London Has Fallen

London Has Fallen is a 2016 American action thriller film directed by Babak Najafi and written by Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt, Chad St. John and Christian Gudegast. It is a sequel to Antoine Fuqua's 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen and stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman, with Alon Moni Aboutboul, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Jackie Earle Haley, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Sean O'Bryan, Waleed Zuaiter and Charlotte Riley in supporting roles. It is the second installment in the Has Fallen franchise.

Filming began on October 24, 2014, in London. A Christmas break started in November with filming resuming in February 2015. The film was released on March 4, 2016, by Focus Features under their recently revived Gramercy Pictures label.

A sequel, titled Angel Has Fallen, is expected to start production in 2017.

Plot

Western intelligence services collaborate to identify Pakistani arms dealer and terrorist leader Aamir Barkawi (Alon Moni Aboutboul) as the mastermind behind several terrorist attacks around the world, specifically a devastating hotel bombing in Manila, and authorize an American drone strike against Barkawi's compound, apparently killing Barkawi and his family.

Two years later, after the death of British Prime Minister James Wilson, world leaders from the major Western countries, including President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) make plans to attend his funeral services in London. Secret Service agent and Asher's close friend, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is assigned by Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) to oversee the President's schedule there, despite the fact that Banning's wife, Leah (Radha Mitchell), is due to give birth to their child in a few weeks.

After arriving via Air Force One at Stansted Airport, Banning pushes the President's arrival forward, directing Marine One to take them to Somerset House and then by car to St Paul's Cathedral. As they arrive, several attacks, coordinated by Barkawi's son Kamran (Waleed Zuaiter), eliminate the leaders of Canada, Germany, Japan, France and Italy by loyal terrorists disguised as Metropolitan Police, the Queen's Guardsmen, and other first responders – the attacks also damage several of London's landmarks. At St Paul's, Banning helps get Asher and Jacobs to cover when the disguised terrorists turn on them, and they manage to race back to Somerset House. Marine One takes off with two escorts, but terrorists with Stinger missiles take out the escorts before damaging Marine One, forcing it to crash-land in a park. Though Asher and Banning are fine, Jacobs has been fatally wounded, and she makes Banning promise to get back at the perpetrators before she dies. Banning leads Asher to the London Underground as most of the city's power is disabled and its residents take shelter.

U.S. Vice President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and members of the President's staff work with British authorities to determine what has happened, when Trumbull is contacted by Barkawi operating out of Yemen, admitting he is behind the attacks, and threatening to kill millions more if Asher isn't handed to him. They learn that Wilson was poisoned to death as a means to lure the leaders to London, and believe Barkawi had been planning this for years. Trumbull orders the staff to review all of Barkawi's known associates, hoping to find a lead. He also supports Chief Inspector Kevin Hazard's (Colin Salmon) decision to stand down all first responders, believing that anyone who remains is a terrorist. Meanwhile, Banning disables a group of terrorists that followed them to the Underground, and contacts Kamran, who promises that if he captures the President, they will broadcast his execution across the Internet. Banning leads Asher to a nearby MI6 safehouse, pausing at street level long enough to relay a message to Trumbull via satellite monitoring.

Banning and Asher meet MI6 agent Jacqueline "Jax" Marshall (Charlotte Riley), who briefs them on the situation. Upon discovering Barkawi's involvement, Asher explains that Barkawi survived the airstrike, with his daughter and son-in-law among the casualties. Jax plays back a message she received from Trumbull regarding extraction, and Banning verifies its authenticity. However, when cameras outside the safehouse pick up a Delta Force team approaching, Banning realizes that they arrived far too quickly, as well as that they're going round the back of the safehouse after finding the front door locked, and believes they are terrorists. Banning has Jax evacuate while he distracts the terrorists long enough to drive off with Asher. They are side-swiped by a truck, and the terrorists drag Asher off to an unknown location. While interrogating a terrorist, Banning is saved by the combined Delta Force/SAS squad who had been en route for extracting the President.

Trumbull's staff discover one London building owned under one of Barkawi's companies, which British intelligence says is under construction but has been drawing an unexpected amount of power, and they believe this is where Barkawi's headquarters are. Banning joins the squad as they assault the terrorist-guarded building, and infiltrates the building as Kamran starts to beat up the President. Just before 8 pm, Banning arrives at the room Kamran is in, wounds him and rescues Asher, before ordering the SAS commander to blow up the building as he and Asher take shelter in an elevator shaft; the blast wipes Kamran and the other terrorists out. As Asher and Banning are safely escorted out for extraction, Trumbull contacts Barkawi, informs him that they have recovered the President, and that he should look outside. Barkawi has only moments before he is killed in a drone strike, despite his vows that the war will continue. Meanwhile, Jax discovers that Barkawi had been aided by MI5 Intelligence Chief John Lancaster (Patrick Kennedy), and is forced to kill him when he attempts to kill her before she can tell anyone else.

Two weeks after the attack on London, Banning is home spending time with Leah and their newborn child, named Lynne after his deceased boss. He sits in front of his laptop and contemplates sending his letter of resignation. On TV, Trumbull speaks regarding the recent events, leaving an inspiring message that the United States will prevail. This convinces Banning to delete the letter.

Cast

Production

Casting

Butler, Eckhart, Freeman, Bassett, Leo, Forster and Mitchell reprised their roles from Olympus Has Fallen.^[5] Production had been scheduled to begin in May 2015 in London, with Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt returning to write the script. Director Antoine Fuqua, however, did not return, due to his commitments with The Equalizer.^[15] On May 1, 2014, it was announced Focus Features had acquired distribution rights to the sequel, and would release the film on October 2, 2015.^[16] On August 18, 2014, it was announced that Charlie Countryman director Fredrik Bond would take over direction from Fuqua,^[17] but Bond left the film on September 18, six weeks before the shooting was to begin.^[18] On September 28, director Babak Najafi signed on to direct the film.^[8] On October 10, Jackie Earle Haley joined the film to play Deputy Chief Mason.^[10] On November 12, Mehdi Dehbi joined the film to play Sultan Mansoor, the youngest of three brothers whose life has been forever changed after a drone strike.^[11]

Filming

Principal photography began on October 24, 2014, in London.^[7][19] Four weeks of shooting were to take place, involving actors Freeman, Eckhart, Bassett and Melissa Leo, before a break for Christmas. Gerard Butler - who had been filming Geostorm the previous October - joined the shoot later, filming scenes with Eckhart in March 2015.^[20] A helicopter was seen making an expert landing in the courtyard of Somerset House, which is normally used to host London Fashion Week and summer film screenings.^[21] Butler and Angela Bassett were seen filming in Somerset House.^[22] Butler stated in an interview that the movie was also filmed in India and was to continue in Bulgaria.^[23] The President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, visited the set of London Has Fallen during filming at Boyana Cinema Center in Bulgaria.^[24][25] Filming lasted through April 2015.^[8]

Score

The music was composed by Trevor Morris, who provided the score for the first film.^[26] The record was released on March 4, 2016, by Back Lot Music.^[27]

Release

On May 20, 2015, Focus Features relaunched their Gramercy Pictures label for action, horror, and science fiction releases, with London Has Fallen being one of Gramercy's first titles.^[1] The film was planned for an October 2, 2015, release, however, on June 12, 2015, it was announced that the film had been moved back to January 22, 2016, to avoid competition with The Martian, which swapped its original November 25 release date with Victor Frankenstein.^[28][29] On July 1, 2015, the film's teaser trailer was released.^[30] The timing of the release was criticized as "insensitive" by the Chair of the Tavistock Square Memorial Trust, Philip Nelson, as it coincided with the week of the 10th anniversary of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, in which 52 people were killed, and with the 2015 Sousse attacks, in which 30 British nationals were killed.^[31] On September 16, 2015, the film's release was moved back again to March 4, 2016, because the studios needed more time to finish the film's visual effects.^[32] The U.S. trailer was released on November 5, 2015.^[33] A new theatrical poster of the film was released on January 21, 2016.^[34]

Home media

London Has Fallen was released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 14, 2016.

Reception

Box office

London Has Fallen grossed $62.5 million in North America and $133.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $195.7 million, against a budget of $60 million.^[4] The film outgrossed its predecessor's total of $161 million.

In the United States and Canada, pre-release tracking suggested the film would gross $20–23 million from 3,490 theaters in its opening weekend, trailing fellow newcomer Zootopia ($60–70 million projection) but besting Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ($10–12 million projection).^[35] The film made $850,000 from its Thursday night previews and $7.6 million on its first day. It went on to gross $21.6 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office behind Zootopia ($75 million).^[36]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 26%, based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's consensus reads, "London Has Fallen traps a talented cast – and all who dare to see it – in a mid-1990s basic-cable nightmare of a film loaded with xenophobia and threadbare action-thriller clichés."^[37] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 28 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[38] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade as its predecessor.^[36]

Panning the film, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club wrote: "A murky, brain-dead stab-a-thon packed with so many inane chases, laughable special effects, and mismatched stock footage shots that it begs to be made into a drinking game, London Has Fallen is one of those rare films that is good at absolutely nothing."^[39]

Controversy

Variety described London Has Fallen as "terrorsploitation" fantasy designed to spread fear after the November 2015 Paris attacks and "ugly, reactionary fear-mongering."^[40]

The film has also been called "extremely insensitive" by families of the victims of the 7/7 bombings after an early trailer was released ahead of the 10th anniversary of the attacks.^[41]

Sequel

On October 26, 2016, it was announced that a sequel titled Angel Has Fallen is in development, with Gerard Butler reprising his role, as well as being more active with the making of the film as producer.^[42]

References

External links

• Official website
• London Has Fallen at the Internet Movie Database
• London Has Fallen at Box Office Mojo
• London Has Fallen at Rotten Tomatoes