Die Hard/Characters

John McClane (Bruce Willis)
"John McClane: You know what you get for being a hero? Nothin'. You get shot at. You get a little pat on the back, blah, blah, blah, attaboy. You get divorced. Your wife can't remember your last name. Your kids don't want to talk to you. You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me, kid, nobody wants to be that guy. Matt Farrell: Then why you doing this? John McClane: Because there's nobody else to do it right now, that's why. Believe me, if there were somebody else to do it, I'd let them do it, but there's not. So we're doing it."
 * Anti-Hero: Type III. He drinks, smokes, curses, bloodily dispatches his enemies, causes wide scale property damage, is not the greatest husband, and generally acts like a dick.
 * Badass
 * Bald of Awesome: In the fourth film. The previous three films are Balding Of Awesome.
 * Catch Phrase: "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker!"
 * The Chew Toy: On top of the amount of abuse he takes in each film, his life in general just sucks.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even if he doesn't like it, but in a world filled with terrorists, incompetent cops and innocent victims, someone has to be the hero.
 * Combat Pragmatist: He's not above putting hairspray in your eyes, for example.
 * Cowboy Cop
 * Deadpan Snarker: A strong trait of his.
 * Destructive Saviour: Sorry, Washington DC. Hope you have McClane insurance.
 * Determinator: In the first film, he gets beat up, shot at, blown up, thrown off a building, his feet get lacerated, and he eventually gets shot in the shoulder. This does not stop him. The third film has him getting pistol-whipped, blown up, beaten, drowned, shot at, beaten, and blown up again. This makes him angry. In the fourth film, he is shot at, blown up, shot at some more, thrown out of a car, beaten up by a hot Asian chick, dropped down an elevator shaft, frozen, beat up again, shot at by a jet fighter, shot, and then shoots himself. He doesn't give up at any point.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Many female audiences surely remember his famous Walking Shirtless Scene from the first movie
 * Good Is Not Nice: Rather downplayed in the first three films in that his behavior's still well-meaning and heroic, just that his actions on occasion can be more violent than necessary.
 * Honor Before Reason: He'll often turn down bribes and blackmail, saving the day instead.
 * Indy Ploy: Most of his "plans" are these.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Particularly in the fourth film.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: He may be tired, but what matters is that he still cares.
 * He even gives a trope-defining little speech in the fourth movie:


 * Love Cannot Overcome: John and Holly clearly care about each other, but their marriage is already strained in the first movie. While Die Hard ends with them back together, ultimately, their relationship can't survive John's Chronic Hero Syndrome. They're officially separated by movie three and divorced by movie four, adding to John's Knight in Sour Armor bitterness.
 * MacGyvering: His ability to create makeshift gadgets to save the day would make the Trope Maker himself proud.
 * Made of Iron: Over the course of each Die Hard movie John McClane takes a lot of physical abuse, but he still manages to keep fighting.
 * Manly Tears: When he fails to save a plane full of innocents from being murdered in Die Hard 2.
 * Motivational Lie: Cleverly uses one to get Zeus to help him in the third movie.
 * Mutilation Conga: It seems like each movie is just an excuse to put McClane through one of these.
 * Perma-Stubble: In the third movie. Because he was pulled out of bed while still hungover from a night of hard drinking.
 * Fourth movie as well (he was up all night looking after borderline stalking his daughter, and then had to go all the way from NYC to DC).
 * Right Man in the Wrong Place: The story of his life.
 * Smoking Is Cool: He smokes a pack by himself in the first film, which takes place over the course of a few hours. He's also a grade A badass.
 * The Southpaw: Since Bruce Willis is left handed, so is he. Every single Video Game adaptation of Die Hard, barring Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, tends to forget this though.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: He's considerably grumpier and ruder in the third and fourth movies, but still a good man underneath.
 * It would be safe to assume that failing to save hundreds of innocent people from a fiery death and watching it happen right in front of him in Die Hard 2 is an experience traumatic enough to turn anyone a bit mean and cynical.
 * Perhaps more importantly, his marriage breaks down between the second and third movies. His hung-over and depressed condition in the third is directly stated to be a product of Holly leaving him, while in the fourth, he has the entire afore-qouted speech about how alienated he is from his loved ones, and how useless being considered a hero is when compared.

Holly Gennaro McClane (Bonnie Bedelia)

 * Eighties Hair: Got a typical 80's perm.
 * Hot Mom
 * Love Cannot Overcome: John and Holly clearly care about each other, but their marriage is already straines in the first movie. While Die Hard ends with them back together, ultimately, their relationship can't survive John's Chronic Hero Syndrome. Before movie three, Holly leaves John, and by movie four, they're long divorced.

Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson)

 * Black Best Friend: Despite not meeting each other before the end of the first film, he's John's only trustworthy helper and source of moral support outside the Nakatomi Plaza. Not as big a role in the second, although he is still John's best friend.
 * My Greatest Failure: Accidentally shooting a kid because he mistakenly believed he had a gun.
 * Only Sane Man: He's the only LAPD cop who realizes what's happening.

Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson)

 * Action Duo: With McClane in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
 * Angry Black Man: It might go without saying since he's being played by Samuel L. Jackson.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Zeus carries a grudge against white people and has a chip on his shoulder, but still plays the hero.
 * The Lancer: Works back-to-back with John, but McClane is still the hero of the story.
 * Malcolm Xerox: He definitely qualifies. In fact, Jackson researched the role to look and act exactly like Malcolm X himself. He gradually drifts into more sensible territory as the movie progresses though.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: "Why do you keep calling me Jésus? Do I look Puerto Rican to you?"

Lucy McClane (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
"Lucy (over the phone as Gabriel's forcing her to beg for her life): Daddy? ...There's only five of them now."
 * Action Girl
 * Badass Damsel: While Gabriel still kidnaps her, Lucy isn't about to get all upset about it.


 * Rescue Romance: At the end, it looks like Lucy and Matt are flirting hard with each other. Causing Lucy's dad even more pain than anything Gabriel inflicted on him...

Matt Farrell (Justin Long)

 * Deadpan Snarker: McClane's humor is contagious even for his sidekicks.
 * The Lancer: Acts as John's partner and has a contrasting skill set to his.
 * Non-Action Guy: While Matt is a bit of a wimp when it comes to fighting, he knows all the hacker tricks McClane needs to defeat Gabriel.
 * The Smart Guy: McClane is out of his depth with all of the hacker stuff, but Matt picks up the slack.

Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman)

 * Affably Evil: Althought he could be actually Faux Affably Evil.
 * Badass in a Nice Suit: Very well dressed. He even identifies Takagi's suit as (the fictional) John Phillips, London.
 * Batman Gambit: He was able to anticipate the LAPD and FBI's response to him. The only thing he couldn't count on was a determined cop.
 * Beard of Evil: Bearded and decidedly evil.
 * Big Bad: The most memorable one for the Die Hard franchise.
 * Cultured Badass
 * Diabolical Mastermind: Planned the (almost) perfect heist.
 * Disney Villain Death: Attempts to drag Holly down with him by grabbing her watch after he is shot, but McClane unclasps it, and Hans plummets to his death.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Rickman's bass voice is put to great use.
 * Kick the Dog: Killing Takagi for not knowing the password and codes. How did he not become a Complete Monster after that? Well...
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Lampshaded: he went to school in England.
 * Which makes a lot of sense. We see later that he can do a spot on American accent, which shows that he has a talent for accents and English. As he studied in England, he probably took on a perfect English, the parts of German getting through is the fact that he has been working with a large group of fellow Germans for a while now.
 * Pet the Dog: Allowing a couch to be moved out to the lobby so that the very pregnant woman could sit on it scores some points on the "Aww!"-meter. Then he sends everybody onto the roof that's wired with explosives. Right back into Complete Monster territory.
 * Western Terrorist: Subverted: his group use this as a cover for committing straightforward crimes.
 * Wicked Cultured

Karl (Alexander Godunov)

 * Axe Crazy: "I want blood!"
 * Blond Guys Are Evil
 * Determinator: He'll stop at nothing to kill John.
 * The Dragon: Hans' right hand man and the biggest threat to McClane.
 * Dragon Their Feet: Survives after his boss's death to make one last attempt on McCLane's life. He's subsequently killed by Powell.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's deeply affected by the death of his brother Tony.
 * It's Personal: With McClane, following his brother's death.
 * No One Could Survive That: He somehow survived being hanged and blown up.

Theo (Clarence Gilyard Jr.)

 * Black and Nerdy: He's the team's upbeat and cheery hacker, he wears glasses, and doesn't have any combat skills.
 * Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He's one of the only terrorists who survives the movie.
 * The Evil Genius: The team's resident computer expert and responsible for breaking into the vault.

Colonel Stuart (William Sadler)

 * Authority Equals Asskicking: The only villainous leader in the franchise to qualify for this trope.
 * Big Bad: Of the second film.
 * Karmic Death: Sending a plane full of innocents to their deaths is pretty unforgivable. So it's only fitting that he and his mooks are blown up on a plane.
 * Knight of Cerebus: Not that the film wasn't already serious, but even Hans Gruber didn't murder a planeful of people just to prove a point. That Stuart managed this despite John's best attempts (and his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown below) arguably qualify him for Hero-Killer status.
 * Naked First Impression: His introductory scene had him practicing martial arts in the nude.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Beating McClane to a pulp and throwing him off the plane's wing in the finale.
 * Of the series' Big Bads, he's the only one to physically beat the crap out of McClane. Too bad he didn't kill him because McClane still shrugged off the beating and blew up Stuart's plane.

General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero)

 * Cigar Chomper: He's seen asking his guard to light his up during the flight.
 * The Generalissimo

Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons)

 * Avenging the Villain: He may not like Hans, but that does not mean he lacks basic brotherly love for him: "There's a difference between not liking your brother and not caring when some dumb Irish flatfoot drops him out a window."
 * Backup Twin/Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Straddles the line.
 * Big Bad: Of the third film.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil
 * The Chessmaster: Plays several sides and moves a lot of pieces to try to achieve his goals.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Simon betrays his Middle Eastern clients by trying to keep the gold instead of blowing it up and then tries to maximize his share. He keeps at least some of his accomplices in the dark about the ultimate fate of the gold, and then kills them when they find out. In the alternate ending, he's killed his girlfriend as well a few months after the movie's over.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: In spite of the money at stake, he will not murder children in cold blood for it. After all, "I'm a soldier, not a monster... though I sometimes work for monsters."
 * Evil Sounds Deep: And this too.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: He gave McClane a bottle of aspirin, which gave him the location of their hideout in the climax.
 * Large Ham: Like Scar in the previous year, Jeremy Irons seems like he has a lot of fun playing charming and devious villains.
 * Noble Demon: The kind of leader a band of warriors have is reflected in their behavior, for unlike most moustache-twirling one-dimensional villains, Simon's men actually go out of their way to make sure children will not be hurt in their operations, and actually bother to mourn the losses of their brothers before rejoicing in their ill-gotten money. Goes hand-in-hand with Even Evil Has Standards above.
 * Not So Different: Both he and McClane are suffering from headaches (no thanks to each other) throughout the movie.
 * Porky Pig Pronunciation: Though he might be faking it.
 * Xanatos Gambit

Mathias Targo (Nicholas Wyman)

 * Made of Iron: McClane stabs a big sharp piece of metal into his leg, and it does nothing to him.
 * Perpetual Frowner

Katya (Sam Phillips)

 * Blondes Are Evil
 * Dark Action Girl: Evil, female and deadly.
 * The Dragon: Works at the main muscle for Simon.
 * Knife Nut: Slices up a security guard with a fillet knife.
 * The Vamp
 * The Voiceless: The original ending to the movie suggests she may be mute, but in the final cut, she does yell when shooting at McClane.
 * She was originally supposed to have a speaking part in the film; however, it was decided that her character would be silent, since it made her appear much more imposing and lethal. This makes the scene where she slices one of the Federal Reserve guards to death much more powerful.

Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant)

 * Big Bad: For the fourth film.
 * The Cracker: No system is safe against him.
 * Diabolical Mastermind: He is the leader of a pretty elaborate evil plan.
 * Sinister Surveillance: Part of his intel gathering hinges on taking over surveillance systems along with pretty much everything else.
 * Smug Snake: He believes himself to be on a higher intellectual plane then everyone else, particularly McClane. Unlike the supremely magnificent Gruber brothers of the coldly efficient Colonel Stuart, however, his attempts at improvisation seem to be more desperation than mere adjustments to his plans, and his attempts to impose himself threateningly don't seem to carry the same weight. It doesn't help that he's an obnoxious, pretty-boy Insufferable Genius.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: At least he claims to be. The fact that he's "getting paid for his work" kind of makes this hard to believe though.