Unelectable

5 sci-fi movie presidents who should have been impeached

They can't all be Jed Bartlet.

by Robin Bea
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

Blockbuster action movies love cutting to the president for an inspiring speech during a disaster, but the fact is, most movie presidents are terrible.

To celebrate president's day, here are the absolute worst presidents ever in sci-fi movies.

5. President Merkin Muffley — Dr. Strangelove

President Merkin Muffley is trying his best, but he doesn’t have what it takes to avert nuclear war — or even stop his staff from fighting in the war room.

4. President James Dale — Mars Attacks!

After abandoning his family and letting Martians run roughshod over Earth, President James Dale delivers an inspiring speech only to be gruesomely killed seconds later.

3. The President — Escape from New York

Escape from New York’s president — who shows no gratitude after he’s rescued from kidnappers or remorse for the people he got killed — is so unlikeable he doesn’t even get a name. (He also had a British accent.)

2. President Jack Cahill — Escape from L.A.

Snake Plissken’s second presidential run-in is with this theocrat who imprisons anyone he disagrees with in L.A. after an earthquake turns the city into an island.

1. President Coriolanus Snow — The Hunger Games

President Snow uses every trick in the tyrant’s book, culminating in the perverse Hunger Games competition, which forces children to fight to the death.