Bullet Points: London Has Fallen

As you watch the 2016 film London Has Fallen you will quickly realize that President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) is in some pretty exclusive movie character company. Asher joins the likes of John McClane, Kevin McCallister and Bryan Mills in movies where the audience has to wonder “How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?” Fortunately for Asher, just as he did in Olympus Has Fallen, Asher has super Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) saving his ass.

As you watch the 2016 film London Has Fallen you will also enjoy yourself, as long as you remember it is only a movie and you really shouldn’t take it so seriously.

• On the Day of His Daughter’s Wedding: As the movie begins we are quickly introduced to the protagonists, notorious arms dealer Aamir Barkawi and his son Kamran. The two are at the wedding reception of Aamir’s daughter when a drone strike that was meant to take out Aamir, ends up killing Aamir’s daughter and other innocent bystanders, while Aamir and Kamran survive the strike. As you may imagine, Aamir is none too pleased and wants his revenge.

• The Revenge Plot: After the British Prime Minister dies under somewhat suspicious circumstances (we later learn that he was poisoned while in the hospital for surgery), all the leaders of the G8 countries (with the exception of Russia, who even after death wants nothing to do with the British Prime Minister) are flying into London to pay their respects. And the funeral for the British PM becomes the trap for the other G8 leaders. With evil precision the leaders of Japan, Canada, Germany, Italy and France are picked off one by one, Barkawi seemingly has replaced the entire London police force with his men, even a few of the Buckingham Palace Guards end up being Barkawi guys. The only leader to survive is the President of the United States, Benjamin Asher. And that is because Mike Banning had the bright idea to move Ahser’s schedule up and get them to London ahead of schedule, so they weren’t exactly where they were supposed to be when Barkawi’s precise plan was executed.
• They Are Not Out of the Woods Yet: After dodging bullets from impostor police officers, Banning gets President Asher back in their armored vehicle. The plan is to get back to Marine 1 so they can return to the airport and get the POTUS home but that is easier said than done. We get some top notch car chase action with police cars and motorcycles in hot pursuit of Asher. I especially enjoyed Banning’s methods of eliminating the motorcyclists during this sequence. Once they get back to Marine 1 and are on their way to Air Force One at the airport, our heroes have to deal with bad guys on rooftops with stinger missiles. Spoiler Alert! The stingers win, but Asher and Banning survive yet again… but now they are on foot and the bad guys aren’t giving up!

• Viral Video: Banning does a commendable job keeping President Asher out of harm’s way, but eventually the numbers game catches up with Banning and Barkawi’s men abduct the President. Instead of simply killing the President right then and there, Barkawi wants the world to watch his son Kamran execute President Asher live for the world to see. People around the globe are transfixed. The video feed is everywhere from Times Square to Tokyo. Will the world witness President Asher having his head chopped off live? Or will Mike Banning save the day?

At times London Has Fallen felt like another live action G.I. Joe movie, if for no other reason than the unlimited resources that Barkawi had at his disposal. It was some Cobra Commander and Destro level stuff. The over top premise and action packed execution also gave London Has Fallen that G.I. Joe vibe too and that is why I stated at the beginning, you can’t take the movie too seriously. If you do, you’ll probably hate it. If you don’t, and you love action you’ll be entertained because there is a TON of action in this movie. If you told me 75 of the 99 minute run time of the film was filled with action, I would not be surprised. You definitely get a lot of bang for your buck where London Has Fallen is concerned.

Now to give you a little more bang for your buck where this review is concerned, here are some bonus Bullet Points…

• Familiar Face: I was happy to see Robert Forster reprise his Olympus Has Fallen role of General Edward Clegg in the sequel. London Has Fallen is another addition to Forster’s action resume that already included films like The Delta Force, American Yakuza and Original Gangstas.
• If I Ever: …was going to make a run for the presidency here int he United States, I would ask Morgan Freeman to be my running mate. His speeches alone would get me elected.
• Something Else Has Fallen?: There are two points in the movie where we see Mike Banning looking at a resignation letter in his e-mail’s drafts folder. Mike and his wife Leah are expecting their first child. And it is understandable if Mike would want to get out of his dangerous profession so he could be there for his child. So does he hit send or does he hit delete? If he hit send, this will not become a trilogy. If he hit delete, something else might fall!