Yeah, Yeah, I know. I’m coming in late for this one. But I can’t help it. Die Hard is awesome. Aside from being the best Bruce Willis performance ever, the breakout performance of Alan Rickman, and an all-around awesome action movie, it’s a Christmas movie. It isn’t just one of those movie that people call a Christmas movie because it’s set during Christmas. It actually has beats of a Christmas movie. But more on that later. Let’s get into the review now.
Die Hard is a 1988 Action Thriller film directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, and Alexander Godunov as John McClane, Hans Gruber, Sgt. Al Powell, Holly McClane, and Karl Vreski respectively. Released on July 15th with a run time of 132 minutes, the movie has grossed a total of $141.5 million worldwide.
Plot!
On Christmas Eve, NYPD detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, intending to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at the Christmas party of her employer, the Nakatomi Corporation. McClane is driven to the party by Argyle, a limousine driver. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of a German terrorist, Hans Gruber, and his team: computer hacker Theo, Karl and Tony Vreski, Franco, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. The group seizes the tower and secures those inside as hostages except for McClane, who slips away, and Argyle, who gets stranded in the garage.
Gruber interrogates Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi for the code to the building’s vault and reveals that he plans to steal $640 million in bearer bonds, with the terrorist act merely a distraction. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is killed. McClane secretly watches, but accidentally gives himself away and escapes. He sets off a fire alarm in an attempt to alert authorities, so Gruber sends Tony to investigate. McClane kills Tony, pocketing his weapon and radio, which he then uses to alert the LAPD. Sgt. Al Powell is sent to investigate. Gruber sends Heinrich and Marco to stop McClane, who kills them both. Powell arrives and is greeted by Eddie, posing as a security guard. Finding nothing unusual, Powell prepares to leave, but McClane drops Marco’s corpse onto his patrol car to gain his attention while Alexander strafes the car from the building with a machine gun. Powell summons the LAPD, who lay siege to the building. McClane steals Heinrich’s bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators.
James and Alexander use anti-tank missiles to disable a SWAT armored car before McClane drops C-4 attached to an office chair and computer down the elevator shaft, blowing up their floor and killing them. Holly’s coworker, Harry Ellis, attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators. McClane refuses, prompting Gruber to execute Ellis. While checking explosives attached to the roof, Gruber encounters McClane; Gruber masquerades as an escaped hostage. McClane offers him a gun and Gruber attempts to shoot McClane, but the gun is empty. Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive; McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is forced to abandon the detonators.
FBI agents take command of the siege, ordering the building’s power shut off; this, as Gruber anticipated, disables the vault’s final lock. Gruber demands a helicopter on the rooftop for transport, but the FBI prepare to double-cross him by sending helicopter gunships. McClane discovers that Gruber intends to detonate the explosives on the roof, faking the deaths of his team so they can escape with the bearer bonds. While making final preparations, Gruber sees a news report by intrusive reporter Richard Thornburg that features McClane’s children and deduces from a desk photo that McClane is Holly’s husband. The criminals order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane, who defeats Karl in a fight before heading up to the roof, killing Uli in the process. He sends the hostages downstairs as the FBI appear and shoot at McClane, believing him to be a terrorist. Gruber detonates the explosives, destroying the roof and the helicopter; McClane barely survives.
Theo retrieves their getaway vehicle, an ambulance, before Argyle hits the ambulance with the limo and knocks Theo unconscious. A weary McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining men, Eddie and Kristoff. After knocking Kristoff unconscious, McClane confronts Gruber and is ordered to surrender his machine gun. McClane does this to spare Holly, but distracts Gruber and Eddie by laughing, allowing him to grab a concealed pistol taped to his back that contains two bullets. McClane wounds Gruber and kills Eddie with a shot to the forehead. Gruber crashes through a window but grabs onto Holly’s watch. Gruber raises a pistol in a last-ditch attempt to kill the pair, but McClane removes Holly’s watch and Gruber falls to his death.
Outside, McClane and Holly meet Powell. Karl emerges and attempts to shoot McClane, but is killed by Powell. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo to drive McClane and Holly home. Thornburg arrives and attempts to interview McClane, but Holly punches him before she and McClane leave the area with Argyle.
The Cast!
Bruce Willis is an American Actor(age 64) who does a phenomenal job in what can only be described as his best performance in movies ever. It’s not his skill, or his energy, it’s the fact that he feels so natural in this, like he does this in his spare time. That said, he is full of energy in this one, and is clearly giving it his all, unlike his current movies. His career includes: Die Hard 1-5, Unbreakable, Glass, Pulp Fiction, The Sixth Sense, The Fifth Element, Looper, and 12 Monkeys.
Alan Rickman was a British actor(died at age 69) who is awesome in this movie. The fact that this was his first ever film adds to his awesome power, and he gives such an energetic performance in this movie. He competes for the best part of this movie with Bruce Willis, but Bruce is better. Plus, hearing the guy I know as Professor Snape say the F-word is hilarious. His career includes: Die Hard, Harry Potter 1-8, Love Actually, Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland 1 & 2, Galaxy Quest, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
Reginald VelJohnson is an American actor(age 67) who does an awesome job as Al Powell in this movie. He provide moral support to our protagonist, he has a sad backstory, and he is very funny. All in all, he is a quintesential side character, never stealing the spotlight, but always making us laugh. His career includes: Die Hard 1 & 2, Family Matters(TV), Ghostbusters, and Crocodile Dundee.
Bonnie Bedelia is an American actress(age 71) who is kind of wasted in this movie. Really. If you take her out of the movie, it doesn’t change too much. The ending just becomes Bruce Willis taking down Hans. She is only needed to have a reason to bring Willis’s character out to LA. But, nevertheless, she still is fun to watch, as she keeps faith in her husband while everyone else doesn’t. Her career includes: Die Hard 1 & 2, Needful Things, and Salem’s Lot.
Alexander Godunov was an American-Russian actor(died at age 45) who does an ok job of playing a secondary antagonist. His conflict with McClane is understandable, but his last-minute appearance felt tacked -on, and is my least favorite thing about the movie. It was clear the director wanted to give Al something to do. His career is basically just Die Hard.
The Best Scene!
It was really hard choosing a single best scene from this movie, because I think that the movie flows better as a combination of good scenes. But if I had to choose, I would choose the scene where Hans takes Takagi up to his office to get the safe codes. It has some very good quotes from Hans, well-build tension, and a little joke at the end. The tension comes from the fact that Hans is clearly going to shoot Takagi if he doesn’t give the codes up, but Takagi refuses. So Hans kills him. It’s topped off with a little joke, as we see that Karl and the hacker had a bet on whether or not Takagi would give up the codes.
Favorite Overall Thing
My favorite overall thing is easy. The acting choices of Bruce Willis. He just feels so natural in this role, like he’s playing himself. His dialogue with himself is one of the best parts of the movie, and I honestly can’t figure out why. The writers for this movie did a very good job figuring out his character, and Willis nails it here. A close second is the acting of Alan Rickman. He also feels very natural, even if he is playing the villain. The fact that this was his first movie at the age of 42, is just amazing.
Theme And Deeper Meaning!
The theme of this movie, in my humble opinion, is the importance of your loved ones, and not to take them for granted. It is clearly shown to the audience when John Mcclain bangs his head on the wall after fighting with his wife. Actually, Mcclain and his wife interacting with each other is very enjoyable. Also, it fits in well with the Christmas setting. However, there isn’t really a deeper meaning. Sorry. It’s a simple action movie.
The Bad Stuff.
I can only think of two bad things in this movie. Number one: There is no way an ambulance could fit in the back of the truck that carried in the bad guys. Number Two: while it’s an awesome stunt, the scene where Mcclain falls from vent to vent would have broken his fingers and sent him falling to his death. The main bad stuff starts with the sequels, which just get progressively worse and worse.
Wrapping Up.
Die Hard is one of my favorite movies of all time. It instantly made my top ten when I first saw it, and I still love it now. The action is great, the acting is phenomenal, the characters are excellent, and overall, just a very good movie. I highly recommend that you watch it and the first two sequels.
Final Score: 9/10.
The Underage Critic 