Angel Has Fallen

Admit it: you were expecting something more like ‘Standards Have Fallen’.

After the grim uber-violence of Olympus Has Fallen, and the queasy xenophobia of London Has Fallen, it’s fair to say hopes weren’t high for instalment three in Gerard Butler’s presidential protection franchise.

The film looked for all the world like a last desperate cash-grab before the series was consigned to the scrapheap (or even worse, the dingy netherworld of DTV sequels). This impression was only heightened by news of a slimmed down budget and scaled down cast (series stalwarts Angela Bassett, Aaron Eckhart, and Melissa Leo are all notably absent).

So, imagine Exploding Helicopter’s surprise when Angel Has Fallen (2019) turned out to be a rollickingly good action romp.

How on earth did that happen? And please can we have some more?

The plot

Gerard Butler once again finds himself in the centre of bullet-strewn bedlam after an assassination attempt on the President. After waking in a hospital, Jowly Gerry quickly learns that his entire team is dead, POTUS is in a coma, and he’s the FBI’s chief suspect in the attempted hit. Zoiks!

Naturally, it’s not long before Big Gez escapes and goes on the run in an effort to clear his name. Along the way, he must work out who’s masterminding the conspiracy, avoid the mercenaries hunting him down and reconnect with his estranged father. All while trying to decide if he wants to take a desk job at work. Apparently, the dental package is very attractive...

Standards had fallen

You’d be forgiven for thinking all this makes Angel Has Fallen sound remarkably like its knuckleheaded predecessors. But watching the film, it becomes clear there’s been a deliberate tonal reset.

While the grisly violence of past entries remains intact, the unpleasant strand of quasi-racism – “Why don’t you go back to Fuckheadistan?” bellows Butler in the London entry – has been quietly expunged from the formula. (Viewers wanting to see that unsavoury combination should instead check out Stallone’s thoroughly nasty Rambo: Last Blood.)

In addition, the stakes for our hero are made more personal. Not only must Gezza prove his innocence and defend his family, he’s also thrown together with his absentee father (Nick Nolte) – a PTSD-addled Vietnam veteran who’s now living off-grid like a crazed doomsday prepper. Or, as Butler observes: “One step down from the Unabomber.”

This move allows the film to make some surprisingly thoughtful nods towards the mental toll taken by a life of violence. There’s even an emotional reunion between these two grizzled warriors as they weigh the personal cost of the sacrifices they’ve made for their country.

Admittedly, the pair then seal their reconciliation by bloodily butchering a team of military contractors who’ve been sent to kill them. But hey, this is a ‘Has Fallen’ film, not a Bergman-esque reckoning of the human condition.

So, while Exploding Helicopter can enjoy having a little fun at Angel Has Fallen’s expense, the film absolutely succeeds on its own terms. You get muscular set pieces, a well-rounded story and meaningful character beats. What more could you ask for? To which the obvious answer is….

Exploding helicopter action

….an exploding helicopter. Or, in this case, four. The first occurs during the attempted coup d’etat. While relaxing on a fishing trip, the president and his protection team are attacked by a flock(?) of exploding drones. (Answers on a postcard as to what the collective noun for these murderous machines should be.)

Packed with explosives, the miniature aircraft dive straight at their targets like robotic kamikaze pilots. They wipe out a few Secret Service agents and then smash into the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and two accompanying Osprey V-22, blowing them up.

But wait: that’s not all.

At the end of the film Danny Huston - the scenery-chomping villain of the piece - tries to make his getaway in a helicopter that’s about to lift-off. But before he can make his escape, Butler detonates the whirlybird using the grenade launcher under his machine gun. Perhaps they should have called this one Aircraft Has Fallen.

Artistic merit

We give top marks to the chopper fireball staged at the end of the film as part of the film’s big finale. Its burning carcass acts as a haunting backdrop for the climatic mano-a-mano knife fight between Huston and Butler.

Sadly, the earlier scene is a bit of a disappointment. While it’s hard to fault the scene overall, the chopper fireballs are a little blink-and-you’ll-miss-them.

Exploding helicopter innovation

Together with Independence Day and The Sentinel, Angel Has Fallen can be added to a small but perfectly formed group of films that boast the fiery destruction of a presidential helicopter. Impressively, the film also features the first use of a drone to blow up a chopper.

Interesting fact

Readers with long memories may have noticed that Angel Has Fallen’s story bares no relation to the one trailed in much of the advance publicity. That’s because it was originally meant to feature terrorists hijacking Air Force One.

But with Butler unhappy with the script, veteran screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (Taken, The Transporter) was called in to fix things. And ultimately, this ‘repair job’ involved junking the entire thing and coming up with a completely new story.

Only one problem remained: how to explain the title they were now stuck with? Cue a newscaster on the Exposition News Network droning the improbable line: “Tonight, the President’s guardian angel has fallen…”

Still want more?

Why not check out our review of Angel Has Fallen on the Exploding Helicopter podcast. Listen on iTunes, Acast, Stitcher, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Olympus Has Fallen

Fallen asleep, more like.

Rarely has an action movie seemed so lazy. No doubt pitched as ‘Die Hard in the White House’, this generic piece of floss also plunders plot lines, characters and whole scenes from a dozen other movies. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a hoary tribute band, ruining old classics and expecting applause for it.

Adding to its woes, the star is Gerard Butler – a kind of Scottish Steven Seagal, only with less emotional range.

The movie’s high standards of verisimilitude are established at the outset when a bunch of North Koreans manage to fly a lumbering military plane right to the centre of Washington, largely unchallenged.

As the plane blasts DC to smithereens, a crack team of 40 enemy agents, disguised as tourists, quickly overwhelms the famously not-well-guarded White House and takes the President hostage in his own underground bunker.

Luckily, disgraced Secret Service agent Butler also manages to blast his way in, kicking off what will become a truly prodigious body count. Once inside, he establishes phone contact with acting President Morgan Freeman (I know, I was surprised too) and the inevitable conference room full of worried politicos and grizzled generals.

Will our Gezza be able to single-handedly despatch all the nasty Norks, save the President and stop the USA’s nukes going off with seconds to spare? Obviously, Exploding Helicopter wouldn’t dream of spoiling things so you’ll just have to go see for yourself. (But yes.)

Hokum it may be, but there’s some entertainment to be gleaned from playing ‘Spot the Steal’. Look! There’s that close quarters choke-fight-in-a-tiny space from Air Force One. Hey! Aren’t those the hooded hostages in identical overalls from Inside Man?

Butler: uber-violence specialist

More impressively, entire scenes – the snatched phone call to the missus, unknowingly befriending the baddie, jumping off an exploding building – are lifted wholesale from Die Hard without the merest attempt to put a fresh gloss on them.

This is a very particular type of action thriller. Where Bruce Willis brought quips, Van Damme the corny kung fu and Arnie a bovine semi-comedy, Butler unapologetically specialises in uber-violence. Within minutes of entering the White House, he’s bludgeoned one baddie and tortured another two to death. Knives going into necks – and actual heads – quickly becomes a common feature, almost a calling card.

Unsurprisingly, there’s nary a giggle to be had. Butler, realising every three seconds spent crafting a witty aside is a lost opportunity to stick a skillet knife into a Nork’s right temple, largely lets his bladed instruments do the talking. It’s pretty artless stuff.

Still, there is a solid, if predictable, supporting cast. Aaron Eckhart (who seemingly stole Dennis Quaid’s career overnight) is suitably lantern-jawed and stoic as the kidnapped President. Robert Forster turns in a heroically hammy turn as the gun-happy General who, in time-honoured fashion, bungles a military rescue and has to be given a public dressing down.

The magisterial Morgan, meanwhile – who exclusively seems to play either the President or God these days – churns out his lines with a pained look that suggests the actor beside him has just dropped one. But we all know that what really stinks is the script.

Like many modern action films, Olympus suffers badly for want of a half-decent villain. The muscle-bound Kang (Rick Yune) is a bland presence, largely reduced to explaining plot points. In the absence of a personality, his calling card also (oh, happy coincidence!) turns out to be uber-violence. His stand-out scene revolves around him repeatedly kicking a 60-year-old woman [the Secretary of Defence] in the stomach. Alan Rickman, this is not.

Equally dull is Dylan McDermot, playing the good agent gone rogue who, when asked why he’s turned sour, yelps: “Wall Street! Globalisation!’ Really? The existence of a financial sector and the steady growth in international trade agreements is what finally tipped him over the edge? Deep stuff, indeed.

Freeman: Cast exclusively as God or the President

The fact that McDermot, with his moany, equine features, looks more like Ross from Friends with each passing day only makes him all the more slappable. Against all the odds, our Gezza ends up stabbing him in the throat.

But, to the helicopters. General Bob Forster, his voice so gravelly it’s being picked up on nearby submarine sonar equipment, orders six military choppers to land on the White house roof. But Kang, taking a brief respite from pummelling pensioners in the lower abdomen, has worked out how to use the White House’s own ‘Hydra Six’ defence system – essentially a huge automated machine gun.

By the time Butler stabs his way to the rooftop, the Hydra gun has already biffed five choppers. Our Gezza heroically blasts the Hydra with a rocket launcher, but the final helicopter smashes into the White House right where he’s standing. As the flaming vehicle explodes, our anti-hero leaps off the flaming ledge (Die Hard), falls through a few storeys of the collapsing building (Die Hard 5), then is trapped on his back as the rotor blades come swishing down and stop just before his meaty features (Mission Impossible). So: not at all derivative, then.

Artistic merit

Very weak. The whole scene plays out at night, the editing is Michael-Bay-on-acid fast, the CGI is hazy and, frankly, it’s not at all clear what’s happening for most of the time. Note to Hollywood: this scene probably cost hundreds of thousands to put together, and yet was met with a palpable sigh by the cinema audience.

Exploding helicopter innovation

You’re joking aren’t you? This is a film that has been constructed exclusively from the scenes of other films.

Number of exploding helicopters

Two.

There’s a second helicopter explosion to enjoy when the terrorists try to make their getaway from the White House. Seemingly all set to fly to safety aboard a chopper that’s been provided for them, the whirlybird mysteriously blows up. Turns out the whole scene has been deliberately staged to cause enough confusion for the terrorists to make their real getaway.

Positives

Has anyone seen Monica?

Ah, Gerard. What will movie historians say of his schizophrenic movie career? No other actor in Hollywood has so effortlessly straddled the contrasting genres of rom-com and gut-wrenchingly violent thriller, while seemingly being equipped for neither. His ripe awfulness, almost McConaughey-esque in places, makes for compulsive viewing.

You’re never sure whether he’s going to be breaking limbs or mending hearts. In Law Abiding Citizen, for example, he (inevitably) stabs someone in the neck then continues a steak dinner as blood pumps fitfully out of the corpse beside him. But that film came only shortly after P.S. I Love You, where he lolled like a puppy and boyishly charmed Hilary’s Wank (sic) with a crashingly bad Oirish accent. At this juncture, it’s still not clear which of the two was the more distressing.

Best of all is The Ugly Truth, a magnificently mis-judged rom-com in which Butler plays a lothario shock-jock, but with some of the latent nastiness intact. Poor Katherine Heigel never looks sure whether he’s going to kiss her cheek or snap her tibia with a single, well-aimed kick.

Negatives

In the initial attack, the plane bombs Washington in a taboo-busting fashion that is plainly meant to evoke 9/11. (The collapsing Washington Monument, for example, falls exactly like the Trade Center buildings). There’s something genuinely distasteful about a middling piece of cinematic whimsy using America’s largest modern tragedy to try and grasp at ‘edginess’.

Also, there’s a bizarre (and mercifully brief) ‘Home Alone’ sub-plot, involving the President’s cute kid being trapped in the White House. Presumably, even the makers of this film realised how creepy it was – if not downright weird – to have Butler offering avuncular advice to the young boy, before filleting a screaming Nork in front of him. The child is quickly allowed to escape via a drain, to everyone’s relief.

Favourite quote

“They’ve opened the gates of hell…”
Morgan Freeman has presumably just seen the script for Olympus Has Fallen 2.

Interesting fact

In Hollywood, no idea is so bad that it can’t be done twice in quick succession. Expect to see White House Down (essentially the same movie but starring younger, less Scottish beefcake Channing Tatum) at a cinema near you very soon.

Review by: Chopper