'White House Down': The Roland Emmerich Movie Trailer Formula

After yesterday's historic and opinionated events, let's get back to some fluff, shall we?

The trailer for the Channing Tatum-Jamie Foxx action-thriller, White House Down, has debuted this week, and if you're a fan of Roland Emmerich's tentpole films (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012), I'm sure you'll be salivating over this one.

Washington D.C. gets attacked, and it's up to one man, a former secret service agent (Tatum), to protect the POTUS (Foxx) and save the day.

No, this isn't a reboot of this month's Olympus Has Fallen.

For all you trailer junkies out there, you may have noticed a formula regarding the previews for Emmerich's films. Step 1: Open with news soundbites of reporters announcing Something Big going down. Step 2: Reveal an iconic shot that will establish what we're dealing with. Step 3: Bring down the noise considerably so we can gather our thoughts and feel the tension mounting. Step 4: Remind us who Roland Emmerich actually is. Step 5: Cut to a series of well-paced shots of familiar faces. Step 6: Show that our hero must race against time to set things right...while embracing someone he loves. Step 7: Close out with more shit blowing up, this time accompanied by a minimalist score. Voila.

Now go ahead and YouTube the trailer to 2012 and tell me I'm not crazy.



@TheFirstEcho