Die Hard/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Franchise in general

  • Enforced Method Acting:
    • Hilarious considering his counting to three earlier in the movie.
    • From the same movie, the shot in the elevator shaft where McClane drops from the vent he was aiming for, but manages to grab the next one down was an accident on the part of the stuntman that made the final cut anyway.
  • Executive Meddling: When the fourth movie was made, the studio execs forced the filmmakers to get a PG-13 rating, thus eliminating half the fun, including McClane's favorite word. The "unrated" DVD version of the film fixes that problem and Bruce Willis resolved an argument over the phone with the studio over the script, by saying "Lemme ask you something. Who's your second choice to play John McClane? Yeah, I thought so."
  • Fake American: Alan Rickman put on such a convincing American accent in Die Hard, the director decided to extend the scene where he pretends to be a hostage in order to show it off.
    • Given a call back in the third film when his brother (Played by fellow brit Jeremy Irons) goes undercover with a heavy Texas Accent.
  • Fake Nationality: The "European" terrorists in With a Vengeance.
    • The Grubers are German, but were played by Englishmen.
    • Brief cameo example: The Apparently English pilot who is crashed into the ground in Die Harder is in fact Colm Meany, an Irishman. You might recognise him as all-Irish Chief Miles O'Brien from various Star Trek appearances.
    • In the German dub of the first movie, Hans and Karl are named Jack and Charlie, and all the German lines are replaced by Italian.
  • Franchise Zombie: To the point that Bruce Willis looks like he doesn't want to be involved and is firmly in Money, Dear Boy boredom mode.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • Shout-Out: The villain in the first movie is named Hans Gruber.
  • Technology Marches On:
    • In the third, Simon bluffs the police off their radios by insinuating some of the bombs were keyed to police frequencies...then he locks up the entire New York switchboard by calling a popular radio station about the (fake) bomb he planted in a school, to destroy the other means of communication the NYPD could've had. Cell phones would've beaten both in a second (but then, Simon would've probably had something for that eventuality as well.)
  • Too Soon: A TV showing of Die Harder was delayed in the UK - and instead replaced with the showing of the Sylvester Stallone movie Cliff Hanger - because of a recent incident at Glasgow Airport involving a flaming car crashing into the building, and with the movie being set in an airport, they probably thought showing it would be in bad taste.
  • What Could Have Been: Die Hard with a Vengeance was originally written as a Lethal Weapon movie and Die Hard itself was originally written as a sequel to Commando.
    • With a Vengeance took What Could Have Been Up to Eleven with not one, but two alternate endings (one was filmed, the other wasn't). In the filmed one, McClane and Simon meet again at a European cafe well after the events of the film. In this ending, Simon gets away with the heist by turning the gold into small Empire State Building statues. McClane recaps that he was fired because of Simon's getaway. McClane forces Simon to play a "McClane Says," Russian Roulette-style game using a Chinese rocket launcher with the sights removed. Simon gets a question wrong and dies from being shot by the launcher. McClane was wearing a flak jacket which would have prevented major injury. The filmed alternate was rejected by the studio for being too dark.
    • In the unfilmed one, McClane and Carver head back to shore after the boat explodes. Carver notes that the villains are going to get away; McClane tells him not to be so sure. The scene cuts to Simon and his crew on board a plane when they suddenly discover the briefcase bomb that Simon had used on McClane and Carver in the park, the same one Carver gave back to the Mooks posing as cops. Presumably, the bomb used on the plane would have been a different one or not used to blow up a dam in a later sequence. Simon would then ask anyone on the plane if they had a 4-gallon jug, Lampshading the disarming sequence from the park.
    • When the TV series 24 was coming to an end and a movie was being considered, rumor has it that they were seriously considering making a Die Hard 5 that would actually be a cross-over, with Jack Bauer and John McClane teaming up to fight terrorists. The idea was eventually abandoned (assuming it was ever actually true in the first place) in favor of making a stand-alone 24 movie. But oh, What Could Have Been...

Trivia for Die Hard

  • Actor-Shared Background: Bruce Willis' own love of Roy Rogers inspired the film's other co-writer to come up with McClane's signature catchphrase.
  • Actor Allusion: Robinson says that McClane "could be a fucking bartender for all we know." Prior to becoming an actor, Bruce Willis was a bartender.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty: Hans' quote on Alexander the Great. It's actually "Alexander of Macedon, who, upon hearing that there were other worlds, wept that he had not yet conquered one", though this would fit in with Hans' posturing and Delusions of Grandeur.
  • Completely Different Title: The original title, an English idiom, is hard to translate correctly, as it would sound like "It is hard to kill him" or "He dies slowly". That's why we have:
    • Czech Republic and Slovakia: "Lethal Trap" (which may often confuse people as Lethal Weapon, as the Czech title of said film was translated literally).
    • France: "Crystal Trap".
    • Hungary: "Give your life expensive". The title of the sequel is "Your life is more expensive", and the third part is "The life is always expensive".
    • Norway: "Aksjon Skyskraper".
    • Poland: "The Glass Trap" (which sounds and fits very well in the language, but does not make sense for sequels).
    • Portugal: "Assalto ao Arranha-Céus" ("Skyscraper Heist").
    • Russia: "Hard Nut" (to crack).
    • Spain: "Crystal Jungle".
    • The Finnish version is an interesting case: the original title was "Vain Kuolleen Ruumiini Yli" ("Over My Dead Body"). While the translated title is fairly close to the original, nowadays, the original English title is used to refer to the movie (or, alternatively, the series as a whole).
  • Defictionalization: You can buy gray sweatshirts that say "NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. HO HO HO.".
  • Divorced Installment: The film was was based on a book Nothing Lasts Forever. This book was a sequel to The Detective, which had its own popular film adaptation in 1968, starring Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra declined to be in a film sequel, it was quickly retooled as a stand-alone work. Rumors that it was briefly intended as a sequel to Commando was debunked by co-writer Steven de Souza, though Arnold Schwarzenegger was also considered for the lead.
  • Enforced Method Acting: Alan Rickman was told that he was going to be let go on a count of three. They dropped him on "two", and the look of panic on his face is definitely not acted; one is not surprised to learn that he was extremely angry after that shoot was over.
  • Fake Nationality:
    • Alan Rickman as a German.
    • Russian Alexander Godunov plays Karl, who is from Germany.
    • The actress who played Paulina was actually Italian.
  • The Other Darrin: John's daughter and son appeared as adults in the fourth and fifth films, but were played by different (child) actors in the first film.
  • Sequel Gap:
  • Star-Making Role: For Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, the latter making his film debut.
  • Technology Marches On: Cell phones and wireless Internet would have made things easier for McClane... if the people on the other line weren't still being so thickheaded.
  • Throw It In:
    • The line "Alas, your Mr Takagi did not see it that way, so he won't be joining us for the rest of his life." was an ad lib; Alan Rickman also improvised the bit of helping himself to the party buffet while saying this. Much of the scene where Hans tries to use a fake American accent to pass himself off as a hostage to McClane was apparently ad-libbed after the producers discovered that Rickman could do a good American impersonation.
    • The shot in the elevator shaft where McClane drops from the vent he was aiming for, but manages to grab the next one down was an accident on the part of the stuntman that made the final cut anyway.
    • Al Leong improvised the bit where he takes a candy bar from the concession stand before fighting the SWAT team, as he felt the scene could use some comic relief.
    • It is often said that Bruce Willis' lines during the scene when he pulls the glass out of his feet were ad-libbed. Indeed, it is said that upon learning this, Terry Gilliam cast Willis as the lead in 12 Monkeys. However, when comparing the original script, it appears that Willis only veered very slightly from the original written dialog.
    • Willis has claimed that the iconic "Yippee ki yay, motherfucker" was ad-libbed, playing off Hans Gruber's cowboy taunt. Willis did not expect that line to make the cut.
    • Ellis' line "Hans... Bubby!" was ad-libbed. Alan Rickman's quizzical reaction was genuine.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: So, so much.
    • The references to VCRs, and the fact that John McClane seems really uncomfortable using the computer monitor at the front desk of Nakatomi Plaza.
    • Neither John nor anyone else in the building can call out after the bad guys cut the building's phone lines, because no one (other than Argyle) has a cell phone.
    • When Sgt. Powell responds to dispatch about John's call from the Nakatomi Plaza, you can see a gas station price sign in the background: Unleaded 77 cents, Regular 74 cents. Even the existence of Regular leaded gasoline is itself an example after the banning of leaded automotive gasoline in the 1990's.
    • During the beginning of the film, John having his service revolver with him on his flight to Los Angeles. Unthinkable in the modern day, but perfectly legal until 1994.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • This is the big one: Nothing Lasts Forever, the novel in which this franchise started from, was a sequel to the novel The Detective. Which was adapted to film starring Frank Sinatra. When Nothing Lasts Forever was in the works before they changed it to the plot of Die Hard, Frank Sinatra was their choice to reprise his role as Joe Leland. In other words, Frank Sinatra was and would have been the original John McClane, which actually would have fit pretty well in the adaptation, as the source novel's hero was an old, retired cop who found his inner Badass Grandpa during a terrorist siege.
    • Arnold Schwarzenegger was the production team's choice for John McClane, and following Sinatra's above-mentioned rejection, the script was written to accommodate him. Once Arnie too turned the role down, and Bruce Willis was cast, the movie had to be considerably altered to fit the latter's acting style.
    • Alan Rickman nearly passed up the role of Hans Gruber, which ended up being his first film role. He had only arrived in Hollywood two days earlier and was appalled by the idea of his first role being the villain in an action film.
    • Richard Dean Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Tom Berenger, Charles Bronson, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Michael Keaton, Christopher Lambert, Stephen Lang, Michael Madsen, Liam Neeson, Nick Nolte, Al Pacino, Bill Paxton, Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Swayze and John Travolta could have been John McClane.
    • In the original script, as in the original novel, the action took place over three days, but John McTiernan was inspired to have it take place over a single night by A Midsummer Night's Dream.
    • Sam Neil turned down the role of Hans Gruber.
    • Glenn Close, Sally Field, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep were each considered for Holly McClane. But... Bruce Willis rejected them because he wanted Bonnie Bedelia to play her since he was a fan of her work.
    • The original script called for terrorists to hijack the building, and for a super-hero cop to stop them. McTiernan modified the script to change the bad guys into robbers pretending to be terrorists so that the audience could enjoy their intention of grabbing a load of money. He felt having terrorists as the villains would make the movie less enjoyable and give it a political angle, which he wanted to avoid. McTiernan also changed the hero John McClane into an everyday, flawed man that rises to the occasion in dire circumstances. He felt the audience would identify more with him than with a "super-cop".
  • Write Who You Know: The character of Hans Gruber is rumored to be based on author Roderick Thorp's father, a known tyrant amongst friends and family.
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