Questions tagged [die-hard]

A 1988 American action film based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp about NYPD Officer John McClane who tries to save his wife Holly Gennaro and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

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Why did Die Hard change the name of Stockholm Syndrome?

In a TV News segment within Die Hard, the author of "Hostage Terrorist: Terrorist Hostage" describes the hostages as undergoing the early stages of "Helsinki Syndrome". Why bother ...
WakeDemons3's user avatar
35 votes
2 answers
9k views

Why were the FBI agents so willing to risk the hostages' lives?

Throughout Die Hard it is clear that the two FBI agents on the scene, Johnson and Johnson, are more eager to fight the bad guys than rescuing the hostages. Their apathy for the hostages is most clear ...
PausePause's user avatar
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2 answers
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How do people figure out John and Holly McClane's identities in the first Die Hard?

Originally, the protagonist in Die Hard says his name is "Roy" in an effort to conceal his identity. Somewhere down the line, his ally Al Powell and everyone else outside know he is John ...
user4951's user avatar
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42 votes
3 answers
10k views

Was there a Die Hard movie poster that excluded Bruce Willis?

A pervasive rumor has been circulating since as long as I can remember that early on in Die Hard's either production or cinematic release, a poster existed that did not feature star actor Bruce Willis,...
Cody S's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why didn't Al Powell investigate the lights at the top of the building?

In Die Hard, Al Powell is told to check out Nakatomi Plaza, however, he wasn't told about someone calling in about the building take over or gun fire (McClane). When he walks over from his car, we ...
киска's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Could the electric company employee have wrecked Hans Gruber's plan?

In the original Die Hard, one of the key points of Hans Gruber's plan is that the police (and specifically the FBI) must eventually be notified, and allowed to proceed as if it were a terrorist ...
JDM-GBG's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
2k views

How did the first terrorist know John McClane was a cop?

In the iconic Christmas movie Die Hard John McClane discovers terrorists infiltrating the Nakatomi plaza. In his first encounter with a terrorist, McClane gets the drop on him but the terrorist says ...
matt_black's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
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Is it just a coincidence that the bad guys give Ellis a Coke?

Early in Die Hard, we are introduced to the businessman Ellis in a scene in which he snorts coke in Holly Gennaro's office. Later in the movie - in what turns out to be his final scene - Ellis is in ...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
13k views

What makes Die Hard a Christmas movie?

It's a common theme in the meme community that Die Hard is a Christmas movie: I've seen Die Hard and other than taking place at Christmas, what else does it have to do with Christmas?
Coomie's user avatar
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60 votes
3 answers
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What was Hans Gruber's plan in Die Hard?

In Die Hard, at some point, Hans Gruber reveals a part of his plan to John McClane: When you steal six hundred dollars, you can disappear...but when you steal ...
JAD's user avatar
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32 votes
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Did a TV edit of Die Hard have McClane say "Yippie Ki Yay Melon Farmer"?

In the Die Hard film series, John McClane (Bruce Willis) repeatedly utters the phrase "Yippie Ki Yay" followed by an Oedipal profanity. Needless to say, television broadcast standards in the 1980s ...
pleurocoelus's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
4k views

Did Mr. Takagi actually know the code key to the vault?

In Die Hard Hans Gruber and his associates take Nakatomi Plaza hostage in hopes of stealing $640 million in bonds. Hans needs a code key password from Mr. Takagi to easily access the vault. Mr. ...
steelersquirrel's user avatar
71 votes
7 answers
15k views

Why didn't Hans Gruber know what Mr. Takagi looked like?

Hans Gruber is portrayed as being highly intelligent and organized. In most situations throughout Die Hard, he is calm and in control. The attack on Nakatomi Plaza was obviously meticulously planned....
steelersquirrel's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
2k views

Would Theo face the death penalty post-Die Hard?

At the end of Die Hard, the bad guy Theo is knocked unconscious and presumably apprehended by the FBI or the Los Angeles police. Eventually, he would have been charged with several crimes. Overall, ...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
4k views

Was Nakatomi corp. involved in illegal activity?

After Hans Gruber's gang seizes control of Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard, Hans and several henchmen accompany Joseph Takagi to his office and this is said: Hans Gruber: Theo has some questions for you....
Andrew Thompson's user avatar
46 votes
15 answers
58k views

Did John McClane know Bill Clay was really Hans Gruber? If so, how?

Late in Die Hard, baddie Hans Gruber pretends to be an innocent bystander named "Bill Clay" and John McClane gives Hans a gun. The gun turns out to be unloaded, meaning McClane knew or at ...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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9 votes
3 answers
992 views

If Al Powell was on desk duty, why was he driving black-and-white?

Die Hard includes a moment when police officer Al Powell says he is on "desk duty" because he accidentally shot a child who had a toy gun. But earlier, Al is shown in uniform, driving a "black-and-...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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21 votes
1 answer
3k views

Die Hard detonator insertion -- "F*** it"

Just before John McClane tosses the C-4 plastic explosive down the elevator shaft in Die Hard, he is inserting detonators into the C-4. After inserting two detonators, he says "Fuck it" and inserts a ...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
217 views

What does "Yippee-ki-yay" even mean? [duplicate]

In the Die Hard series, John Mcclane often uses this phrase before delivering the punch-blow that exterminates whatever he's aiming to blow up. But Mcclane ain't from Texas or anywhere in the Mid-West,...
SandyShores's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Would valuables really have been stored in Nakatomi Plaza vault?

I have always wondered about that vault up on the 30th floor of Nakatomi Plaza (in the first Die Hard movie). Is it realistic that a mid-1980s corporation would store extremely valuable items -- from ...
Shiz Z.'s user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
975 views

How did Dick endanger Holly's children?

In Die Hard 2 Holly and Dick have a heated exchange in the plane and she says something like "Listen, buster. You endangered my children and you didn't do it for anything as noble as the people ..." ...
Stefan's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
945 views

Were the direct references to Die Hard and Under Siege made on purpose?

While Olympus Has Fallen was in its main theme and overall plot quite similar to many action movies of that kind, there were two particular scenes that I understood as direct references to two genre ...
Napoleon Wilson's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
3k views

Could a fire hose really support the weight of a falling man?

In the movie Die Hard, near the end, John McClane ties a fire hose around his waist and jumps off the roof of the Nakotomi plaza building. Would a fire hose really be able to support the weight of a ...
user5603's user avatar
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27 votes
4 answers
120k views

What does "yippie ki yay" mean?

In the movie Die Hard, John McClane (Bruce Willis) says the line "Yippie Ki Yay". What does this mean?
user5603's user avatar
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