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London Has Fallen | 2016 | R | - 1.8.8
In this sequel to "Olympus Has Fallen" the British Prime Minister has died and many heads of state attend his funeral. Terrorists destroy all of London's landmarks and threaten the America President and only four people can stop the pending apocalypse: the POTUS, (Aaron Eckhart), his VP (Morgan Freeman), the head of the Secret Service (Gerard Butler) and a British MI-6 agent (Charlotte Riley). Also with Alon Moni Aboutboul, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo and Radha Mitchell. Directed by Babak Najafi. Several lines of dialogue are in Japanese, Italian and French with English subtitles. [1:40]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A husband and his wife embrace and he kisses her forehead. A man hugs a woman from behind as they look at a city from a rooftop.
► A man says that his son texts him daily with an off-color joke, but we never see or hear anything.
► Two women wear V-necked tops that reveal a little cleavage. A married woman is pregnant and due to deliver soon; we see her swollen belly and a baby in a crib later.
VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - A limousine explodes in a city plaza (we see large flames and clouds of smoke) and the Beefeater guards shoot assault rifles at dignitaries: one woman is struck and blood spurts as she grunts and falls dead, police officers along the streets shoot at spectators and other dignitaries as men and women scream and we see many people fall dead with occasional spurts of blood from chest and neck wounds in long shots; a close-up shows blood spatter from a man's chest and another close-up shows a shot through a man's throat with blood spatter out the back while a grenade melts a large hole in a concrete path and an explosive sends a car flipping over onto the top of another car, with both vehicles smashed and burning and their occupants presumably dead; two ambulances carry barrels of explosives and we see from an aerial view as the vehicles explode at each end of a long bridge with many cars on it, we see the bridge collapse and cars slide off into the river below and upright supports fall across other vehicles as a large metal pole smashes into a semi-truck (we hear a few men and a few women screaming as their cars slide off the bridge).
► A rocket launcher brings down a helicopter off-screen and a second chopper is ordered to sacrifice itself for the US President who's in the third chopper; the second helicopter moves to block another rocket speeding toward the President's helicopter, takes the hit and crashes off-screen before two more rockets hit the last copter and it crashes, with both front and rear ends missing and it crashes on its side; two men are seen scratched, but alive and a woman lies on the floor with a metal spike through her back and out of her chest, which is covered in blood and her hands are bloody (we see her die).
► In an extended gunfight between hundreds of fake police officers and security teams of dignitaries, a close-up of a male driver shows him shot in the head and neck with blood spattering onto a car window while many men fall dead in the streets (we see short spurts of blood); an SUV smashes into a police car and the occupants of the SUV get out and hunch down behind the vehicle to avoid gunshots until another SUV drives up and down wide concrete steps, stops, and picks them up; a motorcyclist chases the SUV but falls off the cycle unhurt as a man in the SUV hangs out the passenger door and then the driver's side door shooting a handgun at two other cyclists chasing the SUV and another cyclist breaks through the windshield of the SUV and the driver shoots him in the head as a woman in the car screams (we see a large amount of blood spray and loudly breaking glass); another cyclist pulls alongside the SUV and the driver grabs the rider's neck, pulls and twists the neck and head killing the rider (no blood is seen).
► Military forces fight terrorist forces (both sides having assault rifles and grenades) and dozens of terrorists fall, presumably dead; a burning pickup truck sits in the middle of a dark street, a grenade blows up a parked van, a thrown grenade lights up part of a street and several men fall and scream as one man jumps from scaffolding into a building, then slides down a cable, and through a concrete floor opening and into a tunnel, where he places an explosive device on a "flammable gas" line and chokes another man dead and stabs another in the throat (we see a little blood).
► Terrorists dressed as US soldiers attack a safe house where two men and a woman collect guns and munitions; one man takes a long military knife and stabs a man in the eye off-screen and the man falls on screen so we see the bloody knife and face; another man jumps through the skylight, breaking the glass loudly and a fistfight ensues with the first man stabbing the attacker in the throat after breaking his arm with a loud crack as another man enters and shoots an attacker in the face (we see a small amount of blood as the man falls off-screen).
► Two men drive along a dark street, while multiple gunshots strike the vehicle from off-screen as a grenade explodes on the pavement (doing no damage); a semi-truck broadsides the SUV, flipping it onto its roof and we hear crunching metal and breaking glass (the two men inside are shown with bloody facial cuts and they appear dazed); attackers kidnap one man, while the other man shoots several others and stabs one man off-screen (we hear the stabbed man scream).
► A man hits a fake cop in the throat, suffocating him, then takes his weapons and hides in a tunnel where he shoots about two dozen men (we hear grunts as men fall); he tosses a grenade that blows up a room to the side, flames extending into the hallway, he shoots three men already lying on a floor, he stabs a fourth man in the back, beats his face several times to leave a bloody face and head, and then twists the knife to make the man scream into a Walkie-Talkie. A man in a tunnel shoots many other men and five men fall right away; he kills two more men and tackles a third, falling through an open floor to a sub-basement, presumably killing the tackled man under him. A woman with a handgun confronts a man in a parking garage and as he looks at his handgun in the rear hatch of his car, the camera cuts to a long shot as she shoots him in the head and he falls and she shoots him in the body (no blood is visible).
► A man places a small TV camera on a captive man and then places a long curved sword to his throat and then his neck and as he raises the sword another man enters, shooting the swordsman (he falls off-screen) and then five other men (they show a little blood flow and some spatter on one wall); a man dribbles blood from his mouth and tosses an explosive that blows up and a man with a blood-soaked sleeve enters and fights with the gunman (they shoot, kick and punch with no blood). A man frees a captive man and they run outside together while shooting several men as they go (we see a little blood flow and one man's blood splatters on a wall).
► Two men are trapped in an elevator and tell another man to blow up explosives; we hear explosions and we see a man close his eyes as flames envelope him and four huge balls of flame travel around the building and toward the audience; one fireball chases the two trapped men down an elevator shaft and we see them at the bottom of the elevator shaft, covered in dust and small debris, but not seriously injured. A man looks up through a ceiling opening and the shot changes to an aerial view, where we see a bomb site target the dwelling and a huge explosion creates heat waves, with many men being thrown amid shock waves of dust and crumbling bricks, and blowing sand.
► Inside a partially constructed building, a man forces another man to sit handcuffed in a straight back chair while punching him several times in the face and stomach (the captive grunts, but sits up straight after each blow and his nose and lip are shown to be somewhat bloody); the first man tells the captive that he will be executed on TV.
► Half of Westminster Abbey explodes loudly into smoke and flame, towers crumbling in debris. The windows of a long 8-story building blow outward and shatter into the street and car windows crack and many shatter. A freight ship explodes in the river and an aerial shot shows smoke, flames, and boiling waters up and down the river as a bridge begins to collapse. In an aerial view, a bomb site on a plane centers on a Punjabi palace and fires a bomb that creates tall flames and clouds of smoke and we hear that a terrorist and his son were killed in the attack (we later hear that only an unseen daughter died). Terrorists shut down the London power grid as a skyscraper explodes in dust and loud noise and we hear that Parliament was also damaged; we see London on a monitor and it looks like a smoldering battlefield, full of smoke and debris. A man is seen checking underneath vehicles using a large mirror on the end of a long handle, and places an explosive device onto the underside of one limo. Many motorcyclists chase two men who are on foot until they lose them.
► A man hands a foot-long velvet bag to his father and says that a man is dead and we see a bloody-looking stump of some unrecognizable body part at the end of the bag briefly.
► A man on a laptop screen says that many of his fellow terrorists are dead in an attack that also killed many Europeans and the scene cuts to the man in a wheelchair, his legs missing below the knees and his trouser legs folded under him. A man appears on a wide screen monitor at the White House and demands to have the US President to kill; refused, he announces that he will continue killing other people until he has the President in hand to pay for his daughter's death in a bombing by the USA. The US President orders his bodyguard to kill him rather than to let him be kidnapped and killed on TV by a terrorist and the bodyguard reluctantly agrees. A man tells his staff to work to uncover fake first responders, then orders the air raid siren system to sound in order to alert real first responders to take cover and we hear that those remaining on the streets are actually terrorists and will be killed. A man tells a captive man, "I held my sister as she died in my arms."
► A voiceover states that terrorist attacks have occurred worldwide, with 141 people killed in one incident and another incident included 44 deaths and many wounded with the attacks apparently being led by a Pakistani criminal mastermind. A TV announcement states that the UK Prime Minister died suddenly of a heart attack. A man reports to US intelligence people that the UK Prime Minister was poisoned from the anesthesia procedure during an operation. We hear that massive amounts of arms and munitions were sold illegally to terrorist groups. Forty countries send their heads of state to the funeral of a British official and we see British police officers lining the streets and building steps around the central city and many of them are shown holding assault rifles while Special Services officers patrol the area and military airplanes and helicopters monitor the skies.
LANGUAGE 8 - About 35 F-words and its derivatives, 5 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, insane, terrorists, barbarians), 3 religious profanities (GD), 11 religious exclamations (e.g. Holy [scatological term deleted], Oh My God, My God, Oh God, Thank God, Jesus, God Bless, God Bless You, God Bless The USA).
SUBSTANCE USE - A man says that he is made of "bourbon and poor choices," and another man repeats the phrase in a later scene.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Terrorism, murder, government clandestine services, corrupt government agents, illegal arms sales, espionage, war, revenge, determination, courage, sacrifice, duty, responsibility, justice, good vs. evil.
MESSAGE - America and its allies will overcome terrorism worldwide due to the fighting spirit and skills of its politicians and security services.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
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