In LONDON HAS FALLEN, a high-tech action thriller which has just been released theatrically, the leaders of the Western nations come to the title city to attend the funeral of the British Prime Minister. What follows is a scenario involving a deadly plan to assassinate them all, despite the tight security protecting them. Cinematically-speaking, there is nothing fresh and new about this doomsday scenario. Indeed, LONDON HAS FALLEN is a sequel to 2013’s OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN. Both feature the same action hero, played by Gerard Butler. In the original, the North Koreans hatch a plot to take over the White House and kidnap the U.S. President.
When films like LONDON HAS FALLEN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN are released, I always ask myself: Given the world in which we live-- a world in which the seemingly unimaginable acts by terrorists are constant and very real-- how can audiences be entertained by these films? It is one thing to say: Well, 9/11 happened a decade-and-a-half ago. In our short-attention-span culture, this may as well be the Stone Age. Perhaps those in the target audience for LONDON HAS FALLEN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN were toddlers on 9/11. Or perhaps they were not yet born. But Paris and San Bernardino are not yesterday’s news. So how can audiences place whatever awareness they may have of ISIS or the Taliban or BokoHaram or al-Qaida aside and find chills, thrills, and escapism in films like LONDON HAS FALLEN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN?
It’s easy to understand why viewers may savor storylines involving, for example, megalomaniacs who plot world domination if these villains clearly are fictional. You’ll find such bad guys in countless James Bond films, and you’ll find them in scores of science fiction films. Let me cite one sci-fi title: INDEPENDENCE DAY, from 1996, in which aliens plot to take over the planet. In this film, major cities are destroyed and so on. However, given the identities of the perpetrators, we can relax because we know that what we are seeing is only a movie. It is only fantasy. It is only science fiction. (By the way, the reason I mention INDEPENDENCE DAY is that a belated follow-up, titled INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE, is scheduled for release in June.)
But the question remains: How can audiences munch on popcorn as they gape at terrorists bent on blowing up buildings, torturing captives, and murdering world leaders? The answer, perhaps, is that films like LONDON HAS FALLEN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN reassure audiences by putting forth the notion that, sure, terrorists can take U.S. presidents hostage and murder world leaders, but there always will be a stalwart action hero who will fearlessly dive right in and, at the finale, decisively defeat the terrorists.
Well, one can only hope... And of course, the bottom line is that audiences will shell out big bucks to see a film like OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, which brought in over $160-million worldwide, and that alone is the impetus for filming-- and, hopefully, profiting from-- LONDON HAS FALLEN.
Rob Edelman as written several books on film, television, and baseball, and was a longtime Contributing Editor of Leonard Maltin’s annual Movie Guide. He teaches film history at the University at Albany.
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