Olympus Has Fallen

Former US Army Ranger Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is a Secret Service agent assigned to head the U.S. Presidential 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 to a campaign fundraiser, 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, Banning works at the Treasury, having been removed from the presidential detail. During Asher's meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo (Keong Sim) at the White House, a North Korean terrorist group called the Koreans for United Freedom, led by Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), mounts an air (with an AC-130 gunship) and ground assault and captures the building. Aided by members of the prime minister's own detail, including former Secret Service agent-turned-private contractor Dave Forbes (Dylan McDermott), they hold Asher and several top officials hostage in the PEOC, where Lee is executed on live video. Before being killed, Agent Roma (Cole Hauser) alerts the Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) that "Olympus has fallen." Banning joins the White House's defenders during KUF'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 in the emergency briefing room.

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, as well to detonate the American nuclear arsenal, turning the United States into an irradiated wasteland as payback for his mother's death. This requires access codes to the Cerberus system, held by three government officials including the President, all of whom are inside the PEOC. 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. After attempting to deceive Banning, Forbes is exposed because he knew Kang's name. They fight, & Banning overpowers Forbes. When asked why, Forbes says that he "lost his way". Banning gives him a chance to redeem himself by using a radio to tell Kang that he got Banning, which Forbes then does. Banning then kills Forbes. In the meantime, Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg (Robert Forster) convinces Trumbull to order an aerial SEAL assault on the White House. The KUF discovers the assault force and activates the 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 shooting Vice President Charlie Rodriguez (Phil Austin) in the head, broadcasting it live via their video link to the briefing room.

After Banning disables Kang's communications, and while awaiting the chopper he demanded, Kang then tries to execute Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo) outside the White House in front of the media, but Banning rescues her at the last moment before Kang shoots. Banning takes out most of Kang's forces, but Kang escapes and retreats back to the bunker. With the KUF dwindling, Kang fakes his and Asher's death by sacrificing several of his commandos and the remaining hostages in a fiery helicopter explosion, likely caused by a bomb planted on one of the passengers. Banning sees through the ruse & continues to make his way to the control bunker where Kang undoubtedly is. Having two of the codes to Cerberus already, Kang eventually cracks Asher's code using a brute-force attack and activates the system. As Kang and his remaining men in the KUF attempt to escape, Banning ambushes and kills all of them except Kang. Asher tries to break free from Kang's grip and is shot in the stomach. Banning confronts and engages in hand-to-hand combat with Kang, who shortly gains the upper hand. In the middle of trying to choke Banning to death, Asher distracts Kang momentarily, which allows Banning to turn the tables, break Kang's arm and then stab him in the head as he promised. Asher croaks out that Cerberus is going to activate. Banning rushes into the control room, calls the briefing room and gets the code to disable Cerberus with the assistance of Trumbull and his staff. Cerberus is deactivated with only three seconds to spare.

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

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.[4] 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.[16]

Filming began in Shreveport, Louisiana, in mid-July 2012.[9] 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.[17]

The score was composed by Trevor Morris whose past projects included The Tudors and The Borgias.[18] 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

Olympus Has Fallen was released in the United States on March 22, 2013.[6] 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.[19]

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.[20]

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.[3] In its first weekend, the film earned $30.5 million finishing second at the box office, and exceeded predictions of $23 million.[21][22]

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.[23]

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).[24]

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 Bausch v. Green, 188 A.3d 567 (Pa. Super. Ct. March 27, 2018) ("Together with a writing partner, Appellant [Green] co-authored a motion picture script which they titled: OLYMPUS IS FALLEN ("the Script"). During the period of their collaboration, Appellant and his writing partner [Rothenberger], in addition to OLYMPUS IS FALLEN, collaborated on a number of other writing projects. Appellant and the writing partner terminated their business relationship and parted ways some years ago prior to 2013. After their business and artistic collaboration ended, and without the knowledge of Appellant, his former writing partner marketed and sold the Script."

"By 2013, Appellant discovered the Script is the basis for the major motion picture OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN [(Millennium Films 2013)], and he was a party in California civil litigation [(the "California Litigation")] to determine, among other issues, the proper holder of the authorship rights in the Script and money damages, if any, owing to Appellant, or potentially from Appellant to his former writing partner, or anyone else. On or before July 8, 2013, Appellant, his former writing partner and other intentionally unnamed persons negotiated and signed a Confidential Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release ("the Agreement and Release").").

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 49% based on 192 reviews and a weighted average rating of 5.39/10. 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".[25] Metacritic assigns the film a weighted average score of 41 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[26] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[27]

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.[28]

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."[29]

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.[30] 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.[31]

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.[32] 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,[33] but Bond left the film on September 18, just six weeks before shooting was set to begin.[34] However, on September 28, 2014, it was announced that Babak Najafi would take over direction of the sequel.[35]

On October 10, 2014, it was announced that Jackie Earle Haley would join London Has Fallen as a Deputy Chief Mason.[36] Filming for the sequel began on October 24, 2014.[37] The film was released on March 4, 2016.

• White House Down (2013)
• Transfer of Power (1999)
• The Lions of Lucerne (2002)
• London Has Fallen (2016)
• Angel Has Fallen (2019)
• Air Force One (1997)
• Die Hard (1988)

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• Official website
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• Olympus Has Fallen at AllMovie
• Olympus Has Fallen at the TCM Movie Database
• Olympus Has Fallen at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Olympus Has Fallen at Box Office Mojo
• Olympus Has Fallen at Rotten Tomatoes
• Olympus Has Fallen at Metacritic
• Olympus Has Fallen at the Internet Movie Firearms Database
• FXGuide Article on the VFX for Olympus Has Fallen
• Animation World News article on VFX for Olympus Has Fallen