The current political landscape has more twists, turns, and characters than any soap opera or reality television show. The country is divided and both sides are angry. No matter how we ended up here, we all need to work together to mend America’s collective wounds. To do this, we need strong leadership. We need action heroes in three-piece-suits and presidents who can hold their own against terrorists who sneak onto Air Force One. We need somebody who isn’t afraid to leave the galactic borders open because they trust that America can defeat actual aliens on Independence Day. These are the eight movie politicians we wish were real.
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8 Movie Politicians
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President James Marshall in ‘Air Force One’ (1997)
Harrison Ford stars as President James Marshall in this film. When his plane gets overtaken by the bad guys, he maintains an earlier declaration that he will not negotiate with terrorists. Instead, he just beats them up himself. Passive, this president is not.
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Senator Finch in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)
We like Senator Finch because even though she stood firmly against the idea of a Superman, she was willing to hear what he had to say. She also saw through the bullshit of Lex Luthor and we have to think that, had she not been blown up, she would have eventually seen that aliens don’t actually want to hurt us.
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President James Dale in ‘Mars Attacks’ (1996)
Truth be told, James Dale is about as close to our current president as one can get. He’s pompous, arrogant, and unwilling to listen to his advisers but he fights for his beliefs without backing down, even in the face of a laser beam. Whether those beliefs are right or wrong is a matter of opinion but when Mars attacked, Dale was on the front line.
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Stephen Myers in ‘Ides of March’ (2011)
As the press secretary of George Clooney’s Govenor Mike Morris, Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) would bend over backwards for Morris, believing him to be a man of immense character. When that turns out not to be true, Myers forgets his once-felt beliefs in order to make sure actual justice prevailed. That would probably never happen in real life, but it’s fun to imagine.
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Tom Dobbs in ‘Man of the Year’ (2006)
Imagine this: a popular, if controversial, entertainer decides to run for president, mostly on a whim. His politics aren’t exactly spelled out, but he knows enough buzzwords to make it seem like he has a clue. His candidacy seems like a joke, but after a disturbance with the electoral process, he somehow ends up president. What was once a joke is now a reality.
Sound familiar? The only difference is, Robin Williams’ Tom Dobbs realized he was in over his head pretty much immediately and eventually went back to doing what he did best: making people laugh.
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King T’Challa in ‘Black Panther’ (2018)
Who wouldn’t want a king who was also a fuckin’ superhero? Listen, we’re big fans of democracy, but we would have no problem living under a monarchy if our king was an Avenger.
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Meryl Streep’s Version of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron lady’ (2011)
Yes, Margaret Thatcher was a real person and yes, she was the actual Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. But the actual Mags Thatcher was, allegedly, nothing like "The Iron Lady" that Meryl Streep portrayed in the 2011 film. Streep’s version was hard-nosed but respectable. She had a thick skin and an idealistic approach to her politics. She was a badass, basically. Those who were around for the actual reign of Thatcher claim otherwise and she would eventually resign in 1991 due to unpopularity and power struggles in her party. But "The Iron Lady" was just that.
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President Thomas J. Whitmore in ‘Independence Day’ (1996)
If actual aliens were to ever overtake Earth, would you rather a president attempt to build a wall around the Earth’s atmosphere, or would you want them to put together a ragtag group of individuals ready to fight back followed by an epic speech?
