The occupation of the United States Capitol building on January 6 by supporters of the still president of the United States, Donald Trump, left a balance of five people dead, extensive damage and some images more strange than any fiction.
This attack against American democracy has occurred in one of the most emblematic buildings in the country, elevated to a metaphor of freedom by numerous film productions.
Indeed, the building that houses the House of Representatives of all the States has experienced isolated episodes of violence, such as its burning by the British in 1814 or lone attacks by deranged gunmen in the 1990s.
But these attacks have been much more constant in the movies, as has also happened with the White House.
Hence the assault by Trump supporters had a certain air of familiarity [this article contains some spoilers].
Extraterrestrial target number one
It is no coincidence, then, that productions as old as
Ultimatum to Earth
(1951) placed the building and its surroundings as one of the strategic settings chosen by the extraterrestrials to launch a message for us earthlings to achieve peace.
The images of his flying saucer flying over the Capitol dome created a pioneering image that we have seen on more occasions later.
Spanish promotional poster for 'Ultimatum a La Tierra', from 1951, in which the actress Patricia Neal is drawn.
LMPC via Getty Images
Without leaving the fifties we also find
The Earth against flying saucers
(1956).
In it, the aliens arrive with a less peaceful calling and mercilessly bring down both the Capitol and the Washington Monument, achieving some of the quintessential images of sci-fi series B in the 1950s, with the unforgettable tin saucers trying of beheading the human species by crashing into its nerve center.
Those same images are the ones that Tim Burton wanted to conjure up in his homage to the genre of artisan and naive alien invasions that swept the 1950s, with a deliberately
Camp
cymbal design
.
Mars Attacks!
(1996) showed us a group of big-headed heads with big eyes and naked brains bursting into the House of Representatives and frying everyone unceremoniously, while the US military forces tried to fight them outside, in front of the smoking dome of the building.
Curiously, that same year
Independence Day
(1996)
was also released
, the answer "seriously" to the previous film, with which Roland Emmerich created what is probably the most famous destruction in movie history.
In this movie, a giant UFO throws lightning at the White House, and then we see the Capitol dome blow to pieces under fire and lasers.
Both images define the rest of his career as a director, as he would return to those same significant locations at other times in his apocalyptic filmography.
Without extraterrestrial invasions, but with the same desire to leave the United States in pieces, Emmerich reserved the most absurd moment for
2012
(2009), in which all kinds of cataclysms ravage the earth.
Much of his argument revolves around the presidential park in Washington DC And the culmination comes when a tsunami seizes the nation's capital and affects one of the monuments that were missing from the demolition of the director, the obelisk dedicated to Washington that It is also in front of the Capitol.
A place for hope
And speaking of disaster films, in another of the great films of the genre in the nineties,
Deep Impact
(1998), the main character is the Capitol, but this time as a symbol of hope.
After successfully ridding the world of the asteroid threat, the president of the United States gives an emotional speech to a large crowd, encouraging them to remember and honor the heroes for their sacrifice, while behind him the famous dome of the capital is being rebuilt. , again a symbol of the building as the "first piece" of civilization, only this time, emerging from its ruins.
Another classic cameo from the great seat of American democracy takes place in
Logan's Escape
(1976), when the protagonist manages to escape his underground dystopian bubble and finds the world a great abandoned wasteland.
The most impressive scenes, probably inspired by the iconic ending of
Planet of the Apes
(1968), take place throughout the National Mall, where vegetation has taken over the most iconic buildings, both the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol. .
Another important appearance of the construction being robbed takes place in
Sigo como Dios
(2007), in which an American replicates the feat of Noah, storming the streets of Washington, DC with the ark and stopping in front of the Capitol to interrupt the voting of the Project of the Public Lands Law that prevents his plan commissioned by God, getting other members of Congress to vote against.
Perhaps not as dramatic as reversing an election, but possibly many of Trump's "patriots" also believed they were on a divine mission.
Coups d'état and terrorist missions
Congress is a sweet tooth for the coup plotters.
For this reason, films like
xXx2: State of Emergency
(2005) make us doubt even the Secretary of Defense, a sibylline Willem Dafoe who wants to kill the President of the United States to take his place.
In the midst of a drop in tension throughout the building, he is kidnapped while delivering the State of the Union address.
Then Ice Cube arrives and an even more frantic shooting begins than the one on Kings Day, but with the same scene of corridors and rooms.
More familiar to us are the adventures of John McClane, who in
La Jungle 4.0
(2007)
met
a terrorist more interested in controlling communications, transportation and energy supply than in blowing everything up.
In one of the scenes we find a sinister ultimatum from the terrorist, in which he uses a video in which the Capitol explodes, but which in the end turns out to be a false footage with which to divert attention.
In 2013, the terrorist threat reached the cinema twice with two direct attacks on the White House:
Assault on power
and
Target: the White House
.
In the first, we witness again the favorite pastime of Roland Emmerich, which in addition to bombing the president's residence again, gives us another new perspective of the total destruction with fire and explosives of the Capitol building.
Returning back to fantasy, the world of DC has also shown us that the White House is a strategic target of many supervillains.
Not by chance, the recent
Wonder Woman 1984
(2020) showed a shot of the building within its many tributes to
Superman II
(1980), with its iconic siege of the presidential house.
But it was Zack Snyder who drew Lex Luthor as a ruthless terrorist who blows up the entire Congress in
Batman vs. Superman
(2016), as a mob crowds outside the Capitol with banners reading "Superman, Illegal Alien."
We could continue with more similar attacks on the Capitol in television fiction, such as the
Designated Successor
series
(2016) and its new total destruction of the building, but we cannot ignore that
The Simpsons
are always there to predict history, and in episode 18 of Season 7, "The Day the Violence Died" (1996), Krusty presented a constitutional amendment against the burning of flags with scenes of the robbery of the Capitol with cartoon characters as bizarre as the assailants of Congress.
Of course, Twitter has dedicated itself to rescuing passages from the series with other premonitory moments these days:
Simpsons predicted it many years ago #Capitol Hill #WashingtonDC pic.twitter.com/CDFTq2kYb1
- Frɑncis Creɑven (@ FCr_91) January 6, 2021
The Simpsons did it again.
Trump, Coup, Capitol, USA.
#Trump #Capitol #CapitolAttack #WashingtonDC #EEUU #Biden #USA pic.twitter.com/9EtzObsMpl
- Hector (@ HJMO1987) January 7, 2021
* You can also follow us on Instagram and Flipboard.
Don't miss out on the best of Verne!
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on other networks
Close
Google Plus
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Comment
To print
Send by e-mail