Gerard Butler’s Has Fallen franchise continues with Canal+’s latest political-action thriller series, Paris Has Fallen, which revolves around an investigation of a series of heinous terrorist attacks that could shake France’s political integrity. The franchise maintains a core narrative structure of political conspiracy endangering the heads of the state of first-world superpowers and a superspy, Mike Banning, played by Gerard Butler in the movie trilogy, using his skills and wits to save the day. In the small screen adaptation, Banning is replaced by MI6 Agent Zara Taylor and French security officer Vincent Taleb, who are assigned with the duty of apprehending a vicious terrorist, Jacob Pearce, whose quest for vengeance is leaving a trail of death and destruction within the French bureaucracy.
The first two episodes of the series set up the central crisis in an expected way, with decent action sequences, bare minimum red tape intrigue, and a critique of first-world interventionism—setting the stage for the upcoming six episodes. So far, the series doesn’t seem to have a direct connection with the world established in the movie trilogy, but that may change as the series moves forward.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did Jacob Peace Attack the UK Embassy in Paris?
Paris Has Fallen opens with a gala event being hosted in the UK embassy in Paris; political hotshots from both countries are present along with their respective security personnel. Unbeknownst to them, a dastardly plan has been set in motion: hidden among the performers and security team of the embassy, a bunch of terrorists guided by their dreaded leader Jacob Pearce initiate a violent takeover, killing most of the security personnel inside the embassy and holding the attendees hostage. Jacob has a score to settle with MI6 Agent Rowan Alexander and France’s defense minister, Philippe Bardin—and without wasting his time, he unravels the motive behind his actions. Pearce, a former French Army captain who was stationed in Afghanistan, was betrayed by the duo of Rowan and Bardin, who set him up on a suicide mission by providing false intelligence in exchange for their personal gain through a lucrative arms deal with the Afghan government. As a result, Pearce’s entire team was killed, and he was tortured in most heinous ways in a Taliban prison for six years before finally being able to escape. Now, Pearce has returned to take his revenge upon the bureaucrats who profiteered from his and his team’s suffering and unceremoniously kills Rowan. As he proceeds to offer Bardin the same fate, MI6 Agent Zara Taylor and French security officer Vincent Taleb work together to distract and ambush the terrorists, resulting in Pearce retreating for the time being.
Vincent is revealed to have a close, personal connection with the President of France, Juliette Levesque, and later he, along with Zara, are recruited to a task force set up by French counterterrorism division chief Matis Garnier. Among the members of Pearce’s team, the task force identifies Freja Karlsson, a former Swedish special forces officer who has worked with mercenary contractors, and is the only member who doesn’t seem to have a personal stake in Pearce’s agenda. Zara reveals to Vincent that according to her knowledge, Pearce had gone rogue and acted on his own while operating in Afghan soil, which clashed with the interest of the French defense minister—and he, along with Rowan, acted on someone’s orders to throw Pearce and his men under the bus. Despite having his first attempt foiled, Pearce remains adamant in exacting the blood toll from Bardin. Abducting Bardin’s daughter, Chloe, Pearce contacts him via video call and forces him to take his life in exchange for the safety of his daughter. Bardin shoots himself to death, and proving himself to be a man of his word, Pearce safely returns Chloe to the task force.
Why Did Jacob Pearce Kill Pascal Moulin?
Vincent and Zara find a lead as Pearce’s weapons dealer, Karim Hassan, is located in Paris as well, but the duo miserably fail to apprehend him in time, with Vincent engaging in a scuffle with Karim and ending up killing him in self-defense. Meanwhile, Pearce proceeds to his next target, French government weapons contractor Pascal Moulin, and threatens him with the lives of his family and friends if he doesn’t comply with his demand of arranging a hundred million euros. Matthew, a sniper on Pearce’s team, proves that Pearce is not bluffing about the threats as he puts down Moulin’s bodyguard and one of his associates in quick succession. During the second assassination, Zara and Vincent nearly catch up to him but fail at the end. A personal connection between two manhunters is established as Vincent helps Zara take care of her addict girlfriend, Thea, and Zara learns about Vincent’s past, as he had to pay the price for being a straight-arrow, upstanding person. Vincent had decided to spare the life of a Boko Haram leader after he saw him with his family, and as a result, he was kicked out of the army.
By prying into Pearce’s past, it is revealed that it was Pascal’s vested interest that resulted in Pearce’s misery. Pearce had abducted an Afghan minister who had swindled funds for the construction of a school and forced their government to return the amount, which resulted in Moulin’s weapon contract with Afghans nearly getting broken. Moulin had either pressured or bribed Bardin to betray Pearce—but that isn’t the only reason for Pearce’s vengeful streak. Apparently, after Pearce was released from Taliban prison, he went to Lahore, where another attempt was made to put him out of his misery via a car bombing. However, instead of Pearce, the bombing claimed the lives of Amina Sayyid, with whom Pearce had fallen in love, and her children. As the focus shifts to Pearce, he is seen recounting the dreadful moment—when he had lost the last bit of hope that remained in his life. Moulin, Bardin, and their other associates are responsible for this heinous conspiracy, which adds a personal angle to Pearce’s retribution.
Upon Pearce’s orders, Matthew manages to draw out Pascal’s son by abducting his girlfriend and texting him through her phone, and nearly succeeds in taking him out—when Zara and Vincent make a timely intervention. The duo manages to stop the sniper’s bloody streak, but once again their investigation hits a dead end as an injured Matthew meets his end. However, from Pearce’s conversation with Matthew, a certain Cedric Duval is revealed to be involved in the mess as well—as of now, the only major clue the task force has at their disposal. Pascal agrees to Pearce’s proposal and sends him a hundred million dollars, but later that night, Pearce leads his team to abduct Pearce from his home anyway. Like the Joker from “The Dark Knight,” Pearce decides to put Moulin in his stack of a hundred million dollars before setting it ablaze, as he intends to send a message to the other collaborators of Moulin and Bardin that he will hunt all of them down.
The first two episodes provide an interesting outlook on the big bad of the series, Jacob Pearce, whose actions might not be justifiable, but at the same time his past reveals that the ones who wronged him are as much of an enemy of the state as he is. This refusal to adhere to the binary when it comes to complicated foreign relations of first-world nations is something that will keep viewers hooked into this series.
