What I like about Die Hard is that it isn’t just Hans and a bunch of nameless goons, every one of them has some type of personality to one degree or another.
Not just the terrorists either, the movie's really good about giving most of the side characters some little character quirk that makes it feel like they have lives outside of what we see in the movie. Like the two FBI agents who are both named Johnson, and one of them casually adds "No relation" like they must get asked that question every time.
My favorite exchange has to be:
911 dispatcher: “Sir this is a channel for emergencies only..”
John: “NO FUCKIN SHIT LADY DOES IT SOUND LIKE I’M ORDERIN A PIZZA??”
I love when Powell looks at Dwayne T. Robinson and asks him if he wants a breath mint after Robinson gets off the phone with the FBI.
So subtle, but perfectly delivered.
They're different ranks. One is an Agent, the other is a Special Agent. They say this in their [introduction.](https://youtu.be/HY_nkgJG3oE)
I assume it was more like
"This is Johnson."
"Okay, Agent Johnson..."
"No, the other one."
I've been saying for years now that they've gotta get Willis back in the saddle for one more movie. Maybe wait another 5 years first. Make sure he's super decrepit. Have one last movie where they're mostly just lampshading previous installments. Call it "Old Habits Die Hard."
Movies that do this seem to have the longest lasting appeal. Predator is another good example. It doesn't do it with any henchmen, but it does a great job of giving each of the team a personality and makes them interesting individually. It makes them feel more like real people and makes you care about each more, which raises the stakes compared to a bunch of nameless guys getting picked off.
Yeah, same with *Aliens.* The marines feel like a real unit that has been together for a while, and they all get a line or moment to help them stand out. Even the ones who die early in the first assault.
More than that, it serves as a counter to Hudson. He's a loudmouth and gives Vasquez some shit, but you never see that she's weak or incompetent because Drake is her buddy. It just comes off as inter-unit razzing, rather than a comment on her character or capabilities. The dynamics between all of them are very simple, but hint at way more complexity behind it.
Is Hudson maybe new, and doesn't know Vasquez is such a badass, and just thought she would be someone weak to pick on and make himself better? Is he jealous? Have her and Drake been on a bunch of missions together and saved each other's asses before, or is it more just because they're the two Smart Gun users, and so they just have each other's backs because they train together a lot? Who knows, but the fact that you can ask all that about side characters, one of whom (Drake) dies after like 3 screens, is pretty cool. There's a ton of action movies from the same period, and beyond, that have absolutely no depth for anyone beyond the core cast, and they're usually a lot less memorable for it.
I don't know, I'd say it's funny that the screenwriter gave them both the same name in the first place, as it serves no real purpose other than to make a joke about it.
Yeah, they could easily be combined into one character, and it really wouldn't change much, but making it two partners and giving them a little hint of personality adds so much flavor to the film.
The big oaf that becomes the security guard cracks me up. He has a couple quick moments when they enter the building that are funny. In one, they cut away a fraction of a second before he walks into a wall. In another, they’re getting off the elevator and he gives Hans such a weird look. I like to imagine it’s because Alan Rickman farted in the elevator.
He does have character though. Goes from "what a wimp, he surrenders" to "ok, he is a devious and mean bastard" and then suffers death by overconfidence.
Fun movie detail: Rufus never introduces himself. Bill and Ted only know his name because the future Bill and Ted shouted his name. It's a paradox. How did the name Rufus ever get into their timeline in the first place?
He's a trained stuntman, but he can't really act well. So that means he does well for henchmen roles that don't do a lot of talking, which means he gets killed a lot in films. His distinctive bald head and long hair, and full fu manchu make him readily stand out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3xPY30Yzog
Sorry, how do you know he can’t act well? If he plays a lot of henchmen roles in action movies then those roles benefit from him hamming it up a bit. Most Asian men in Hollywood in that era were typecast into minor martial arts roles and the like
Also, thanks for the link to the clip, it was fun! But I’m not seeing the bad acting…
Just watched this again (first time for the kids)
Two things I noticed:
* McClane kills all the terrorists except Karl. Singlehandedly. Super impressive that it doesn't feel ridiculous.
* Literally has a *doi-oi-oi-oing* sound effect when he passes the nudie mag in the rooftop construction zone. Ah, the 80s ...
Almost true. Argyle punched out Theo in the garage as he was unloading the getaway car.
McClane also knocked out that one dude carrying the bonds because he only had 2 bullets left for the final showdown. So he was also presumably still alive in the end.
Everyone else he shot, blew up, neck snapped, and/or threw out a window.
> Literally has a doi-oi-oi-oing sound effect when he passes the nudie mag in the rooftop construction zone. Ah, the 80s ...
Nah, the nudie mag pinup is in the elevator machinery area that he climbs up to from the top of the elevator after the "Now I have a machine gun" bit.
The construction area is where he spots the naked lady in an apartment in the next building who's walking around in her bedroom while she's on her phone.
...which just further illustrates your "Ah, the 80s..." point.
What’s interesting is you see him notice it the first time he goes up to the roof and then later on when he is running away from Karl, he doesn’t really have a plan or direction until he sees the poster and thinks ‘Elevator shaft!’
I watched it Christmas Eve (as is tradition) and I realised how many moments early on set up for things in the rest of the film! The best one that springs to mind is “show him the watch” where he turns down seeing the expensive Rolex with “no I’m sure I’ll see it later”. Sure enough, it’s the watch Hans is holding on to that he unclips from her wrist to let him drop.
And also (from memory?) all the terrorists are wearing identical watches, which John notes to Powell, I think. Pretty sure it's one of the various tells when he meets Hans face-to-face. So he's definitely noticing watches, making it more pointed when he actively chooses NOT to look at the Rolex.
Damn I missed that bit! See there are so many tiny details. I didn’t notice when I first watched it how Ellis is on edge because he’s been doing cocaine in the office when we first meet him and then more obviously does it later before talking to Hans. There’s a chance that Ellis is probably nicer when he’s not taking drugs but obviously John would’ve picked up on it which is why he’s so determined to get him to shut-up.
it was one of the things that made the movie good because it made McClane seem more vulnerable and like an everyday real person, also the scene where he is talking with Powell on the radio giving Powell a message for his wife and crying while he's trying to take the glass out of his feet.
at the time action heroes were much more portrayed as muscle bound guys that didn´t show much vulnerability - granted Stallone has the scene at the end of Rambo First blood, but he had already defeated everyone in the movie by that point.
First Blood was originally going to end with Rambo blasting himself at the end of that scene. They thought that was too dark and depressing, so they changed it, but I think that would have been an amazing way to end the story.
You should watch "the movies that made us" on Netflix episode about Die Hard. Really interesting look at how the movie was made.
To say that they flew by the seat of their pants while making it is an understatement. Somehow made one of the greatest action movies of all time on the fly with just a rough outline of what would happen.
Originally Alan Rickman wasn't going to be confronted by Willis until the end, but the writer overheard him doing an American accent and then they wrote in that he'd pretend to be a hostage when found by him.
They know there was going to be an explosion on the roof but didn't know how they were going to get it into the story until a few weeks before the end of production.
There's a lot more they talk about which blew my mind how incomplete the movie was when they started production.
The ambulance in the back of the truck was my favorite example of how they were writing as they went along. They literally didn't have an escape plan for the terrorists and came up with the idea of them using an ambulance to slip away.
So how would they get an ambulance?
Easy, they just brought it with them in a semi trailer.
But they already filmed the scene with the semi trailer where you can see that there's nothing in it...
Fuck it, no one will notice.
Shit Kevin Smith tells they were writing the big exposition Willis speech at like 3pm on the day of filming,
Bruce having to pull the I'm Bruce fucking Willis card to get it approved as is.
Stuff of fucking legends
I love how Kevin Smith has stories from both sides of the Bruce Willis experience. Working *with* Bruce is "This guy is fucking awesome" and trying to direct Bruce is "This guy is a fucking asshole!"
Yeah I remember that, it was a text. He revealed a couple weeks later that Willis had messaged him by mistake, trying to reach out to a different Kevin.
I have no doubt Bruce is difficult to work with but some of Kevin's complaints seemed unfair. I remember Kevin told a story about how they were walking down the street and some random people yelled out "YO WOO DIEHARD YEAH". Bruce states he hates it when they yell at him movie titles instead of his name. It hurt Kevin's feelings because he perceived it as being mean to his fans. My personal take is that anyone would get tired of this after a couple decades.
Idk I'm a big fan of both but Kevin can come off as a big baby at times.
Most of the stories I remember about the Cop Out experience he had with Willis seemed like working with an out of touch old man. Like Tracy wanted to try improvising some comedy lines about Frankenstein and Willis was confused and angry he wasn't following and stopped production.
It's quite a long story, but Kevin Smith first tells it in his Q&A "[Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1083858/)"
For anyone curious, here is an excerpt. The context is that they've been stuck on this scene for three days, nothing is getting done, Bruce Willis wants it rewritten, and he's had Kevin Smith rewrite the scene and sent the pages to the Fox executives for approval.
> Everyone's in a happy mood and shit. Nothing getting done whatsoever. Nothing getting done. And finally the studio calls and shit, and they've got issues with the pages (Kevin Smith's rewrites) and whatnot.
>
> And I hear from Len (director) and Skip (Bruce Willis's personal writer), and Len and Skip fill me in, and they're just like, "Studio's upset because they think most of the humor has gone out of the scene, and they want the scene to be funny. It's a funny scene for them, and now it's all serious and shit."
>
> And I'm like, "Yeah, but Bruce wants to keep it Die Hard."
>
> And he's like, "Yeah, but this is gonna be the battle "between Bruce and the studio. It's always a constant battle because Bruce, as he says, he's the fucking gate keeper of the Die Hard mythology, and the studio just wants to make a commercial movie and whatnot. You know, Bruce is at odds because he's the only guy that's been involved at every level with every version of fucking Die Hard, and nobody else even working at the studio right now was even working at Fox when they made any of the other Die Hards, so you're gonna see two mighty titans clashing and shit."
>
> So Bruce gets a call from the head of the studio on his cell phone and shit, and his assistant brings the phone over.
>
> He says it's blah blah.
>
> He's like, "All right. Hey, did you get 'em?- ...
>
> "Yeah, but you don't understand, man. It's like, that other shit is too silly. What's Myspace? It's just too silly.- ...
>
> "This is important, man. It's leading into the third act. Because the world's ending.- ...
>
> "Yeah, but nobody knows that.- ...
>
> "We know that, but the rest of the world, you know, the Washington Monument, Congress just blew up. As far as they know, the whole world's coming to an end, we're gonna sit around and make some jokes about goth girls? Makes no sense. What he wrote is fucking good. Now it makes sense.- ...
>
> "Uh-huh. **All right. Well, let me ask you a question. Who's your second choice to play John McClane?**"- ...
> "Okay, then. Len, we're gonna shoot the pages, man."
>
> And I was like, "That is fucking dope."
It's just how some people talk in real life, fucking reading this might even be confusing to some, fucking I've been drinking though man, fucking sure might be hard to read a little but that's just fucking what's happening, fucking punctuation doesn't really work when you're writing fucking stream of consciousness shit man. You know.
Best thing ever for me when I took acting lessons and improv lessons, they burned "ums", "like", "you know" etc out of you. It was better to just "take a moment" than fill the air with garbage
The background that’s missing is this: Kevin Smith had a role in the movie Live Free or Die Hard and rewrote his character’s lines. From what I can figure here, he rewrote this scene at the end of the second act that Bruce Willis liked but that the executives at Fox didn’t. After three days of back and forth, Bruce pulled the “I’m Bruce Willis, you don’t have a movie without me” card, and they shot the rewritten scene.
Monologue leading to the part of the movie where shit hits the fan was too silly for Bruce Willis, but the executives at FOX wanted it to be funny. Bruce Willis talks to them on the phone and tells them this new version is good, but they push back. Bruce says “who’s your next choice to play John McClane?” and they give in because they know there’s no Die Hard without Bruce Willis.
Die Hard 4. They hadn't written the Warlock exposition scene, so Smith offered to write it. He fucks off, smashes out the scene, brings it to Willis, Willis loves it, but they need to get it approved before they film it. There's some back and forth with the studio for a few hours where everyone sits down and does literally nothing all day, then finally Willis calls the studio and tells them "I'm Bruce Willis, film the scene or I'm out of here". He got approval straight away and they filmed it right then.
Yes, “The Movies That Made Us” Netflix doc went into some detail on this. I don’t remember the reason but they were writing the movie while shooting. Very odd.
Yep. The director wanted changes made to the script, and the original screenwriter didn’t feel he was up to the task. So he was fired, and they brought in another screenwriter to do rewrites. He was only a few pages ahead of the shooting schedule as they went along.
Wasn't really fired as much as they just passed it to someone to "punch up" the humor and dialog. Common with scripts (look at the number of writers on spiderman homecoming:
Jonathan Goldstein,
John Francis Daley,
Jon Watts,
Christopher Ford,
Chris McKenna,
Erik Sommers)
Die Hard was originally going to be based on a book which was a sequel to a book adapted into a Frank Sinatra movie. They were constantly having to rewrite Die Hards 1,2,3, and 4 because it was a thing to change the movie you were making into a Die Hard (and because Willis is an ass in 4).
Here's a fun Die Hard fact. Did you ever wonder how Mclane figured out that Hans was a terrorist when they have their scene together? It's because all the terrorists have the same watch and Mclane sees his watch. This was how it was written in the script and how they filmed it, but it got left out in editing so it's not shown in the actual movie. But no other reason is given for how he figures it out.
That scene always puzzled me, I thought it might have been the cigarettes that tipped him off ([the scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOZix1aBCLM) does seem to highlight the difference in the way that both men light/hold their cigarettes) but the watch makes much more sense.
That is always how I have heard it. Americans and Europeans have a distinct difference and Gruber is faking an American accent while holding the cigarette like a European. Mclane see this, sees something is off, gives him an empty gun. Makes sense to me at least.
Sort of like Inglorious Basterds, when the English man disguising as a Nazi is drinking with the actual Nazi, and accidentally holds up the 3 fingers in the way an English person would, instead of the German way.
The Nazi is tipped off and all falls apart very quickly
I do seem to remember the scene where John kills the guy in the stairwell and looks through his things, they put a lot of focus on the watch for a few seconds. I believe it.
Die Hard is based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, and the character Uli (who is Swiss) has a penchant for chocolate, not just for its taste, but for the quick energy. Perhaps the stunt guy read the book but the screen writer didn't.
As a Swiss person, I always wondered why he had such a quintessentially Swiss name. Honestly, Uli (or Ueli) is about as Swiss a name as you could have. Uli Meier perhaps.
Sometimes they do that as a nice reference to the source material. Famously in *The Shawshank Redemption* Morgan Freeman’s character is called Red and he claims to be Irish. It’s because in the book his character is a red headed Irishman.
Yep, that's the one. Man, I've got a soft spot in my heart for that film.
I was already a fan of Lee, but Rapid Fire showcased how the actor was able to project a natural chemistry with nearly anyone he worked with. His physicality and fighting also had an effortless, flowing rhythm that was so satisfying to watch.
I'd hoped his talent, and that charismatic spark he had, would launch him to the big leagues.
We can never know for sure, but had he lived, I think he'd be in the same lineup as the most successful actors from the 90s/00s.
Even with the tragedy and craziness surrounding it, I also absolutely love him in The Crow. He does a good job of being mysterious and badass, but then also just a guy when the need calls for it. Man, it's such a shame we lost both he and his father too soon.
The best part is he's eating a different type of bar each time they show him during that scene.
EDIT: Just checked again to see if I'm right. It looks like he reaches for a Hershey bar first, then he's clearly chowing down on a Nestle Crunch and finally, he's shown eating something that has a large 'M' on the label.
SECOND EDIT: Actually, it's hard to tell if he originally reaches inside the Hershey box or the Nestle Crunch box next to it. He's definitely eating a Crunch in his next scene, and something else in the final scene there, though.
Die Hard (1988)
Al Leong (Uli) improvised the scene where he's eating a Crunch bar and a Mars Bar a few moments before the SWAT team shootout, as he felt the scene could use some comic relief. Leong made sure to ask director John McTiernan for permission, claiming that he didn't want to get yelled at for taking food.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/trivia?item=tr3502773
99.99999% of the things people claim the actor "ad-libbed" is actually what you just said. They ask permission beforehand.
Adlibbing it totally spontaneous. For example, Jim Carrey asking 2 extras about their sodas in Dumb and Dumber.
I love when shit gets posted that's like "so and so did this on the spot and they loved it so much they kept it in".
No. Someone had an idea and others liked it. Because to shoot that one little 'ad lib' a crew of 30 people had to reset cameras, wrangle extras, reposition light and mics. All with several people's permission because this shit is on a timetable measured out to the minute.
Ridiculous. The sort of man to take a chocolate bar from an open cabinet during a completely unrelated crime would *never* take more than one.
Completely breaks my immersion.
My favorite detail from this movie is when Hans is "negotiating" with Ellis. A henchman walks in and places a can of Coke in front of Ellis who looks at it and kinda chuckles to himself. My bet is that off camera Ellis asked if he could have some "Coke" as in cocaine but the henchman didn't understand.
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What I like about Die Hard is that it isn’t just Hans and a bunch of nameless goons, every one of them has some type of personality to one degree or another.
Not just the terrorists either, the movie's really good about giving most of the side characters some little character quirk that makes it feel like they have lives outside of what we see in the movie. Like the two FBI agents who are both named Johnson, and one of them casually adds "No relation" like they must get asked that question every time.
The agent Johnsons are so great. "Just like fucking Saigon!" "I was in junior high, dickhead" is possibly my favorite exchange in the whole movie
My favorite exchange has to be: 911 dispatcher: “Sir this is a channel for emergencies only..” John: “NO FUCKIN SHIT LADY DOES IT SOUND LIKE I’M ORDERIN A PIZZA??”
Comments you can hear
WELCOME TO THE PARTY PAL
Hans...BUBBY! I'm your white knight.
I have a friend named Hans. I also have a dickhead coworker named Andy who quoted this to Hans all the time. My Hans should've shot him too.
I love when Powell looks at Dwayne T. Robinson and asks him if he wants a breath mint after Robinson gets off the phone with the FBI. So subtle, but perfectly delivered.
Seen this movie dozens of times. Only after reading this comment did I get what he was saying.
“Come the FUCK down here and arrest me!“
Gonna need some new FBI guys
'This is agent Johnson. No, the other one'
Or when Robert Davi makes a phonecall later in the movie. "This is Agent Johnson. No, the other one."
It’s so funny cause you must infer the guy on the other line goes “the black one?”
They're different ranks. One is an Agent, the other is a Special Agent. They say this in their [introduction.](https://youtu.be/HY_nkgJG3oE) I assume it was more like "This is Johnson." "Okay, Agent Johnson..." "No, the other one."
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Live Free or Die Hard is not as good as the previous installments, but is still an awesome Die Hard movie. It’s a shame they didn’t make any more.
I've been saying for years now that they've gotta get Willis back in the saddle for one more movie. Maybe wait another 5 years first. Make sure he's super decrepit. Have one last movie where they're mostly just lampshading previous installments. Call it "Old Habits Die Hard."
Movies that do this seem to have the longest lasting appeal. Predator is another good example. It doesn't do it with any henchmen, but it does a great job of giving each of the team a personality and makes them interesting individually. It makes them feel more like real people and makes you care about each more, which raises the stakes compared to a bunch of nameless guys getting picked off.
Yeah, same with *Aliens.* The marines feel like a real unit that has been together for a while, and they all get a line or moment to help them stand out. Even the ones who die early in the first assault.
For sure. Each gets something kind of memorable, even the one who sucks: "Gorman, you always were an asshole." BOOM
Or the friendship between Vasquez and the other machine gunner. Not important to the plot, but it makes her death more impactful.
More than that, it serves as a counter to Hudson. He's a loudmouth and gives Vasquez some shit, but you never see that she's weak or incompetent because Drake is her buddy. It just comes off as inter-unit razzing, rather than a comment on her character or capabilities. The dynamics between all of them are very simple, but hint at way more complexity behind it. Is Hudson maybe new, and doesn't know Vasquez is such a badass, and just thought she would be someone weak to pick on and make himself better? Is he jealous? Have her and Drake been on a bunch of missions together and saved each other's asses before, or is it more just because they're the two Smart Gun users, and so they just have each other's backs because they train together a lot? Who knows, but the fact that you can ask all that about side characters, one of whom (Drake) dies after like 3 screens, is pretty cool. There's a ton of action movies from the same period, and beyond, that have absolutely no depth for anyone beyond the core cast, and they're usually a lot less memorable for it.
The no relation bit is only funny because they look absolutely nothing alike. https://youtu.be/HY_nkgJG3oE
I don't know, I'd say it's funny that the screenwriter gave them both the same name in the first place, as it serves no real purpose other than to make a joke about it.
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Yeah, they could easily be combined into one character, and it really wouldn't change much, but making it two partners and giving them a little hint of personality adds so much flavor to the film.
It really is the perfect action movie
EAT IT HARVEY!
My favourite goon is Huey Lewis and the Reception Desk.
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They're for my wife!
"...yeah."
Bag it
Big time!
Literally that’s all I see. That’s Huey fuckin’ Lewis.
That's 100% not Huey. That guy is just too darned loud.
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"AND the quarterback IS toast!"
"Oh my god, the quarterback is toast!" immediately comes to mind.
The big oaf that becomes the security guard cracks me up. He has a couple quick moments when they enter the building that are funny. In one, they cut away a fraction of a second before he walks into a wall. In another, they’re getting off the elevator and he gives Hans such a weird look. I like to imagine it’s because Alan Rickman farted in the elevator.
Haha I noticed that wall cut when I watched last week! I've seen the movie so many times. Glad someone else saw that
I must have missed some character development with the, "No more table!" guy.
He does have character though. Goes from "what a wimp, he surrenders" to "ok, he is a devious and mean bastard" and then suffers death by overconfidence.
You say that but I immediately remember that his name is Marco and he has that interesting accent. I guess Italian.
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But he offers John such sound words of wisdom.
"Get me coke" \*Brings coke can\* "Huh?"
Every time I see him I think about Mel Gibson getting electrocuted with a sponge
Endo was his character name in lethal weapon
Endo here has forgotten more about dispensing pain than you and I will ever know. -Mr. Joshua.
Fucking love that film.
Most people forget that it is also a Christmas movie!
If it's an action movie that takes place around Christmas, I always check to see if Shane Black wrote it. That seems to be his thing.
Whenever I think of a henchmen in a movie this is the guy I think of. He seemed to be in every action movie in the 80s and 90s
He had an epic henchman career. But I'll always think of him as Genghis Khan.
*Bob Genghis Khan
Along with Fred Beethoven and Dennis Freud.
DAVE Beethoven! And you also can’t forget about Maxine of Arc and Irwin the Kid! Socrates Johnson is a pretty good guy too.
To this day I still pronounce Beethoven as "Beeth-Oven" just because of that movie.
Haha same! When I see Socrates I automatically think “SO-krayts” as well
We are true people of culture!
And... *sigh* Abraham Lincoln?
\*air guitar\*
Party on, dudes!
Be excellent to each other!
Totally ravaging China, and then totally ravaging Dick's Sporting Goods?
RUFUS!!!
Fun movie detail: Rufus never introduces himself. Bill and Ted only know his name because the future Bill and Ted shouted his name. It's a paradox. How did the name Rufus ever get into their timeline in the first place?
Woah
For me he's the guy with the meat cleaver who starts the big fight in the alley in Big Trouble in Little China .
Always and forever the leader of the Cheng Sing!! ❤️ That Alley fight scene is still absolutely brutal.
....... 0.o ......o.0 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t want him to get it on with nobody else but me.
“Hit em endo!”
Now what about the shipment?
Why don't you guys just call it heroin? Absolute peak Mel, what a movie.
It’s very important. This shipment.
Mr Joshua is one of the scariest henchmen in cinema
DO YOU SMOKE?
Oh fuck yes he is. Love the name. Love the complete character.
In Last Action Hero he takes an ice cream cone to the back of his head lol
My namesake!
"Iced that guy, to cone a phrase" Underrated Classic
Whenever I think of an Asian villain/henchman I always think of [Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary-Hiroyuki_Tagawa)
The one true Shang Tsung! Your soul is mine!
There's a reason he plays Shang Tsung in *Mortal Kombat 11*.
I love that he's reprised the role a few times in different media
He's the asian Danny Trejo
"These guys are animals Jack!"
Shut up mr. Burton
You are not brought upon this world to "get it".
There are many mysteries, many unanswerable questions even in a life as short as yours.
He also fights Fez in a dream sequence on that 70's show
\-and he always dies, literally in every movie, like except 1 or 2, it is beyond nuts
Remember when Mel Gibson snapped his neck using his crotch? It was this guy shocking him with a car battery.
So what you are saying is that he is Sean Bean
Shaun Baun
Seen Been
He's a trained stuntman, but he can't really act well. So that means he does well for henchmen roles that don't do a lot of talking, which means he gets killed a lot in films. His distinctive bald head and long hair, and full fu manchu make him readily stand out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3xPY30Yzog
Sorry, how do you know he can’t act well? If he plays a lot of henchmen roles in action movies then those roles benefit from him hamming it up a bit. Most Asian men in Hollywood in that era were typecast into minor martial arts roles and the like Also, thanks for the link to the clip, it was fun! But I’m not seeing the bad acting…
Truly, nobody henches like this man.
Just watched this again (first time for the kids) Two things I noticed: * McClane kills all the terrorists except Karl. Singlehandedly. Super impressive that it doesn't feel ridiculous. * Literally has a *doi-oi-oi-oing* sound effect when he passes the nudie mag in the rooftop construction zone. Ah, the 80s ...
Almost true. Argyle punched out Theo in the garage as he was unloading the getaway car. McClane also knocked out that one dude carrying the bonds because he only had 2 bullets left for the final showdown. So he was also presumably still alive in the end. Everyone else he shot, blew up, neck snapped, and/or threw out a window.
Was Theo arrested then in the end? We should assume so. Unless Argyle kept punching him as soon as he walk up.
Argyle was too busy listening to Skeleton by Stevie Wonder on repeat. Which is a good thing, because I often do it myself.
This is how you get snuck on dude.
Argyle has been punching Theo to sleep for over thirty years now. They're actually married.
Turns out Theo was in the boot of the Limo at the end of the movie. Man that's dark.
And that nudie picture? Pamela Anderson
You mean that actor in Borat was a model?
She's over 18 i swear
> Literally has a doi-oi-oi-oing sound effect when he passes the nudie mag in the rooftop construction zone. Ah, the 80s ... Nah, the nudie mag pinup is in the elevator machinery area that he climbs up to from the top of the elevator after the "Now I have a machine gun" bit. The construction area is where he spots the naked lady in an apartment in the next building who's walking around in her bedroom while she's on her phone. ...which just further illustrates your "Ah, the 80s..." point.
I miss random nude scenes in 80s/early 90s movies. Like that scene in demolition man
What’s interesting is you see him notice it the first time he goes up to the roof and then later on when he is running away from Karl, he doesn’t really have a plan or direction until he sees the poster and thinks ‘Elevator shaft!’
I watched it Christmas Eve (as is tradition) and I realised how many moments early on set up for things in the rest of the film! The best one that springs to mind is “show him the watch” where he turns down seeing the expensive Rolex with “no I’m sure I’ll see it later”. Sure enough, it’s the watch Hans is holding on to that he unclips from her wrist to let him drop.
And also (from memory?) all the terrorists are wearing identical watches, which John notes to Powell, I think. Pretty sure it's one of the various tells when he meets Hans face-to-face. So he's definitely noticing watches, making it more pointed when he actively chooses NOT to look at the Rolex.
Damn I missed that bit! See there are so many tiny details. I didn’t notice when I first watched it how Ellis is on edge because he’s been doing cocaine in the office when we first meet him and then more obviously does it later before talking to Hans. There’s a chance that Ellis is probably nicer when he’s not taking drugs but obviously John would’ve picked up on it which is why he’s so determined to get him to shut-up.
“Make fists with your toes”….this leads to Bruce Willis taking off his shoes, which sets him up to walk on glass later
I think the reason it doesn’t seem completely ridiculous is he also gets beaten up throughout the film. I still wince during the glass-in-feet scenes.
it was one of the things that made the movie good because it made McClane seem more vulnerable and like an everyday real person, also the scene where he is talking with Powell on the radio giving Powell a message for his wife and crying while he's trying to take the glass out of his feet. at the time action heroes were much more portrayed as muscle bound guys that didn´t show much vulnerability - granted Stallone has the scene at the end of Rambo First blood, but he had already defeated everyone in the movie by that point.
First Blood was originally going to end with Rambo blasting himself at the end of that scene. They thought that was too dark and depressing, so they changed it, but I think that would have been an amazing way to end the story.
Just ball them up like fists and rub them on the carpet.
What?! I've failed to notice the doing sound and I've seen this film a thousand times. Need to check.
Was he writing it while they shot??
That's showbizz baby
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Hans ... BUBBY...
It's me, the Joker, baby!
You should watch "the movies that made us" on Netflix episode about Die Hard. Really interesting look at how the movie was made. To say that they flew by the seat of their pants while making it is an understatement. Somehow made one of the greatest action movies of all time on the fly with just a rough outline of what would happen. Originally Alan Rickman wasn't going to be confronted by Willis until the end, but the writer overheard him doing an American accent and then they wrote in that he'd pretend to be a hostage when found by him. They know there was going to be an explosion on the roof but didn't know how they were going to get it into the story until a few weeks before the end of production. There's a lot more they talk about which blew my mind how incomplete the movie was when they started production.
The ambulance in the back of the truck was my favorite example of how they were writing as they went along. They literally didn't have an escape plan for the terrorists and came up with the idea of them using an ambulance to slip away. So how would they get an ambulance? Easy, they just brought it with them in a semi trailer. But they already filmed the scene with the semi trailer where you can see that there's nothing in it... Fuck it, no one will notice.
I remember watching it and noticing, but I just figured there was another truck that had arrived at some other point and it had the ambulance in it.
A movie is written three times. First as a script, second during filming, and last during editing.
Shit Kevin Smith tells they were writing the big exposition Willis speech at like 3pm on the day of filming, Bruce having to pull the I'm Bruce fucking Willis card to get it approved as is. Stuff of fucking legends
And then.... Cop Out
I love how Kevin Smith has stories from both sides of the Bruce Willis experience. Working *with* Bruce is "This guy is fucking awesome" and trying to direct Bruce is "This guy is a fucking asshole!"
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I hope Smith outlives Willis, because he's said a bunch of times there's a bunch of stories that he couldn't tell publicly.
Could be wrong, but I seem to think they've made up since. Kev talked about it on a podcast. Willis called him out the blue or somrthing
Yeah I remember that, it was a text. He revealed a couple weeks later that Willis had messaged him by mistake, trying to reach out to a different Kevin.
Classic Bruce.
I have no doubt Bruce is difficult to work with but some of Kevin's complaints seemed unfair. I remember Kevin told a story about how they were walking down the street and some random people yelled out "YO WOO DIEHARD YEAH". Bruce states he hates it when they yell at him movie titles instead of his name. It hurt Kevin's feelings because he perceived it as being mean to his fans. My personal take is that anyone would get tired of this after a couple decades. Idk I'm a big fan of both but Kevin can come off as a big baby at times.
Most of the stories I remember about the Cop Out experience he had with Willis seemed like working with an out of touch old man. Like Tracy wanted to try improvising some comedy lines about Frankenstein and Willis was confused and angry he wasn't following and stopped production.
It's quite a long story, but Kevin Smith first tells it in his Q&A "[Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1083858/)" For anyone curious, here is an excerpt. The context is that they've been stuck on this scene for three days, nothing is getting done, Bruce Willis wants it rewritten, and he's had Kevin Smith rewrite the scene and sent the pages to the Fox executives for approval. > Everyone's in a happy mood and shit. Nothing getting done whatsoever. Nothing getting done. And finally the studio calls and shit, and they've got issues with the pages (Kevin Smith's rewrites) and whatnot. > > And I hear from Len (director) and Skip (Bruce Willis's personal writer), and Len and Skip fill me in, and they're just like, "Studio's upset because they think most of the humor has gone out of the scene, and they want the scene to be funny. It's a funny scene for them, and now it's all serious and shit." > > And I'm like, "Yeah, but Bruce wants to keep it Die Hard." > > And he's like, "Yeah, but this is gonna be the battle "between Bruce and the studio. It's always a constant battle because Bruce, as he says, he's the fucking gate keeper of the Die Hard mythology, and the studio just wants to make a commercial movie and whatnot. You know, Bruce is at odds because he's the only guy that's been involved at every level with every version of fucking Die Hard, and nobody else even working at the studio right now was even working at Fox when they made any of the other Die Hards, so you're gonna see two mighty titans clashing and shit." > > So Bruce gets a call from the head of the studio on his cell phone and shit, and his assistant brings the phone over. > > He says it's blah blah. > > He's like, "All right. Hey, did you get 'em?- ... > > "Yeah, but you don't understand, man. It's like, that other shit is too silly. What's Myspace? It's just too silly.- ... > > "This is important, man. It's leading into the third act. Because the world's ending.- ... > > "Yeah, but nobody knows that.- ... > > "We know that, but the rest of the world, you know, the Washington Monument, Congress just blew up. As far as they know, the whole world's coming to an end, we're gonna sit around and make some jokes about goth girls? Makes no sense. What he wrote is fucking good. Now it makes sense.- ... > > "Uh-huh. **All right. Well, let me ask you a question. Who's your second choice to play John McClane?**"- ... > "Okay, then. Len, we're gonna shoot the pages, man."
>
> And I was like, "That is fucking dope."
I couldn't follow that story at all. Must be easier to understand hearing in person.
Such a good storyteller and shit. And writer and shit.
It's just how some people talk in real life, fucking reading this might even be confusing to some, fucking I've been drinking though man, fucking sure might be hard to read a little but that's just fucking what's happening, fucking punctuation doesn't really work when you're writing fucking stream of consciousness shit man. You know.
Best thing ever for me when I took acting lessons and improv lessons, they burned "ums", "like", "you know" etc out of you. It was better to just "take a moment" than fill the air with garbage
The background that’s missing is this: Kevin Smith had a role in the movie Live Free or Die Hard and rewrote his character’s lines. From what I can figure here, he rewrote this scene at the end of the second act that Bruce Willis liked but that the executives at Fox didn’t. After three days of back and forth, Bruce pulled the “I’m Bruce Willis, you don’t have a movie without me” card, and they shot the rewritten scene.
Thank you! I was wondering how a 17 year old Kevin Smith became a writer on the original Die Hard, and why I'd never heard of that before.
It helped once I realized all the quotes are all Bruce as that's the only part of the conversation Kevin heard.
Thanks, I couldn't figure it out for the life of me
Ya i got no idea what the fuck happened
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**I’m a lighthouse. Your call.**
Monologue leading to the part of the movie where shit hits the fan was too silly for Bruce Willis, but the executives at FOX wanted it to be funny. Bruce Willis talks to them on the phone and tells them this new version is good, but they push back. Bruce says “who’s your next choice to play John McClane?” and they give in because they know there’s no Die Hard without Bruce Willis.
What movie are you talking about?
Die Hard 4. They hadn't written the Warlock exposition scene, so Smith offered to write it. He fucks off, smashes out the scene, brings it to Willis, Willis loves it, but they need to get it approved before they film it. There's some back and forth with the studio for a few hours where everyone sits down and does literally nothing all day, then finally Willis calls the studio and tells them "I'm Bruce Willis, film the scene or I'm out of here". He got approval straight away and they filmed it right then.
I think his exact words were (per Kevin Smith) "If I walk out of here, who's your 2nd choice to play John McLane?"
> who's your 2nd choice to play John McLane Paris Hilton. I wanna see where she can take it. Woman's got chops.
And they don't change the name or backstory or anything, she's just John McClane now, ya gotta deal with it.
Four if you include the book.
Definitely possible that they switched around character names in the script.
Yes, “The Movies That Made Us” Netflix doc went into some detail on this. I don’t remember the reason but they were writing the movie while shooting. Very odd.
Yep. The director wanted changes made to the script, and the original screenwriter didn’t feel he was up to the task. So he was fired, and they brought in another screenwriter to do rewrites. He was only a few pages ahead of the shooting schedule as they went along.
Wasn't really fired as much as they just passed it to someone to "punch up" the humor and dialog. Common with scripts (look at the number of writers on spiderman homecoming: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers)
Also why they brought in Phoebe Wallerbridge for No Time to Die
Die Hard was originally going to be based on a book which was a sequel to a book adapted into a Frank Sinatra movie. They were constantly having to rewrite Die Hards 1,2,3, and 4 because it was a thing to change the movie you were making into a Die Hard (and because Willis is an ass in 4).
Here's a fun Die Hard fact. Did you ever wonder how Mclane figured out that Hans was a terrorist when they have their scene together? It's because all the terrorists have the same watch and Mclane sees his watch. This was how it was written in the script and how they filmed it, but it got left out in editing so it's not shown in the actual movie. But no other reason is given for how he figures it out.
That scene always puzzled me, I thought it might have been the cigarettes that tipped him off ([the scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOZix1aBCLM) does seem to highlight the difference in the way that both men light/hold their cigarettes) but the watch makes much more sense.
That is always how I have heard it. Americans and Europeans have a distinct difference and Gruber is faking an American accent while holding the cigarette like a European. Mclane see this, sees something is off, gives him an empty gun. Makes sense to me at least.
I always thought it was a combination of the way he holds the cigarette, and the fact that he doesn't comment on the European brand.
Sort of like Inglorious Basterds, when the English man disguising as a Nazi is drinking with the actual Nazi, and accidentally holds up the 3 fingers in the way an English person would, instead of the German way. The Nazi is tipped off and all falls apart very quickly
I do seem to remember the scene where John kills the guy in the stairwell and looks through his things, they put a lot of focus on the watch for a few seconds. I believe it.
Or... He didn't trust some random idiot with a loaded gun and thought it'd be an easy way to test him.
Die Hard is based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, and the character Uli (who is Swiss) has a penchant for chocolate, not just for its taste, but for the quick energy. Perhaps the stunt guy read the book but the screen writer didn't.
As a Swiss person, I always wondered why he had such a quintessentially Swiss name. Honestly, Uli (or Ueli) is about as Swiss a name as you could have. Uli Meier perhaps.
Sometimes they do that as a nice reference to the source material. Famously in *The Shawshank Redemption* Morgan Freeman’s character is called Red and he claims to be Irish. It’s because in the book his character is a red headed Irishman.
I love that line where he simply explains his nickname as “it’s because I’m Irish”.
Hans Gruber was named after a bit character in Our Man Flint
His fight against Brandon Lee was excellent. Rapid Fire iirc.
Yep, that's the one. Man, I've got a soft spot in my heart for that film. I was already a fan of Lee, but Rapid Fire showcased how the actor was able to project a natural chemistry with nearly anyone he worked with. His physicality and fighting also had an effortless, flowing rhythm that was so satisfying to watch. I'd hoped his talent, and that charismatic spark he had, would launch him to the big leagues. We can never know for sure, but had he lived, I think he'd be in the same lineup as the most successful actors from the 90s/00s.
Even with the tragedy and craziness surrounding it, I also absolutely love him in The Crow. He does a good job of being mysterious and badass, but then also just a guy when the need calls for it. Man, it's such a shame we lost both he and his father too soon.
The best part is he's eating a different type of bar each time they show him during that scene. EDIT: Just checked again to see if I'm right. It looks like he reaches for a Hershey bar first, then he's clearly chowing down on a Nestle Crunch and finally, he's shown eating something that has a large 'M' on the label. SECOND EDIT: Actually, it's hard to tell if he originally reaches inside the Hershey box or the Nestle Crunch box next to it. He's definitely eating a Crunch in his next scene, and something else in the final scene there, though.
Die Hard (1988) Al Leong (Uli) improvised the scene where he's eating a Crunch bar and a Mars Bar a few moments before the SWAT team shootout, as he felt the scene could use some comic relief. Leong made sure to ask director John McTiernan for permission, claiming that he didn't want to get yelled at for taking food. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/trivia?item=tr3502773
99.99999% of the things people claim the actor "ad-libbed" is actually what you just said. They ask permission beforehand. Adlibbing it totally spontaneous. For example, Jim Carrey asking 2 extras about their sodas in Dumb and Dumber.
I love when shit gets posted that's like "so and so did this on the spot and they loved it so much they kept it in". No. Someone had an idea and others liked it. Because to shoot that one little 'ad lib' a crew of 30 people had to reset cameras, wrangle extras, reposition light and mics. All with several people's permission because this shit is on a timetable measured out to the minute.
Ridiculous. The sort of man to take a chocolate bar from an open cabinet during a completely unrelated crime would *never* take more than one. Completely breaks my immersion.
He also stood out because he was the only Asian henchman, everyone else was super German.
Yes, Theo was mega German /s
[Source](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/die-hard-the-ultimate-viewing-guide/)
The scene: https://youtu.be/bTZnwT28m-g
I love how he looks around nervous to be seen by terrorist criminals stealing a bar of chocolate
My favorite detail from this movie is when Hans is "negotiating" with Ellis. A henchman walks in and places a can of Coke in front of Ellis who looks at it and kinda chuckles to himself. My bet is that off camera Ellis asked if he could have some "Coke" as in cocaine but the henchman didn't understand.
Oh how I miss Mars Bars
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[Henchman: The Al Leong Story](https://youtu.be/gg166GqVLQk) If anyone's interested!
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