Die Hard: Difference between revisions

'''Zeus''': Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don't fuck with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that? }}

* [[Awesomeness By Analysis]]: In ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'', John is able to deduce quite a bit about the [[Mooks]] inside the office just by picking up on subtle clues.

* [[Badass]]: John McClane, of course.

** [[Badass Damsel]]: Although she doesn't beat up her captors, in ''Live Free or Die Hard'' when John's daughter has a gun to her head and is told to plead into the radio to make her father surrender, she chooses instead to give him some much-needed intel. "Now there are only five of them."

'''Simon''': There's a difference, you know, between not liking one's brother and not caring when some dumb Irish flatfoot drops him out of a window. }}

** And for that matter Tony and Karl in the first film.

* [[Basement Dweller]]: {{spoiler|Warlock}}.

* [[Batman Gambit]]: The Grubers' plans in the first and third movies. Hans' is dependent on standard FBI hostage procedure; Simon's is dependent on the NYPD worrying more about schoolkids than Wall Street (as well as McClane believing that Simon is out for revenge rather than money).

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: McClane in all four episodes.

* [[Destination Defenestration]] just ask John what he did to Hans Gruber, or better yet, ask his brother.

** Also, the German that the terrorists speak is sometimes grammatically incorrect and meaningless, so much so that in the German version of the film, the terrorists are not from Germany but from "Europe". This has been fixed for the Special Edition VHS and later home video releases. The only instances of incorrect use of German are Alan Rickman's (Hans Gruber) lines.

*** Also, you can't actually be interrupted while speaking on a walkie-talkie. You have to press one button to speak, then stop and press another button to listen, so if you're still speaking you can't hear the other person if they say something.

* [[Filk Song]]: Guyz Nite made [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTyw6cq86kY one], which is even on the fourth movie's DVD.

* [[Fish Out of Water]]: ''Die Hard'' features a New York City cop with unpolished social skills (McClane) visiting California for a swank corporate party.

* [[Foot Focus]]: McClane is barefoot for 90% of the first movie, which is [[Gameplay and Story Integration|referred to in the NES game]].

* [[Foreshadowing]]: There's quite a few hints that {{spoiler|Major Grant is working with Colonel Stuart}} both in the different color tape for the gun magazines and there's one point near the beginning where one of the mooks mentions that someone got sick and a replacement was brought in. {{spoiler|Grant's radioman is the replacement.}}

* [[Handguns]]

* [[Hellish Copter]]: Various helicopters meet their ends due to rocket launchers, power lines, and ''[[Car Fu|police cars]]''.

* [[Heroic Bystander]]: John's limo driver in the first movie...eventually

* [[Hero Insurance]]: Justified by McClane in the first film when the Deputy Chief yells at him.

{{quote| '''Dwayne T. Robinson:''' I don't know who you think you are but you just blew up a BUILDING! I've got a hundred people down here, and [[Completely Missing the Point|they're covered with glass!]]<br />

'''McClane:''' Glass? [[Lampshade Hanging|Who gives a shit about glass?]] Who the fuck is this? }}

** William Atherton stormed into Ghostbusters headquarters as Walter Peck before becoming TV reporter Richard Thornburgh in 1 and 2.

** Don't you forget about...the principal from [[The Breakfast Club]]

** In the fourth film, the {{spoiler|F-35.}}

* [[Motivational Lie]]: Realizing that Zeus won't help him if it's just one white dude blowing up some others, John tells him that one of Simon's bombs was found in a playground in a black neighborhood.

** Well, so he says. But as is the recurring theme in ''Die Hard'', he's really just in it for the money.

* [[My Greatest Failure]]: The LAPD cop in ''Die Hard'' who cannot forgive himself for shooting a kid with a plastic gun. He averts this when he fires on [[The Dragon]] to save John at the end of the film in his personal [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* [[Not Quite Dead]]

** At least in the case of Karl in the first film, not until Al puts a few bullets in him, after professing his fear of using his firearm in the line of duty earlier on.

* [[Not Even Bothering With the Accent]]: Alan Rickman plays a German with his usual British accent, as does Jeremy Irons.

** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in Hans' (Rickman's) case - he mentions getting his suits from a London tailor and alludes to a classical education. It's likely he was educated in England and probably spent a lot of time there.

* [[Pac-Man Fever]]: Averted in ''Live Free or Die Hard'', one of the hackers is clearly seen playing Gears of War, and he's pressing the buttons in the way a normal player would

* [[Paparazzi]]: Dick, in the first and second movies. He's especially douchetacular in the second. The people in the airport are not told about the terrorist incident, so as not to cause a panic. Dick [[Contrived Coincidence|happens to be]] on a plane with Holly, in a holding pattern over the airport. When he figures out what's going on, he immediately calls in the story to his producers, smelling a Pulitzer. Then the folks in the airport and the planes see the special news bulletin...

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Don't you dare mess with McClane's daughter.

* [[Perma Stubble]]: McClane.

* [[Pun-Based Title]]: ''Live Free or Die Hard'' is a reference to the New Hampshire state motto "Live Free Or Die".

* [[Quote Swear Unquote]]: The [[Catch Phrase]] of the film came from McClane mentioning [[Roy Rogers]] was his favorite movie cowboy, and then taking Roy's [[Catch Phrase]] and adding swearing to it.

* [[The Remnant]] - The "terrorist group" in the first film.

* [[Revenge Before Reason]]: After McClane kills his brother, Karl nearly blows the plan repeatedly in order to get his revenge.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: Each movie's stunts try to top the last, culminating in ''Live Free and Die Hard's'' indoor car chases, as well as McClane ''using a car to take out a helicopter.'' Whether this is [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] or [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|so overboard]] it's [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|too unbelievable to be cool]] depends on you. They also try to set a new record for "amount of punishment ever inflicted upon an action star without killing him."

** And then, as if the car-helicopter collision isn't enough, McClane defeats Starscream, the shortest way of saying that he took out an F-35 jet.

* [[Shoot Out the Lock]]: In ''Die Hard II'', when the access grate to the Dulles Airport runway is blocked by a padlock, McLane shoots it. He also does it in the first movie.

* [[Shoot the Hostage]]: Taken to a whole new level in ''Live Free or Die Hard'' by the fact that McClane ''is'' the hostage; {{spoiler|he shoots himself in the shoulder to kill the [[Big Bad]]}}.

* [[Side Bet]]: In the scene where Hans interrogates Mr. Takagi, Theo says "Told you" and Karl replies "It's not over yet" when Takagi won't talk. When Hans shoots Takagi, Karl hands Theo a bill.

* [[Skeptic No Longer]]: In ''Die Harder'', Captain Lorenzo only believes John McClane about Colonel Stuart and Major Grant working together only after McClane empties a submachine gun (the same kind used by the soldiers in their attack against the terrorist) full of blanks at him. Lorenzo then calls in the cavalry.

* [[Terrorists Without a Cause]]: Not really. They're bank robbers, or they're ones seeking revenge for being fired, or assisting a corrupt dictator in escaping.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Agent Johnson and Special Agent Johnson. No relation.

{{quote| "He pulled a Glock 7 on me. That's a porcelain gun, so it doesn't show up on your [[Metal Detector Checkpoint|x-ray machines]], and it costs more than you make in a month."<br />

"You'd be surprised how much I make in a month."<br />

* [[Throw It In]]: The line "I wanted this to be easy, simple, but nooo, your Mr. Takagi couldn't go along, so ''he won't be joining us for the rest of his life.''" was an ad lib.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: In the first film, Douchebag Who Thinks Too Much of Himself Ellis decides that he is perfectly capable of handling Gruber himself, and chats with him in a far too casual and egotistical manner. To clarify, he acts as though he is in charge, not them, they need him, and that he can work things out to everyone's satisfaction because clearly he's smart enough to have them figured out. He does manage to provide them with information, but Gruber coldly kills him to prove a point to McClane. Acting like the situation is of no real importance is not a good way to handle hostage takers.

* [[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.

* [[Translation Convention]]: One possible reason for the scenes in which the terrorists talk to each other in English, despite other scenes in which they are heard talking in German (and the obvious benefit in talking to each other in German whenever possible).