When we last saw him in Olympus Has Fallen, Gerard Butler’s peppery secret service agent Mike Banning had seen off most of North Korea’s special forces in a flurry of punching, gunplay and salty quips. At the time he may have seen an unlikely candidate to John McClane his way to a sequel, especially up against the more generously-budgeted White House Down, but audiences liked the cut of his jibes and back he is. This time it’s the Old Smoke that’s falling. Empire’s new issue features a first look at Banning in action in London Has Fallen. Click below for a closer look. This sequence, shot in the same Charing Cross location used in Skyfall, sees Butler’s agent dispensing justice to a terrorist in a rubble-strewn Underground station. Well, hopefully it's a terrorist. It could just be a commuter who's picked the wrong man to ask directions from.
It's a fun franchise," enthuses Butler in Empire. "You get to do a lot of really badass action, but it's got its tongue firmly in its cheek."
Again, it’s left to Banning to save the day, possibly with a little help from one of his MI6 counterparts (Charlotte Riley), when President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) is targeted in London at the funeral of the Prime Minister. Other world leaders are also in jeopardy. Angela Bassett’s Secret Service director Lynn Jacobs and Morgan Freeman’s Speaker Allan Trumbull are both on hand to lend a hand/thicken the plot.
Radha Mitchell is back as Leah Banning, with Jackie Earle Haley, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster and Colin Salmon all aboard. Christian Gudegast, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt were on scripting duties.{New London Has Fallen Posters}
London Has Fallen will fall on October 2.