I can't stand this movie. It's beyond intelligence insulting. I think the worst things about it besides the horrible script are the ridiculous terrorist plot, the incompetent president who actually gives away nuclear launch codes and the fact that the nuclear plot wouldn't even be possible in real life. Even if unarmed nuclear missiles COULD detonate in their silos, the silos would not let the radiation escape, since they are already built to withstand nuclear attack. Not to mention that North Korea doesn't have the capabilities to pull off this attack and that the US Military would have neutralized the situation before the terrorists got within a mile of the White House. At least in White House Down the terrorists were aided by a diversion and people working on the inside of the White House and Capitol so they could pull off the plan via inside job. I can suspend my disbelief but in films like Air Force One and White House Down which actually took creative effort in order to make believable and even plausible (both films featured fake identities and moles who assisted the terrorists which would be the only possible way any of these plots could ever work) but OHF is perfectly fine with just having them bomb the hell out of DC, even though that would just cause them to be defeated much faster. The closest OHF comes to having a mole from the inside is Dave Forbes, who has so little development it is laughable. In Air Force One, it worked because the whole time Gibbs the mole was pretending to be a good guy and wound up fooling everyone into trusting him. Dave Forbes had already quit the secret service for over a year and they try to give him development but never follow through with it or give further explanation. At least with Gibbs they didn't try to give him a reason for his action, giving him the likely explanation that he was just a bastard. Forbes was supposed to have "lost his way" but they NEVER explain that further. They just leave it at that and have him get stabbed in the head. Way to go, script. But what's even worse than that is how Kang Yeonsak has NO motivation. One of my favorite villains besides Hans Gruber is Egor Koshunov from Air Force One, who was actually a complex and calculating villain. Kang is one of the sloppiest, most cardboard villains I have ever seen. The writers again try to give him some motivation by saying his parents were killed by an American land mine (which wouldn't POSSIBLY be determined since it could be South Korean or North Korean and the land mine blew up, rendering it unable to be traced to American industry) but again they never develop this. They just throw it out there and abandon it as if giving a character a tragic backstory automatically makes him compelling and complex.
Well, it DOESN'T.
Egor Korshunov WAS complex because he mentions that he has a family and clearly doesn't want to kill people but feels that he has to do it, like there's no other way. Kang also claims that America needs to know suffering and starvation just like North Korea because they supposedly caused the North Korean suffering.
OBJECTION!
North Korea is impoverished because the government spends all of its money on the military, not the food supply. I guess this can be excused as Kang's extreme nationalism that he is in denial of his opressive government, but that doesn't make any sense, since he is mad at America for allegedly killing his parents, which means that he is dead serious about America being the cause of all NK's suffering. Probably since the writers of this film didn't care enough to research how nuclear missiles can't detonate in their silos, I'm guessing that the writers just didn't know enough about North Korea to get the facts straight. This raises another complaint. What's Kang's motive? His main goal seems to get the North Koreans out of South Korea so they can take it over (that's just plain racist) but he also seems to have a personal vendetta going here. WHAT is his motive? It's so murky it seems to be based soley off revenge-driven power mongering, which has got to be the dumbest motive ever. Back to Air Force One again, at least Korshunov was an interesting enough character that you could understand his nationalism, and his country did kind of fall apart because it wasn't used to democracy. That's totally understandable. And even then, the writers were good enough that they didn't need to work in this half-assed "tragic backstory" that they never fully developed just because they could. Korshunov is a nationalistic villain that works. Overly patriotic villains have worked well in the past, but here he has at least five different motives he's juggling that you're unable to determine what makes him tick. You could argue that it is the point of the character, but it's clearly not, since they try to give him motivation. It's just bad writing and inconsistency.
And what about the Hydra-6? How the hell did North Koreans get top secret US Army technology prototypes? Again, I could suspend my disbelief if they don't directly ask "how they [got] the Hydra-6", which they do! Why would you keep asking us questions you refuse to even attempt to answer! You could argue that Forbes got it for them, but he quit the secret service for months! So it's impossible for him to have done it because he quit. So, where they got the Hydra-6 we will never know. The writers were just too lazy to think up an explanation for how the impoverished, starving North Koreans were able to get top-secret technology. How did Kang and his men get with the South Korean Prime Minister? They never explained that. The White House didn't make sure he wasn't a terrorist before letting him into the President's office? Or the South Koreans didn't for that matter? Since the securtiy was so poor they let a bunch of commandos invade the White House on foot, I'd believe it. And not to mention the great supporting cast, who have little to no role in the story other than getting tortured and killed. A prime example of this is the vice president, "Charlie Rodriguez", whose literally ONLY part in this film is getting shot in the head. Pretty forgettable, huh? I also love how the president gives up nuclear launch codes to protect his cabinet from getting beaten up, but Objection! Remember in Air Force One how the cabinet protested negotiating with the terrorists because a few people are a small price to pay to prevent nuclear destruction?
Well, not to this spineless president! America can get nuked and everyone can die, but hey, at least the cabinet wasn't beaten up! I also love how Asher claims that they will "never get [his code]" even though it is proven that he can't stand seeing his cabinet beaten up, so what's to stop Kang's men from just beating them up to get his code? Oh, right. NOTHING. What about how after thirteen months have passed, the security codes in the White House are the same? No glaring plot holes or inaccuracies there. Did I mention that this film also wasted the talents of Morgan Freeman? They give him nothing to do!! I rest my case there.
At least White House Down was more like Die Hard, this is more like a self-glorifying Steven Seagal film. Even WHD's marketing showed that they gave a crap. But White House Down, the film that actually had a decent script, this one IS getting a sequel. Kill me now.