In 2013, Antoine Fuqua's President-in-peril actioner Olympus Has Fallen introduced Gerard Butler as disgraced Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, who was tasked with saving Commander-in-Chief Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) when terrorists shut the White House down. In their second adventure together, London Has Fallen, Banning and Asher attend the funeral of the British Prime Minister, who died under mysterious circumstances. With world leaders in attendance to pay their respects, another terrorist organization seizes on this perfect opportunity to take them all out.

And yet none of this is revealed in the first look at director Babak Najafi's sequel. That's fine. This is a teaser trailer. All we really need to see is Butler and Eckhart running around amidst explosions while the historic monuments of London crumble down around them to the eerie, minor-keyed tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down". Subtlety is not what these films aim for, and I respect that.

The film opens October 2nd in the U.K. and January 22nd in the U.S., and also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo,Robert Forster, Sean O’Bryan, Radha Mitchell, Jackie Earle Haley, Alon Aboutboul, Charlotte Riley, and Waleed Zuaiter.

Watch the first trailer for London Has Fallen below:


Here’s the official synopsis:

The sequel to the worldwide smash hit “Olympus Has Fallen,” a non-stop, suspenseful action thriller that delivers high-octane excitement through a heightened sense of authenticity. The visceral intensity springs from a timely premise: after the British Prime Minister passes away, his funeral becomes a target of a terrorist organization to destroy some of the world’s most powerful leaders, devastate the British capital, and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. The only hope of stopping it rests on the shoulders of the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) and his formidable Secret Service head (Gerard Butler), and an English MI-6 agent (Charlotte Riley) who rightly trusts no one. Morgan Freeman also stars as the Vice President of the United States.

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Image via Lionsgate