With the release of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Liam Maguren looks back at the career of modern macho icon Gerard Butler.
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera
Den of Thieves, the surprisingly solid 2018 cops-n-robbers flick, encapsulates everything that makes Gerard Butler a macho movie icon.
Butler anchors the testosterone-heavy film, and its recent sequel Pantera, as gruff officer Big Nick. A rude colleague, a shitty husband, and smug enough to power 1000 cyber trucks, he’s not exactly a hero to root for. But there’s also a hook in seeing how his aggressively hyper-masculine ways will serve him against the hardened alpha lads attempting a high-scale heist.
An absolute pro in these kinds of roles, Butler effortlessly relishes in the best and worst of Big Nick’s charismatically manly-man nature. Looking back at his career, it’s easy to see why we love to watch him as a leading man—whether he’s likeable, unlikeable, superhuman, or a normal human.
300 (where it all started)
Back when he could keep a movie under two hours, Zack Snyder delivered an audaciously stylised swords-n-sandals epic. Living historians rolled their eyes (and dead ones rolled in their graves) at this facts-be-damned retelling of the battle of Thermopylae. For the rest of us, Butler’s swirling gravitas as Spartan leader King Leonidas made us believers.
Sure, the thick beard and baby-oiled abs helped. But he also had to act like a passionate warrior willing to die for his people—and Butler put his all into it. The iconic “This is SPARTA!!!” moment wouldn’t have been one of the internet’s first viral sensations had it not been for his maximised delivery in this maximised film that maximised his star power.
Butler would remind us of his acting chops five years later, performing opposite Ralph Fiennes in modernised Shakespeare adaptation Coriolanus.
Law Abiding Citizen (the one that made him a man out for justice)
F Gary Gray’s 2009 savage-n-silly thriller left a bit of a cultural footprint. Butler plays an imprisoned mastermind who openly announces that he will kill those in the system he believes are responsible for his family’s death—all while locked up.
The film plays directly into a particular kind of male fantasy: that of a good man pushed unfairly over the edge and transformed into an unstoppable revenge lord. It’s not exactly a healthy fantasy to hold dear to your heart, but since the film turns the titular citizen into a torture-obsessed psycho complete with a ri-goddamn-diculous final twist, almost everyone is spared from taking it all seriously. (Except for maybe that one uncle who posts the wrong kind of John Wick meme.)
Even so, Butler convincingly wore the face of a man out for justice, when no other form of justice was there. He’d revisit that role with more patriot-flavoured gusto in 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, its xenophobic sequel London Has Fallen, and the threequel Angel Has Fallen.
Plane (and perfectly plain men)
Plane, a no-frills packet of cheap fun thrills from 2023, makes a good pair out of Butler and Mike Colter, the former playing an ordinary pilot of a downed aircraft and the latter embodying a quiet prisoner who seems suspiciously co-operative. Stuck in a war zone with passengers freaking out and merciless rebels zeroing in on their location, they have no choice but to stick it out until help arrives.
Unlike 300 or Law Abiding Citizen, Butler’s versatility allows him to embrace the everyman role in these types of solid thrillers (see also: lighthouse keeper Butler in The Vanishing and family man Butler in Greenland). Sure, most of us aren’t pilots, but his character in Plane just seems like a dude who’d binge-watch a show after a long day at work, making him feel relatable and vulnerable in a do-or-die situation.
Gods of Egypt (and other rubbish we love him in)
Here’s the thing about Gerard Butler: if he’s not in a surprisingly good B-movie, he’s in a surprisingly awful one.
Look, most actors end up in bad films; Butler’s lucky enough to star in ones that are worth remembering. Awash with chucky CG vomit and a toddler’s understanding of mythical Egypt, Alex Proyas whacked the gong of goofery with this 2016 fantasy epic that cast our beloved Scotsman alongside Aussie Brenton Thwaites, Danish man Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and American Chadwick Boseman.
The film got slammed for its very… non-Egyptian casting decisions. Fair enough, I suppose, though I personally think it adds to the seismic snowball of ridiculousness that is this film. (It’s worth noting that Ridley Scott somehow avoided a similar shaming with his deadly serious, very white-washed take on the story of Exodus.)
The film bombed, but Butler didn’t. Just like 300, the man fully commits to the role and his natural Scottish accent. If you’re going to fail, fail up, which is what Butler does here and in other salvageable shitters Gamer and Geostorm.
How to Train Your Dragon (featuring the best Butler – Daddy Butler)
There’s nothing manlier than being a great dad. We’ve seen Daddy Butler sprinkled throughout the aforementioned films, but his vocal work in the How to Train Your Dragon series, playing Hiccup’s father Stoick, hits the heart hardest.
Harbouring both the toughness of a Viking and the warmth of a loving parent, Butler’s contribution to Stoick’s performance boosted the character’s status as a great dad role model. The first film saw him change a staunch perspective due to the trust he had in his dweeb of a son; the second film saw the man melt upon reuniting with Hiccup’s mum, and the third film’s flashbacks contain some of the sweetest father-son moments you’ll ever see.
While I hold vitriolic ill-will towards all these live-action remakes of animated classics, it will be great to see Butler physically embody the character in the upcoming live-action How to Train Your Dragon.
