Cinéma inMontreal, Quebec, Canada.[16] CinematographerAnna Foerster shot the film withArri AlexaPlusdigital cameras.[17]
In 2012, Sony competed withMillennium Films, who were producingOlympus Has Fallen (also about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and to begin filming.[18]
White House Down was originally scheduled for a November 1, 2013 release, but was moved up to a June 28, 2013 release.[19] The film was released onDVD andBlu-ray on November 5, 2013.[20]
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 204 reviews, with an average rating of 5.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "White House Down benefits from the leads' chemistry, but director Roland Emmerich smothers the film with narrative clichés and choppily edited action."[21] AtMetacritic the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[22] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[23]
Roth Cornet ofIGN gave the film a score of 6.5/10, concluding: "White House Down is a pretty silly rehashing of previously tread action movie territory, but if you're willing to laugh along with (or even at) it, it can be a highly entertaining experience."[24] Andrew Chan of theFilm Critics Circle of Australia wrote, "I am not entirely sure, whether I should be happy or sad that I laughed when someone got shot or bombed, but such is the manner of how the film is played out."[25]Mark Kermode ofThe Observer gave the film 3/5 stars, writing that it "at least has the good grace to laugh at itself as it rolls out the dingbat-daft action-movie cliches."[26] Shubhra Gupta ofThe Indian Express gave the film 2.5/5 stars, writing: "Trouble is, it goes on too long. It has several climactic moments, but every time you ready for the exit, the film bounces back again for the next round."[27]Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, saying that "real thrills – dependent on real, believable jeopardy – are not on offer: just cheerfully absurd spectacle and a little bit of humour."[28]
White House Down grossed $73.1 million in the United States, and $132.3 million internationally, for a total gross of $205.4 million, against a budget of $150 million.[2]
The film made $24.8 million in North America during its opening weekend, coming in below expectations and finishing fourth at the box office.[23]
