Several actors who became popular on television shows have tried to turn that popularity into big screen success which hasn’t always worked. After Moonlighting made him famous, Bruce Willis starting looking for success in movies. After a few that weren’t huge hits, he was launched as an action movie star with Die Hard.

New York City Cop John McClane travels to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife Holly and children for Christmas. She took a job there six months before and John hadn’t wanted to move. He goes to the Nakatomi Building where Holly works and finds that the Christmas party is underway. A group of terrorists led by Hans Gruber arrive and proceeded to take control of the building, making the people inside hostages. John manages to evade capture and sets out to stop Hans and his men on his own. John eventually gets the attention of police officer Al Powell and tons of police showed up. A local reporter, Richard Thornburg, also arrives at the scene determined to get a big story.

Die Hard starts off a little slower as it introduces John and Holly and set up their situation. I don’t think that is boring because it is necessary to set up the plot. It really doesn’t take that long for the action to start since Hans and his men turn up not long after John arrives at the building. From that point on, the pace moves faster without being rushed. The plot is very straightforward even with the subplots related to John and Holly’s trouble and Thornburg going after his story. The movie works very well and has spanned numerous copies over the years, some better than others.  None are as good as this one though.

Everything takes place on Christmas Eve which does add a small amount of influence to the story. The biggest influence the holiday has is the fact that the building is empty except for the people there for the party when Hans arrives. A few Christmas songs are heard and every so often some kind of decoration os shown. For large portions of the movie, there isn’t anything shown or heard to indicate the connection to the holiday.

John ends up in several extremely dangerous situations throughout the movie. Realistically, a person probably wouldn’t survive everything that John does. That doesn’t bother me because I generally don’t look for realism in action movies. John does end up using a bit of humor to help himself deal with what he is facing. He says some very funny things at times that make me laugh every time I watch the movie. The bits of humor do help to lighten the mood more than once.

The action and violence starts off fairly early, shortly after John arrives at the building. There are a lot of shoot outs, usually involving John in some way. He also gets into fights with some of the terrorists. Several people are injured or end up dead. John is hurt many times and is covered in blood later in the movie. This not a movie for people who don’t like violence in movies. It definitely deserves the R rating. This isn’t a movie for children to see either. There is a lot of swearing throughout the movie by several characters. The special effects that are used in a few scenes were well done and have held up well.

John and Holly have been having marriage trouble ever since she took her new job and moved with the kids to Los Angeles. They both still have feelings for each other, but neither one seems to know how to fix things. They could both be defensive, which makes things worse. Once Holly is in danger, John realizes several things. Their relationship is important to the plot without being the main focus. Things may not have worked the same if Holly hadn’t been in danger. Early in the movie, two people are briefly shown having sex in one of the offices. That is it for sex scenes and nudity.

John McClane is in most of the movie, so he is more developed than the other characters. He still loves his wife, but he has been stubborn about certain things. John is the only person inside the building who manages to evade the terrorists and since he is a police officer, he is somewhat equipped to deal with the situation he ends up in. He doesn’t want to be there and would have preferred to leave it to someone else to handle. Bruce Willis is perfect and really fit the part. Bonnie Bedelia is fine as Holly even though she doesn’t have as much to do. Her career and family are both very important to her.

Hans Gruber is ruthless and determined to get what he wants. He has done a lot of planning and is prepared for everything except John. Hans isn’t really sure how to deal with John. Hans isn’t too concerned when one of his men is killed other than being annoyed that it caused him a delay. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill to get what he wants. He is a very good villain, who is as smart as he is deadly, and Alan Rickman is absolutely wonderful in the part. Rickman is chilling in some of his scenes and I love his performance.  Rickman is really good at playing bad guys, but Hans is the best of them all.

Karl is one of the terrorists that stands out from any of the others. That doesn’t mean he is well developed since he is basically just shown being intimidating and trying to kill John. Theo is the only other man working with Hans that stands out. Theo is doing things with the computers and has something very important to handle. Al uis the police officer that John manages to alert. Al stays at the building and has some conversations with John on walkie talkies. Reginald VelJohnson is fine in the part.

Paul Gleason turnes up as Al’s superior, Dwayne T. Robinson, an idiot that doesn’t know what to do other than try to discredit John. Richard Thornton is the arrogant reporter who is determined to get a big story. He doesn’t care who he hurst or what he has to do to get the story. William Atherton is believable in the part.

Main Cast

William Atherton - Richard Thornton
Bonnie Bedelia - Holly
Paul Gleason - Dwayne T. Robinson
Alan Rickman - Hans Gruber
Reginald VelJohnson - Al Powell
Bruce Willis - John McClane

John McTiernan - Director

DVD Information

I first saw Die Hard on VHS and eventually bought a copy of the movie as well. Unfortunately the picture quality was very bad and the faces were very misshapen from making the picture fill a television screen. I picked up the two disc DVD a few years ago. It has the movie in anamorphic widescreen so everything looks much better. I don’t know if there is a full screen version available. The first disc has the movie as well as a commentary with the director. There is also the option to watch the movie with subtitle commentaries.

Most of the extra features are on the second disc. There are two extended scenes and a section that includs some deleted lines and even a few bloopers. Interactive articles related to the movie from different movie magazines are also included. A section called The Cutting Room has options to reedit scenes of the movie. That section also includes something that demonstrats how much of the picture is lost when a movie shot in widescreen is made to fill a television screen. There is a collection of the different newscasts filmed for the movie, including some scenes that didn’t make it into the final movie. I did enjoy the extras that I watched.

Die Hard has held up well and is considered by many to be one of the better action movies ever made. It is definitely worth watching for people that enjoy good action movies. Fans of Bruce Willis should also give the movie a chance.

Die Hard Movies
Die Hard ~ Die Hard 2: Die Harder ~ Die Hard With a Vengeance ~ Live Free or Die Hard ~

Bruce Willis Movie Reviews
16 Blocks ~ Death Becomes Her ~ The Fifth Element ~ Hostage ~ Lucky Number Slevin ~ Perfect Stranger ~ The Whole Ten Yards ~

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD