Everything’s better in the movies — even the Presidents. While politics can often be a divisive subject, most film fans can agree on the greatness of many movie Presidents, who often best embody the qualities we want to see in our elected leaders. Though some films feature Presidents as villains (Donald Sutherland’s President Snow in The Hunger Games films, for example), other films are far kinder in their portrayals. In a number of great films, the President represents a higher ideal, not just a patriotic figure. When a great actor was cast as a good President, they are often able to elevate even an average film into something better.
We’ve ranked 15 movie Presidents that set such a great example, we wouldn’t mind seeing them lead the country in real life. For this list includes only fictional Presidents, so we aren’t including actors in historical dramas, like Daniel Day Lewis or Raymond Massey, who got deep into the role of President Abraham Lincoln in some great films.
15 President Tom Kimball – Captain America (1990)
The 1990 film version of Captain America may not have been the best adaptation of the Marvel icon, but it featured a great President: Ronny Cox (Deliverance) as President Tom Kimball.
Inspired by witnessing Captain America’s sacrifice during World War II, a young Kimball grows up to become President, only to be kidnaped by Eurotrash terrorists employed by the Red Skull. Kimball doesn’t need a superhero to save him, however, and he manages to escape on his own and take out a few of his captors, with the help of a just-arrived Cap.
14 President Benjamin Asher – Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
After Olympus Has Fallen (and London Has Fallen) featured multiple assassination attempts, it’s not clear if terrorists just really hate Aaron Eckhart’s President Asher, or if his lead Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) just invites trouble wherever he goes. Considering Asher’s successor, Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), was also targeted by terrorists in 2019’s Angel Has Fallen, we’ll assume Agent Banning is just terrible at his job.
Regardless, President Asher is initially targeted because he refuses to pull troops away from North Korea, and throughout the two Fallen films he appears in, Eckhart’s Asher sticks to his beliefs and policies, regardless of how it costs him personally. He also isn’t afraid to pick up a gun and fight his way out of trouble, as he does in the bloody London Has Fallen.
13 President James Dale – Mars Attacks! (1996)
If you’re a chaotic-neutral sort of person, have we got a President for you! Mars Attacks!features Jack Nicholson as President James Dale, who didn’t mean to unleash global destruction by the Martians. He should have seen the Martians for who they were, but his ego clouded his judgment.
Some may prefer to rank Dale among the worst movie Presidents, but we think he was merely a victim of circumstance. Even self-centered, egotistical Presidents can make the right decisions when aliens aren’t involved.
12 President Marcus Robbins – Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015)
Sharknado 3
- Release Date
- July 22, 2015
- Runtime
- 88
- Writers
- Thunder Levin
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! is the only film in the goofy franchise that features Mark Cuban as the Commander-in-Chief. President Robbins is decisive and take-charge, just the kind of attitude that Washington needs. Sporting the Secret Service codename “Maverick” (we see what they did there), Robbins’ first instinct when sharks attack the White House is to raid the armory and defend his house alongside Fin (Ian Ziering).
His decision-making, however, may be suspect, as he also picked Ann Coulter as his Vice President. At least he survived the Sharknado with his dignity intact, something others in the film cannot claim.
11 President Mays Gilliam – Head of State (2003)
A few years before Barack Obama changed history, comedian and actor Chris Rock explored the possibility of an African-American President in Head of State, a hilarious satire of politics and race relations. Technically, Rock’s Mays Gilliam isn’t President until the end of the movie, but we do see how he’ll put the people first in his decision-making.
Although much of the politics is played for laughs, there are some serious points made. When Gilliam misses out on the chance to get the Teamsters Union endorsement, because he’s fulfilling a promise to a friend, it’s a surprising commentary on the concept of servant leadership.
10 President Russell P. Kramer – My Fellow Americans (1996)
Jack Lemmon plays one of several Presidents in My Fellow Americans (along with James Garner and Dan Ackroyd), but his President Kramer is by far the most likable, as he plays a Jimmy Carter-like former President who meant well, but couldn’t quite succeed in his one term in office. Lemmon is basically playing his own likable self, although his character has the same charming goofiness that worked so well in Some Like It Hot, The Odd Couple, and Grumpy Old Men.
9 Presidents Richard Benson & David Alexander – Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001)
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 is one of the wildest guilty-pleasure movies ever, and it gives us two great Presidents in one film. First, we get R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) in a short but effective performance as President Benson, a tough-as-nails Commander-in-Chief. Unfortunately, he is quickly killed with a “satanic handshake” from Stone Alexander (Michael York, in a hammy performance), head of the European Union who is actually (wait for it) the Antichrist!
Worse yet, Alexander has a plan to use the President’s death to get his estranged brother David Alexander (Michael Biehn), who is also the U.S. Vice President, in the Oval Office. Stone wants to trigger Armageddon and take over the world, but Biehn’s President Alexander isn’t giving in to his satanic demands, and makes for an effective leader ready to step up against evil. That leads to President Alexander fighting THE DEVIL HIMSELF in the film’s climatic battle. Who doesn’t want to see that?
8 President William Allan Moore – Big Game (2014)
Big Game
- Release Date
- September 5, 2014
- Runtime
- 110
Big Game may be ridiculously over-the-top as a film, but in this crazy world, seeing Samuel L. Jackson as the President is strangely comforting. The film even has a surprisingly strong character arc for President Moore; he starts off as a bit of an egotistical flake, but is hardened and focused by the attempt on his life.
After Air Force One is shot down over Finland, Moore is lost in the snowy woods with terrorists out to find him, and relies on Oskari (Onni Tommila), a young Finnish boy, to get him to safety. Not only do President Moore and Oskari strike up a friendship, they help each other become the person they were meant to be. In between all the violence and mayhem, it’s actually quite heartwarming.
7 President Andrew Shepherd – The American President (1995)
Aaron Sorkin, who idealizes democratic politics in an almost fetishistic way, was actually chosen by Robert Redford to write a script based on a three-word premise — “the President elopes.” And so we were treated to Michael Douglas’ Andrew Shepherd, the Commander-in-Chief in Rob Reiner’s The American President. Shepherd is a widower who meets and falls in love with an environmental activist (Annette Bening), triggering a media frenzy ready to scandalize the relationship.
Michael Douglas has that unique aura that makes him perfect to play a President, and the film offers one of the better performances of his career, even if it’s a somewhat cheesy film. Ironically, after speaking with Rob Reiner, Aaron Sorkin gutted his original script for The American President and removed a great deal of anything that wasn’t pure romantic-comedy; he used the scraps for the first scripts of The West Wing.
6 The President – Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987)
Who wouldn’t want Atticus Finch as their President? Amazing Grace and Chuck is a schmaltzy mess, but Gregory Peck is fantastic playing the unnamed Commander-in-Chief. That old-Hollywood gravitas makes him a perfect President, warm and giving, yet tough when he needs to be.
He shows extreme patience when he takes time out from his job as leader of the free world to meet with a kid throwing a hissy fit and refusing to play baseball because he’s freaked out over nuclear weapons.
5 President William Harrison Mitchell – Dave (1993)
Only in the movies, it seems, do Presidents make common-sense decisions free of politics, which means Kevin Kline’s “fake” President Bill Mitchell from Dave makes the list. When the real President suffers a stroke and is incapacitated, lookalike Dave Kovic (Kline) is asked to step in temporarily.
Instead of just lying low, however, Kovic begins making his own policy decisions to actually help people, which angers his handlers hoping to keep him in line. Any President (or lookalike) that puts people and principle first gets our vote (and makes a pretty good movie, to boot). Dave not only features one of Kevin Kline’s best performances, it’s an entertaining reminder that politicians can do some good.
4 President Tom Beck – Deep Impact (1998)
Having Morgan Freeman as the President would guarantee one thing: people would enjoy political speeches for once. In Deep Impact, Freeman’s natural gravitas gives him the perfect presence to play the President, and when he has to speak to the world in its darkest moment, he’s a calming voice of hope.
Freeman also earns extra credit for playing the President in two other films: 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen and in 2019’s Angel Has Fallen, where he is under the protection of a Secret Service agent played by Gerard Butler.
3 President Thomas Whitmore – Independence Day (1996)
Any President that can repel an alien invasion can surely get Congress to do their job. Sure, President Whitmore may have been an unpopular, lame-duck President before the aliens showed up in Independence Day, but adversity brings out the best in him, and his willingness to put his life on the line to fight for America is admirable. We just won’t focus on the idea that he might have left his daughter completely orphaned after losing her mother just a few hours earlier.
Whitmore also delivers one of the great patriotic speeches in Hollywood history, and his everyman persona makes him an appealing leader. Considering how iconic the film is now, it’s amazing to consider that the President Whitmore character was supposed to be an antagonist, with Kevin Spacey originally eyed for the role. Thank God Bill Pullman was such a great actor and took it over instead.
2 The President – Fail-Safe (1964)
Playing an unnamed Commander-in-Chief, the great Henry Fonda gives a tremendously effective performance in Fail-Safe, which depicts the accidental start of a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. When American bombers get erroneous orders to bomb Moscow, the President makes a desperate attempt to convince the Russian prime minister that it is not a first strike and urges him not to retaliate, which could trigger worldwide nuclear devastation. Fonda, who was so popular at the time he might have been elected President himself if he’d had run, gives a fantastic performance in the lead.
The film’s iconic ending features Fonda’s President making an impossible offer to avert war: he will bomb New York City himself if they are unable to stop the rogue bomber from destroying Moscow. It’s a decision that will allow both sides to suffer equal losses, although it is later revealed that his decision comes at a deep personal cost. It’s one of the most realistic, gut-wrenching political moments in cinema, and Fonda’s President averts an apocalyptic scenario in one of films’ great ‘Sophie’s choice’ moments.
1 President James Marshall – Air Force One (1997)
Air Force One’s President Marshall would likely win an election with 100% of the popular vote, because it’s hard to not like a President who tosses terrorists out of a (poorly designed CGI) plane at 20,000 feet. He’s a man of principle, unafraid of going against the wishes of his own party or a foreign power. He also knows how to deliver a zinger of a quote, as he drops several first-rate one-liners in the film. He also delivers a great line that we wish an actual President would deliver: “Real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it’s the presence of justice.”
Ford’s charisma is perfect for the role, and studio knew it; posters for the film showed his face, the plane, and the simple tagline, “Harrison Ford is the President of the United States.” Say no more, Columbia Pictures. Take my money.
