Terror Porn: Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen is an example of what I will call 9/11esque terror porn. Within a twenty-four-hour storyline, Olympus plays as an allegory for the period stretching from the terrorist acts of 9/11, through America’s attempts to reinstate its pride and unity, to the assassination of bin Laden, but it does so with countless R-rated shots in the head and buckets of splattering blood, as our country is debased almost sadomasochistically when North Korean terrorists massacre civilians, D.C. policemen, and secret service agents (see image above; why aren't the windows shattering?); demolish the Washington Memorial; capture the White House; and hold President Benjamin Asher hostage. In one sequence, Blackhawk helicopters full of confident Navy Seals fly to the rescue, an image immediately recalling the recent Zero Dark Thirty, but they are shot down with ease. Reprising the bitterly vengeful side of the character of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight more than the crusader for justice, Aaron Eckhart plays the President as a buff boxer who endures his captivity with eye-bulging defiance. In a premise ripped shamelessly from Die Hard, Gerard Butler plays secret service agent Mike Banning who ends up being the only agent left alive inside the White House. Invincibly, Banning cuts his way through the opposition, shooting everybody in the head, and in keeping with the historical allegory, he finds time to use torture to get terrorists to spill the beans. During a single day, America gets demeaned royally by terrorists, our flag flutters to the White House lawn, and the White House is partially burned, but Banning and Asher prevail, along with the help of an old-looking Morgan Freeman as the Speaker of the House and acting president during the crisis, and our country remains strong, united, and victorious. Olympus Has Fallen is an ordeal in more ways than one.