37% Of Film Fans Think This Is The Best Disaster Movie President
There's nothing quite like a rousing pump speech from a fake president to bring a disaster movie to the next level. There's something special about seeing a movie POTUS take their place behind a podium bearing that presidential seal to detail the extent of the danger ahead or how the country will somehow manage to thrive after vanquishing the threat that faces the globe. The involvement of a movie president in the action reminds audiences just how sweeping the story is, even when a film focuses on a select few survivors along the way.
There have been a ton of pretend presidents to hit the screen, especially in apocalyptic action fare, but some have been much more compelling than others. So what better way to inaugurate the best disaster movie president of all than to turn to the democratic process and allow audiences to vote on it? A recent Looper survey did just that, and it turns out there's one faux POTUS who won in a landslide.
President Tom Beck is the people's choice for best movie president
Morgan Freeman has portrayed more than one movie president, but it is his turn as President Tom Beck in Deep Impact that resonates the most with fans. Of the 650 people polled, 37.38% of respondents chose Beck as the ultimate disaster movie president, and looking back at a key scene film, it's easy to see why. In the film, the world is ravaged by a devastating comet and only narrowly escapes being destroyed by a second one. After the damage is done, President Beck stands at a tattered stage in the heart of the broken nation in Washington D.C. and delivers a monologue movie fans won't soon forget.
"The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers. But, the water receded. The wave hit Europe and Africa too," President Beck says in the iconic film scene. "Millions were lost, and countless more left homeless. But the waters receded. Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, With every child we comfort, and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given. Our planet. Our home. So now, let us begin."
The speech checks all of the boxes of a supreme presidential address in a moment of crisis, of course; not only does it acknowledge the suffering and losses of the country, but it also offers a much-needed glimmer of hope and healing.
President Thomas Whitmore comes in at a close second
Bill Pullman's President Thomas Whitmore is another on-screen leader who gets the crowd going with a strong oration at a critical moment in Independence Day, and audiences rewarded him with a respectable 30.46% of the vote for best disaster movie president as a result.
In the film, President Whitmore is working to rally the remaining troops for a final battle with the invading aliens and gives what is arguably the best title wink speech in movie history, saying, "We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!'" He doesn't have a fancy dais to work with, but the speech still hits all the right notes to get his soldiers in fighting mode.
Coming in third place in Looper's survey is Jack Nicholson's President Dale from the zany action-comedy film Mars Attacks!, while Perry King's President Blake from the climate disaster pic The Day After Tomorrow comes in fourth place with 12.31% of the vote, and 2.92% of voters chose "other."