London Has Fallen Movie Review

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, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell and Charlotte Riley in supporting roles.

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.

Arms dealer Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) is discovered to be the mastermind behind several terrorist attacks in Europe and around the world. Western intelligence services locate his compound and the United States launches a drone strike against it, supposedly killing Barkawi along with his family. Two years later, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), top Secret Service agent for President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), is expecting his first child with his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell) and hopes to take some time off to spend time with his family, contemplating resigning from the Secret Service. In Yemen, Barkawi is still alive, and he meets with his son Kamran (Waleed Zuaiter). They begin to set plans in motion for revenge.

Asher and Mike are informed that the British Prime Minister James Wilson has died. Along with Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett), they travel to London to join many other prominent world leaders for Wilson's state funeral. As they are all arriving, several mercenaries under Barkawi's command initiate an attack, starting with a bomb that destroys the Canadian Prime Minister's limo. Soon, mercenaries disguised as royal guards and police officers begin opening fire on civilians and other world leaders. Simultaneously, the terrorists hit many of London's landmarks, including setting off a massive bomb on the River Thames that kills the French President and heavily damages Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. The terrorists also hack into the city's power network, effectively shutting it down. The president's staff back at the White House watch events in horror. Many prominent figures and hundreds of civilians are killed, but Mike manages to get Asher and Jacobs to safety amidst the carnage on the streets.

The trio head to Marine One for extraction. However, men positioned on building rooftops launch stinger missiles at the chopper, taking out the decoy helicopters before shooting down Marine One. The aircraft crash-lands in a park, resulting in Jacobs being fatally injured. Before dying, she tells Mike to "make those fuckers pay". Mike and Asher go on the run, fleeing into the deactivated London Underground to get off the streets. As they move through the underground tunnels, Asher notes that the terrorists want to capture him alive so that he may be executed publicly, and orders Mike to kill him if necessary to stop that happening. Mike reluctantly agrees. Mike also manages to contact Vice President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and sends the White House a message to let them know that he and Asher are heading for an MI6 safehouse in the city.

The staff at the White House receive a threatening call from Barkawi revealing his role in the plot and his desire for vengeance. They are also informed that Wilson's autopsy report detected poison in his body, revealing that he was intentionally murdered to lure the world leaders to London so that they could be killed. With the city on lockdown, Mike and Asher reach the safe-house of MI6 agent Jacqueline "Jax" Marshall (Charlotte Riley), whom Mike knows well. Jax uses her computer to determine Barkawi's involvement. She plays back a message from Trumbull confirming that they received Mike's message and are sending help. On the security cameras, the three see what is supposedly the Delta team there to rescue Mike and Asher, until Mike deduces they are yet more terrorist impostors. Knowing that the terrorists must have a mole within the British government, Jax heads to Scotland Yard to coordinate with local authorities while Mike stays behind to eliminate the terrorists, aided by Asher. The pair then take an MI6 vehicle and make a run for the safety of the U.S. Embassy, but are overturned by a van driven by the terrorists. Banning regains consciousness just in time to see Asher being abducted.

President Asher is taken to a construction site in the city that serves as the terrorists' secret headquarters. There, Kamran prepares to execute Asher publicly, broadcasting the video feed live around the world via the internet and other hacked video outlets. Meanwhile, Mike has been found by a unit of SAS commandos, and the group assaults the terrorist stronghold in an attempt to rescue Asher. As millions around the world watch, Kamran brutally beats Asher before preparing to behead him with a machete, asking the President if he has any final words. At the last moment, Mike bursts in and shoots the gathered terrorists before engaging in a fistfight with Kamran, although the latter ultimately manages to escape. Surrounded by yet more terrorists during their escape, Mike orders the SAS commander to blow up the building, jumping down a shaft to safety with Asher as the fireball engulfs Kamran and the remaining hostiles, killing them. Jax discovers that MI5 Intelligence Chief John Lancaster (Patrick Kennedy) is the traitor who helped Barkawi and kills him in self-defense. Some time later, Barkawi's compound is located in Yemen, where another drone strike is launched against him. Trumbull contacts him by phone and speaks to him moments before he dies in the explosion.

Two weeks after the attack on London, Mike returns home and is spending time with Leah and their newborn child. He sits in front of his laptop and continues to contemplate sending his letter of resignation to Asher. On TV, Trumbull speaks regarding the recent events, leaving an inspiring message that America will prevail. This convinces Mike to delete the letter.

 

Butler, Eckhart, Freeman, Bassett, Leo, Forster, and Mitchell reprised their roles from Olympus Has Fallen. Production had been scheduled to begin in May 2014 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.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. On August 18, 2014, it was announced that Charlie Countryman director Fredrik Bond would take over direction from Fuqua,but Bond left the film on September 18, six weeks before the shooting was to begin.On September 28, director Babak Najafi signed on to direct the filmOn October 10, Jackie Earle Haley joined the film to play Deputy Chief Mason.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.

Principal photography on the film began on October 24, 2014, in London. 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. 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 Butler and Angela Bassett were seen filming in Somerset House Butler stated in an interview that the movie was also filmed in India and was to continue in Bulgaria.The President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev, visited the set of London Has Fallen during filming at Boyana Cinema Center in Bulgaria.Filming lasted through April 2015.

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.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.On July 1, 2015, the film's teaser trailer was released.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.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.The U.S. trailer was released on November 5, 2015. A new theatrical poster of the film was released on January 21, 2016.The film received an R rating from the MPAA, "for strong language and violence throughout.