ANGEL HAS FALLEN
A gripping patriotic thriller with adult-only violence and language.
Should You Watch It?
ANGEL HAS FALLEN is a gripping thriller built around loyalty, courage, patriotism, and family reconciliation. Gerard Butler is perfectly cast as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, and Morgan Freeman, Nick Nolte, and the veteran supporting cast give the story strong support.
The movie’s moral and pro-family convictions are real. Banning protects the President, works to expose a selfish plot, reconciles with his estranged father, and remains connected to his wife and infant daughter.
But the content is severe. The film contains abundant foul language and graphic action violence, including point-blank shootings and people being bombed. The movie could have been greatly toned down to achieve a PG-13 rating.
So, adults who can handle those elements may find it worth watching. For children and young teens, choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESSecret Service Agent Mike Banning is suffering from chronic headaches and trouble sleeping when he joins President Trumbull for a fishing trip in Virginia.
A vicious drone attack leaves the President in a coma and Banning accused of causing it. Framed by a private military contractor, Banning must evade the FBI and the country’s police, clear his name, and expose the person behind the attack before the President is targeted again.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a gripping, well-made thriller with meaningful strengths and serious excesses. Butler is perfectly cast as Mike Banning, while Morgan Freeman gives strong support as President Trumbull and Nick Nolte is particularly engaging as Banning’s irascible father.
Director Ric Roman Waugh manages the large cast and intense action scenes well. The film’s moral, patriotic, and pro-family worldview also gives the action a firm purpose.
The major weakness is unnecessary content. The many strong obscenities and graphic action violence make the film harsher than it needed to be. The material could have been toned down considerably.
The Worldview
ANGEL HAS FALLEN presents a strong moral, patriotic, and pro-family worldview. Its central conflict involves protecting the President from a nefarious, selfish plot. Banning is framed for the attack, but he continues pursuing the truth and defending the President.
The film also values family reconciliation. Banning hides out with his estranged father, a Vietnam War veteran who abandoned Banning and his mother. Eventually, father and son reconcile. By contrast, Banning and his wife have a strong connection and share life with their infant daughter.
The film’s moral vision is shaped by loyalty, courage, justice, and responsibility. It does not present violence as harmless, however, and its many obscenities and graphic action scenes undercut the otherwise constructive worldview.
The story’s longing for restored family relationships points toward the biblical call to forgiveness: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral, patriotic, pro-family worldview in thriller about a Secret Service agent protecting the President from a military contractor with selfish motives, the agent has a loving wife and a new daughter, and during the movie the agent reconciles with his irascible father
Foul Language
93 obscenities (including many “f” words), five strong profanities and four light exclamatory profanities
Violence
Lots of intense, very strong and strong action violence include a training exercise with lots of shooting and fighting, dozens of drones bomb and machine gun and kill many agents protecting the President of the United States, many point blank shootings with blood, military people fight each other, an intense knife fight, huge gunfight with blood at the end with men shot dead, many explosions with fire, older man has bomb booby traps around his cabin and triggers the bombs when about 15 bad guys come to kill him and his son, vehicles are rammed, a chase involving a large truck, man driving the truck manages to detach the cab of the truck from the trailer its hauling, cab eventually wrecks, two bad guys threaten woman and her daughter
Sex
Man comes home and starts kissing his wife in the bed but that’s all that’s shown
Nudity
Upper male nudity during a comical end credit scene
Alcohol Use
Brief alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or illegal drugs, but hero takes some pain pills because he suffers from Post-Concussion Syndrome;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Deceit, betrayal, hero is framed for killing Secret Service agents and trying to kill the President of the United States, and father and son are estranged but eventually reconcile.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Banning remains loyal while others believe he is guilty. What does Christian faithfulness look like when your reputation is under attack?
1 Peter 2:12 · 1 Peter 3:16The film centers on protecting public responsibility from selfish ambition. How should Christians understand authority, service, and the pursuit of justice?
Romans 13:1–4 · Philippians 2:3–4Banning and his father are estranged before eventually reconciling. What makes reconciliation difficult, and what steps can forgiveness require?
Ephesians 4:31–32 · Colossians 3:13Banning’s wife and daughter represent a family connection worth protecting. What habits help strengthen love and faithfulness in your own household?
Ephesians 5:25 · Deuteronomy 6:6–7The Final Word
ANGEL HAS FALLEN offers adults a gripping thriller with a strong moral, patriotic, and pro-family center. But its abundant obscenity and graphic violence are serious costs. For discerning adults who can handle those elements, the answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For everyone else, consider these.
