Die Hard is the first movie in the Die Hard series. It was released on July 15, 1988 and was written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza and directed by John McTiernan. It was a huge critical and commercial success and propelled the careers of many of the stars. It is still considered one of the greatest action movies of all time, and continues to be relevant in pop culture.

In the film, NYPD detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) must fight a group of well equipped terrorists led by former Volksfrei radical Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), all of whom have seized the Nakatomi Plaza on Christmas Eve to rob a corporate vault containing 640 million dollars in bearer bonds. McClane must make sure his wife Holly Gennero (Bonnie Bedelia) and the other hostages stay safe while helping LAPD sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) control the situation. Meanwhile, unscrupulous journalist Richard Thornburg (William Atherton) unknowingly makes things harder for McClane.

The movie is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever.

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Script Edit

Click here for the original movie script.

Plot Edit

On Christmas Eve of 1988 John McClane sits on a flight headed towards Los Angeles , California. A fellow passenger notices he is stressed about the flight and recommends that he make barefoot fists with his toes on the carpet after he arrives to his destination as a cure for jet lag. The passenger tenses up when he sees John's Beretta 92 pistol, but John assures him that he is a cop. After landing and collecting his luggage, John goes to a limo. The driver, Argyle drives him to Nakatomi Plaza and on the way roots out that John still works as a police detective in New York City but that his wife, Holly Gennero , relocated to California for a great career. Both John and Holly thought the other would bend and move to join the other, but they are both too hard headed.

Meanwhile, at Nakatomi Plaza, Joe Takagi addresses the employees of the Nakatomi Corporation at their company Christmas party in the Floor 30 foyer. He announces that day was one of the most successful days in the company's history. Holly Gennero walks through the crowd, finishing up some paperwork. As she walks down a hallway, her obnoxious co-worker Harry Ellis flirts with her. When she arrives at her office, she excuses her pregnant secretary Ginny to go join the party and shows Harry the door as well. She then speaks with her young daughter Lucy and nanny Paulina on the phone about John's arrival, stating that she isn't certain if he made his flight or not. She looks at a photo of her, John, and their children, sighs, and then places it face down on the shelf out of frustration.

When the limo reaches the skyscraper, Argyle tells him he will wait in the parking garage until the end of the party. John uses a computer to find out that Holly has changed her last name to her maiden name, Gennero. He takes the elevator to the 30th floor and meets Joe Takagi who shows him to Holly's office. In the office sits Harry Ellis, who obviously finished snorting cocaine moments earlier. John informs him that he "missed some", and Harry quickly brushes his nose with his fingers. Holly enters, and the two jilted lovers give each other a subtle greeting across the room. Harry informs John that Holly just closed the biggest deal in the company's history and received a new Rolex watch. Joe and Harry leave as John asks for a place to wash up. As John washes up, the two comment that they missed each other but quickly begin arguing about Holly's decision to move to California. They are interrupted by Ginny, who requests Holly join the party.

Outside, a Pacific Courier Truck pulls into the garage. Karl Vreski and Theo approach the security guard at his desk while Theo talks about basketball nonchalantly, and Karl shoots the guard in the forehead with a suppressed Walther PPK pistol. Theo hops over the desk and begins using a computer to shut off all the elevators in the building except one, as well as sealing all the exists to the garage and the building. Karl uses a flash grenade and his machine gun to take out the other security guard. In the garage, Hans Gruber and the rest of the team of terrorists exit from the back of the courier truck. Hans seals the front door while Eddie puts on the guard's jacket and mans the desk. Tony Vreski makes his way to the telephone junction boxes and begins patching in to the system. He barely finishes patching in before his brother Karl uses a chain saw to cut through all the phone cords to prevent any calls from leaving the building.

Meanwhile, a barefoot John is making fists with his toes and is surprised it is working to cure his jet lag. He calls Argyle but is cut off (by Karl's cutting of the phone lines). Hans and some of his henchmen arrive via elevator to the Christmas party and begin firing at the ceiling to capture everyone's attention. John hears the gunshots and is able to sneak out of the office into the stairwell with his police-issued handgun. He nearly enters floor 31, but notices other henchmen wheeling equipment through the hallway. He continues up to Floor 32 which is under construction, where he tries to gather his thoughts and think of a way to alert authorities.

In the foyer, Hans informs the Nakatomi Corporation employees that he is going to teach the company a lesson on "the real use of power" because their company has "a legacy of greed". He calls out for Joe Takagi, but Holly tells Joe to stand back. He steps forward after Hans lists several detailed facts about his life. Hans greets him and the two take the elevator to Floor 34. In the board room, Theo asks Takagi for the CEO daily key code and encryption number. Takagi insists that he doesn't have them, and even if he did they couldn't steal any information that would hurt the company. Hans corrects him that they aren't after information, but the $640 Million in bearer bonds in the company's vault. John McClane enters from the stairwell and overhears the interrogation of Takagi. Hans gives Takagi to the count of three to give him the codes, but he refuses. Hans shoots him in the head, orders Tony to dispose of the body and Theo to begin hacking into the vault. John makes a noise as he escapes from the room, but the terrorists don't find him and dismiss the noise. In the garage, Argyle listens to loud music in the limo, talking to a girl on the phone.

Heinrich, Marco, and Uli work in a room full of the building's heating and cooling machinery. They wire the room with what appears to be explosives. Theo and Hans walk to the vault while Theo explains the vault's seven layers of security. He stresses that he can complete the first six, but that the seventh lock, a electromagnetic system, can not be cut locally. Hans guarantees he has a plan. John curses at himself on Floor 32 and suddenly comes up with a plan: pull the fire alarm. Eddie informs Hans of the alarm, and Hans orders him to call 911 to disable the alarm and turn off the system. John celebrates the approaching fire trucks but gets angry when they turn off their sirens and turn around. Tony enters the room and John hides. He searches for John in the labyrinth of the construction. The fight, crashing through drywall and aluminum beams and stumble down a stairwell. Tony dies in the fall.

In the vault, Theo bypasses the first level of security and begins using a drill to proceed the heist. John takes Tony's radio, lighter, and machine gun. He then dresses up Tony's body on a chair in the elevator and sends it down to the Christmas party. Hans frightens the party by telling them that Mr. Takagi has been killed, but is interrupted by the arrival of Tony's body. He is angered by the message on Tony's sweatshirt: "Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho." Riding on top of the elevator, John listens to the terrorists and takes notes on his arm. He rides the elevator to the top floor and sneaks out to the roof. He uses the CB radio to call out on frequency 9 but is chided by the 911 operator. He yells at her to send help, but Karl and others begin shooting at him, prompting him to evade. The operator decides to send a sole officer to investigate. Al Powell receives the call while buying Twinkies for his pregnant wife.

On the roof, John evades the gunfire and makes his way into a dead-end closet with a large ventilation fan. He blocks the fan with his gun, climbs through, and evades the terrorists back to Floor 35. Still pursued, he is cornered in the elevator shaft and must climb down the ventilation shaft to Floor 34. He uses his machine gun and its strap to climb down the ventilation shaft, but the strap slips free from the gun and he falls a couple of floors. He manages to catch himself on a ledge and climb into a horizontal vent. He uses the lighter to see in the vent, but Karl sees the light and follows him to Floor 31. Karl shoots at the ducts and begins pressing them to check for body weight, but is called away by Fritz before he finds John.

McClane exits the shaft and watches as Al enters the building and is fooled by Eddie disguised as a security guard. John attempts to break the window with a chair but is spotted from the roof, so Marco and Heinrich run to stop him. Marco appears to surrender, but John shoots Heinrich when he runs in. Marco then traps John under the conference table by standing on top and shooting toward the ground. At the end of the table, John reloads his weapon and shoots Marco through the table, killing him. He sees Al leaving the building and throws Marco's body on his car to alert him that there is trouble. Alexander opens fire on Al's squad car with a M60E3 machine gun and Al calls for backup and while in a frenzied escape attempt, backs over a retaining wall. He is jostled, but is able to walk out of the car. In a news equipment room, journalist Richard Thornburg overhears the call for help on a police scanner. He argues with a news producer and insults a news host seconds before he goes on the air, and is given a truck to investigate the story.

As police arrive at Nakatomi Plaza, John harasses Hans over the radio. Hans insults him for watching too many cowboy shows on TV, but John takes it as a compliment, insisting he likes Roy Rodgers. He then signs off by saying "Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker!". Hans gets a status report from his men, and learns that Theo is making good progress on the vault, but that Heinrich's bag of detonators has been taken by John. He orders Fritz to retrieve the detonators. Al radios John, who briefly explains what is happening. Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson arrives, insults Al, and takes command.

Hans, who has chosen Holly's office as a command post, is approached by Holly who makes two simple demands: a couch for Ginny and that the terrorists let the hostages use the bathroom. She makes sure to use "Gennero" so that she can't be linked to John. Argyle turns on the TV in the limo and notices that the building he is under is under siege. He looks for an exist from the garage but finds himself trapped, but turns on his CB radio to overhear John and Al's conversation. The police set up spotlights and send a four man team to enter the building. John is recommended by Al to sit tight, but he knows the terrorists have extremely heavy artillery. Uli and Eddie fire at the team as they try to break in the front door so the police department sends in an RV to rescue the men. Hans orders James and Alexander to take down the tank with a rocket launcher. He then orders them to hit it with another rocket, upsetting John enough to throw some C4 down the elevator shaft, blowing up the entire second floor and killing James and Alexander.

The police and Thornburg look on in amazement. Deputy Chief Robinson takes the radio from Al, but John insults him and informs him that he will only speak with Al. Back in the foyer, Harry is getting antsy so he snorts more cocaine and gets up to talk to Hans. He tells Hans that he can get John to cooperate. He gives Hans John's name and occupation and uses Hans' radio to talk to John. Thornburg sends an assistant to look up McClane's information while Harry tries to convince John to give over the detonators. Harry pretends that he is John's good friend but he doesn't recognize that Hans plans to kill him if John didn't cooperate. John struggles to barter with Hans to spare Harry, but Harry sticks to pretending. John refuses to respond to Harry's friendly requests to give back the detonators so Hans shoots Harry. Thornburg orders his assistant to research the name "John McClane" they overheard.

Everyone inside and outside the building is shocked. Robinson dismisses Al to go home, but he refuses to leave until the situation is resolved. Robinson believes Harry would still be alive if John turned himself if, but John radios back with his own opinion on the matter. Hans finally addresses the police and begins to list the names of "fellow freedom fighters he wants released from prisons around the world. He also orders a helicopter to take him and the hostages to the airport. John and Al don't buy the story and realize that something else is afoot. Special Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson arrive from the FBI and take over control from Deputy Chief Robinson.

Hans inspects the explosives in the mechanical room and is cornered by John. He decides to pretend to be an escaped hostage and John believes it. On Floor 33 John gives him a handgun which Hans pulls on him instantly. John tries to get him to reveal his plan, but Hans pulls the trigger rather than spoiling his plot. The gun was never loaded, but before John can arrest or shoot Hans the elevator arrives with Karl, Franco and Fritz. John manages to shoot Franco and Fritz, but runs out of bullets. Hans, knowing John is barefoot, has Karl shoot the glass walls of the office John is trapped in. They use a flash grenade but John has vanished by the time the smoke has cleared. He left the bag with the detonators.

Hans gives Uli the detonators and Karl smashes some decorations at the Christmas party. Holly celebrates his anger, taking it as a sign that John is still alive. John slinks into a bathroom with bloody feet which he begins to clean and bandage. Theo informs Hans that he has broken through the first six levels of the vault's security and that he is ready for Hans to disengage the final electromagnetic lock. Thornburg's assistant brings good news to Thornburg, telling him that she knows John McClane's records and his LA address. As Al tries to keep an injured John company over the radio, Theo and Hans realize that the FBI is planning on cutting the power to the building. Theo smiles, realizing that the electromagnetic lock will disengage when the power is cut. Special Agent Johnson instructs a power company worker to turn off the power for a ten block radius around Nakatomi. The FBI celebrates, Robinson worries that the mayor will be upset about the cut power, Al complains about the FBI's predictable behavior, and Hans and Theo celebrate as the vault opens.

John asks Al to tell his wife goodbye should anything happen to him, but Al tells him to pull through it. Thornburg arrives at Holly's house and threatens Paulina to let him talk to the children. John waddles back to the machinery room and finds the large amount of C4 wired to blow up the roof. He radios Al, but is caught by Karl. Karl takes John's radio and gun, but John throws a punch and the two begin to fistfight, agreeing that it is personal for both of them. Hans watches a small TV and recognizes the children Thornburg is interviewing. He then picks up the face-down family photo of the McClanes and approaches Holly. He fires the gun into the air, orders all the hostages to the roof, and takes Holly with him to the vault. She chastises him for being nothing but a crook when she realizes he's simply robbing the vault.

Karl holds the upper hand of the fight, but John manages to get in some good hits. Karl is able to get his hands on a gun, fires, and grazes John's shoulder as he escapes through a doorway. Karl follows but John gets the upper hand, knocking the gun free. The two continue to wrestle and throw punches up a staircase until John wraps some chains around Karl's neck, pushing him over the railing. He then pulls the other end of the chain along a track, causing Karl's hanging body to zip across the room and slam into a wall. Karl hangs from the chain.

Two Army helicopters approach Nakatomi Plaza. Special Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson ride in one of them, commenting that they plan on ambushing the terrorists and that they would be happy with a 25% hostage loss rate. Uli and Eddie usher all the hostages to the roof, and John kills Uli as he chases the hostages, searching for Holly. Ginny tells John that Holly is with Hans. Trying to warn the helicopter not to land and to get the hostages away from the explosives, John begins firing Uli's machine gun in the air. The hostages run back down into the building, but the FBI in the chopper's M60 machine gunner begins firing at John, mistaking him as one of the terrorists. John manages to make it to a hidden edge, yelling: "I'm on your side you assholes!", and uses a ties a fire hose to his waist and jumps off of the building. As he jumps, Eddie informs Hans that the hostages have returned to the 30th Floor in a panic, so Hans pushes the trigger for the explosives. The explosion engulfs the FBI helicopter, sparing McClane's life from Special Agent Johnson, who was about to kill him with a Steyr SSG 69 sniper rifle. The fire hose reel snaps from the wall and follows John off the roof. He manages to shoot through a window and land before it falls, but after it passes his floor, the weight of the reel starts to pull him out of the window. He manages to untie the hose in time.

The helicopter falls and explodes outside the 30th and surrounding floors, setting the foyer on fire. The elevator is affected by the blast and blows out the wall of the 30th floor. John follows his wife's screams to the vault, where Hans is in a hurry to finish loading all the bearer bonds. Along the way he notices a mail cart with tape and other supplies and discovers he only has two bullets left. In the garage, Argyle notices Theo dressing as a paramedic and unloading an ambulance from the back of the Courier truck, which they will use to make their escape. He rams the ambulance with his limo, then rushes to the car and punches Theo unconscious.

As Kristoff runs a stack of bonds down the hallway, John realizes that he only has enough rounds in his pistol to kill Hans and Eddie, and uses the butt of Uli's empty MP5 to knock Kristoff unconscious. John takes his time as he slowly walks down the hallway toward the vault. Hans holds his Heckler and Koch P7M13 to Holly's head and orders John to drop his machine gun. Eddie picks up another MP5, but Hans instructs him not to shoot because he wants to kill McClane himself. Hans mocks John for being a "cowboy", and points his gun at him. John holds his hands behind his head and starts laughing, and Hans and Eddie join in, knowing his situation is futile. At that moment, John grabs his handgun which is taped to his back, fires one shot through Eddie's forehead, killing him; and another at Hans, hitting him in the shoulder. Hans falls out the window but manages to hold onto Holly's new Rolex wristwatch. Hans slowly aims his gun at John and Holly, but John manages to unclasp the watch before Hans can shoot, sending Hans plummeting to his death on the ground, 30 stories below.

In the rubble outside, John meets Al and they both hug and thank each other. Robinson approaches and chews out McClane for the damage of the building. John is just about to punch Robinson in the face when a bloodied Karl exits the building and aims his Steyr AUG assault rifle at John and Holly. As John shields Holly, preparing to get shot, Al finally gets the courage to draw his service revolver and shoots Karl dead. Argyle rams his limo through the garage's gate, and John and Holly walk toward his limo. On the way, they are stopped by Thornburg for an interview. Holly punches him in the face for giving her identity to the terrorists and the couple kisses as Argyle drives them away from a damaged and burning Nakatomi Plaza.

Cast Edit

Law enforcement Edit

Hostages Edit

Terrorists Edit

Others Edit

Production and distribution Edit

The Nakatomi building is actually Fox Plaza (Twentieth Century Fox's headquarters), and the company charged itself rent for use of the (unfinished) building as if the production were simply another tenant of the building, as well as damages for the destruction of the sidewalk guardrail destroyed by the LAPD armored personnel carrier. According to commentary from the movie's DVD release, Alan Rickman's surprise when Gruber is dropped from the building is genuine: the director chose to release Rickman a full second before he expected it in order to get genuine surprise, a move which angered Rickman. Whenever Gruber fires his weapon, the scene cuts away. McTiernan did this to avoid showing Rickman's involuntary habit of flinching when the gun recoiled.

In the German dub, the names and backgrounds of the German-born terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their British equivalents): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie, Heinrich turned into Henry. The new background depicts them as radical Irish activists having gone freelance and for profit rather than ideals. This was because German terrorism (especially by the Rote Armee Fraktion) was still considered a sensitive issue by the German government in the 1980s.

Because the title of the movie is an idiom somewhat unique to the English language, it has been changed for different market releases to an extent rarely seen. It was renamedin Thailand. In Spain, it was renamed). In Latin America it was renamed), since "Die Hard", does not translate well. In Russia the film was named

(word-for-word — Hard Nutlet). In Poland it was named Szklana Pułapka (The Glass Trap). In Portugal it was named Assalto ao Arranha-Céus (Assault to the Skyscraper). In Greece it was named Πολύ σκληρός για να πεθάνει (Too tough to die). In Norway it was named Operasjon Skyskraper, which translates into "Operation Skyscraper". It was later changed to its original name. In France, it was named Piège de Cristal (The Crystal Trap). In Yugoslavia, the film was named Umri Muški (Die like a Man). In Romania, it was renamed Greu de ucis (Hard To Kill, like the Latin American title). In Finland, the film was named Vain kuolleen ruumiini yli (Only over my dead body). In Germany, the title was Stirb langsam (Die Slowly). The Hungarian title was Drágán add az életed (Give your life expensive). In Estonia, the title was translated to Visa Hing (Sturdy Soul). In Israel, the title was translated to מת לחיות (Dying to Live). In Czech Republic, the title was translated to Smrtonosná Past (Lethal Trap). In China it became "終極警探" ("Ultimate Detective").

Reception Edit

When Die Hard was released, it was considered one of the best action films of its era. This is probably in part due to the fact that there are few artificial plot points in the story. It is said to have reinvented the action genre and set the 90s for action/thriller movies such as Under Siege and Passenger 57. "Die Hard on a _____" became a common way to describe the plot of many of the action films that came in its wake. For example, for the 1990s action flick, Speed it was called "Die Hard on a bus"[2] The movie was also responsible for creating the "action star" archetype that is a far more fallible and human hero, wearing few pieces of clothing, speaking few words (including "one-liners") and always having a rough look across their face.[3] Die Hard grossed $80,707,729 at the U.S. Box Office.[4]

It was highly acclaimed by critics[5] and spawned four sequels Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

"Yippee Ki Yay Motherfucker" in the movie was voted as the #96 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine in 2007.

In the 22 June 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was named the number one best action movie of all time.[6]

Trailer Edit

Sequels Edit

Video games Edit

A number of video games based on the Die Hard series of films have been made, including Die Hard Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas, Die Hard Arcade, Die Hard: Vendetta, and Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. The original Die Hard video game was created for the NES, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS platforms, and based on the original movie. Japan also got a Die Hard Game for the PC Engine (Turbo Grafx in USA) and there were two PC games released.

Trivia Edit

The movie poster indicates that there are twelve terrorists. That is incorrect : there are thirteen terrorists in total. Even some characters in the movie make this mistake.

The lobby scene near the beginning of the film doesn't really make sense. When McClane asks the guard at the desk where he can find Holly McClane, the guard replies by telling him that he can find her by using the database computer mounted in front of the desk. When McClane finds Holly under 'G' for 'Gennero', it shows her being on the thirtieth floor... but then the guard proceeds to tell McClane that the people on the thirtieth floor are the last ones left in the building, which means that McClane wasted his time by looking for Holly in the database to begin with. The guard could have simply told him that Holly would be at the party on the thirtieth floor and he would have saved McClane the trouble of looking her up.

Theo is one of the only henchmen characters in the entire Die Hard series not to be confirmed dead or alive by the end of the film (the other being Kristoff). It's plausible to assume that Theo survived, as he was only punched by Argyle and did not suffer any gunshot wounds or really any truly life threatening injuries. The only serious injuries Theo may have sustained would have likely been as a result of Argyle running into the ambulance Theo was moving to prepare for extraction.

Karl is incredibly durable. Throughout the climactic fight he has with McClane, Karl suffers from several life threatening injuries, and at the end of the fight, McClane even hangs him by the neck with an industrial chain. Even if Karl managed to survive that, he was still stuck on the floor where the explosives had been planted, and Kristoff even confirms this when Gruber tells him to detonate the roof (saying, "But Karl's up there!" ). The explosives are detonated anyways, as Hans ordered. Even after all of that, Karl is still alive, and when he's rolled out of the building on a stretcher, he gets up, and he attempts one last time to kill McClane to avenge his brother (Tony), who was the first henchmen killed by McClane. This scene was comedically referenced to by the character of Danny in Last Action Hero, another film that McTiernan directed.

). The explosives are detonated anyways, as Hans ordered. Even after all of that, Karl is alive, and when he's rolled out of the building on a stretcher, he gets up, and he attempts one last time to kill McClane to avenge his brother (Tony), who was the first henchmen killed by McClane. This scene was comedically referenced to by the character of Danny in Last Action Hero, another film that McTiernan directed. It's become a running joke that Reginald VelJohnson has basically only been noticed in roles where he plays a police officer in uniform, and his role as Al Powell in Die Hard was no exception to this. In addition, his role in Die Hard was arguably his most overall significant cop role on the big screen, as his character has a rather large part in McClanes survival, and is also the first officer to report the Nakatomi building to be under some kind of attack by a group of heavily armed terrorists.

The scene where Hans and John meet face to face wasn't originally in the script, and was added in during production. Throughout the production, both Steven de Souza, one of the writers on Die Hard , and McTiernan were struggling to find out how they could have McClane and Hans meet face to face in a believable way. de Souza was at lunch on set one day when Alan Rickman was there joking around doing different voices and imitations, and this gave de Souza an idea. He talked to McTiernan, suggesting that they write in a scene where Gruber uses an American accent to fool McClane into thinking that he's a hostage. McTiernan was initially hard pressed to say yes, as the scene where Hans kills Takagi had originally revealed Gruber's face to McClane. That scene hadn't yet been shot, however, and de Souza said it could simply be modified so McClane could see Takagi, but not Gruber's face.

, and McTiernan were struggling to find out how they could have McClane and Hans meet face to face in a believable way. de Souza was at lunch on set one day when Alan Rickman was there joking around doing different voices and imitations, and this gave de Souza an idea. He talked to McTiernan, suggesting that they write in a scene where Gruber uses an American accent to fool McClane into thinking that he's a hostage. McTiernan was initially hard pressed to say yes, as the scene where Hans kills Takagi had originally revealed Gruber's face to McClane. That scene hadn't yet been shot, however, and de Souza said it could simply be modified so McClane could see Takagi, but not Gruber's face. Die Hard employed 37 stunt men, not all of the movie’s seemingly death-defying stunts were done by doubles. Director John McTiernan recalled, “The first time we got to the point in a scene where you would insert a stuntman, I told Bruce he would only have to take it up to here, and he then could go sit down. He said, ‘No, I want to do it.’ And all of a sudden, you saw that New Jersey street kid in him come out. It’s not that he did anything dangerous, but it was a side that he had not shown us before.” Since Die Hard was Bruce Willis’ first action role, the stunts were more challenging than any he had attempted before. Nevertheless, Willis was game. “First off, I think doing my own stunts whenever possible adds a lot to the production value of the film,” Willis said. “John can get the camera close, because he doesn’t need to disguise the stuntman. But on a personal level, it satisfies the little boy who still lives in me who gets to shoot guns, kill the bad guys and be a hero while doing jumps and falls and swinging from ropes.” Director McTiernan was pleased that both Willis and Rickman were willing to do some of their own stunts, but since the actors were generally well-protected and attached to harnesses, he was never terribly worried about their safety. “For example, when you fire a weapon, you have to use ear protection for the actor and ear and eye protection for everyone out front,” he explained. “I get asked all the time about how dangerous it was to shoot Die Hard. Part of the nonsense of shooting a movie is that you have to pretend that it was incredibly dangerous. It’s basically a sales illusion. These are movies made by a major corporation that have to function in the real world of lawyers and insurance policies and lawsuits and all that sort of stuff, so you don’t do things that are dangerous. If they are dangerous, by definition you can’t do it — and certainly not with a star.” McTiernan continued, “Often, stars will talk about the incredibly dangerous things they did, and I suppose many times the things they do are at least frightening. For an inexperienced person getting into it for the first time, it’s scary. But if you have a stunt, you have to work it out to the point where you are pretty damned certain of how it’s going to work and that it is safe.” Nonetheless, McTiernan wasn’t entirely worry-free while filming Die Hard. “Most of my nightmares were not to do with anyone getting hurt by a stunt, because the precautions were so heavy,” he said. “I was more concerned that a stupid accident might happen, that a crew member might fall off the building. I literally had these nightmares, and would come in the next morning screaming and insisting on limited access to the roof. So they thought I was the sissy, but I just didn’t want to have to talk to somebody’s wife.” Though Bruce Willis enjoyed the adventure of doing his own stunts, he admitted that it wasn’t easy. “It was a stretch for me,” he said. “Every day, I felt like I had been in a fight.” Even so, Willis believes the benefits of doing his own stunt work are worth the pain. In fact, he still did much of his own stunt work 20 years later, in Live Free or Die Hard. “Do the math,” said the 52-year-old Willis. “It was still fun, but really difficult. I thought I was in shape, but I had to get in a little bit better shape. AMC 2008 Blog Post

See also Edit

References Edit



