Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Steve de Souza and Jeb Stuart, based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. Die Hard follows off-duty New York City Police Department officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) as he takes on a group of highly organized criminals led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who perform a heist in a Los Angeles skyscraper under the guise of a terrorist attack using hostages, including McClane's wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), to keep the police at bay.
Nothing Lasts Forever is the sequel to Thorp's 1966 novel The Detective, which itself had been adapted into a 1968 film of the same name starring Frank Sinatra. Fox was contractually obligated to offer Sinatra the lead role in Die Hard, but he turned it down and the film was instead pitched as a sequel to the 1985 action film Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When Schwarzenegger also turned it down, the film was pitched to, and rejected by, a host of the era's action stars before Willis was chosen. The studio did not have faith in Willis' action star appeal, as at the time he was known for his comedic role on television.
Made on a $28 million budget, Die Hard went on to gross over $140 million theatrically worldwide, and generally received praise from critics. The film turned Willis into an action star, and became a frequent comparison for other action films featuring a lone hero fighting overwhelming odds. The film's success spawned the Die Hard franchise, which includes four sequels, video games, and a comic book.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
On Christmas Eve, New York City Police officer John McClane arrives in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly. McClane is driven to the Nakatomi Plaza building for a company Christmas party by Argyle. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of Hans Gruber and his heavily armed group: Karl, Franco, Tony, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. The group seize the tower and secure those inside as hostages except for McClane who manages to slip away.
Gruber singles out Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi claiming he intends to teach the Corporation a lesson for its greed. Away from the hostages, Gruber interrogates Takagi for the code to the building's vault. Gruber admits that they are using terrorism as a distraction while they attempt to steal $640 million in bearer bonds in the vault. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is executed by Gruber as McClane secretly observes. McClane accidentally gives himself away and is pursued by Tony. McClane manages to kill Tony, taking his weapon and radio, which he uses to contact the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Sgt. Al Powell is sent to investigate, while Gruber sends Heinrich and Marco to stop McClane, but McClane manages to kill both Heinrich and Marco. Powell, finding nothing strange about the building, attempts to leave, but McClane drops Marco's corpse onto Powell's car, alerting the LAPD who surround the building. McClane takes Heinrich's bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators.
A SWAT team assaults the building, but the attack is anticipated, and James and Alexander massacre the SWAT team with rockets. McClane uses the C-4 to blow up the building floor occupied by James and Alexander, killing them both. Holly's coworker Harry Ellis attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators. McClane refuses to return them causing Gruber to execute Ellis. While checking the explosives attached to the roof, Gruber is confronted by McClane. Gruber passes himself off as an escaped hostage and is given a gun by McClane. Gruber attempts to shoot McClane but finds that the gun is unloaded. Before McClane can act, Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive. McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is forced to flee, leaving the detonators behind.
FBI agents arrive and take command of the police situation outside, ordering the building's power be shut off. The power loss disables the vault's final lock as Gruber had anticipated. Gruber demands that a helicopter arrive on the roof for transport—his intention is to detonate the explosives on the roof to kill the hostages and to fake the deaths of his men and himself. Karl finds McClane and the two fight. Meanwhile Gruber views a news report by Richard Thornburg that features McClane's children, causing Gruber to realize that McClane is Holly's husband. The terrorists order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane. McClane seemingly kills Karl and heads to the roof. He kills Uli and sends the hostages back downstairs before the explosives detonate, destroying the roof and the FBI helicopter.
Theo goes to the parking garage to retrieve their getaway vehicle but is knocked unconscious by Argyle who had been trapped in the garage during the siege. A weary McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining men and knocks Kristoff unconscious. McClane surrenders his machine gun to spare Holly, but then distracts Gruber and Eddie by laughing, allowing him to grab a concealed handgun taped to his back. McClane kills Eddie and shoots Gruber in the shoulder, sending him crashing through a window. Gruber prevents himself from falling by holding onto Holly by her watch. McClane manages to release the watch and Gruber falls to his death on the street below.
McClane and Holly are escorted from the building and meet Powell in person. Karl emerges from the building disguised as a hostage and attempts to shoot McClane, but he is gunned down by Powell. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo. Thornburg arrives and attempts to interview McClane, but is punched by Holly. McClane and Holly are driven away by Argyle.
| Spoiler Warning: All spoilers have been stated and have ended here. |
Cast[]
- Bruce Willis as Detective John McClane
- Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber
- Alexander Godunov as Karl Vreski
- Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Gennero McClane
- Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell
- Clarence Darnell Gilyard as Theo
- Paul Gleason as Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson
- William Atherton as Richard Thornburg
- Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis
- Robert Davi as Special Agent Johnson
- Grand L. Bush as Agent Johnson
- De'voreaux White as Argyle
- James Shigeta as Joseph Yoshinobu "Joe" Takagi
- Rick Ducommun as Walt the engineer
- Dennis Hayden as Eddie
- Al Leong as Uli
- Andreas Wisniewski as Tony Vreski
- Taylor Fry as Lucy McClane
- Noah Land as John McClane Jr.
- Bruno Doyon as Franco
- Hans Buhringer as Fritz
- Gary Roberts as Heinrich
- Lorenzo Caccialanza as Marco
- Joey Plewa as Alexander
- Wilhelm von Homburg as James
- Gerard Bonn as Kristoff
Production[]
The development of Die Hard began in 1987, when screenwriter Jeb Stuart was in dire financial straits. His script purchased by Columbia Pictures had been abandoned and a contract at Walt Disney Pictures was not providing him with sufficient income. Stuart had six weeks between contracted work so his agent Jeremy Zimmer contacted Lloyd Levin, the head of development at the Gordon Company, a producing arm of 20th Century Fox.
Levin asked Stuart to work on an adaptation of the 1978 novel Nothing Lasts Forever written by former police officer Roderick Thorp. Thorp had been inspired to write Nothing Lasts Forever by a dream he had—in which armed assailants chase a man through a building—after watching the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. Fox had adapted the book's 1966 predecessor, The Detective, for the 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra as NYPD detective Joe Leland, and purchased the sequel rights before Nothing Lasts Forever had been written.
Levin gave Stuart creative freedom as long as he retained the Christmas-in-Los-Angeles setting; the concept, he considered, would provide an interesting aesthetic. The film was pitched as "Rambo in an office building", referring to the successful Rambo film series. Producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver hired director John McTiernan because of his work with them on the successful 1987 action film Predator. McTiernan agreed to direct on the condition that the film would have "some joy" and not simply contain "mean, nasty acts", seen in other terrorist films.
Stuart began working 18-hour days at his office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which left him exhausted and "on edge". After an argument with his wife, he went for a drive and saw a box in his lane; unable to avoid it, he was forced to drive over it and discovered it to be empty. According to Stuart, he pulled over on the side of the freeway, his "heart pounding". From this, Stuart conceived a central theme of the story of a man who should have apologized to his wife before a catastrophe. He returned home to reconcile with his wife and wrote 35 pages that night. To shape the McClanes' relationship, Stuart also drew upon the marital problems of his peers, including divorces and ex-wives reverting to use their maiden name. Jeb Stuart wrote his initial draft in his office at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
John McClane was named John Ford initially, but 20th Century Fox felt this was disrespectful to the deceased director of the same name. Stuart chose McClane as a "good strong Scottish name", based on his own Celtic heritage. He described the character as a flawed hero who learns a lesson in the worst possible situation and becomes a better, but not a different, person. Having no experience writing action films, Stuart drew on his experience writing thrillers, focusing on making the audience care about McClane, Holly, and their reconciliation. As Stuart pitched his story to executives, Gordon interrupted him, told him to complete a draft, and left the meeting. Stuart finished his first draft just under six weeks later.
Trivia[]
- This film was Rickman's film debut, up until this point he had done mainly stage work
- Willis was the highest paid actor while Rickman worked for free, this was because Willis was big at the time and had to make sure he was paid for.
- Over the years many people consider this a Christmas film while others just think it's an action film.