In 2013, there were two high-profile Hollywood movies about terrorists invading the White House, and the brave Secret Service agents who stepped forward to protect a beleaguered President. On June 28, Roland Emmerich’s excellent “White House Down” was released in theaters, and it starred Channing Tatum as the beleaguered agent, and Jamie Foxx as the president. The bad guy terrorist was played by Jason Clarke. “White House Down” also starred Maggie Gyllenhaal, Joey King, and Richard Jenkins. It was, for my money, one of the best films of 2013.
A broader audience, however, better remembers Antoine Fuqua’s “Olympus Has Fallen,” which beat “White House Down” to theaters by about three months. “Olympus Has Fallen” starred Gerard Butler as the beleaguered agent and Aaron Eckhart as the President. The bad guy terrorist was played by Rick Yune. The cast of “Olympus” contained more uncut starpower than “White House,” as Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, and Radha Mitchell all appeared. “White House Down” made over $200 million compared to the $170 million made by “Olympus,” but the former cost $150 million to make, while the latter was put together for a relatively modest $70 million. “Olympus” was the bigger hit.
It was such a hit that it spawned two sequels, all starring Butler as Mike Banning, a gravel-voiced supra-American, ready to murder thousands of people for the sake of his country. Because it would be implausible for terrorists to invade the White House multiple times, the setting for each “Has Fallen” sequel changed. At the end of 2024, a new “Has Fallen” TV series debuted on Hulu, but the show doesn’t connect to the three Mike Banning films in any meaningful way.
The three films in the “Has Fallen” series were released in the following order.
Here is the correct release order of the Has Fallen trilogy
The three “Has Fallen” movies were released thus:
- Antoine Fuqua’s “Olympus Has Fallen” (2013)
- Babak Najafi’s “London Has Fallen” (2016)
- Ric Roman Waugh’s “Angel Has Fallen” (2019)
- “Paris Has Fallen” (2024) (TV Series)
The “Olympus” of the first film is, as the film explains, codespeak for the White House. When the White House was taken over, CIA spooks got to bark into their radios that Olympus had fallen. The terrorists in that film were from North Korea. The bulk of the film was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana, and all the shots of the White House were achieved with unconvincing CGI. In the sequel, the president is attending a G7 summit in London when (sigh) Islamic terrorists attack, trying to assassinate multiple world leaders at the same time. Mike Banning and the president flee into the streets of London, unsure of where they might hide. “London” is far more violent, and Mike Banning seems to have become far more unhinged and jingoistic.
The tone settles somewhat for “Angel Has Fallen.” In that film, Morgan Freeman plays the president (he was Speaker of the House and the Vice President before), and he is attacked and left in a coma right at the start. Mike Banning learns that the attackers are, this time, American mercenaries. Banning is framed for the attack, and he spends the bulk of “Angel” on the lam. Tim Blake Nelson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Piper Perabo, Nick Nolte, and Danny Huston all appear.
“Paris Has Fallen” isn’t about Banning at all, but a new character named Vincent Taleb played by Tewfik Jallab. The bad guy is played by Sean Harris, and Vincent has to protect a French politician. The series is partly in English and partly in French. It’s said to take place in the “Has Fallen” universe, but there are no explicit references to the movies. As of this writing, the series was renewed for a second season, so time will tell if Mike Banning will make an appearance.
