One Big Scene is a weekly column dedicated to spectacular visual sequences we’re recommending you see in the theater. If you have ones you’d like us to write about, let us know in the comments section.
A car chase is the last thing I expected to see in Roland Emmerich’s White House Down, a claustrophobic and – I thought – restricted summer popcorn blockbuster that contains 90% of its action to the interior of America’s most famous residency. The fact that this unexpected car chase involves a tank, surface-to-air missiles, and a rocket launcher… well, that goes a long way to explaining why it’s this week’s One Big Scene. Let’s dig into the visual feast that is Emmerich’s White House Down.
The Scene
White House Down is “Die Hard in the White House.” But it largely succeeds because it doesn’t pretend to be anything but “Die Hard in the White House.”
It casts Channing Tatum as John Cale – because John McClane already was taken – a D.C. police officer angling for a position on the president’s Secret Service detail. He happens to be on a White House tour with his daughter (Joey King) when terrorists attack, putting him behind enemy lines and making him one of the few who can keep President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) safe.
They don’t look very safe during an exciting limousine chase involving the president’s formidable ride Ground Force One. But not just one limo… three, as the villains pursuing Cale and Sawyer pile into subsequent vehicles for “a full-scale war on the White House lawn.”
The limo sequence in White House Down is a flawless example of action-movie escalation. It isn’t enough that Cale and Sawyer have to battle two other limos as they try to escape the White House grounds. They also must contend with snipers on the building’s roof firing rockets, as well as their own colleagues retaliating with tank mortars. The fact that Emmerich ups the ante by giving Foxx’s president his OWN rocket launcher means WHD reaches popcorn-blockbuster nirvana.
And the whole thing concludes in a swimming pool. Because of course it does.
Did the critics have as much fun with White House Down as I did?
What Critics are Saying:
“For pure enjoyment, for a good time at the movies, for something that will delight and exhilarate and send audiences out laughing, satisfied and thoroughly worked over, it's hard to imagine anything beating White House Down."
- Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
“The main difference between Emmerich and fellow maestros of mayhem like Michael Bay is that he actually seems to be in on the joke. He knows his movies are preposterous nonsense and he embraces it.”
- Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
“White House Down is a hoot and a half, a shameless popcorn entertainment that is preposterous and diverting in just about equal measure.”
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
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