Ever since it hit theaters in 1988, John McTiernan’s Die Hard has been praised as one of the greatest action movies ever made, with some critics even ranking it in the top spot. More than 30 years later, the story of a barefoot off-duty cop saving his estranged wife’s office Christmas party from terrorists still resonates with audiences.
From the perfect pacing of the script to the everyman charms of Bruce Willis’ lead performances, there are a few elements that make Die Hard a timeless classic.
Thanks to movies like Rambo and Predator, the action heroes of the ‘80s were oiled-up, musclebound killing machines that could take a bullet without flinching. Die Hard’s John McClane offered a nice counterpoint to these near-invincible superhumans as a flawed everyman.
McClane doesn’t like himself very much and he’s failing as a husband and father, despite his best efforts. He also cuts his feet on broken glass and gets beat up in all his hand-to-hand combat scenes. Die Hard offered an action hero that regular people could relate to.
John McTiernan doesn’t rush into the action in Die Hard, but he doesn’t take too long to get there, either. The opening scenes economically establish the McClane character and his strained relationship with his wife before the external conflict of the hostile takeover comes along.
When Nakatomi Plaza is taken over, the audience has gotten to know McClane, so they’re more invested in his story than the average Hollywood action movie. This perfect pacing continues throughout the movie as the tension gradually rises to a thrilling climax.
Obviously, Die Hard has plenty of compelling action scenes. But unlike most other entries in the genre, it also has many engaging non-action scenes that rely on regular cinematic tension to keep the audience on the edge of their seat.
When Takagi is murdered or when Ellis is unwittingly paving the way for his own murder, the audience is thrilled without the need for a shootout or an explosion.
It’s fair to say that Die Hard wouldn’t work nearly as well without the rough-and-tumble charisma and dry humor that Bruce Willis brings to the role of John McClane.
While Willis’ passion for the craft of acting has clearly diminished over the years, he put it all on the line in his first starring vehicle. It’s no wonder his turn in Die Hard led to more than three decades on the A-list.
While Alan Rickman’s most iconic role will always be Snape in the Harry Potter movies, he played arguably an even more memorable villain as Hans Gruber, the Eastern European terrorist leader who besieges Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard.
Rickman brings the requisite mustache-twirling villainy to the role, but he also plays the part with far more nuance than the average action movie baddie.
When McClane is seen waving a gun around the hostages on the roof, the FBI agents hovering above in a helicopter mistake him for a terrorist and start shooting at him. He ends up having to jump off the roof with a firehose tied around his waist.
The tension of this sequence is timeless, as is the hilarious juxtaposition of setting a comical case of mistaken identity against the backdrop of gunfire and explosions.
There’s been a lot of debate about whether or not Die Hard is officially a Christmas movie. It was released in the summer, but it takes place at Christmas. The plot revolves around a terrorist siege, but that siege takes place at an office Christmas party and there’s a bunch of holiday hits on the soundtrack.
Whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not, the yuletide setting makes it a delightfully unconventional action movie (although Lethal Weapon, released just one year earlier, was also set around Christmastime) and also tied into the story of a negligent husband and father trying to make things right with his family.
One-liners are a staple of ‘80s action cinema, but a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s one-liners have aged poorly. McClane’s quippy one-liners in Die Hard, on the other hand, are just as awesome today as they were back in 1988.
From “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf**ker!” to “Welcome to the party, pal,” Bruce Willis’ dry delivery and sharp timing make each one-liner land perfectly. When one goon tells McClane, “Next time you have the chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate,” McClane guns him down and cracks, “Thanks for the advice.”
Not only does Die Hard have an unforgettable hero and villain, it has a bunch of memorable supporting characters to back them up, too, like McClane’s charismatic limo driver Argyle and Holly’s co-worker, Ellis.
The movie’s greatest supporting character is Al Powell, a uniformed L.A. police officer who communicates with McClane via walkie-talkie throughout the movie, played brilliantly by Reginald VelJohnson.
John McTiernan nicely balances the tone of Die Hard. There are plenty of fun, lighthearted moments, like McClane crawling around in the vents making self-deprecating remarks, but director John McTiernan takes the time to make the audience care about the characters, with darker, more dramatic moments.
And these light and dark moments never step on each other’s toes. In one scene, Powell confesses to accidentally shooting a child. In another, Argyle parties in the back of his limo with a giant teddy bear. The tonal shifts are never jarring, because McTiernan balances it all perfectly.
