Director Antoine Fuqua, best known for the urban thrillers TRAINING DAY and BROOKLYN’S FINEST, has orchestrated quite the ultra-violent spectacle with OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, a throwback to the action movies of the 90s where one man is pitted against dozens of terrorists and holds the fate of the country in his hands. Gerard Butler stars as disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning, who finds himself trapped within the White House after a foreign invasion has destroyed much of the capitol. I recently sat down with Butler and Fuqua to discuss OLYMPUS’ vivid action, whether or not this genre of movie is a lost artform, and the actor’s opportunity to play a nation-saving hero.
We just wanted to make the kind of movie we like. And we went out and did that.