Movie Presidents

I thought of this at work yesterday. In movies, when they show the President, it's usually a fictional President, and not the real deal. So I wondered what fictional Movie Presidents really stick out in your minds, good or bad. Here's my list of faves:

Harrison Ford in Air Force One (Bad movie, but I'd still vote for him! "GET OFF MY PLANE!")
Bill Pullman in ID4
Tim Robbins in Austin Powers 2 (Was he supposed to be Kennedy? I hope not, because I didn't buy it.)
Mel Brooks as President Skroob in Spaceballs (Not a Pres of the USA, but technically a president, and damn funny!)

That's all I know, so take it away, people!

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Excellent thread. I think Harrison Ford was probably the best. Very believable President, I'd always thought. And of course, Morgan Freeman was his usual bad self in Deep Impact.

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here--this is the War Room!"

Again, technically not an actual factual President, but...

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i too liked Harrison Ford

but i know that this president isnt in a movie but from the show The West Wing, Jed Bartlet i just cant remember his name i think it is Michael Sheen, he is my fav.

MARTIN Sheen, star of stage and screen, Apocalypse Now, Badlands, father of Charlie Sheen & Emilo Estevez.


Definitely 100% second the immortal Peter Sellers as Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Bomb (1964). "Why do you think I'm calling you, just to say hello?....Of course I like to speak to you....Of course I like to say hello..."




For a more dramatic approach (to the same basic material even) I'll take Henry Fonda in Fail-Safe (1964).

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Bill Pullman. I know it was corny, but I liked the speech he gave in Independence Day.

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Great Call Holden- Henry Fonda in FAIL-SAFE and Peter Sellers in DR STRANGELOVE are two pearler presidents.

I also love Edmund O Brien in Frankenheimer's 7 DAYS IN MAY.

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thanx Holden atleast i got the last name right, he is the best TV president but Harrison Ford was probably the best Movie President that i can remember

Bumping this thread because I was wondering...
There have been 45 individuals who served as President of the United States, but how many would there be if we counted all fictional U.S. Presidents in movies?

Michael Douglas in "The American President" was the first that came to mind.



Jack Nicholson in "Mars Attacks."



Nigel Hawthorne does a good boobish Martin Van Buren in "Amistad".



Henry Fonda is good in "Fail Safe" (1964)


I'll second Peter Sellers in Strangelove. I don't ever remember Gregory Peck playing a President, but he would have been great in such a role role.

Fictional black presidents is a trend that seems to have started in the late 90s.



https://theurbandaily.com/1175615/bl...in-the-movies/



A prediction? A symbolic statement (We will never get one in reality, but we can have Morgan Freeman)? A message (We're ready, it's OK)? An attempt to make space in the American idea for the possibility? All of these things, no doubt.



I am still not sure what to make of Tommy “Tiny” Lister as President Limberg in the 5th Element, but who can really say what Luc Besson was going for? Lister was physically large and not very graceful in speech or visage. Neither is President Commacho (Terry Crews). There is a sort of inversion that goes beyond skin in these two cases. I wouldn't say that these are racist or necessarily exotifying black skin (an accusation made of Besson), and the Null Hypothesis must be respected (that a character Y happens so be X is NOT, by necessity an attempt to associate group X with character Y). Even so, there seems to be some sort of common thread in our collective unconscious that generated these two images.

I didn't like Danny Glover in "2012" (just came across as weak) or Morgan Freeman in "Deep Impact." One would think that Morgan Freeman would be a slam-dunk choice for the role as President, but he was going for a mood appropriate for the end of the world, but instead of coming across as morose he actually came off as menacing. The entire movie was a flub. On the positive side, Morgan Freeman was great as God in "Bruce Almighty," which is a position of even greater responsibility.



I didn't like Bill Pullman in "Independence Day" which was made worse by a lot of otherwise good performances around him. I guess it is hard to play a president in armageddon flicks.

Meh, it's a Roland Emmerich film and the speech redeems him.

Since we're on the subject... in case anyone missed Bill Pullman's appearance as "America's favorite former President" in a Budweiser commercial. It came out this past July in celebration of Independence Day (since most people thought this past summer would mark the end of Covid)!

Since I just watched it recently, loved Meryl Streep as President Janie Orlean in "Don't Look Up".

I'll second Harrison Ford in Air Force One, Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, and Streep as a female Donald Trump in Don't Look Up. Jack Nicholson was also funny as hell in Mars Attacks.

It wasn't a movie, but anyone remember Commander in Chief (2005) - a TV series about the first female U.S. President?
It starred Geena Davis, and only lasted 19 episodes, but what I remember most was Donald Sutherland as a particularly devious political villain.

I like the President from The Sum of All Fears because he is more frustrated and hotheaded than you often see in a President portrayal, off the top of my head.

Gonna go on-brand and mention Donald Pleasence and Cliff Robertson as the presidents in Escape From New York and Escape From L.A. respectively.

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Agreed. Good, underrated movie in general, and that's one of the reasons why. He feels like real person, a real candidate: he's angry at the challenges he has to face, lashes out at underlings, he's impatient and unreasonable. God forbid movie Presidents ever be complicated! They're usually either:

1) Unreasonably ignoring a threat to create an arbitrary plot impediment.

2) Stoic AF.