As the film opens, our hero, Mike Banning( Butler), the personal Secret Service agent assigned to guard President Benjamin Asher( Aaron Eckhart), is contemplating resigning his post in order to spend non-lethal quality time with his wife( Radha Mitchell) and their about-to-be-born child when duty calls once again—the Prime Minister of London has just died suddenly and he is to accompany Asher to the funeral, which will be attended by most of the leaders of the free world. As they all begin to congregate for the funeral, however, a series of coordinated attacks begin involving bombs, rocket launchers and nice action.