Hogan Reviews

Finally following up from covering the first two Die Hard films a few Christmases a go with the third! I honestly go back and forth as to which film I like more out of the original and “with a Vengeance”, as this film has such great dialogue and interaction between Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson alongside some great action set pieces that it’s always a joy to watch. Most importantly while Die Hard 2 was just a rehash of the original film this script is completely different and its “Simon Says” game of cat and mouse has gone on to inspire copy-cats all over the place. So let’s take a look at the last great Die Hard film…

The film opens up immediately with a bomb going off in the middle of New York and a foreign terrorist phoning the police up to tell them that they’ll set off another one if John McClane (Bruce Willis) doesn’t walk around Harlem with a sandwich board on declaring he hates, um, racial slur beginning with ‘N’. Meeting with his fellow officers its clear John has fallen on hard times, being hung over and talking about having not talked to Holly in years, but he goes along with it anyway. As he makes his walk a Harlem store owner called Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) approaches him and asks him what the hell he was doing but then defends him from some local thugs when McClane explains to him he’s a cop and he’s only doing this so another bomb doesn’t go off. The two escape and are picked up by the police but at the station the terrorist, calling himself Simon (Jeremy Irons) insists both John and Zeus now take part in his game and head to a specific payphone. Zeus is initially reluctant until John lies about where they found a bomb Simon had left as a warning, claiming it was in Harlem. The two arrive at the payphone, solve the classic St. Ives riddle and then get told a bomb was going to go off, only for Simon to laugh at their panic as “he didn’t say Simon Says”.

I still think this film has one the best openings, a very quick title reveal, a fun look at New York with a classic song in the background, and then BOOM. Time to pay attention. Great stuff.

He does say it though when he says a bomb is on a subway train and that the two aren’t allowed to take non-public transport to reach a payphone in a subway station before a tight time limit. This leads to the now classic “driving a Taxi through Central Park” scene and then sees John jump on board the moving subway cart as Zeus arrives and answers the phone, but is told that as only one of them arrived it wasn’t good enough. John manages to throw the bomb out of the back of the train but the explosion still derails the carts and causes havoc in the local area. Naturally McClane survives with just a few scratches! John then sits in the back of a van and meets some FBI and CIA agents who soon inform him that Simon was born Simon Peter Gruber, Hans Gruber’s brother and the whole reason he’s being targeted is revenge for McClane throwing his brother off of Nakatomi Plaza in the original film. Simon then calls in and says he’s planted a massive bomb in an elementary school and will detonate it if John and Zeus don’t head to a certain fountain, and also warns that the bomb will go off if police radios are used near it. As Zeus and McClane head to their next destination the NYPD spread their forces across all the schools in the New York area, which is where we find out Simon’s true goal.

Look at him, he loves it! By “it” I mean killing people to get rich, but still… he loves it!

The subway bomb went off just near the Federal Reserve Bank, where hundreds of billions of dollars are held in gold bullion, and due to the bomb the bank had to turn off its alarm system briefly so using this time Simon and his terrorist group pretend to be businessmen and head to the vault, where they then kill a bunch of people and begin using stolen dump trucks to take some $140 billion in gold with them. McClane and Zeus successfully finish another task and are told to head to Yankee Stadium but McClane has a hunch and instead heads to the Bank, where he takes out some of Simon’s thugs and discovers his plans. He sends Zeus to Yankee Stadium while he follows the dump trucks to a vast underground tunnel, but only ends up nearly drowning when the terrorists blow the dam at the other end of the tunnel and flood it. McClane survives by getting shot up a pipe and landing right where Zeus was driving by after having found nothing at Yankee Stadium (lucky!) Zeus was followed though, but after a great car chase / shootout segment they figure out that they were moving the gold by boat, find the tanker in question and make their way on board…

It’s such a fun film, as I said in the opening the characters of McClane and Zeus bounce off each other so well, and while he can come across as a poor-man’s Hans Gruber I still really like Jeremy Irons’ Simon.

Overall Thoughts:

Our lead duo, and what raises this from a good film to a great one!

Another decade and another watch of Die Hard with a Vengeance, and once again it proves to be a great example of both an action movie and how to do a great sequel by not copying the original and instead doing something great and different but within the same genre. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson are a fantastic double act and only add to the fun action scenes. Easily the second best Die Hard film and one of the best action films full stop.

As Zeus is sadly captured by Simon and his men McClane has a classic big fight with the head terrorist’s right-hand man and comes out on top, though he too is soon captured. The two are strapped to a giant bomb (the one is the school turns out to be a fake, though there are some good scenes before the police discover that, for the record) but they manage to escape just before the explosion for a good slow motion explosive leap. The police are told the billions of gold were destroyed in the explosion but McClane reveals that was a lie and that Simon actually took the gold with him, which we see is true. While all hope seems lost Zeus tells John to finally phone his wife but as he does that McClane sees the aspirin bottle he got off of Simon was brought at a store in the US/Canadian border, near Quebec.

I wonder what he’s screaming into that walkie talkie? No, not that…. Definitely not that! What’s wrong with you?!

John and Zeus pop in a helicopter and find out where the terrorists are hiding, and while the rest of his men are arrested Simon and his immediate thugs get in their own helicopter with a rather large gun and a big final showdown occurs. Eventually McClane goes on foot and shoots an electrical cable down onto Simon’s chopper, killing him with a “Yippie Ki Yay, mother f****r” for good measure. It’s not all celebratory though as McClane realised he left Holly hanging on the phone when he ran to the chopper…

I also have to mention one of the most interesting DVD extras ever and that’s the original ending scene to the film, where Simon gets away with it, McClane loses his job and becomes somewhat unhinged as a result. He tracks Simon down to a bar in Hungary and places a rocket launcher on the table and the two play Russian roulette with it, until Simon presses the button and gets a rocket through the chest. McClane then claims to be heading off to spend Christmas with his kids. It’s a different ending, I kind of like it but I do understand why some feel it’s too downbeat and not much of a victory for our lead protagonist, though I think that kind of suits the character. I go back and forth on which ending I prefer, so I’m happy that both exist to have a look at!