This article is about the 1988 action film. For other uses, see
die hard.
Die Hard is a 1988 action film and the first in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which was previously made into a 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra. The film was produced by Lawrence and Charles Gordon, along with Joel Silver.
It stars Bruce Willis as NYPD officer John McClane and Alan Rickman as terrorist thief Hans Gruber.
A critical and commercial success, Die Hard propelled Willis' film career and established Rickman as a popular portrayer of villains in American film. The film also started the Die Hard series.
Plot
Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, portrayed in the film as "Nakatomi Plaza".
On Christmas Eve, John McClane (Bruce Willis), a detective with the New York City Police Department, arrives in Los Angeles to try to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly Gennaro (Bonnie Bedelia). McClane is driven to the Nakatomi Plaza building at Holly's company's expense by a limo driver named Argyle (De'voreaux White). McClane is welcomed to their Christmas party and takes a moment to refresh himself from the flight in a bathroom. The party is disrupted by the arrival of a dozen terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), a former German radical activist, who cut all the telephone lines, sealing all entrances and exits, and replaced the building guard with one of his own. Hans and his group quickly secure the party goers as hostages, but McClane manages to quietly slip into the main stairwell of the building without being discovered. Although in Gruber's communications to the police he portrays himself as a terrorist working towards various extremist goals, it is revealed that Gruber is actually trying to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from the Nakatomi vault. When the Nakatomi president Joseph Takagi (James Shigeta) refuses to reveal the code for the first of the vault's 7 locks, Gruber executes him, and then orders Theo (Clarence Gilyard Jr.), his technical expert, to begin breaking through all but the final electromagnetic lock on the vault, promising that he will handle the last lock.
McClane quietly moves through the building, hiding from or killing the terrorists he encounters, and learns more of their motives while acquiring a two-way radio, C4 explosives, and detonators off the body of one terrorist. McClane manages to use the radio to attract the attention of LAPD who send Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson) to investigate. Gruber sends his men, led by Karl (Alexander Godunov), to kill McClane, though he manages to thwart them. Fooled by the impostor guard, Powell is about to leave when McClane drops the corpse of a terrorist onto Powell's police cruiser, alerting him that something is amiss. McClane explains the situation to Powell as the police, led by Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson (Paul Gleason), arrive. The police send in a SWAT team and an armored vehicle. McClane and Powell are unable to prevent the SWAT team from entering an ambush set by the terrorists, but McClane manages to kill the terrorists attacking the SWAT team by destroying a whole floor of the building, utilizing explosives brought by the terrorists. When one of Holly's coworkers, Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner), tries to negotiate McClane's return of the detonators to the terrorists, revealing McClane's name in the process, he refuses, and Hans proceeds to kill Ellis. The FBI arrive, and take control of the situation. They order the electricity of the building to be shut down, which turns off the electromagnetic seal to the vault, allowing the terrorists entry to the vault.
Gruber aims to lure the FBI into another trap by giving them a list of demands including a helicopter to transport his men and the hostages from the roof of the building to Los Angeles International Airport. When McClane finds Gruber working on something below the roof, Gruber puts on an American accent and pretends to be one of the hostages. They share a smoke and McClane gives Gruber a gun (unloaded). Gruber calls the other terrorists, forcing McClane to flee. As Gruber orders the hostages to the roof, he learns from a television report on the terrorist takeover of the building of Holly's relationship with McClane, and personally takes her hostage. When McClane manages to look at what Gruber was doing, he finds the roof rigged with explosives, revealing the use for the detonators - to eliminate all the witnesses, and make it seem that the terrorist team had died. However, before he has a chance to warn the police and FBI, Karl stops him and destroys his radio. McClane manages to seemingly kill Karl, and goes up to the roof to get all the hostages down. McClane is unable to wave off the FBI, but manages to get all of the hostages off the roof before it detonates, destroying the FBI helicopter. McClane meets Gruber, who is using Holly as a human shield, and his final accomplice. McClane only has two bullets, so pretends to surrender, then shoots Gruber and the remaining accomplice. Hans remains standing for a moment, holding Holly's wrist, but then stumbles backwards through a cracked window, dragging Holly with him. While Holly manages to keep most of her body inside the window, Gruber continues holding Holly's wrist and raises his gun at McClane, who approaches the window. McClane unfastens Holly's watch, causing Gruber to lose his grip and fall to his death. At the same time, Argyle manages to subdue Theo, who is in the parking garage preparing for the terrorists to escape in an ambulance.
McClane and Holly are escorted out of the building and meet Powell in person. Karl emerges from the building and is about to shoot John when Powell shoots him—the first time he had drawn his gun since an accidental child shooting. John and Holly thank Powell and are driven off by Argyle, their relationship renewed by their experiences.
Cast
Production
The newly-built corporate headquarters of 20th Century Fox, Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, was used for exterior shots of the Nakatomi building. Die Hard follows its source material — Roderick Thorp's novel Nothing Lasts Forever — closely, much of the film's memorable scenes, characters, and dialogue taken directly from the novel. Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to Thorp's earlier novel The Detective, was written with the intention of being adapted into a film sequel to the film adaptation of The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra turned down the offer to star in the sequel, the story was altered to be a stand-alone film with no connections to The Detective. Other changes included the older hero of the novel becoming younger, the hero's daughter becoming his wife, and the American Klaxon Oil Corporation becoming the Japanese Nakatomi Corporation. The novel's tone is darker and more serious than the film's, and the politically-motivated fighters of the novel became thieves pretending to be terrorists in the film. Director John McTiernan states on the DVD commentary that the change from a tale of political terrorism to a heist film was made because he wanted to bring "joy" to the story, rather than having the villains be overly ponderous.
In the German dub, the names and backgrounds of the German-born terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their British equivalents, though two were turned Italian): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie, Heinrich turned into Henry (in the scene where John is writing down the names of the terrorists, a voiceover in the German version says "I'm gonna call you Hans and Karl, just like the two evil giants in the fairy tale" while referring to them as Jack and Charlie later). The new background depicts them as some internationally organized terrorists having gone freelance and for profit rather than ideals.[1] This was because German terrorism (especially by the Red Army Faction) was still considered a sensitive issue by the German government in the 1980s.
According to commentary from the film'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. The text commentary track also reveals that the shooting script did not originally feature the meeting between McClane and Gruber pretending to be a hostage; it was only written in when it was discovered that Rickman could do an American accent.
Music
Beethoven's 9th Symphony is featured prominently in Kamen's score throughout the film, in many guises and variations. Thematic variations on "Singin' in the Rain" are also featured as the theme for the character Theo. Basing his score around thematic variations on well-known pieces is a conceit that Kamen would repeat in Die Hard 2 (which featured Jean Sibelius's Finlandia) and Die Hard With A Vengeance (which featured variations on the Civil War marching tune, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"). Due to the film's Christmas setting, the score also features sleigh bells in some cues. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is playing during the reception at the party at the start of the film.
Near the beginning of the film, limousine driver Argyle plays the rap song "Christmas In Hollis", performed by Run-D.M.C. and first released in 1987.
The final four minutes were tracked with music from two other Twentieth Century Fox features - these were 'temp tracks' which the studio ultimately decided to leave in the picture. The poignant music heard when McClane and Powell see each other for the first time is from John Scott's score for Man on Fire (1987). When Karl appears with his rifle, a cut from the 1986 sci-fi action film Aliens composed by James Horner is heard. This music can be found on the Aliens soundtrack as the first few minutes of the cue "Resolution and Hyperspace".
In an odd coincidence, similarly to Aliens, the score by Michael Kamen was heavily edited, with music samples looped over and over and cues added to scenes where they didn't belong. The most notable example is the "brass blast" heard when John shoots Marco from under a table and later when Hans Gruber falls to his death.[2]
The score as heard in the film was released by Varese Sarabande in February 2002, but was limited to 3000 copies.[3]
Reception
When Die Hard was released, it was highly acclaimed by critics and was considered one of the best action films of its era. Based on 50 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of critics gave Die Hard a positive review, with an average rating of 8.2/10.[4] It is said to have reinvented the action genre and set the stage for '90s action/thriller films, such as Under Siege, Sudden Death, Cliffhanger, Passenger 57 and Speed.[5] "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, 1994's Speed was called "Die Hard on a bus",[6][dead link] 1996's The Rock was dubbed "Die Hard on an island".[7] However, Roger Ebert gave it a less than flattering review, giving it a mere two stars and criticizing the "stupidity" of the characters and the satirical view the film takes on authority figures.[citation needed]
Die Hard had a budget of $28 million. Released in 21 theaters on July 15, 1988 it widened to 1,276 theaters the following weekend, grossing $7.1 million. The film earned $83 million domestically and $138.7 million worldwide.[citation needed] The film was nominated for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects.[citation needed]
The film spawned three popular sequels: Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007), all featuring Willis as McClane. Die Hard was listed at #39 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list of the most thrilling American films of all time in 2001. In the June 22, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was named the best action film of all time.[8] In 2003, Hans Gruber was listed at #46 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains special. John McClane's catchphrase "Yippee kai yay, motherfucker" was voted as #96 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine in 2007.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Schnittberichte — Stirb Langsam". http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=1105. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
- ^ "Filmtracks: Die Hard (Michael Kamen)". Filmtracks.com. http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/die_hard.html. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ "Die Hard by Michael Kamen". Varesesarabande.com. http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=VCL%2D0202%2D1004. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ "Die Hard (1988)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/die_hard/. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
- ^ Broeske, Pat H.; Jeffrey Wells (Dec 01, 1995). "The 'Hard' Stuff Hollywood is readying a new wave of action thrillers -- Die Hard With a Vengeance's success is spurring imitations, including Daylight, Executive Decision, and Sudden Death". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299795,00.html?printhase.com/. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
- ^ "Die Hard". Foxhome.com. http://www.foxhome.com/diehard/trinity/dh1/. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
- ^ The Movies of the Eighties (1990) by Ron Base and David Haslam.
- ^ ""Die Hard" tops magazine list of best action films". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1448232520070615.
- ^ "" 96. "Yippie-kai-yay, mother@#!%er."". http://www.premiere.com/List/The-100-Greatest-Movie-Lines/96.-Yippie-kay-yay-mother-!-er.".
External links
