President Thomaas J. Whitmore (played by Bill Pullman)
Like George H.W. Bush before him and George W. Bush after him, President Whitmore has experience as a military pilot. Those combat skills come in handy when it’s time to save not just America but the whole world from marauding aliens. Besides, after the aliens have decimated the Air Force, the U.S. has a shortage of qualified combat pilots, so the president has little choice but to don a flight suit himself.
Leading the troops into battle personally, he evokes Henry V with an inspirational, St. Crispin’s Day-type speech. And then he goes and kicks alien butt. Pullman helps make the mission both epic and personal; after all, the aliens blew up the White House and killed his wife. (Director Roland Emmerich, who created that iconic image of the exploding White House, destroys the Capitol this time, in White House Down. Somehow, it seems doubtful that obliterating Congress’ home will have the same emotional resonance.) Recent news that Pullman will return for a sequel begs the question, though: What ever happened to term limits?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5qU-QqYd0 ]