With next film White House Down, director Roland Emmerich is set to outshine this year’s Olympus Has Fallen in terms of making Washington D.C. an explosive setting to earn a living. And seriously, if there was a plush Emmerich doll, it would be manufactured to say, “We have a lot of big things happening in our movie,” in much the same way he begins this featurette.
The above video goes into detail on how White House Down production team designed as close a replica of the actual presidential limousine – a.k.a. The Beast - as they could get without having any visual evidence to go by - as the Secret Service are pretty secretive folks. To design the vehicle, they used a measurement of a 2009 Cadillac Escalade headlight, and scaled up from there to custom-build one of the most massive non-gimmick cars in cinema. It stands just over six feet tall, is stretched 40 inches longer than an average SUV, and is about a foot wider than most vehicles. The wheels have a 36-inch diameter, which is equal to that of a semi truck. It’s bullet-proof, missile-proof and damned near impenetrable – or at least it’s made to look that way. They call it a “panic room on wheels,” and they are not exaggerating. This car is going to go through everything in this movie.
Are you one of those people that just can’t look at a vehicle without wanting to Tweet it? Just visit the Tweet the Beast website, which allows you to send messages to an interactive image of the limo to make it do things like pop the hood and turn on the headlights.
You will be able to see Channing Tatum try and save Jamie Foxx as the President when White House Down hits theaters on June 28.
