White House Down (2003)

What if was White House Down made 10 years earlier

Directed By: Rob Cohen

Produced By: Joel Schmacher & Neal H. Mortiz

See Also: Olympus Has Fallen (2003)

Plot
President of the United States James Sawyer (Denzel Washington) generates controversy over a proposed peace treaty between the allied nations to remove military forces from the Middle East. Divorced US Capitol Police officer John Cale (Mark Wahlberg) is currently assigned to Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson (Kurtwood Smith) after saving his nephew's life during a tour in Afghanistan. Cale hopes to impress his politically obsessed daughter Emily (Brie Larson) by getting a job interview for the Secret Service Presidential Detail, while also getting tickets for the two of them to tour the White House. However, his interviewer, Secret Service Special Agent Carol Finnerty (Amanda Peet), a former college acquaintance of his, believes him to be unqualified due to his disrespect towards authority and a lifetime pattern of leaving things unfinished, such as his college degree or his tour of duty, and subsequently deems him ineligible for the job.

Disguised as a janitor, a man detonates a bomb at the center of the US Capitol building, causing the White House to be on lockdown. Finnerty is sent to escort the Speaker to an underground command center in the Pentagon, while Vice President of the United States Alvin Hammond (Michael Murphy) is taken aboard Air Force One. At the same time, mercenaries led by Emil Stenz (Sean Bean), having infiltrated the White House by disguising themselves as audio-visual repairmen, quickly overwhelm the Secret Service, take the tour group hostage and seize the White House. Cale manages to escape to go find his daughter, who was separated from him during the tour, during a distraction caused by one of the security staff. Retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker (Jon Voight) escorts Sawyer and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once they gain access, Walker kills his detail, revealing himself to be the real leader of the attack on the White House. He wants vengeance against Sawyer after a botched black ops mission resulted in the death of his son. Cale kills a mercenary, takes his gun and radio, and rescues Sawyer when he overhears Walker talking about his plans.

Walker and Stenz bring in infamous hacker Skip Tyler (Richard Roxburgh) to hack into the defense system, but still require Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. One of the mercenaries, Carl Killick (Jason Patric), catches Emily recording a video of the mercenaries on her phone and takes her hostage. Cale and Sawyer contact the command structure, which uses Emily's video to discover the identities of the mercenaries, who used to work for various government agencies. Cale and Sawyer try to escape via a secret tunnel but find the exit gate rigged with explosives. They are forced into the garage and escape in the presidential limo, which is attacked by Stenz and flips into the White House pool after a chase through the grounds. After Sawyer and Cale are presumed dead in an explosion, Hammond is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Cale and Sawyer are still alive and learn that Hammond ordered an aerial incursion to take back the White House, but the mercenaries shoot down the choppers. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Tyler finishes hacking into NORAD and launches a missile to shoot down Air Force One, killing President Hammond and everyone else on board. Raphelson is sworn in as the 48th President of the United States and orders an air strike on the White House.

Sawyer surrenders himself to Walker to save Emily. Walker attempts to force Sawyer to use the football to launch the nuclear missiles against the various cities in Iran; Walker blames the Iranian regime for killing his son in combat. Sawyer refuses at first, while Cale sets various rooms on fire as a diversion. Down in the tunnels, Tyler inadvertently triggers the explosives and dies when they detonate. After killing most of the remaining mercenaries and freeing the hostages, Cale confronts Stenz and blows him up with a grenade belt during a fight. Sawyer attacks Walker, who uses Sawyer's handprint to activate the football. Walker locks Iran's targets with the football when Cale enters the Oval Office by crashing a reinforced Chevrolet through the wall. When Walker reaches to launch the missiles, Cale kills him with the car's rotary cannon. Emily waves a presidential flag on the front lawn, convincing the incoming fighter planes to call off the air strike.

Cale realizes that Raphelson was Walker's accomplice in orchestrating the attack, motivated to take the President's Office after killing Sawyer in exchange for giving Walker the nuclear codes. Having been tricked into confessing in the belief that Sawyer is dead and Cale has no proof, Raphelson is arrested for treason. Sawyer names Cale as his new special agent and takes him and Emily on a personal aerial tour of DC. President Sawyer receives word that the nations of Russia, Iran, France and many others have agreed to his Peace Deal after learning of that day's events at the White House, calling for an end to all wars.

Cast

 * Mark Wahlberg as John Cale, a United States Capitol Police officer.
 * Denzel Washington as James Sawyer, the President of the United States.
 * Amanda Peet as Carol Finnerty, Secret Service Presidential Detail.
 * Sean Bean as Emil Stenz, an ex-Delta Force and CIA operative. Leader of the mercenaries.
 * Kurtwood Smith as Eli Raphelson, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
 * Brie Larson as Emily Cale, the daughter of John Cale.
 * Jon Voight as Martin James Walker, Head of the Secret Service Presidential Detail.
 * Josh Radnor as Donnie Donaldson, White House Tour Guide.
 * Richard Roxburgh as Skip Tyler, a computer hacker and the technical specialist in Stenz's group.
 * Jason Patric as Carl Killick, a right-wing militant and one of Stenz's henchmen.
 * Michael Murphy as Alvin Hammond, the Vice President of the United States.

Rating
PG-13