White House Down

White House Down

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Produced by Roland Emmerich
Bradley J. Fischer
Harald Kloser
James Vanderbilt
Larry Franco
Laeta Kalogridis
Written by James Vanderbilt
Starring Channing Tatum
Jamie Foxx
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Jason Clarke
Richard Jenkins
James Woods
Joey King
Music by Harald Kloser
Thomas Wanker
Cinematography Anna Foerster
Edited by Adam Wolfe
Production
company
Centropolis Entertainment
Mythology Entertainment
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • June 28, 2013 (2013-06-28) (United States)
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 American action thriller film directed by Roland Emmerich about an assault on the White House by a paramilitary group and the Capitol Police Officer who tries to stop them. The film's screenplay is by James Vanderbilt, and it stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, with Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke, Joey King, and Richard Jenkins in supporting roles. The film was released on June 28, 2013 and grossed $205 million worldwide.[2]

Plot

President of the United States James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) is generating controversy over a proposed peace treaty between the allied nations to remove military forces from the Middle East.

John Cale (Channing Tatum) is a divorced US Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins) after saving his nephew's life during a tour in Afghanistan. His daughter Emily (Joey King), who has a strong enthusiasm for politics, isn't on the greatest of terms with him. He hopes to impress her by getting a job with the Secret Service protecting the President, but Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a former college acquaintance of his who believes him to be unqualified due to a lack of follow-through and respect for authority, deems him unworthy. To avoid admitting the truth to Emily, Cale takes her on a tour of the White House.

A man disguised as a janitor detonates a bomb at the center of the US Capitol building. Raphelson and Finnerty are taken to an underground command center in the Pentagon, while Vice President of the United States Alvin Hammond (Michael Murphy) is taken aboard Air Force One. The White House is put on lockdown, separating Cale from Emily, who went to the restroom. Mercenaries led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke), who had disguised themselves as video technicians to get inside the White House, start killing off most of the Secret Service and take the tour group hostage, but Cale manages to take a gun and escape to go find his daughter. Retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker (James Woods) escorts the President and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once Sawyer gains access, Walker kills his detail, revealing himself to be the real leader who wants vengeance against Sawyer after a botched black ops mission resulted in the death of Walker's son. Cale, who failed to find Emily, kills a mercenary and takes his gun and radio. Overhearing the radio, Cale locates and rescues Sawyer.

Walker and Stenz bring in Skip Tyler (Jimmi Simpson) to hack into their defense system, but they still require Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. They locate the remaining chain of command and execute the Secretary of Defense before putting them with the hostages. Carl Killick (Kevin Rankin) catches Emily recording a video of the mercenaries and takes her hostage. Cale and Sawyer manage to contact the command structure, who tell Cale to get the President out through underground tunnels. The command structure uses Emily's video to discover the identities of the mercenaries, who used to work for various government agencies. They also discover that Walker has an inoperable tumor, suggesting his involvement is a suicide mission and that he is planning something more dangerous. Cale and Sawyer find the tunnel gate rigged with an explosive and are forced to escape with a presidential limo. After giving chase with Stenz on the White House lawn, Cale and Sawyer get flipped into the White House pool after Cale gets distracted by Killick holding Emily at gunpoint. A gunfight erupts which results in an explosion that leaves Sawyer and Cale presumed dead. Hammond is then sworn in as acting President.

When Cale and Sawyer reveal they are still alive, they learn that Hammond has ordered an aerial incursion to take back the White House, but the mercenaries shoot down the choppers with Javelins. Cale drops his White House passes for himself and Emily while escaping after fighting Stenz. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz, now knowing she is Cale's daughter, takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Tyler finally finishes the upload into NORAD and launches a missile to shoot down Air Force One, killing Hammond and everyone on board. Raphelson is then sworn in as acting President and reluctantly orders an air strike on the White House, of which Cale is informed.

Walker tells Cale over the White House intercom to surrender Sawyer or Stenz will kill Emily. Sawyer ultimately surrenders himself to save Emily, and Walker reveals his true plan: to use the football to launch the nuclear missiles against the various cities in Iran, which will result in retaliation by many countries and the start of World War III. Sawyer refuses to activate the football, but when Walker threatens to kill Emily again, the alarms and sprinklers are set off by Cale setting various rooms on fire. Tyler is killed while trying to escape by the bomb on the tunnel gate having been tampered with. After killing most of the remaining mercenaries and freeing the hostages, Cale is confronted by Stenz, and blows him up with a grenade belt. Sawyer attacks a distracted Walker, who ultimately gains the upper hand and uses him to activate the football before apparently shooting him dead. Using updated launch codes received by an anonymous source, Walker begins targeting various cities in Iran, but before he initiates the launch, Cale crashes into the office and kills him with a minigun. Emily waves a presidential flag on the front lawn, which calls off the fighter strike. The news media declare Emily a hero and Sawyer is revealed to be alive as the bullet had hit a pocket watch handed down to him from Abraham Lincoln. Finnerty calls Cale to reveal that Walker didn't call in the mercenaries, and that there is another mastermind behind the attack.

When Finnerty arrives at the White House with Raphelson, Cale tells them Sawyer was killed. Raphelson then orders troops to be sent back into the Middle East, which would go against Sawyer's peace treaty. Cale presses Raphelson about conspiring with Walker to orchestrate the attack and proves it by having Finnerty dial his pager number. Sawyer arrives and has Raphelson arrested. Sawyer names Cale as his new bodyguard, and takes him and Emily on a personalized aerial tour of DC.

Cast

Production

White House Down is directed by Roland Emmerich and based on a screenplay by James Vanderbilt, who is also one of the film's producers. Sony Pictures purchased Vanderbilt's spec script in March 2012 for $3 million, in what The 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 films Die Hard and Air Force One.[14] In the following April, Sony hired Roland Emmerich as director.[15] Emmerich began filming in July 2012 at the La Cité Du Cinéma in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.[16] Cinematographer Anna Foerster shot the film with Arri Alexa Plus digital cameras.[17]

In 2012, Sony competed with Millennium Films, who were producing Olympus Has Fallen (also about a takeover of the White House) to complete casting and to begin filming.[18]

Release

White House Down was originally scheduled for a November 1, 2013[19] release, but was moved up to a June 28, 2013 release.

Home media

White House Down was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 5, 2013.[20]

Reception

Critical response

White House Down received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 51%, based on 182 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.5/10. The site'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] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews, the film has an average score of 52 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[22]

Roth Cornet of IGN gives it a 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."[23]

Andrew Chan of the Film Critics Circle of Australia writes, "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. Therefore, I prefer Olympus for this one."[24]

Richard Roeper, however, gave the film an F, stating that "Everyone in White House Down is an idiot, clinically insane, a cliché, or a vehicle for shameless exploitation." He later named it the worst film of 2013.[25]

Box office

The film 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]

On its opening weekend in the U.S., the film disappointed and came in at 4th at the box office. It earned $24.9 million, less than March's similarly themed Olympus Has Fallen ($30.4 million opening).[26] In its second weekend, the film made $13.4 million.[27]

In October 2013, Sony announced it lost $197 million for June, July, and August 2013, and largely blamed "the box office flop of the movie White House Down as a key reason for the weakness".[28]

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "WHITE HOUSE DOWN (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "White House Down (2013)". Box Office Mojo. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  3. ↑ Kit, Borys (May 14, 2012). "Channing Tatum in Talks to Star in 'White House Down'". Variety.
  4. ↑ Sneider, Jeff; Kroll, Justin (June 6, 2012). "Foxx nominated for 'White House Down'". Variety.
  5. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (July 24, 2012). "Joey King 'Down' to play Tatum's daughter". Variety.
  6. ↑ Sneider, Jeff; Kroll, Justin (June 7, 2012). "Maggie Gyllenhaal joins 'White House' staff". Variety.
  7. ↑ Patten, Dominic (August 2, 2012). "Roland Emmerich's ‘White House Down’ Adds Jason Clarke To Cast". Deadline.com.
  8. ↑ Sneider, Jeff; Kroll, Justin (July 16, 2012). "Richard Jenkins joins 'White House Down'". Variety.
  9. ↑ Kroll, Justin (July 9, 2012). "James Woods in talks for 'White House Down'". Variety.
  10. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (August 3, 2012). "'White House Down' elects Lance Reddick". Variety.
  11. ↑ Kit, Borys (September 24, 2012). "Twilight Actress Joins 'White House Down,' 'Homefront'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  12. ↑ Patten, Dominic (August 9, 2012). ""White House Down" Adds Michael Murphy". Deadline.com. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
  13. ↑ Kit, Borys (August 10, 2012). "Garcelle Beauvais Joins 'White House Down'". The Hollywood Reporter.
  14. ↑ Kit, Borys (March 30, 2012). "Sony Plunking Down $3 Million for 'White House Down' by James Vanderbilt". The Hollywood Reporter.
  15. ↑ Fleming, Mike (April 2, 2012). "Roland Emmerich in Talks to Helm $3 Million Sony Spec 'White House Down'". Deadline.com.
  16. ↑ Kelly, Brendan (July 17, 2012). "Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and James Woods coming to town to shoot White House Down". The Gazette (Montreal).
  17. ↑ Goldman, Michael (July 1, 2013). "Prime Target". American Cinematographer (Los Angeles, California, United States: American Society of Cinematographers) 94 (7): 34. ISSN 0002-7928.
  18. ↑ Kit, Borys (April 10, 2012). "Antoine Fuqua Circling 'Olympus' as White House Thriller Race Heats Up". The Hollywood Reporter.
  19. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (August 6, 2012). "Sony Moving 'White House Down' to Heart of Summer 2013". The Hollywood Reporter.
  20. ↑ Rawden, Jessica (September 3, 2013). "White House Down Will Hit Blu-ray And DVD In November". cinemablend. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
  21. ↑ "White House Down". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  22. ↑ "White House Down". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  23. ↑ Roth Cornet. "White House Down". IGN. Ziff Davis Media. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
  24. ↑ Andrew Chan (29 August 2013). "White House Down". [HK Neo Reviews].
  25. ↑ "White House Down Review". Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Olympus Has Fallen (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for June 28–30, 2013". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  28. ↑ Pfanner, Eric (October 31, 2013). "Sony Blames Box-Office Trouble for Its Quarterly Loss". New York Times. Retrieved October 31, 2013.

External links

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