History YMMV / WhiteHouseDown

** James Woods was already known to be quite conservative at the time (even playing Rudy Giuliani in a notoriously hagiographic biopic), but shortly after making this film he became infamous for his hardline right wing politics and support of Donald Trump.

* HarsherInHindsight: For both this film and its direct competitor, ''Olympus Has Fallen'', but especially this one given that the villains are mostly [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing extremists]] engaged in an attempted coup who start out by bombing the United States Capitol building. On January 6, 2021, a group of hundreds of radicalized supporters of President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and his false allegations of election fraud, some of them armed, stormed the Capitol during the certification of the electoral vote in a failed attempt to overturn it, forcing the building's evacuation and a delay of the certification by several hours while five people (including a Capitol Police officer) died in the ensuing riot. The comments on the trailers for both this film and ''Olympus Has Fallen'' immediately started jokingly that both films were BasedOnATrueStory. For extra awkwardness, one scene has [[spoiler:the Vice President, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, getting killed -- and the real-life storming of the Capitol was motivated by Biden's victory in the 2020 Presidential election]].

* HarsherInHindsight: For both this film and its direct competitor, ''Olympus Has Fallen'', but especially this one given that the villains are mostly [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing extremists]] engaged in an attempted coup who start out by bombing the United States Capitol building. On January 6, 2021, a group of hundreds of radicalized supporters of President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and his allegations of election fraud, some of them armed, stormed the Capitol during the certification of the electoral vote in a failed attempt to overturn it, forcing the building's evacuation and a delay of the certification by several hours while five people (including a Capitol Police officer) died in the ensuing riot. The comments on the trailers for both this film and ''Olympus Has Fallen'' immediately started jokingly that both films were BasedOnATrueStory. For extra awkwardness, one scene has [[spoiler:the Vice President, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, getting killed -- and the real-life storming of the Capitol was motivated by Biden's victory in the 2020 Presidential election]].

* HarsherInHindsight: For both this film and its direct competitor, ''Olympus Has Fallen'', but especially this one given that the villains are mostly [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing extremists]] engaged in an attempted coup who start out by bombing the United States Capitol building. On January 6, 2021, a group of hundreds of radicalized supporters of President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and his allegations of election fraud, some of them armed, stormed the Capitol during the certification of the electoral vote in a failed attempt to overturn it, forcing the building's evacuation and a delay of the certification by several hours while four people died in the ensuing riot. The comments on the trailers for both this film and ''Olympus Has Fallen'' immediately started jokingly that both films were BasedOnATrueStory. For extra awkwardness, one scene has [[spoiler:the Vice President, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, getting killed -- and the real-life storming of the Capitol was motivated by Biden's victory in the 2020 Presidential election]].

* HarsherInHindsight: For both this film and its direct competitor, ''Olympus Has Fallen'', but especially this one given that the villains are mostly [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing extremists]] engaged in an attempted coup who start out by bombing the United States Capitol building. On January 6, 2021, a group of hundreds of radicalized supporters of President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and his allegations of election fraud, some of them armed, stormed the Capitol during the certification of the electoral vote in a failed attempt to overturn it, forcing the building's evacuation and a delay of the certification by several hours while four people died in the ensuing riot. The comments on the trailers for both this film and ''Olympus Has Fallen'' immediately started jokingly that both films were BasedOnATrueStory.

** IronWoobie: Poor Emily has gone through ''a lot.''

* SpecialEffectsFailure: There's times when you can tell that they really weren't filming at the White House.

** One of the terrorists is blown up by a clearly visible booby trap in the tunnels. He's suppose to be some sort of computer genius.

* AcceptableTargets: Roland Emmerich was arguably playing it as safe as possible. His villains, while "conservative", are not Christians or ordinary middle-class folk, but either violent maniacs who are ''persona non grata'' to all decent people or neocons with whom even staunch Republicans have never been fully comfortable. The accusation that he disrespected soldiers by depicting crazed veterans as the villains' thugs can also be blunted by the observation that the hero also comes from a military background (and that real-life military personnel were offered free theatrical showings of this film as a peace offering). But, of course, this just emphasizes the perception that [[YouAreACreditToYourRace John Cale is "one of the]] ''[[YouAreACreditToYourRace good]]'' [[YouAreACreditToYourRace ones", and thus the exception that proves the rule]].

* SpiritualAdaptation: ''White House Down'' and its competitor, ''Film/OlympusHasFallen'', are considered to be better ''Franchise/DieHard'' movies than ''Film/AGoodDayToDieHard''.

* CompleteMonster: Unlike the other villains, Speaker Eli Raphelson was motivated by nothing but {{Greed}}. Secretly helping a white supremacist militia collaborating with the White House's treacherous chief of security, Raphelson has them take over the White House and cause the deaths of many innocent people while planning to have the Middle East nuked so he can have a new war started and profit off of it. He also tries to set up the President's death and has the Vice President killed to secure his ascension to Commander-In-Chief. When his plan is threatened, Raphelson tries to have the White House bombed with civilians inside so he can eliminate all evidence.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The villains are an assembly of ultra-right wingers, including white supremacists, mercenaries and disillusioned soldiers, funded by the “military-industrial complex” against a President who's trying to disarm the Middle East. Somebody's making a point. Loudly.

* StrawmanPolitical: A CaptainErsatz of UsefulNotes/BarackObama has personally brokered a workable plan for peace in the Middle East, and all it requires is complete and total withdrawal of the American military from the region. Evil right wing warmongers come up with a dastardly plan to try and kill him so that they can nuke people. Fauxbama then has to be a badass to survive and stop the evil right wing plot so he can bring about world peace.

* WhatAnIdiot: One of the terrorists is blown up by a clearly visible booby trap in the tunnels. He's suppose to be some sort of computer genius.

** IronWoobie: Poor Emily has gone through ''a lot.''

* MoralEventHorizon: Martin Walker crosses it when he [[spoiler:threatens to [[WouldHurtAChild kill Emily]] if President Sawyer doesn't surrender. Another one is when he plans to destroy the entirety of the Middle East to end the war then and there; killing millions of people, starting ''[[{{Hypocrisy}} another]]'' war, all because his son was killed on faulty orders.]]

* StrawmanPolitical: A CaptainErsatz of UsefulNotes/BarackObama has personally brokered a workable plan for peace in the Middle East, and all it requires is complete and total withdrawal of the American military from the region. Evil right wing warmongers come up with a dastardly plan to try and kill him so that they can nuke people. Fauxbama then has to be a BadAss to survive and stop the evil right wing plot so he can bring about world peace.

* CompleteMonster:
** Unlike the other villains, Speaker Eli Raphelson was motivated by nothing but {{Greed}}. Secretly helping a white supremacist militia collaborating with the White House's treacherous chief of security, Raphelson has them take over the White House and cause the deaths of many innocent people while planning to have the Middle East nuked so he can have a new war started and profit off of it. He also tries to set up the President's death and has the Vice President killed to secure his ascension to Commander-In-Chief. When his plan is threatened, Raphelson tries to have the White House bombed with civilians inside so he can eliminate all evidence.
** [[TheBrute Killick]] probably qualifies, too. He responds with nothing but sadistic glee when he recounts how "his boy" blew up the Capitol Building, immediately wants to know where his "goddamn hostages" are like they're a rabbit he can torture, and barely has a scene where he isn't screaming, insulting, wounding or attempting to kill someone. It's implied more than once that Stentz and [[spoiler: Walker]] have to keep an eye on him just to make sure he doesn't say "screw it!" and start blowing away hostages for the hell of it. He's explicitly called a "sociopath" by Carol and oh, his record goes way back to when he was a ''preteen'', when he was arrested for trying to blow up his local post office... for employing black people.

* CompleteMonster: Unlike the other villains, Speaker Eli Raphelson was motivated by nothing but {{Greed}}. Secretly helping a white supremacist militia collaborating with the White House's treacherous chief of security, Raphelson has them take over the White House and cause the deaths of many innocent people while planning to have the Middle East nuked so he can have a new war started and profit off of it. He also tries to set up the President's death and has the Vice President killed to secure his ascension to Commander-In-Chief. When his plan is threatened, Raphelson tries to have the White House bombed with civilians inside so he can eliminate all evidence.

* SpiritualAdaptation: ''White House Down'' and its competitor, ''Film/OlympusHasFallen'', are considered to be better ''Die Hard'' movies than ''A Good Day to Die Hard''.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The key chain for the Presidential Limo is labeled "Ground Force One". Although a Ground Force One does exist, it is ''not'' the Presidential Limo, which is actually known as "The Beast". The real Ground Force One is the Presidential Traveling Bus. Since featurettes for the movie show that the filmmakers ''already knew'' what the Limo was called (as well as the sheer amount of research that seems to have been done on the White House history, layout, and lore), the decision to refer to the movie's Limo as Ground Force One is apparently because RuleOfFunny.

* SpiritualLicensee: ''White House Down'' and its competitor, ''Film/OlympusHasFallen'', are considered to be better ''Die Hard'' movies than ''A Good Day to Die Hard''.

* AcceptableTargets: Roland Emmerich was arguably playing it as safe as possible. His villains, while "conservative", are not Christians or ordinary middle-class folk, but either violent maniacs who are ''persona non grata'' to all decent people or neocons with whom even staunch Republicans have never been fully comfortable.

* StrawmanPolitical: A CaptainErsatz of UsefulNotes/BarackObama has personally brokered a workable plan for peace in the Middle East, and all it requires is complete and total withdrawal of the American military from the region. Evil right wing warmongers come up with a dastardly plan to try and kill him so that they can nuke people. Fauxbama then has to be a BadAss to survive and stop the evil conservative plot so he can bring about world peace.

* StrawmanPolitical: A CaptainErsatz of UsefulNotes/BarackObama has personally brokered a workable plan for peace in the Middle East, and all it requires is complete and total withdrawal of the American military from the region. Evil Republican warmongers come up with a dastardly plan to try and kill him so that they can nuke people. Fauxbama then has to be a BadAss to survive and stop the evil conservative plot so he can bring about world peace.