15 Movie Presidents We Wish Were Real

Chris Rock as presidential candidate and eventual President Mays Gilliam in Head of State (2003)

This Chris Rock vehicle (he wrote, directed and starred in it) has Rock's Mays Gilliam as a D.C. alderman until disaster strikes and he's plucked from the party pool. "If you work two jobs, and at the end of the week you got just enough money to get your broke ass home -- That ain't right!"

Tommy "Tiny" Lister as President Lindberg in The Fifth Element (1997)

President Lindberg will give you twenty goddamn seconds to make your case about why you shouldn't open fire immediately on mysterious civilizations.

Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore in Independence Day (1996)

Pullman plays President Thomas J. Whitmore, who also was a fighter pilot. And a family man. He also has one of, if not the most, Presidential name on this list. In a movie full of cheese ball quotes, he had one of the most memorable lines, delivering this burn to James Rebhorn: "The only mistake I ever made was to appoint a sniveling little weasel like you Secretary of Defense. However, that is a mistake, I am happy to say, that I don't have to live with. Mr. Nimzicki... you're fired."

Harrison Ford, Air Force One (1997)

Ford plays President James Marshall, who yells, "GET OFF MY PLANE!"

Kevin Kline as presidential stand-in David Kovic, Dave (1993)

Kline's David Kovic has an uncanny resemblance to President Bill Mitchell (both played by Kline, of course) and is asked to fill in for President Mitchell. "I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to share with the country," Kline says. Other than in the world of Dave, where else could someone who merely looks like a politician do a better job than an actual politician? The real world, you say? Touche.

Terry Crews as President Camacho in Idiocracy (2006)

Camacho: "Shit. I know shit's bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings."

Michael Douglas, The American President (1995)

Playing President Andrew Shepherd, Douglas is a president who finds himself dating and claiming that "The White House is the single greatest home court advantage in the modern world."

Peter Sellers as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

One of Sellers' multiple roles in the film was as President Muffley. As the prez, Sellers proclaims, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."

Jack Nicholson as President James Dale in Mars Attacks! (1996)

Spoiler alert: Nicholson's President Dale is fatally stabbed by a detached, animated hand from the Martian leader. Before that scene, Dale references Meat Loaf with this line: "I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain't bad."

John Travolta (on right) as President Jack Stanton in Primary Colors (1998)

Portraying -- unofficially -- Bill Clinton in this 1998 comedy, John Travolta's a presidential candidate and eventual commander-in-chief whose personal problems only kind of make us like him more. Kind of like Clinton.

Morgan Freeman as President Tom Beck in Deep Impact (1998)

Read this in your best Morgan Freeman voice. As President Beck, he closes out the film with these lines: "We watched as the bombs shattered the second comet into a million pieces of ice and rock that burned harmlessly in our atmosphere and lit up the sky for an hour. Still, we were left with the devastation of the first. The waters reached as far inland as the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. It washed away farms and towns, forests and skyscrapers. But, the water receded. The wave hit Europe and Africa too. Millions were lost, and countless more left homeless. But the waters receded. Cities fall, but they are rebuilt. And heroes die, but they are remembered. We honor them with every brick we lay, with every field we sow, With every child we comfort, and then teach to rejoice in what we have been re-given. Our planet. Our home. So now, let us begin."

Jack Lemmon as President Russell P. Kramer, James Garner as President Matt Douglas and Dan Aykroyd (not pictured) as President William Haney in My Fellow Americans (1996)

Ex-presidents played by Lemmon and Garner unite against President William Haney, played by Akroyd. Wacky double-crossing ensues throughout much of the movie's hour and 40 minutes, and if any of these characters were our actual president, we'd have a lifetime's worth of snarky political blog posts to read.

Kelsey Grammer as President Andrew Boone in Swing Vote (2008)

Before Joe the Plumber (remember him?) came into the spotlight in October 2008, Swing Vote's Bud (Kevin Costner), determined the outcome of a presidential election. Bud's a good ol' boy who knows nothing about politics and Grammer's the president. But Bud's vote is the deciding one, so he gets to play football with the secret service, of course. Grammer has the proverbial beer with Bud and the credits roll before we know which way Bud was swinging.