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Die Hard Trilogy
[ Die Hard ] [ Die Harder ]
[ Die Hard With a Vengeance ]
I have the entire Die Hard Trilogy in letterbox editions on videocassette, a
supercool Xmas gift from my brother last year. During
these football-starved spring and summer months, alternate testosterone boosts are
needed sometimes, and a Die Hard fest does the trick. Therefore, I see these movies
fairly regularly.
Review Date: May 21, 1999
Rating:
This movie defined the image of Bruce Willis that inspired this web site. I remember
when Die Hard first came out thinking (and probably saying a few times) that I didn't
think Bruce could do an action movie. Up to that point, the TV series Moonlighting
and the comedy Blind Date were about all I'd seen him in.
Boy, was I wrong. It's funny, I even refused to see the movie for a while, despite my
friends assurances that it was the best action movie they'd ever seen. And it was. This movie
redefined the action genre. Up to that point, action movies were typically Rambo clones, all
violence, no plot. And of course there were your Schwarzenegger movies, which weren't much
better. (Terminator excluded.) Movies with a plot and some action were called "thrillers."
There were notable exceptions (like the 1st and 3rd Indiana Jones movies, among others), but
in general, action movies were shunned by "serious" moviegoers.
Die Hard changed all that. Here was a movie with solid acting, a great plot, and so much
action you couldn't call it anything but an action movie. Bruce Willis' John McClane
was a very believable character: not a superman, just an "ordinary" cop caught in a crazy
situation and doing his best. Of course, John McClane was far from ordinary, but he was believable.
He was human.
The plot should be familiar to everybody. John goes to the west coast (he's a cop in New York) to visit
his wife Holly Gennero (who's relocated to LA in a career move). He's picked up at the airport by Argyle,
a very friendly, likeable character who drives a limo hired by Nakatomi Corporation (Holly's employer)
to take John to their Christmas party at their new high-rise office building.
There's a very real scene when John and Holly are reunited and are very uncomfortable after being
separated. One of the great things about this movie is the dynamic between John and Holly, played very
well by an actress who I don't remember seeing in any movies other than Die Hard movies. Although they
don't share a lot of screen time, what little they do share is perfect.
John is in the bathroom when terrorists take over the mostly empty building. He goes into hiding, using
elevator shafts, ventilation systems, and floors still under construction to elude the terrorists. He
then begins to take the terrorists out one by one, not deliberately, but in an effort to avoid being
captured or killed. He also attempts to signal law enforcement, finally succeeding by dropping a terrorists
dead body onto the windshield of a patrol car driven by Al.
Here is the other great dynamic of the film, another relationship that is developed with almost no
shared screen time. Al is a "desk jockey" who befriends John over the radio and champions
his cause against the eventual incompetence of the police and the FBI.
Well, you've all seen the movie. I don't have to explain every little bit of it to you. It turns out that
the terrorists, led by Hans Gruber, are actually just very ambitious thieves, out to rob the Nakatomi
building's vault of about $600,000,000 worth of bearer bonds. Bruce is very nearly beat to death by
a big scary German, very nearly shot to death by the FBI, and very nearly blown up on the roof by the
bombs the terrorists have planted. Finally, after saving the rest of the hostages, he goes after Gruber,
who by now has realized that Holly is John's wife and taken her with him as insurance. John has only
two bullets left and, in a very clever move, uses packing tape to attach a gun to his back so that after
apparently giving up and putting his hands behind his head, he is able to distract and shoot the last
two terrorists. Hans, hanging on to Holly's watch, goes through the window on the 31st floor of
the building and nearly drags her with him, but John is able to unlatch her watchband and Hans
plummets amid a shower of bearer bonds.
Finally, they escape the building and John gets to meet Al, the man who's kept him sane through the
ordeal. Suddenly, the big scary German is back, somehow having survived being hung by his neck and
slammed into a wall. Al, who hasn't fired a gun since he accidentally killed a kid years before, shoots
and kills the big ugly. Holly punches an exploitative reporter who scared her children. Argyle, who had
been locked in the parking garage the whole time and who had punched out the get-away driver, picks
up John and Holly to take them home. Everyone lives happily ever after, right?
Sure. That is, until...
Review Date: TBA
Rating:
Review Date: TBA
Rating:
This document copyright 1999 by Jim Behymer
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