U.S. President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) introduces a bold and controversial peace proposal aimed at removing American military forces from the Middle East, sparking heated political debate. Meanwhile, divorced former Marine John Cale (Channing Tatum), now a Capitol Police officer assigned to Speaker of the House Eli Raphelson (Robert Jenkins), hopes to impress his young daughter Emily. Having saved Raphelson’s nephew during his service in Afghanistan, Cale believes he has a shot at joining the Secret Service. However, during his interview with Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), an old college acquaintance, he is deemed unqualified for the role. Hoping to salvage the day, Cale secures tickets for Emily to join him on a tour of the White House.
As the tour begins, chaos erupts when a bomb explodes at the U.S. Capitol, throwing Washington, D.C., into lockdown. Finnerty escorts Raphelson to a secure command center at the Pentagon, while Vice President Alvin Hammond is evacuated aboard Air Force One. Simultaneously, a paramilitary group led by ex-Delta Force operative Emil Stenz infiltrates the White House, executing Secret Service agents and taking control of the building. Tour groups are herded into the Blue Room, held hostage by white nationalist Carl Killick. Cale manages to evade capture and begins searching for Emily, who was separated from the group.
President Sawyer is taken to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) by Martin Walker, the retiring head of the Presidential Detail. However, Walker reveals his betrayal, killing Sawyer’s security team and taking him hostage. Walker, blaming Sawyer for the death of his Marine son during a failed mission in Iran, reveals himself as the mastermind behind the attack. Cale overhears the situation on a stolen radio, kills one of the mercenaries, and rescues Sawyer.
Walker’s team includes Skip Tyler, a former NSA analyst brought in to hack the PEOC’s defenses. Tyler requires Sawyer’s codes from the nuclear football to complete his mission. Meanwhile, Killick discovers Emily recording the intruders with her phone and takes her hostage. Cale and Sawyer contact the Pentagon using a scrambled satellite phone but find their escape route through a secret tunnel rigged with explosives. Their attempt to flee in the presidential limousine ends in a dramatic chase with Stenz, culminating in a crash into the White House pool.
With Sawyer and Cale presumed dead, the government invokes the 25th Amendment, and Vice President Hammond is sworn in as acting president. However, the pair survive and learn of Hammond’s plan to launch an aerial incursion to retake the White House. Despite Cale’s warnings, the helicopters are ambushed by the mercenaries using Javelin missiles. Stenz, having identified Emily from her video, brings her to Walker in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Tyler launches a missile from Piketon, Ohio, targeting Air Force One, killing Hammond and everyone aboard. Raphelson is sworn in as president and orders an airstrike on the White House.
To protect Emily, Sawyer surrenders himself to Walker, who demands he launch a nuclear strike on Iranian cities, blaming Iran for his son’s death. As Walker forces Sawyer to activate the football, Cale creates a diversion by setting fire to rooms within the White House. In the chaos, Tyler inadvertently triggers the explosives in the tunnel and is killed. Cale frees the hostages, who band together to fight back, with one of them killing Killick. After a brutal fight, Cale kills Stenz using a grenade belt.
Sawyer confronts Walker, but Walker gains the upper hand, using Sawyer’s handprint to arm the nuclear football. Just as Walker prepares to launch the missiles, Cale crashes a reinforced Chevrolet Suburban through the Oval Office and kills Walker with the vehicle’s mounted mini-gun. Emily rushes outside, waving a presidential flag to signal the incoming fighter jets to abort their strike. Her bravery works, and the attack is called off. Sawyer is revealed to have survived, thanks to a pocket watch that once belonged to Abraham Lincoln, which stopped Walker’s bullet.
As the situation deescalates, Finnerty and Cale uncover a deeper conspiracy. They discover that Raphelson had been complicit in Walker’s scheme, driven by the corrupt military-industrial complex opposing Sawyer’s peace initiative. Believing Sawyer to be dead and feeling secure, Raphelson unknowingly incriminates himself in a recorded conversation and is arrested for treason.
In the aftermath, Sawyer appoints Cale as his new Secret Service agent and invites Emily to join him on Marine One for a celebratory aerial tour of Washington, D.C. As they fly over the city, Sawyer receives news that other nations, inspired by his leadership during the crisis, have agreed to his peace proposal, marking a significant step toward ending global conflict.
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