Twin Films - Olympus has Fallen & White House Down.

1. Jezebel  – March 26, 1938 / Gone with the Wind – December 15, 1939

2. Dr. Strangelove –January 29, 1964 / Fail-Safe – October 7, 1964

3. The Gambler – October 1974 / California Split – August 7, 1974

4. Dreamscape – August 15, 1984 / A Nightmare On Elm Street – November 16, 1984

5. The Vindicator – February 14, 1986 / RoboCop – July 17, 1987

6. Gordy – May 12, 1995 / Babe – August 4, 1995

7. Tornado! – May 7, 1996 / Twister – May 17, 1996

8. Dante’s Peak – February 7, 1997 / Volcano – April 25, 1997

9. Deep Impact – May 8, 1998 / Armageddon – July 1, 1998

10. Antz – October 2, 1998 / A Bug’s Life – November 25, 1998

11. Saving Private Ryan – July 24, 1998 / The Thin Red Line – December 23, 1998

12. Mission To Mars – March 10, 2000 / Red Planet – November 10, 2000

13. Chasing Liberty – January 9, 2004 / First Daughter – September 24, 2004

14. The Illusionist  – August 18, 2006 / The Prestige – October 20, 2006

15. No Strings Attached – January 21, 2011 / Friends With Benefits – July 22, 2011

16. Mirror, Mirror – March 30, 2012 / Snow White And The Huntsman – June 1, 2012

17. Olympus Has Fallen – March 20, 2013 / White House Down – June 26, 2013

Similar movies having the same plot and released at the same time but by two different studios. This phenomenon is called twin films, which results from having more than one studio working on similar scripts around the same time. This act results in a race to distribute the films to theaters. In film industry filmmakers say it happens due to corporate espionage or the fact of sending the script by the authors to more than one producer or agent.

Two years ago, two movies with the same concept were released although they might appear identical but there are actually a lot of differences between them. 

Today we will be treating them after the parallel release, so let's see and check the differences and similarities in both films and treat them in a semi- cinematic way.

Starting with both movie titles, when we read them; White House Down tells us everything about the movie, which is that the white house is going to be destroyed or overtaken by others. It’s all there in the title, as for Olympus Has Fallen we do understand that Olympus is falling but here comes the question what is Olympus or who is Olympus, if we already saw the trailer why not to say and think that the white house is Olympus? Is it the president? Or is it the hero of the movie? And if we didn’t come by the trailer what will cross our minds is Olympus a country, a team or what?

We find our first difference is the president role, in Olympus Has Fallen Aaron Eckhart plays president Asher, the typical political strong, leader who is attempting some kind of diplomacy with other countries, on the other hand in white house down the land of old fiction comes back by having a black president, Jamie Foxx playing president sawyer a proud, loyal and funny badass that no one expected with such a charisma which was wonderfully done by Jamie Foxx, seeing him kicking a bad guy in the face and saying: "get your hands off my Jordans!" white house down wins this round.

Gerard butler displayed his brutality in a lot of action movies and he has gotten his hands dirty in movies like Reign of Fire, that’s why he mastered the role of Mike Banning the hard-bitten secret service agent, who gets a chance to redeem himself when he finds himself a full on killing machine on a mission of redemption while harboring self-doubt after unsuccessfully saving the president's wife.

On the other hand White House Down director decided on none other than Channing Tatum to play the role of Cale a rejected secret service agent applicant who is down-on-his-luck, while terrorists attack the white house, he looks to save his daughter who was on a tour inside with him, with self-doubts he starts trying being a hero and saving the day while looking for his child and nagging over and over about everything that is happening he finally finds his daughter who turns to be the hero at this point by saving the day.

North Koreans and US hillbillies, Olympus Has Fallen shows an organized and aggressive Korean fully equipped militias helped by a US secret service agent and a head villain with some sort of international convictions, who is determined on Korean unification via the eradication of the United States government.

As for White House Down it gives us a semi-domestic threat not showing a clear goal, with few laughs and fools jokes, those terrorists allow you to believe that with a little effort by local police they could put an end to the full situation.

Olympus has fallen is like a whole season of Homeland ‪compressed down into a movie. The Koreans attack the white house in accuracy, aggression and relentlessly. Leaving great swaths of the city in shambles like having the Washington monument destroyed by an airplane and the president being a prisoner in his own safe bunker, no one could ever imagine a helicopter crashing on the roof of the white house, as well as showing an advanced weapons system that could detonate all of the nuclear projectiles on American territories, all of these elements built a complete massive attack plot.

Waiting and hiding in the AV room for a while with the help of an inside traitor and coming out with a couple of pistols and machine guns taking over the white house, a scene that reminds us of the movie air force one, a scene that has been made in a lot of movies starting ages ago, white house down script didn’t have enough imagination and a lack in creativity building the attack plot.

In conclusion white house down speaks for itself, and Olympus has fallen is a code of organization. Both movies may have their own particular varnish, but at the end of the day, they're the 'Saving Private Rayn' and 'The Thin Red Line' of 2013. But which one is your 'Saving Private Rayn' and which one is 'The Thin Red Line’?

If you want my opinion Olympus has fallen is my 'Saving Private Rayn'. It has the better hero. It has the better action scenes and plot.

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