Die Hard fun facts

Die Hard

The Nakatomi building is, in reality, the Fox Plaza.

According to commentary from the movie's DVD release, Alan Rickman's surprise when Gruber is dropped from the building is genuine: the director chose to release Rickman a full second before he expected it in order to get genuine surprise, a move which angered Rickman.

The text commentary track also reveals that the shooting script did not originally feature the meeting between McClane and Gruber pretending to be a hostage; it was only written in when it was discovered that Rickman could do an American accent.

In the German dub, the names and backgrounds of the German-born terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their British equivalents, though two were turned Italian): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie, Heinrich turned into Henry (in the scene where John is writing down the names of the terrorists, a voiceover in the German version says "I'm gonna call you Hans and Karl, just like the two evil giants in the fairy tale" while referring to them as Jack and Charlie later). The new background depicts them as some internationally organized terrorists having gone freelance and for profit rather than ideals. This was because German terrorism (especially by the Rote Armee Fraktion) was still considered a sensitive issue by the German government in the 1980s.

Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to Thorp's earlier novel The Detective, was written with the intention of being adapted into a film sequel to the film adaptation of The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra turned down the offer to star in the sequel, the story was altered to be a stand-alone film with no connections to The Detective.

The novel's tone is darker and more serious than the film's, and the politically-motivated fighters of the novel became thieves pretending to be terrorists in the film.

Other changes included the older hero of the novel becoming younger, the hero's daughter becoming his wife, and the American Klaxon Oil Corporation becoming the Japanese Nakatomi Corporation.

When Die Hard was released, it was considered one of the best action films of its era (on Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 96% "fresh" rating).

It is noted for including humor as a complement to the action and dramatic elements of the story. It is said to have reinvented the action genre and set the stage for '90s action/thriller movies such as Under Siege, Sudden Death, Cliffhanger, Passenger 57 and Speed.

"Die Hard on a _____" became a common way to describe the plot of many of the action films that came in its wake. For example, 1994's Speed was called "Die Hard on a bus", 1996's The Rock was dubbed "Die Hard on an island".

Die Hard was listed at #39 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list of the most thrilling American movies of all time in 2001.

In 2003, Hans Gruber was listed at #46 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains special. However, Roger Ebert gave it a less than flattering review, giving it a mere 2 stars and criticizing the stupidity of the characters and the satirical view the film takes on authority figures.

Die Hard had a budget of $28 million. Released in 1,276 theaters, it grossed $7.1 million in its opening weekend.

John McClane's infamous line "Yippee ki yay, motherf***er" was voted as #96 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine in 2007.

In the June 22, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was named the best action movie of all time.

Die Hard 2

Roger Ebert, while noting the not-insubstantial plot credibility problems with the movie, described Die Hard 2 as "terrific entertainment.

MaximOnline.com named the British plane crash as #2 on their list of "Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes".

Die Hard 2 was the first movie to have a digitally-manipulated matte painting. It was used for the last scene, which took place on a runway.

The movie was not filmed at Dulles, but at many other locations. Many of the airport terminal shots were from LAX in Los Angeles (one of the payphones has a "Pacific Bell" logo).

Other scenes were shot in the terminal baggage claim drive through at Denver's now-closed Stapleton International Airport. This was done mainly because the producers needed an area that had frequent and consistent snowfall, which Denver has. (Ironically, according to the special edition DVD features, Denver suffered from an unseasonably unsnowy winter that year. In at least one scene, the crew had to make do with fake snow, including "snow" made from painted cornflakes.) Some runway scenes were also shot at Alpena County Regional Airport in Alpena.

One key plot point is that planes would continue to circle an airport waiting to land until they were unable to divert elsewhere. Under real-life flight regulations, planes must not only carry enough fuel to go to their destination or a pre-designated alternate airfield, but must also accommodate additional fuel to allow for en-route delays.

Another plot point involves the terrorists crippling all of the airport's communication systems, so the airline pilots can only communicate with the terrorists. In real life, aviation AM band radios are common, and commercial airliners have numerous other communication systems to talk to their corporate headquarters, etc.

Also, in the Washington D.C. area, there are several airports, including Andrews Air Force Base and Langley Air Force Base, just within a few minutes' flight time and could communicate with and land commercial airliners in an emergency. (In one of the control tower scenes it is mentioned that "National just shut down", referring to Washington National).

The scene where the Instrument Landing System glide slope is re-calibrated to be 200 feet lower than the ground level is impossible in real life. An aircraft flies towards the glide slope transmitter which is situated on the ground. The aircraft gets its height information from its own altimeter and radar altimeter.

Die Hard 3

Simon Gruber is the brother of Hans (in the first Die Hard).

An alternative ending to the one shown in the final film was made and can be found on the special edition DVD. In this version it is presumed that the robbery succeeds, and that McClane was used as the scapegoat for everything that went wrong. He is fired from the NYPD after more than 20 years on the force and the FBI has even taken away his pension. Nevertheless he still manages to track Simon using the batch number on the bottle of aspirins, and confronts him in an Eastern European cafe.

In this version, Simon has killed or double-crossed most of his accomplices, gotten the loot to a safe hiding place (Nova Scotia), and has the gold turned into statuettes of a famous landmark (in this case the Empire State Building) in order to smuggle it out of the country; but he is still tracked down to his foreign hideaway. This is very similar to Alec Guinness' situation in the British heist movie The Lavender Hill Mob made some 45 years earlier in which the stolen gold is turned into Eiffel Tower paperweights.

McClane is keen to take his problems out on Simon whom he invites to play a game called "McClane Says". This involves a form of Russian Roulette with a small Chinese rocket launcher with the sights removed, meaning it cannot be determined which end is which. McClane then asks Simon some riddles similar to the ones he played in New York. When Simon gets a riddle wrong, McClane forces him at gunpoint to fire the launcher, which fires the rocket through Simon, killing him. Of course, McClane had been wearing a Flak jacket (which was the answer to the final riddle "what could he have brought to the meeting to save his life?"), so even if Simon had pointed the launcher the right way, it's likely that the relatively low-velocity rocket wouldn't have cause McClane enough injury to prevent him from shooting Simon.

In the DVD audio commentary, screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh claims that this version was dropped because the studio thought it showed a more cruel and menacing side to McClane, a man who killed for revenge rather than in self-defense. Hensleigh's intention was to show that the events in New York and the subsequent repercussions had tilted him psychologically. This alternative ending, set some time after the main events of the movie, would have marked a serious break from the Die Hard formula, in which the plot unfolds over a period of roughly 12 hours.

According to the DVD audio commentary, a second alternate ending had McClane and Carver floating back to shore on a makeshift raft after the explosion at sea. Carver says it's a shame the bad guys are going to get away; McClane tells him not to be so sure. The scene then shifts to the plane where the terrorists find the briefcase bomb they left in the park and which Carver gave back to them (in this version it was not used to blow up the dam). The movie would end on a darkly comic note as Simon asks if anyone has a 4 gallon jug. This draft of the script was rejected early on, and unlike the rocket-launcher sequence, was never actually filmed.

Die Hard 4

The film's plot is based on an earlier script entitled WW3.com by David Marconi, screenwriter of Enemy of the State. Using a Wired article entitled "A Farewell to Arms" by John Carlin, Marconi crafted a screenplay about a cyber-terrorist attack on the U.S. The attack procedure is known as a "fire sale," depicting a three-stage coordinated attack on a country's transportation, telecommunications, financial, and utilities infrastructure systems. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the project was stalled, only to be resurrected several years later and rewritten into Live Free or Die Hard by Doug Richardson and eventually by Mark Bomback.

For the DVD release, 20th Century Fox pioneered a new kind of DRM that tries to weaken the incentives for consumers to learn how to rip discs by offering them a downloadable version with studio-imposed restrictions.

The involvement of McClane's daughter in the film was previously considered for Die Hard with a Vengeance, and was used in the video game Die Hard: Vendetta. It was speculated that Bruce Willis' real life daughter Rumer, who was born the same year that the original Die Hard was released, was a prime candidate for the part of Lucy McClane. Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and Taylor Fry, who played Lucy in the original Die Hard movie in 1988, had all previously auditioned for the role. The role of Lucy eventually went to Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Willis said in 2005 that the film would be called Die Hard 4.0, as it revolves around computers and cyber-terrorism. IGN later reported the film was to be called Die Hard: Reset instead. 20th Century Fox later announced the title as Live Free or Die Hard and set a release date of June 29, 2007 with filming to begin in September 2006. The title is based on the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die," which is attributed to a quote from General John Stark. International trailers use the Die Hard 4.0 title, as the film was released outside North America with that title. Early into the DVD commentary for the film, both Wiseman and Willis note a preference for Die Hard 4.0, and subtly mock the Live Free or Die Hard title.

One VFX producer said that the director "was insisting on the fact that, because we’ve got Transformers and other big CG movies coming out, this one has to feel more real. It has to be embedded in some kind of practical reality in order to give it that edge of being a Die Hard."

Digital Dimension worked on 200 visual effects shots in the film, including the sequence that shows characters John McClane and Matt Farrell crouching between two cars as another car lands on top of the other cars. To achieve this effect, a crane yanked the car and threw it in the air onto the two cars that were also being pulled by cables. The shot was completed when the two characters were integrated into the footage of the car stunt after the lighting was adjusted and CGI glass and debris were added. In the same sequence, John McClane propels a car into a hovering helicopter, which crashes to the ground. This was accomplished by first filming one take where an assassin with a rifle jumps from the helicopter, and in the next take the car is propelled into the stationary helicopter as it is hoisted by wires. The final view of the shot overlays the two takes, with added CGI for the debris and moving rotor blades. The company also assisted in adding cars for traffic collisions and masses of people for evacuations from several government buildings.

The Orphanage developed a multi-level freeway interchange for use in one of the final scenes of the film by creating a digital environment and a 1,000-foot (300 m) long spiral ramp that was built in front of a bluescreen. When a F-35 jet is chasing McClane on the freeway, a miniature model and a full-size prop were both built to assist in digitally adding the jet into the scene. The nine-foot model was constructed from November 2006 through February 2007. When the jet is shown hovering near the freeway, editors used the software 3D graphics program Maya to blur the background and create a heat ripple effect.

Willis was injured January 24, 2007 during a fight scene, when he was kicked above his right eye by a stunt double for actress Maggie Q who was wearing stiletto heels. Willis described the event as "no big deal" but when Director Len Wiseman inspected his injury, he noticed that the situation was much more serious than previously thought- in the DVD commentary, Wiseman indicates in inspecting the wound that he could see bone. Willis was hospitalized and received seven stitches which ran through his right eyebrow and down into the corner of his eye. Due to the film's non-linear production schedule, these stitches can accidentally be seen in the scene where McClaine first delivers Matthew Farrel to Executive Director Bowman (Played by Cliff Curtis). During the Director commentary included on the DVD release, both Wiseman and Willis laugh during this scene - noting the clearly visible stitches and wondering why no one thought to cover them with makeup on the day of shooting.

Throughout filming, between 200 and 250 stunt people were used. Bruce Willis' stunt double, Larry Rippenkroeger, was knocked unconscious when he fell twenty-five feet from a fire escape to the pavement. Rippenkroeger suffered broken bones in his face, several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and fractures in both wrists. Due to his injuries, production was temporarily shut down. Willis picked up the tab at area hotels for Rippenkroeger's parents and visited him a number of times at the hospital.

Lawrence Toppman of The Charlotte Observer stated: "I can safely say I've never seen anything as ridiculous as Live Free or Die Hard." Toppman also claimed that the film had a lack of memorable villains and referred to John McClane as "just a bald Terminator with better one-liners".