Die Hard (1988)

John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others that were taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

Roderick Thorp (novel), Jeb Stuart (screenplay)

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia

Top Rated Movies #121 | Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	John McClane
Bonnie Bedelia	...	Holly Gennaro McClane
Reginald VelJohnson	...	Sgt. Al Powell (as Reginald Veljohnson)
Paul Gleason	...	Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson
William Atherton	...	Richard Thornburg
Hart Bochner	...	Harry Ellis
James Shigeta	...	Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi
Alan Rickman	...	Hans Gruber
Alexander Godunov	...	Karl
Bruno Doyon	...	Franco
De'voreaux White	...	Argyle
Andreas Wisniewski	...	Tony
Clarence Gilyard Jr.	...	Theo
Joey Plewa	...	Alexander
Lorenzo Caccialanza	...	Marco

Storyline

NYPD cop John McClane goes on a Christmas vacation to visit his wife Holly in Los Angeles where she works for the Nakatomi Corporation. While they are at the Nakatomi headquarters for a Christmas party, a group of robbers led by Hans Gruber take control of the building and hold everyone hostage, with the exception of John, while they plan to perform a lucrative heist. Unable to escape and with no immediate police response, John is forced to take matters into his own hands.

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Plot Keywords:

one against many | hostage | christmas | terrorist | heist | 

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Taglines:

40 Stories Of Sheer Adventure!

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Italian Japanese

Release Date:

20 July 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

Duro de matar

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles International Airport - 1 World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$28,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$601,851, 17 July 1988, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$83,008,852

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$140,767,956

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,Gordon Company,Silver Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

132 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints) (4 channels)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

John Travolta was considered for the role of John McClane. But 20th Century Fox wouldn't allow it, because Travolta was considered a "has been" at that time. However, Travolta would co-star with Bruce Willis in Look Who's Talking (1989), Look Who's Talking Too (1990) and Pulp Fiction (1994).

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Goofs

When John first enters the Nakatomi building, the security guard tells him to type in the name of the person he's looking for. When John types in McClane, then Gennaro, the guard tells him, "the 30th floor. They're the only ones in the building." If he knew they were the only ones in the building, he could simply have told him that; but he might not have known whether Holly had left for the day or not. Presumably, the computer in the lobby gives its information based on whether an employee is clocked in or not. So if Holly had left (i.e. clocked out) early, it would've told John to come back later or given him a number to leave a message at.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Businessman: You don't like flying, do you?
John McClane: What gives you that idea?
Businessman: You wanna know the secret to surviving air travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and your socks then walk around on the rug bare foot and make fists with your toes.
John McClane: Fists with your toes?
Businessman: I know, I know, it sounds crazy. Trust me, I've been doing it for nine years. Yes sir, better than a shower and a hot cup of coffee.
John McClane: Okay.
[the businessman sees John's gun]
John McClane: It's okay, I'm a cop. Trust me, I've been ...

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Crazy Credits

In the widescreen version, the 20th Century Fox logo is stretched.

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Alternate Versions

In the German dub of the movie, the German terrorists were given English names, for example Hans Gruber became "Jack Gruber", Karl became Charlie, Heinrich became Henry etc. In the scene where McClane writes down the names Hans and Karl on his forearm, we hear him say. "I'm gonna call you Hans and Karl, just like the 2 evil giants in the fairy tale." Later on, he still refers to them as Jack and Charlie.

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Connections

Referenced in Haapasalo Goes America: Episode #1.8 (2014)

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Soundtracks

Jingle Bells
(uncredited)
Written by James Pierpont
Whistled by Bruce Willis

User Reviews

The ultimate thrill-ride – and still the standard by which I judge an action movie

Seeing 'Die Hard' for the first time as a teenager was a one-of-a-kind experience. This level of raw, "edge-of-your-seat" action was unknown to me prior to this film; it made my head spin and the intensity of it was nearly unbearable. When it was over, I could only think of one word: Wow!

For a long time - at least in western cinema - the only "true" action movies (by that I mean films that were all about the action and you went to see them because of the action) were the 'James Bond' movies. They had the most unreal stunts and crazy, over the top action sequences that you could imagine at the time, and they were (and still are) great fun. However, they usually lacked three vital ingredients:

1. A sense of realism (meaning: the hero is only human and can get hurt)

2. Grit (messy, unpolished action, dirty people and LOTS of swearing)

3. R-rated violence (showing the audience what real weapons do to the human body)

Well, it took John McTiernan to bring those three key elements together in 'Die Hard' - and thus the modern action film was born (it had a good run through the late eighties until the end of the nineties – then the studios figured out they could maximise the box-office by taming down the swearing, violence and sex and thus, alas, the contemporary, toothless PG-13 action film was born). Sure, there have been a couple of others before McTiernan's masterpiece ('First Blood', 'Terminator', 'Predator' - which was also by McTiernan - or 'Lethal Weapon' and probably some more), but those films could have fallen into any number of other categories as well ('Adventure-/Survival-/War-', 'Sci- Fi', 'Horror-' or 'Buddy-movie') – and I can't think of another film that was just such a relentless, pure-action-from-the-beginning-to-the-end film as was 'Die Hard'. To me, it's the ultimate thrill ride. The formula has since been repeated so many times, but the original still sets the standard by which I judge an action film. Should be seen every Christmas. 10 stars out of 10.

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