Released: 4 July 1990
Director: Renny Harlin
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox
Budget: $60 to 70 million
Stars: Bruce Willis, William Sadler, Fred Thompson, John Amos, Art Evans, and Bonnie Bedelia

The Plot:
While waiting at Dulles Airport to pick up his wife, Holly Gennero-McClane (Bedelia), Lieutenant John McClane (Willis) is embroiled in a complex cat-and-mouse plot by disgraced Colonel William Stuart (Sadler) to hijack the planes and liberate a corrupt foreign military leader.

The Background
Roderick Thorp published a follow-up to his 1966 thriller, The Detective, in 1979, to decent reviews. Accordingly, an adaptation of Nothing Lasts Forever did the rounds before being retooled by struggling screenwriter Jeb Stuart. Stuart reimagined Thorp’s aging Detective Joe Leland into a flawed everyman, a role so expertly portrayed by Bruce Willis that it changed the perception of action heroes forever. Despite garnering mixed reviews, Die Hard’s (McTiernan, 1988) $140-odd million box office made it a a massive financial success that revitalised 20^th Century Fox and redefined the action hero stereotype. For the sequel, the filmmakers turned not to Thorp’s writing but to Walter Wager’s 58 Minutes (1987), a thriller in which a police officer has less than an hour to stop terrorists who have hijacked an airport. Inspired by the Iran/Contra affair, Steven E. de Souza helped rework the concept into a Die Hard sequel, which saw star Bruce Willis return to the tune of $7.5 million and producer Joel Silver removed after his spending ballooned the budget. Also marketed with the subtitle Die Harder, Die Hard 2 was the first film to digitally compose live-action footage with a traditional matte painting, which was used for the final runway scene. With a box office of $240 million, Die Hard 2 exceeded expectations and held the largest pre-opening record for six years, though reviews were mixed. Even positive reviews noted issues with the plot and it was dubbed another disappointing sequel of the era that failed to capture the magic of the first film. Still, there are some who claim it to be an under-rated entry and the box office success alone was enough to justify a third entry some five years later.

The Review:
Die Hard 2 immediately expands the focus of its action by pivoting away from a claustrophobic, confined location and dropping grizzled, promoted cop John McClane into a bustling airport over the holiday season. In Die Hard, McClane was burned out, irritable, and desperately trying to win back his estranged wife. His personal issues were compounded by the terrorists who took over Nakatomi Plaza and he vented his anger and frustration on them with sharp-tongued relish. In Die Hard 2, things are going much better for McClane: he’s looking a little less haggard, he’s been promoted and has transferred to the Los Angeles Police Department, and he and Holly are back together. Unfortunately, while they might be on much better terms, they’re still apart as Holly’s flying in to spend Christmas with him, the kids, and her family. Still, they remain in contact through the miracle of airphones and McClane’s excited to meet her at Dulles Airport. Things get off to a shaky start for McClane, however; bad luck seems to follow him around, even when things are going well, as he’s unceremoniously towed by Sergeant Vito Lorenzo (Robert Costanzo) for illegally parking outside the building. McClane’s appeals fall on deaf ears as, in a taste of the disregard McClane’s later shown, Vito’s unimpressed by his rank and stature. To make matters worse, it was his mother-in-law’s car! Still, a $40 fine is the least of McClane’s worries when he wanders through the airport and not only bumps into a strangely familiar face and spots a handful of guys acting very suspiciously. Attentive and curious, McClane observes as the men covertly talk, sync their watches, and Sergeant Oswald Cochrane (John Costelloe) and Miller (Vondie Curtis-Hall) slip into a restricted baggage sorting area. Interestingly, McClane’s first thought isn’t to investigate himself but to instead alert the airport police. However, when he’s greeted by Vito’s smarmy grin, he realises they’ll never take him seriously and follows the two alone. When confronted by McClane, the two open fire and a brief fracas ensues that leaves Cochrane dead, McClane in custody, and Miller alive to tell the tale to his commander, shamed military veteran Colonel William Stuart (the man McClane had bumped into earlier).

After McClane verifies his identity, he’s brought to Captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz), who just so happens to be Vito’s brother and who’s not only dismissive of McClane’s reputation, but personally offended by his presence and his attitude. Consequently, Carmine angrily rebukes McClane’s suspicions that the two men were anything more than simple luggage thieves and has him removed from his office. Stubborn and unimpressed by Carmine’s failure to take the situation seriously, McClane takes matters into his own hands and faxes a copy of Cochrane’s fingerprints to his old friend, Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), who reveals that they’re fake. Based on this, and the men’s weapons, and the impending arrival of the crooked General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), McClane realises that something bad is about to go down and forces his way into the airport control tower to warn Carmine and air traffic controller Ed Trudeau (Thompson) that a group of mercenaries are obviously planning something. While Trudeau seems to take the threat seriously, especially when the tower starts losing power and access to their systems, Carmine refuses to entertain any of McClane’s warnings, believing he’s an overhyped, out of his depth cop trying to steal the spotlight. McClane is unceremoniously booted from the tower and accosted by keen reporter Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy), who name-drops Colonel Stuart and puts the final pieces of the puzzle together for McClane. Unlike in the last film, McClane is surrounded by potential allies but constantly met with antagonism, resentment, and dismissal. No one takes his warnings seriously, causing not only the tower to be compromised when Colonel Stuart hijacks their systems, but also many deaths when Carmine’s crack troops are gunned down by Colonel Stuart’s men (leaving airport chief engineer Leslie Barnes (Evans) wounded) and Stuart brings down an aeroplane in retaliation. Although McClane desperately tries to provide a warning to the doomed aircraft, he ultimately fails and those deaths weigh heavily on his troubled conscience throughout the film. While Trudeau shows some compassion to McClane following this, he continues to be met with hostility from the airport staff and from no-nonsense Major Grant (Amos), who arrives with a bunch of troopers to take control of the situation and, like Carmine, immediately butts heads with McClane, who’s seen as a dangerous loose cannon despite his best efforts to help.

Luckily, McClane does have some allies amongst all these hot-headed egos. While Powell is sadly relegated to a cameo, he does confirm McClane’s suspicions that something’s amiss at Dulles. Barnes proves extremely helpful in offering alternative ways to signal the aircraft, though Colonel Stuart angrily retaliates each time or has set up contingencies for these. Barnes is also the one who clues McClane in that Colonel Stuart’s men are using a coded frequency (though he’s unable to break it) and who re-routes the emergency beacon to covertly communicate with the pilots. While racing to find solutions and workarounds to Colonel Stuart’s plot, McClane ends up in a network of access tunnels beneath the runway and bumps into Marvin (Tom Bower), a quirky janitor with racks upon racks of blueprints who helps McClane get to different areas of the airport, try new ways of signalling the planes, and locate Colonel Stuart’s outpost at a nearby church. Marvin also retrieves the coat and pre-coded walkie-talkie of one of Stuart’s men, allowing McClane to listen in and retort to Stuart directly. This gives McClane the chance to vent his anger on the man responsible for ruining his latest Christmas, though Colonel Stuart isn’t easily baited and out-thinks McClane at every turn. While Major Grant and McClane clash, McClane earns his begrudging respect after he helps storm Colonel Stuart’s church, raiding their operation and driving off Stuart’s men. This resolution is short-lived, however, when McClane realises he and Major Grant’s men were firing blanks the entire time. While Carmine again refuses to believe McClane’s claims, he’s forced to realise they’ve all been duped when McClane dramatically opens fire on Carmine (somehow not being gunned down by the cops present) to demonstrate his point and Carmine finally comes on side, giving McClane clearance to intercept the villains. While McClane treats Coleman with about as much respect as Colonel Stuart and has no time for her sniffing around for a story, she proves somewhat useful first in identifying Stuart and then in joining him in intercepting Stuart’s Boeing 747, giving McClane the chance to dramatically tackle the bad guys and end their plot.

While Holly returns, she’s far less of a factor and has far less agency this time around. She’s stuck in the air, as far out of McClane’s reach as before, but with even less control over her situation. While she communicates with McClane using an airphone, she has no idea why her landing has been delayed and only becomes concerned about the situation after the returning Dick Thornburg (William Atherton) points out the circling aircraft in the nearby skies. As obnoxious and grating as ever, Thornburg feels slighted and threatened by Holly since a right-hook to his jaw knocked out two of his teeth after he endangered her children in the last movie, leading him to take out a restraining order against her. While this earns Holly the admiration of Connie (Karla Tamburrell), an air hostess equally repulsed by Thornburg, Holly’s forced to endure his presence as the situation worsens. Ever the opportunist, Thornburg patches into the cockpit radio and learns of the situation, then remotely forces his way on-air to report on the situation live, selfishly thinking only of his career and not the panic it causes those waiting at Dulles Airport. As perceptive and feisty as her husband, Holly not only catches on that their situation is going to become a real problem due to lack of fuel but also retaliates against Thornburg once more by subduing him with a fellow passenger’s taser. Still, while Holly doesn’t get much else to do, it’s the drive to save her from plummeting to a fiery death that pushes McClane on downside. His personal stake in the events sees him aggressively interject himself into the situation and causes as much of the animosity he receives as his smart mouth, though McClane excels in a pressure situation and simply forces himself to fight harder or find other ways around problems, even if it means pissing off those in authority. The subtext of Die Hard 2 is lesser than the first, with more generic masculine and pseduo-sexual connotations, but the premise of this stubborn, determined “Everyman” fighting against the odds to save the woman he loves is strong, though I would’ve liked to see Holly have a more active role in the main plot.

This time, McClane is up against an opponent just as intelligent, ruthless, and heavily armed as Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) but one with the added benefit of a lifetime of military service and equally well-trained, incredibly loyal followers. A former Special Forces officer and one time student of Major Grant, the anti-communist Colonel Stuart strongly supported General Esperanza and even funded his operation, being dishonourably discharged and disgraced as a consequence. After fleeing the United States prior to his court martial, Colonel Stuart and the imprisoned General Esperanza plotted an elaborate scheme to hijack Dulles Airport, intercept Esperanza’s plan, and abscond to safety in a Boeing 747. A stoic, calculating martial arts expert, Colonel Stuart plans everything to the smallest detail, easily infiltrating Dulles Airport and hijacking their communications and power array and duplicating much of their control room in a nearby church. From here, Colonel Stuart and his men easily dupe the aircraft into thinking ground control is experiencing nothing more than heavy weather and effectively holds all incoming aircraft hostage, crashing them without a second’s thought whenever and reprisals are attempted. Though he doesn’t hesitate to take lives, even those of his men, Colonel Stuart reprimands Trudeau and McClane for not obeying his instructions and forcing his hand, indicating that he’s trying to rescue his beloved General with as little bloodshed as possible. His patience with McClane quickly wears thin, however, especially when John intercepts Esperanza’s aircraft and nearly brings him into custody. Aggravated that one stubborn cop could cause his meticulous plan so much trouble, Colonel Stuart has his men open fire on the craft and tosses a bunch of grenades in to take out McClane but is forced to flee when McClane miraculously survives thanks to his quick thinking. Colonel Stuart’s men are fiercely loyal; while they briefly hesitate upon being ordered to trick an aircraft into crashing, they obey his every word without question out of fear of his reprisals. Colonel Stuart’s joined by Major Grant, a deceptive and equally ruthless military man who slits newcomer Telford’s (Patrick O’Neal) throat just for not being “one of them” and aids in duping McClane to cover their escape. When push comes to shove, Colonel Stuart finally gets his hands dirty in a one-on-one fight with McClane, being far more physically capable than Gruber. He’s also much more in control of his emotions and motivated not by greed, but by a warped sense of patriotism and pride.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Die Hard is a Christmas movie. I don’t care what you say or think; it just is. Die Hard 2 is also a Christmas movie, but the season is far less of a factor in the plot. Seasonal jingles aren’t as prominent in Michael Kamen’s score and Christmas trappings aren’t as easily noticeable thanks to how bustling Dulles Airport is, but the entire crux of the plot is Holly coming home for Christmas and half the reason the weather is so bad is because we’re deep into the festive season. McClane does note that his bad luck constantly ruins the season for him, but this seems more emblematic of him than of the festive period. Indeed, Major Grant notes that McClane is in the “wrong place at the wrong time” during one of the many tirades launched against him for trying to help, and the situation only escalates as things spiral out of control. McClane is in a slightly better position this time around, though; he’s wearing shoes, for starters, is fully armed, and has more resources at his disposal to try and help. Unfortunately, he’s constantly hampered by those around him. Since Carmine doesn’t take his concerns seriously, Trudeau doesn’t prepare the control tower for a possible hijacking; since doors are constantly shut in his face, McClane can’t share his insight or opinion on the situation; and since Colonel Stuart is so resourceful and intelligent, the odds are stacked against him in a far greater way than before. This time, McClane battles to save not just his and Holly’s lives, but the lives of all the people on the planes unable to land because of Colonel Stuart. McClane might be selfishly driven to intervene to ensure Holly’s safety but he doesn’t just sit back and do nothing when Stuart hijacks a British airliner. He runs out onto the landing strip and desperately tries to do something, though this is of little comfort when his efforts inevitably fail. While Die Hard 2 is therefore more of a typical action/thriller and less of a tale of reclaiming masculinity and enforcing masculine power like the first film, some aspects of this still remain. Half the reason Vito, Carmine, and Major Grant clash with McClane is because they view him as a threat to their authority and masculinity. McClane is a loose cannon who shouts his opinion and acts impulsively, with little respect for local authority and the chain of command, which especially irks Carmine and equally annoys Major Grant, who believes McClane’s interference is doing more harm than good.

Ironically, even if McClane approached these figures with a more reasonable and respectful tone, it probably wouldn’t have helped since McClane is something of a celebrity now after his actions in Die Hard. This, and departmental xenophobia, are equally strong reasons for them to dislike McClane and dismiss his concerns, only to begrudgingly realise that he’s been the only one making sense the entire time, which is frustrating but still an improvement over the bungling police presence in the last film. While thematically and narratively very similar to Die Hard, Die Hard 2 broadens its scope for action set pieces; there are more characters involved so more opportunities for big shoot outs, with McClane even engaging in a snowmobile chase near the climax. However, I’ve never thought of Die Hard 2 as being “bigger” or “better” than the first one in terms of its action. It’s often far more explosive, that’s for sure; the plane crash is a notable set piece, as is the destruction of General Esperanza’s plane. However, it’s pretty obvious both are model and composite shots, making them ironically less impressive than McClane’s leap from the exploding Nakatomi helipad. McClane doesn’t get as many opportunities to throw hands this time; he always has his pistol and ammo on him, so he’s more apt to just gun down his foes with a wry remark, meaning we see less of McClane’s physical tenacity. However, this is supplanted by his “die hard” nature; he’s a stubborn cockroach of a man who won’t quit and keeps fighting even when met with a hail of gunfire. Ironically, he’s far less banged up and bloody than in the first film despite the greater odds against him and McClane’s resourceful nature comes not from finding innovative ways to kill his enemies but from finding creative ways to save lives, galvanising McClane into a more broadly heroic character. That’s not to say Die Hard 2 is tame, by any means: plenty of guys are executed by gunshot to the head, people are strangled, have their throat cut, and are riddled with bullets or blown to pieces. But it does feel far less personal this time around; before, McClane was desperately picking Gruber’s men off one by one but Colonel Stuart has far more men with far less memorable characteristics, so it just feels more generic when they’re killed rather than a rousing victory for our lone hero like before.

McClane is against a ticking clock throughout Die Hard 2. He only has ninety minutes before Holly’s plane runs out of fuel so he does everything he can to restore communications with the planes and find a way to negotiate her safety. He experiences ups and downs in this endeavour as Barnes does manage to contact the pilots, but McClane is intercepted by Colonel Stuart and his men before he can barter Esperanza’s life for Holly’s. The wounded General Esperanza escapes but things start to look up with Major Grant comes along and leads an all-out assault on Colonel Stuart’s church base, only to dupe McClane and the others with blanks and betray them to aid Stuart and Esperanza’s escape. With time running out and Holly’s plane preparing for an emergency landing, McClane finally gets the assistance he’s been demanding the entire movie and has Coleman’s pilot chase after the escaping villains. With no way to block the larger aircraft, McClane is forced to make a desperate drop to the wing on their Boeing 747 to try and stop them. Unlike the first movie, which ended with a tense showdown akin to an Old West duel between the exhausted McClane and the smug Gruber, Die Hard 2’s climax centres around bare-knuckle fistfights on the wing of a speeding aircraft trying to take off. Major Grant is the first to head out to put a beating on the outmatched McClane. However, thanks to his tenacity and resourcefulness, McClane manages to trip Major Grant and send him into a jet engine, splattering him across the plane and further screwing up Esperanza’s attempts to get off the ground. Thus, Colonel Stuart takes matters into his own hands and beats the shit out of McClane in a way Gruber could only dream of, finally kicking him to the speeding runway below. Returning inside to celebrate with his men, Colonel Stuart is completely oblivious to the fact that McClane opened the plane’s fuel valve. Bloodied and beaten, McClane delivers his “Yippie-ki-yay, Mister Falcon motherfucker!” catchphrase and tosses his lighter at the fuel trial, which naturally defies all physics and logic to burn into the plane and explode it in mid-air. As an added bonus, the flame trail and burning wreckage act as a marker for the planes to use to make a safe landing, reuniting McClane and Holly once more and bringing their latest Christmas drama to a close.

The Summary:
Die Hard is a Christmas tradition for me. I watch it every year and every year I enjoy it as much as the last time I watched it. Die Hard 2 also makes the Christmas watch list, but I’d be lying if I said I looked forward to it as much as the first movie. It’s not that it’s bad, really, just not as enjoyable or memorable as the first film. The atmosphere is both familiar and yet different, which is what you want from a sequel but something just feels off. Narrative beats, returning characters, and a sense of repetition help thematically link it to the first movie while also expanding upon the characters and setting. John McClane is far less beaten down than before, but no less tenacious; however, his character is noticeably different, largely because of the supporting cast. He’s face-to-face with the same type of bureaucrats who got in his way last time and we live his frustration with their dismissive attitude and his desperate attempts to do something while they sit around, stubbornly refusing to believe him due to their slighted pride. McClane is as resourceful and enjoyable as ever, delivering some wry quips and surviving some unbelievable situations, but he’s recast as a more typical heroic figure this time. Die Hard 2 isn’t just about saving a handful of hostages; it’s about saving thousands of lives from Colonel Stuart’s reprisals. It’s not about reclaiming masculinity; it’s about reinforcing it and a clash of “Alpha Male” figures and egos. Colonel Stuart exemplifies this; unlike Gruber, he’s a physical and intellectual challenge for McClane, after all. Oddly, despite its greater scope, I find Die Hard 2’s action to be lacking compared to the first. Things don’t feel as intimate and personal and a lot of the impact is dulled, as though everyone’s just going through the motions despite some enjoyable performances. In the end, I still watch Die Hard 2 at Christmas and still enjoy it, but I would much rather watch Die Hard twice or skip to one of the other sequels as they delivered a new challenge for McClane in a far more unique way than what we see here.

My Rating:

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of Die Hard 2? How do you think it compares to the first films? What did you think to Colonel Stuart and his cold-hearted depiction? Did you like seeing McClane face new challenges, especially following his infamy from the first movie? Were you also disappointed by the action sequences? Is Die Hard 2 on your Christmas watch list? What are your plans for Christmas Day today? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to comment down before and have a great Christmas!

Released: 15 July 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Distributor: 20^th Century Fox
Budget: $25 to 35 million
Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, and William Atherton

The Plot:
New York City police detective John McClane (Willis) arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly Gennero-McClane (Bedelia). Things quickly turn south when Hans Gruber (Rickman) and his gang of terrorists take the building hostage, leaving McClane to wage a one-man war.

The Background
In 1979, writer Roderick Thorp published a sequel to his 1966 thriller, The Detective; inspired by The Towering Inferno (Guillermin, 1974), Nothing Lasts Forever was well-received and soon shopped around Hollywood, with Thorp hoping Frank Sinatra would reprise his role from the adaptation of The Detective (Douglas, 1968). Instead, the concept ended up in the hands of struggling screenwriter Jeb Stuart, who was given free reign as long as he retained the Christmas-in-Los-Angeles setting. Drawing from personal experiences with married life, Stuart reimagined Thorp’s aging detective, Joe Leland, into a flawed everyman, though remained largely faithful to the spirit of the source material. After Sinatra turned down the lead role, the project was offered to some of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, before Bruce Willis (then known more for his comedic efforts) was cast as the wisecracking John McClane and subsequently redefined not only his career, but the portrayal of action heroes in general. Die Hard was the silver screen debut for the late, great Alan Rickman, who was won over by the wit and intelligence of the script and even had some creative input on his character thanks to his theatre background. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza came onboard for a rewrite, which framed the narrative as though Hans Gruber were the protagonist, though director John McTiernan allowed Willis and the other actors room to improvise during the shoot, which was based almost entirely in and around the Fox Plaza in Central City. Willis performed many of his own stunts, suffering partial hearing loss as a result; the stunts were dangerous and complex for cast and crew alike, though McTiernan couldn’t resist dropping Rickman early to produce a genuine look of fear for Gruber’s fall. In defiance of low expectations, Die Hard was a massive financial success, making around $140 million at the box office, revitalising both 20^th Century Fox and the action genre. Although initial reviews were mixed, praising the direction and stunts but questioning Willis’s performance, the film was seen as a breakout role for the actor, one that redefined the action hero stereotype into a more vulnerable and snarky tough guy. After proving to be equally popular on home video, this success naturally translated into a sequel two years later, a venture that proved even more profitable and led to an entire franchise of additional sequels, videogames, and ancillary media of varying quality that nonetheless cemented Willis’s status as a smart-mouthed action hero.

The Review:
Believe it or not, but there was a time when I wasn’t much of a Die Hard fan. Despite growing up on action movies, specifically those starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, kid me always found Die Hard to be a little too slow and “grown up” compared to the Austrian Oak’s films. Eventually, however, I grew up a bit and did a binge watch of the then-trilogy of Die Hard films and realised what I’d been missing out on. Specifically, Bruce Willis establishing himself as a mainstream action icon with these films, in particular this first Die Hard movie, which is still the undeniable best of a surprisingly strong action franchise. McClane separates himself from his action movie counterparts by being the quintessential “Everyman”; he’s physically fit, yes, but not some musclebound brute and he’s far from invincible, gradually becoming more injured and fatigued as the movie goes on. He’s easy to relate to because he’s a very flawed character; his marriage is on the rocks, he’s seen as insubordinate and a liability by his peers, he makes mistakes, and he’s forced to adapt, always one wrong move away from certain death. This is in stark contrast to the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone; while they have certainly portrayed more grounded, vulnerable, and human characters, they’re best known for being virtually unstoppable and overcoming the odds through sheer brute force, whereas McClane has to use his wits, cunning, and sheer force of will to triumph.

John McClane is portrayed very much as a fish out of water since he is both a New York City cop in the unfamiliar surroundings of Los Angeles and a rugged working man amidst a skyscraper full of well-heeled business types. Although rough around the edges, he’s treated warmly and with respect by Joseph Takagi (James Shigeta) and invited to join the Nakatomi Christmas party, but he’s focused solely on reconnecting with Holly, who has managed to build a successful career for herself without McClane, much to his chagrin. While he’s clearly still in love with her and wants to build bridges, if only for the sake of their young children, McClane is handicapped by a natural immaturity that causes only further arguments rather than him simply admitting to his mistakes. A career cop, McClane is always taking in his surroundings and has a suspicious nature that allows him to separate bullshitters like Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner) from the honest, like Argyle (De’voreaux White), his overly chatting limo driver. This talent goes hand in hand with his adaptability and stubborn nature, from which the film takes its title; though outnumbered and outgunned and definitely in way over his head, McClane keeps his wits about him and is always trying to find some way to get help or pick off his assailants and is intuitive enough to assess the threat posed by the terrorists based on their accents, firearms, and tactics. Basically caught with his pants down, McClane finds himself the only one capable of raising the alarm when Hans Gruber and his goons take over the tower, executing Takagi and taking his employees hostage while they work on breaking into the vault. Outnumbered, outgunned, and without even his shoes, McClane’s first instinct is to call for help, only to be repeatedly met with scepticism, endangering himself and forcing him to flee or fight, with tenacity in equal measure. Though armed only with his service pistol, McClane soon acquires a machine gun (“Ho-ho-ho”), but it’s not enough to tackle Gruber head-on. Instead, McClane fights with a brutal and rabid animal spirit; often physically outmatched by his foes, he takes quite a beating in every encounter and only emerges victorious due to his stubborn nature or taking risks that further damage his body, slicing his feet on glass shards, tumbling down stairs, getting shot, crawling through ventilation ducts, and defying physics and death alike with a desperate leap from the rooftop with only a firehose as a lifeline!

If anyone knows about McClane’s stubborn nature, it’s his wife, Holly. A driven and determined career woman, Holly moved to Los Angeles with their kids to make a go out of it in the corporate world and, despite McClane’s doubts (and hopes), actually succeeded in her new role. Though warm, kind, and friendly, Holly is sick of McClane’s thick-headed ways and bullish nature; she has no problem calling him out or standing up to him and just wants to be treated with some respect. Although he knows what he needs to do to repair their relationship, McClane struggles to express himself and often falls back on accusations and jealousy, widening the gap between them. When she’s taken hostage, Holly remains calm and composed but brings the same fiery energy when she’s forced to speak up for her fellow colleagues in place of Takagi; even Gruber comments on her dependable and forthright nature, which helps her act as a mediator between the groups in a far more effective way than her coked-up colleague, Ellis. When she learns that McClane is at large in the building and causing Gruber trouble, Holly begins to hope; despite their differences, she knows that McClane will fight to the bitter end to get the job done, but even she is shocked by the state he’s in by the end. While Los Angeles’ finest are often more of a hinderance than help to the fatigued and aggravated McClane, his most vocal supporter outside of the tower is Sergeant Al Powell (VelJohnson), a Twinkie-loving father to be who’s struggling with guilt after accidentally shooting a kid. Alerted to gunfire and a disturbance at Nakatomi Plaza, Powell is horrified by what’s happening inside. Going with his gut, Powell becomes McClane’s primary contact, much to the ire of Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson (Gleason). While Robinson believes McClane is as much of a problem as the terrorists, if not one of them, and prefers to go by the book and suck up to Agent Johnson and Johnson (Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Powell is much more “boots on the ground” and helps McClane stay sane and motivated and to stop and think about the big picture regarding the takeover.

Although he means well, Robinson is clearly not used to being in the field; he refuses to listen to McClane’s warnings and outright criticises his attempts to help and desperately tries to negotiate with Gruber, completely oblivious to the fact that he’s being played for a fool. When the LAPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team try to storm the tower by force, he witnesses a taste of Gruber’s firepower when Gruber’s men shoot out their spotlights and destroy the armoured transport vehicle (APV) with a rocket launcher. Rather than thank McClane for his assistance, which sees him kill several of Gruber’s men with a hastily-constructed bomb, Robinson chastises him for damaging the building, but even his ineffectual nature pales in comparison to the arrogant and self-righteous FBI agents. Even Powell can see that the FBI are just like Robinson, working from a checklist and foolishly believing that they’re in charge of the situation without realising that they’re just expediating Gruber’s plan and causing unnecessary danger. Indeed, the agents are so arrogant that they personally accompany the helicopters to retrieve the hostages, relishing the chance to kick some ass and paying the ultimate price for it when they’re caught in an explosion, despite McClane’s best efforts to ward them off (which almost get him killed!) As if that wasn’t bad enough, snivelling reporter Richard Thornburg (Atherton) learns of the commotion and forces himself into the investigation, doing a deep dive on McClane and his family in order to advance his career. This directly impacts the finale when Gruber learns of Holly’s connection to McClane from Thornburg’s invasive and wholly inappropriate report, which see her kids and family plastered all over the media. This is enough to earn him her undying wrath and she gives him a good sock to the jaw after finally being rescued, proving that her drive to protect her family is just as strong as her husband’s.

So, to say McClane is against the odds is putting it mildly. With only a single security guard on duty, he has no backup inside the building against Gruber’s heavily armed and physically imposing forces. McClane immediately antagonises Gruber’s most brutish henchman, Karl Vreski (Alexander Godunov), after he kills Karl’s brother, Tony (Andreas Wisniewski), in a brutal scuffle. A cold-blooded and merciless killer, Karl swears revenge and his burning need to kill McClane sees him disregard Gruber’s orders, warn his allies not to rob him of his quarry, and ends with him hanging from a chain, seemingly dead because of his vendetta. Gruber’s other most notable ally is Theo (Clarence Gilyard), the group’s wisecracking and enthusiastic tech specialist who happily applies his skills to cracking Takgaki’s safe, seeing it as a personal challenge, and directs his allies in fending off the SWAT team, laughing with glee at how outmatched the LAPD are against their firepower and his intellect. And then there’s Hans himself, a smooth talking, eloquent, unnervingly polite terrorist who commands not just the respect and loyalty of his crew but the attention of every room and scene he’s in. While he’s a reasonable man, Gruber is as psychotic as his underlings when pushed; he thinks nothing of executing Takagi and Ellis and is fully prepared to kill everyone in the building to pull off his heist, despite agreeing to Holly’s terms to treat the hostages humanely. Although positioned and selling himself as a revolutionary terrorist fighting against oppression, he’s actually little more than a common thief as his goal is to steal $640 million in untraceable bearer bonds from Takagi’s vault and abscond to a faraway beach, free from persecution thanks to his elaborate and well-executed plan. While he’s largely the commanding voice of reason and directs his men to focus on the big picture, such as retrieving his C4 explosives rather than wasting time and energy hunting McClane, he didn’t factor a lone New York cop into his schemes and his demeanour noticeably becomes more frustrated the more his operation is scuppered by this smart-mouthed “cowboy”. Gruber even comes face to face with McClane at one point when looking for his detonators and gains a deeper understanding about his foe; though Gruber’s accent and charade are good, McClane shows he’s more than a meathead by seeing through the act, but Gruber matches him at every turn, ordering Karl to “shoot the glass” when he notices McClane’s bare feet and even taking Holly hostage to ensure their escape in the finale.

The Nitty-Gritty:
I’ve never understood the debate regarding Die Hard’s status as a Christmas movie. Every year, memes and posts and arguments rage about whether it “counts” as a Christmas movie when the evidence is pretty clear that it absolutely is a festive film. For starters, it takes place on Christmas Eve and at the Nakatomi Christmas party; that alone is enough to qualify in my book, but we’ve also got an abundance of Christmas decorations (including trees and presents), a hip Christmas song, and a Christmassy jingle laced into the film’s score. For me, all it takes is for a film to be set during the Christmas season for it to be considered a Christmas movie, making the entire debate redundant from my perspective; plus, it’s a great excuse to watch Die Hard while the turkey’s roasting. The Christmas setting is a great excuse to have Nakatomi Plaza be empty save for its partying employees; it also helps set up some great puns and aggrieved commentary from McClane, who regularly laments about how unfair the situation is. Thanks to a combination of fear, adrenaline, anxiety, and his own juvenile nature, McClane provides a running commentary throughout the film to himself, Powell, and his foes. It’s clear he does this to cope with the extreme danger of his situation, but it also showcases his investigative mind as he ponders the accents and gear of Gruber’s gang, chastises his own reckless behaviour and bad ideas at every opportunity, and assaults his enemies with colourful insults as much as bullets and body blows.

Whilst studying for my PhD thesis, I did a lot of background research into action cinema and, unsurprisingly, Die Hard came up quite a bit, especially regarding discussions of masculinity in Hollywood (and, specifically, this genre). For decades, action cinema and gender roles were defined by physicality; masculinity, especially, was embodied by hyper-masculine heroes like Schwarzenegger and Stallone, but this perception was challenged by the AIDS crisis and smaller, less troublesome statures and heroes became more prominent. Thus, not only did Stallone dramatically reconfigure his persona at this time, but McClane represented something very different to his peers; defined “through the voice, more wise-guy than tough-guy” (Tasker, 1993: 239), McClane was a “perpetual adolescent [who seemed] to be playing games”, cracking jokes and carrying “a sense of surprise and confusion that [the] explosive events are happening to him”. He thus personified the more relatable, rugged “Everyman” action hero; proactive individuals who faced danger not just with a fist or a gun but a smirk and a hefty amount of icy dialogue (ibid). However, McClane remains a figure of masculine power like his peers; Barry Grant (2007) noted that McClane survives multiple milestones throughout and ultimately triumphs, believing McClane’s heroics were linked to masculinity, patriarchy and their mythic representations since he conquers a clearly phallic structure, overcomes numerous male henchmen who challenge his masculinity, and ultimately defeats these villains to reclaim both his masculine potency and his wife. Indeed, Die Hard was noted by Steve Neale (2001) to be progressive in these gender codings as “fantasies of class- and gender-based resistance to the advent of a post-feminist/post-Fordist world [and] all the old lines of force and division between races, classes and genders are both transgressed and redrawn”. While you can read gender and political messages into almost any narrative, there’s some really interesting reading on the subject out there, especially in relation to Die Hard. I think what impresses me the most about this is how it allows the film, and this largely dismissed genre, to gain a bit more legitimacy in the eyes of academics; sure, it’s a bombastic action flick filled with blood squibs, wise cracks, and elaborate stunts but that doesn’t stop it from having intriguing academic appeal and opening discussions regarding gender roles.

Indeed, while Die Hard is easily the most grounded and subdued of the franchise, which upped the ante to almost ridiculous (but no less entertaining) degrees, it still has some impressive set pieces, especially for a film set largely in one location. There’s the aforementioned APV assault, which sees the foyer rocked by explosions and ends with an impressive (if slightly dodgy) composite shot of McClane chucking C4 down an elevator shaft. And before this we have fun stuff like McClane blasting Marco (Lorenzo Caccialanza) through a table and then tossing him out a window, where he crashes onto Powell’s car and finally gets the LAPD out in full force. McClane’s fist fights with Tony and Karl are very brutal affairs; McClane takes quite a beating in each case and survives only by the skin of his teeth and is left sweaty and bloodied as a result. The damage he accumulates racks up to the point where he starts to consider that the odds aren’t looking too good in his favour; as he gingerly pulls glass shards from his feet, he tries to confide in Powell, who remains the steadfast voice of encouragement and hope. Things continue to escalate when Theo finally cracks the vault and Gruber enacts his final deception; he agrees to let the hostages go in exchange for safe passage on a helicopter, knowing full well that the FBI will double-cross him and rigging the rooftop landing pad to blow. Thanks to McClane, the hostages get to safety but Johnson and Johnson aren’t so lucky as their chopper is engulfed by the explosion. McClane, however, proves as resourceful as ever, leaping from the roof with a firehose as a makeshift safety line and smashing his way back into the building, narrowly avoiding a fatal fall in the process. Indeed, the film’s title is certainly apt as McClane continually avoids death even when he should probably have died several times over, though this takes a visual toll on his body and his mind as the film progresses, with him becoming noticeably bloodier and more desperate as things escalate.

Thankfully, Powell in on hand to keep him together; their many radio exchanges see Powell shamefully admit to his mistake, which saw him transfer to a desk job and holster his revolver, an emotional arc that reaches a crescendo in the film’s final moments when Powell is forced to shoot Karl dead when he suddenly springs to life, thus allowing Powell to regain his confidence (and, if you want to read it that way, his own sense of masculinity; guns are a very phallic object, after all). After spending the whole movie pretending to be this cultured, intellectual terrorist revolutionary, Holly is disgusted and stunned to learn that Gruber’s simply in it for the money. Although many of his men have been killed by McClane, Gruber finally gets into Takagi’s safe and prepares to make his getaway, taking Holly as his hostage for collateral. However, McClane stumbles out from the embers, exhausted and bloody, to confront Gruber once more; as ever, though, he’s outnumbered and outgunned and dare not make a move since Gruber has Holly at gunpoint. With no other choice, McClane drops his gun and surrenders to Gruber, who prepares to shoot him and mockingly repeats a taunt McClane had flippantly thrown his way earlier, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfuker”, causing them both to break out in laughter. This is all the distraction McClane needs to enact his final, desperate gambit; with his hands behind his head in a submissive gesture, he retrieves a pistol he taped to his back, guns down Eddie (Dennis Haden), and incapacitates Gruber with a shot, despite taking another bullet in the process. This sees the mortally wounded Gruber topple out the window, but he proves as persistent as his nemesis; caught up on Holly’s wristwatch (a gift from Takagi for her hard work), he prepares to shoot McClane only to be sent suddenly plunging to his death when McClane rips the watch from his wife’s wrist, symbolically shedding Holly from her career and returning her into the arms of her grateful and remorseful husband, their relationship having been galvanised by the whole traumatic ordeal.

The Summary:
Christmas is a great time of year. The food, the atmosphere, the presents…and the movies! Every year, I get to re-watch some of my favourite Christmas-themed films and Die Hard absolutely makes that list. Yes, you can (and should) watch it any time of the year but why not at Christmas, when the movie is set? Honestly, this is one of the all-time greats of the genre; more of an action/thriller, the film is a hugely entertaining depiction of one tenacious man’s fight against overwhelming odds and, while it can sometimes feel a little lengthy, it’s very fun and always enjoyable to watch every time. John McClane is a very different type of action hero; he’s vulnerable and flawed and has a smart mouth and a never-say-die attitude. He’s the perfect monkey wrench in Hans Gruber’s meticulous plot to get rich quick and the dichotomy between the two is half the fun of the movie. Even though they share very little screen time together, you can see them both growing more desperate and riled up and eager to take the other out as the film progresses, and this rising tension is both palpable and reflected in the escalating violence and destruction. I loved McClane’s snarky attitude, his quips and one-liners, and the humanising relationship between him and Al Powell, which really helps you remember that these action heroes are just normal people, deep down beneath the machismo. Another thing I love is how raw Die Hard is; it’s grounded and dirty and gritty and it really makes you feel it every time McClane takes a shot or a beating or a fall. Although it’s easy to just turn your brain off and enjoy a good time, I do like how the film invites deeper readings and academic discussion with its depiction of gender, masculinity, and violence. For me, Die Hard has endured the test of time; it reinvigorated the action genre and created one of the best protagonists of action cinema and it’s one of those films I both genuinely look forward to watching time and time again and which just gets better the more you watch it.

My Rating:

Fantastic

Are you a fan of Die Hard? Did you like how it reinvigorated the action genre with a snarky everyman hero or are you a fan of the more over-the-top protagonists? What did you think to Hans Gruber’s plan, his portrayal, and his crew? Did you enjoy McClane’s tenacity and snarky attitude? What did you think to the set pieces? Do you consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie? What are your plans for Christmas Day today? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to comment down before and have a great Christmas!