Angel falls from grace

It’s a Sunday afternoon in Sofia, Bulgaria, and gunshots are ringing through the city. People aren’t alarmed, though. In fact, many are standing around eating icecream. They know the sounds aren’t real.

We’re on the set of Angel Has Fallen, the third instalment in the Has Fallen franchise, following Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen.

Sofia is a frequent host of Hollywood action films, so its citizens are used to the unusual events taking place.

The scene is particularly intense, featuring cars, shootouts and high intensity from stuntmen and actors, including the film’s star Gerard Butler.

Butler returns for a third outing as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, but audiences will see a different side to him. In the first two films, Banning was protecting the president (Morgan Freeman) from terrorist attacks.

In Angel Has Fallen he has fallen from grace, after being framed for an assassination attempt on the president. Banning has to turn to unlikely allies for help.

Co-stars Lance Reddick and Danny Huston’s characters’ motivations revolve around Banning. Both are new to the trilogy; Reddick plays David Gentry, head of the Secret Service, and Huston joins as Wade Jennings, a former special forces soldier who has gone out on his own.

Reddick (White House Down, The Guest, Little Woods )is familiar with playing characters in law enforcement but taking on an action role that uses guns was new territory.

‘‘I got through it,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s a little tricky because, as an actor who hasn’t had a lot of training with guns, I’ve had to learn on the fly.

‘‘It’s interesting because, for a second, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do [the role] because I’ve played so many heads of law enforcement.’’

However, Reddick didn’t need

Danny Huston plays Wade Jennings, a former special forces soldier who has gone out on his own. much convincing in the end. ‘‘It was a franchise, it was the fact that I got to do some cool action and partly just that I got to do some cool stuff with Morgan Freeman.’’

Huston’s character delves deeper into the side of warfare that most people don’t see. ‘‘He was a soldier of special forces,’’ says Huston. ‘‘He’s not working for the government any more, he’s on his own.

‘‘You could say he has mercenary aspects to him – he has a facility where he trains soldiers. You could draw similarities to current wars and if the government maybe doesn’t want to be responsible for certain actions, private soldiers are potentially quite useful [to them].’’

Huston says that beyond the high-level action and blockbuster-style stunts, Angel Has Fallen explores deeper themes of what it’s like to be a soldier who has come through the other side of war. It also looks at the complexities of post-traumatic stress.

‘‘From the research I’ve done, these men are trained to connect with their inner savage nature. They are, in a way, trained to become beasts.

‘‘And when they have to return to civilisation, they have to cage that quality and become domesticated cats.

‘‘They are on high alert a lot of the time. Reeds moving in the wind on a summer’s day might be beautiful for us, but for these guys it’s a potential threat – something could be coming through the reeds.

‘‘What are we supposed to do with these guys? Their emotions are caged, so where do they find peace? They find peace in this sort of addiction to adrenaline,’’ says Huston.

‘‘They don’t really know how to trust somebody unless they are in a state of combat.

‘‘So with Banning, the connection that he has is one that he’s pining for and Wade wants to go back into these kinds of situations.

‘‘In a way, he’d rather die in combat, than at home in a rented apartment on his own watching television.’’

Angel Has Fallen opens on August 22.