This article is about the 1988 action film. For other uses, see die hard. Die Hard is an American action film released in 1988. It was written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, stars Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson and William Atherton, and was directed by John McTiernan. A huge critical and commercial success, Die Hard propelled Willis' film career and established Rickman as a popular portrayer of villains in American film. This article is about the 1988 action film. ...
Image File history File links Die_hard. ...
John Campbell McTiernan, Jr. ...
Lawrence Gordon (born March 25, 1936 in Yazoo City, Mississippi) is an American producer and motion picture executive. ...
Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is a successful Hollywood film producer. ...
Several notable persons are named Charles Gordon: General Charles George Gordon, also known as Chinese Gordon, governor of Sudan and commander of the Ever Victorious Army in China Charles Gordon (producer), producer Charles Gordon (humorist), columnist for the Ottawa Citizen Charles Grant Gordon, pioneering salesman of Scotch whisky for William...
Roderick Mayne Thorp, Jr. ...
James Ewell Brown Stuart (February 6, 1833 – May 12, 1864) was an American soldier from Virginia. ...
Steven de Souza is among the handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the box office. ...
Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany) is an American actor and singer. ...
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is an acclaimed, award-winning English film, television and stage actor. ...
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin (born March 25, 1948 in New York, New York, USA) is an American actress. ...
Alexander Borisovich Godunov (Russian: ÐлекÑандр БориÑович Годунов, 29 November 1949, Sakhalin, USSR — 18 May 1995,Los Angeles, Califorinia) was a Russian ballet dancer and actor, whose defection caused a diplomatic incident between the USA and the USSR. He joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 and rose to become premier dancer before defecting to...
Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald Vel Johnson August 16, 1952) is an American film, stage and television actor, who is perhaps best known for his role as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters and as LAPD Sgt. ...
Gleason in his role as Principal Richard Vernon in 1985s The Breakfast Club Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. ...
Michael Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician. ...
Chris Boardman (born August 26, 1968) is a former English racing cyclist who won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games. ...
Jan de Bont (born October 22, 1943) is a Dutch cameraman and film director. ...
Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ...
is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
// Michael Jacksons first film was Moonwalker Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise Who Framed Roger Rabbit, starring Bob Hoskins Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy Big, starring Tom Hanks Twins, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito Crocodile Dundee II Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis The Naked Gun...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Die Hard 2, sometimes marketed under the title Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is a 1990 film, the second in the Die Hard series. ...
// Michael Jacksons first film was Moonwalker Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise Who Framed Roger Rabbit, starring Bob Hoskins Coming to America, starring Eddie Murphy Big, starring Tom Hanks Twins, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito Crocodile Dundee II Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis The Naked Gun...
Steven de Souza is among the handful of screenwriters whose films have earned over two billion dollars at the box office. ...
Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany) is an American actor and singer. ...
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin (born March 25, 1948 in New York, New York, USA) is an American actress. ...
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is an acclaimed, award-winning English film, television and stage actor. ...
Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald Vel Johnson August 16, 1952) is an American film, stage and television actor, who is perhaps best known for his role as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters and as LAPD Sgt. ...
William Atherton (born William Atherton Knight) is an American film actor. ...
John Campbell McTiernan, Jr. ...
The movie 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 movie starring Frank Sinatra. See also: 1978 in literature, other events of 1979, 1980 in literature, list of years in literature. ...
Roderick Mayne Thorp, Jr. ...
Nothing Lasts Forever is a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp. ...
For the unrelated 1954 Alec Guinness film, see Father Brown (1954 film). ...
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events. ...
Sinatra redirects here. ...
Plot
John McClane, a detective with the New York City Police Department, arrives in Los Angeles to attempt a Christmas reunion with his estranged wife Holly. He is taken by limousine driver Argyle to her workplace, the highrise Nakatomi Plaza. While Argyle waits in the building's parking garage, McClane joins the Nakatomi Christmas party, where he meets Holly's boss Joseph Takagi and sleazy co-woker Ellis. He finally finds Holly and they immediately get into an argument over her use of her maiden name Gennaro. Holly leaves McClane in a small room near the party. John McClane is a fictional character in the Die Hard series of films. ...
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NYPD redirects here. ...
Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...
For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ...
For the song from the band: Brand New, see Limousine (MS Rebridge). ...
A gang led by the suave and refined German terrorist Hans Gruber invades and secures the building, under the pretense of gaining the release of various terrorist operatives. The party-goers are subdued and it is revealed that the group are actually thieves; their plan is to use the false terrorist crisis to cover their theft of millions of dollars in bearer bonds from the building's security vault. When Takagi refuses to provide the vault combination, he is killed and Theo, the gang's technical mastermind, begins disabling the sequential vault locks, warning Gruber that the final electro-magnetic based lock will be impossible to bypass. This article is becoming very long. ...
A bearer bond or bearer security is a certificate that represents a bond obligation of, or stock in, a corporation or other intangible property. ...
Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field, encompassing all of space, which exerts a force on those particles that possess the property of electric charge, and is in turn affected by the presence and motion of such particles. ...
McClane manages to slip away during the round-up of the party-goers, albeit without his shoes. His attempt to summon help via the building's fire alarm brings him into confrontation with gang member Tony. He kills Tony, prompting the man's vengeful brother Karl to lead a hunt for the policeman through the building. McClane captures a radio and manages to convince a skeptical 911 operator to send a patrol unit, and then secures the attention of responding Los Angeles Police Department officer Al Powell by dropping the body of one of his pursuers onto the hood of the officer's car. He also takes a collection of C4 explosives and detonators off the body of another gangmember. LAPD and L.A.P.D. redirect here. ...
C-4 or Composition C-4 is a common variety of military plastic explosive. ...
 Nakatomi Plaza (in real life, the Fox Plaza). The LAPD responds in force, but this merely accelerates Gruber's timetable. With the police led by the incompetent Deputy Chief Dwayne Robinson, Powell quickly proves to be McClane's only useful ally outside the building. A SWAT team and an armored transport are easily and brutally repelled, to which McClane retaliates by bombing two of Gruber's men along with an entire floor of the building with some of the C4. The blast unnerves Ellis who reveals McClane's identity to Gruber with the hopes of negotiating his release. He is murdered when McClane refuses to cooperate. Fox Plaza in Century City, Los Angeles, California as photographed from Avenue of the Stars on March 20, 2005 by user Coolcaesar. ...
Fox Plaza in Century City, Los Angeles, California as photographed from Avenue of the Stars on March 20, 2005 by user Coolcaesar. ...
For the building in San Francisco with the same name, see Fox Plaza (San Francisco) Fox Plaza is a 150-metre (492-foot) high skyscraper with 34 floors in Century City, Los Angeles, California, a local landmark. ...
This article is about Special Weapons and Tactics. ...
An incensed Gruber orders Karl to track McClane down and recover the detonators while Gruber goes up to the roof access, where he finds himself in an unexpected face-to-face confrontation with McClane. Gruber attempts to pass himself off as a hostage; the ruse is distraction enough that Karl and his team surprise McClane in an ambush. McClane kills two more gang-members but is forced to flee, leaving behind the detonators and severely injuring his feet. As he tends his wounds, Powell tells him via radio how, in the past, he had mistakenly shot a child "armed" with a toy gun. His grief had him heading for a career as a desk officer (as he is no longer confident in pulling a gun on anyone).
Outside, the spectacle attracts massive media attention, while the FBI arrives on the scene in the form of two swaggering agents. The duo order the building's power be cut, which serves only to deactivate the final lock on the building's vault, just as Gruber had planned. He "negotiates" with the FBI to release the hostages on the rooftop via helicopter transport. The agents plan on double crossing the "terrorists" with a surprise attack using gunships (with little regard to the hostages' welfare), while Gruber in fact is planning his own treachery; using the C4 to destroy the entire upper structure of the building, killing all the hostages and covering the gang's escape. F.B.I. and FBI redirect here. ...
McClane investigates the roof access, wondering about Gruber's earlier presence in that area. He discovers the primed C4 and tries to alert Powell, only to be cut off by an attacking Karl. After a vicious battle, McClane leaves Karl hanging from a heavy chain. Back outside the building, an irresponsible TV reporter named Richard Thornburg accidentally alerts Gruber to the fact that Holly is McClane's wife. He takes her aside as a special hostage as his remaining men raid the vault and Theo goes to the parking garage to prepare the gang's getaway ambulance. Argyle, who has kept up with events via his limo's radio, rams the vehicle with his limousine and punches Theo unconscious. An ambulance in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico A Helicopter used as an Ambulance. ...
McClane storms the roof, driving the hostages back down to safety with warning gunfire. The FBI mistake McClane for a terrorist and fire at him, while Gruber proceeds with the detonation of the C4. McClane escapes the blast by tying a fire hose around his waist, jumping over the side of the building, and shooting his way in through a window a couple of stories down. The gunship crew, including both FBI agents, are killed. Categories: Stub | Firefighting ...
A battered McClane confronts Gruber one last time high up in the tower, with Holly being held at gunpoint. McClane tricks Gruber with a faked surrender and shoots the villain, who falls from the building to his death. As McClane and his wife leave the building, the seemingly-indestructible Karl reappears one last time, only to be gunned down by Powell. Holly and John are approached by Thornburg, still relentlessly angling for a fresh scoop. Holly punches the reporter and the couple departs the scene in Argyle's battered limo.
Cast Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein, Germany) is an American actor and singer. ...
John McClane is a fictional character in the Die Hard series of films. ...
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is an acclaimed, award-winning English film, television and stage actor. ...
Hans Gruber, portrayed by Alan Rickman, is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the film Die Hard. ...
Bonnie Bedelia Culkin (born March 25, 1948 in New York, New York, USA) is an American actress. ...
Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald Vel Johnson August 16, 1952) is an American film, stage and television actor, who is perhaps best known for his role as Carl Winslow on the sitcom Family Matters and as LAPD Sgt. ...
Alexander Borisovich Godunov (Russian: ÐлекÑандр БориÑович Годунов, 29 November 1949, Sakhalin, USSR — 18 May 1995,Los Angeles, Califorinia) was a Russian ballet dancer and actor, whose defection caused a diplomatic incident between the USA and the USSR. He joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1971 and rose to become premier dancer before defecting to...
Gleason in his role as Principal Richard Vernon in 1985s The Breakfast Club Paul Xavier Gleason (May 4, 1939 – May 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. ...
William Atherton (born William Atherton Knight) is an American film actor. ...
Devoreaux White is an American actor who performed in many films, although he is probably best known for his role in Die Hard in which he plays a chauffeur named Argyle. ...
Hart Bochner (born on December 3, 1956 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. ...
James Shigeta (born June 17, 1933) is an American film and television actor. ...
Clarence Darnell Gilyard Jr. ...
Andreas Wisniewski was born on the July 3, 1959, in Berlin, West Germany. ...
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...
Robert Davi (born June 26, 1953[1]) is an American character actor who tends to play villains. ...
Grand L. Bush (born December 24, 1955) is an American actor of stage, television and major motion pictures. ...
Production - The Nakatomi building is actually Twentieth Century Fox headquarters, and the company charged itself rent for use of the (unfinished) building as if the production were simply another tenant of the building, as well as damages for the destruction of the sidewalk guardrail destroyed by the LAPD armored personnel carrier.[1]
- In the German dub, the names and backgrounds of the German-born terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their British equivalents): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie, Heinrich turned into Henry [2]. The new background depicts them as Irish terrorists having gone freelance and for profit rather than ideals.[citation needed] This was because German terrorism (especially by the Rote Armee Fraktion) was still considered a sensitive issue by the German government in the 1980s.[3]
- According to commentary from the movie'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.
- Whenever Gruber fires his weapon, the scene cuts away. McTiernan did this to avoid showing Rickman's involuntary habit of flinching when the gun recoiled.[4]
- Die Hard was renamed Big Building Fight in Thailand. In Spain, it was renamed La Jungla de Cristal (The Glass Jungle). In Latin America it was renamed Duro de Matar. In Russia film was named Крепкий Орешек (A Hard Nut to Crack). In Poland it was named Szklana Pułapka (The Glass Trap). In Portugal it was named Assalto ao Arranha-Céus (Assault to the Skyscraper). In Norway it was named Aksjon Skyskraper at first, but was later changed to its original name. In France, it was named Piège de Cristal (The Crystal Trap). In Serbia, the film was named Umri Muški (Die like a Man). In Finland, the film was named "Vain kuolleen ruumiini yli" ("Only over my dead body").
Related articles FOX Television Network Fox Searchlight Pictures Fox Entertainment Group List of Hollywood movie studios List of movies Variant of current 20th Century Fox logo External links 20th Century Fox Movies official site Twentieth Century Fox is also the punning title of a song by The Doors on their...
In filmmaking, dubbing or looping is the process of recording or replacing voices for a motion picture. ...
RAF Logo The Red Army Faction (in German: Rote Armee Fraktion; RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was postwar Germanys most active radical leftist paramilitary group, which is widely regarded as a terrorist organization. ...
Music Though composer Michael Kamen is credited for scoring the film, the conclusion at the bottom of Nakatomi Plaza where the character Karl reappears with a machine gun, only to be killed by a very surprised Sargent Powell, features a cut from the 1986 sci-fi action movie Aliens composed by James Horner. The music can be found on the Aliens soundtrack titled "Resolution and Hyperspace". Both Die Hard and Aliens are released through Twentieth Century Fox. Michael Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician. ...
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction/action/horror film starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. ...
James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer of orchestral and film music. ...
Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ...
Reception When Die Hard was released, it was considered one of the best action films of its era. This is probably in part due to the fact that there are few artificial plot points in the story. It is noted for including humor as a complement to the action and dramatic elements of the story. It is said to have reinvented the action genre and set the 90s for action/thriller movies such as Under Siege, Passenger 57 and Speed. "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, for the 1990s action flick, Speed, was called "Die Hard on a bus"[5] The movie was also responsible for creating the "action star" archetype that is a far more fallible and human hero, wearing few pieces of clothing, speaking few words (including "one-liners") and always having a rough look across their face.[6] Die Hard grossed $80,707,729 at the U.S. Box Office.[7] A plot point is a significant or overt action or moment within a plot that creates obstacles, raises the stakes, articulates theme, or complicates things for a protagonist trying to reach an ...
Under Siege is a 1992 action film in the Die Hard mold. ...
Passenger 57 is a 1992 action film starring Wesley Snipes and Bruce Payne. ...
Speed is a 1994 American action film directed by Jan de Bont set in Los Angeles. ...
A one-liner is a joke that is delivered in a single line. ...
It was highly acclaimed by critics[8] and spawned three sequels: Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Die Hard 2, sometimes marketed under the title Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is a 1990 film, the second in the Die Hard series. ...
Die Hard with a Vengeance (also known as Die Hard 3), is the third film in the Die Hard series starring Bruce Willis as policeman John McClane, released in 1995. ...
Live Free or Die Hard (released as Die Hard 4. ...
Die Hard was listed at #39 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list of the most thrilling American movies of all time in 2001. The 100 most heart-pounding American films as described by the AFI on the evening of June 12, 2001. ...
In 2003, Hans Gruber was listed at #46 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains special. // AFIs 100 Years. ...
John McClane's infamous line "Yippee ki yay, motherfucker" was voted as #96 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere Magazine in 2007.
In the 22 June 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was named the best action movie of all time.[9] is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ...
Video games -
Main article: Die Hard games A number of video games based on the Die Hard series of films have been made, including Die Hard Trilogy, Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas, Die Hard Arcade, Die Hard: Vendetta and Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. There was also a NES video game based on the original movie. Screenshot of Die Hard Vendetta, a first-person shooter. ...
This article is about computer and video games. ...
Die Hard Trilogy was the first video game to be officially based on the Die Hard series of action movies. ...
Die Hard Arcade is a 1 or 2 player game in which the male and/or female characters fight through action-packed levels to save the presidents daughter from a band of terrorists. ...
Die Hard is a 1992 video game relesed for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Activision. ...
Sequels Die Hard 2, sometimes marketed under the title Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is a 1990 film, the second in the Die Hard series. ...
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events. ...
Die Hard: With a Vengeance, the third film in the Die Hard series starring Bruce Willis as policeman John McClane, adds Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus Carver, Willis reluctant partner. ...
The year 1995 in film involved some significant events. ...
Live Free or Die Hard (released as Die Hard 4. ...
Amputee boxer Baxter Humby, as Spider-Man, throws a computer-generated punch through the chest of Sandman, portrayed by Thomas Haden Church 2007 has been referred to, by film and media critics, as the year of the threequels, a nickname referring to both the 2004 summer movie season and several...
See also Spy Hard is a 1996 movie starring Leslie Nielsen, parodying James Bond films and other action films. ...
References Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 285th day of the year (286th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...
is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
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Reuters Group plc (LSE: RTR and NASDAQ: RTRSY); pronounced is known as a financial market data provider and a news service that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. ...
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