The first screenplay considered was called Troubleshooter , and originally written on spec by one James Haggin. This would have seen McClane fight terrorists on a Caribbean cruise ship, but the idea was ditched when the producers learned that a film called Under Siege , then still in production, had a similar plot.
Instead, the story was retooled as another McClane adventure, which would explain why the movie feels somewhat different from the previous two movies. And once again, the script began life as something else entirely; this time, it was called WW3. Originally intended for release in the late 90s, WW3. At one point, Luc Besson was slated to produce the movie on behalf of Fox for an intended release in Again, this never happened.
Interestingly, there were two other potential Die Hard 4 scripts floating around at one point, both called Die Hardest , both written on spec by Ben Trebilcook, and both rejected. Bruce Willis later took the Tears title and attached it to the war film he made in with director Antoine Fuqua.
Now we come to the most recent and gloomy chapter of the Die Hard saga. Bruce Willis and Woods hit it off during the shoot, and it was Willis who called the screenwriter up about writing the fifth film. Might we have been in for something quite bleak, like a Russia-set Get Carter? Jackson on a cross-city chase to prevent a catastrophe. The first film in the series not based on a novel, this had been intended as both a standalone feature and then a Lethal Weapon sequel before ending up in its current incarnation.
After the initial trilogy, John McClane seemed to have hung up his guns for good, but then he made a big comeback after a year hiatus, with Willis now sporting his trademark shaved head as an older, wearier hero. Largely shot around Baltimore, this would be the only film in the series with a PG rating as opposed to an R ; however, that had little impact on the amount of action involved or its welcome reception from action-hungry audiences.
Budapest stands in for the Moscow scenes which comprise the bulk of the film along with a perilous trip to Chernobyl , and though Willis has vowed this will be the series finale, rumors about a reboot or TV series continue to pop up. Directed by John Moore, who previously underwhelmed audiences with his lackluster Max Payne adaptation, this Die Hard sequel sees John McClane head to Russia for no good reason other than to exploit the international box office.
There, he discovers his son, Jack Jai Courtney is inexplicably a secret agent, and the two McClanes go on an uninspired quest to shoot bad guys and engage in heartless banter. Bruce Willis, the lifeblood of the franchise, is asleep at the wheel in this entry, clearly articulating to viewers that he's only in this one for the paycheck.
Rather than a variety of delightful one-liners, McClane merely repeats the line "I'm supposed to be on vacation! With lackluster action, a pointlessly meandering storyline, an uninterested leading man, and a lack of recognizable traits from the series, a better title for this film would be Die Hard In Name Only , because that's exactly what this unfortunate exercise turned out to be.
The first sequel to the classic aimed to be bigger and better than the first. It's certainly bigger, with more explosions and a higher body count ; McClane scores some seriously R-rated kills in this entry, from stabbing a guy in the eye with an icicle to feeding one of the main villains to the turbine engine of a jet airplane.
In fact, the film was originally given an NC rating, and the edits made to the various action scenes often are often quite noticeable. If an unrated version of Die Hard 2 were to be released, it might be enough to boost the film up a spot on this list. Bruce Willis is back in signature form as John McClane, this time forced to take on terrorists who are holding an airport hostage — and his wife is on one of the planes. The ticking clock is handled well, with the dwindling fuel supplies of the planes in the sky leading to high stakes for our hero on the ground.
The actual plot is needlessly convoluted, but it works to contrast John McClane, who doesn't care about anything more than taking down the bad guys. It's a worthy follow-up to the original, but lacking in several departments. For one thing, the whole thing feels a bit cheaper and clunkier than the original, with director Renny Harlin frequently lacking the deft touch that made John McTiernan's original so memorable. Many scenes feel like they're from a straight-to-video Die Hard knock-off , rather than the genuine article.
Still, when Die Hard 2 is firing on all cylinders, it's an exciting romp with the same adrenaline-pumping action and adventure that made the original a timeless classic. While Die Hard 2 repeated a few too many beats from the original, Die Hard with a Vengeance benefits from taking the franchise in a different direction.
This time, John McClane is truly at his wit's end. He looks scruffy and disheveled, and the New York City setting feels much more gritty and realistic than previous entries. Director John McTiernan, returning from the original, went to great lengths to avoid making Die Hard With a Vengeance feel like a retread, and the result is a truly unique entry within the storied action franchise.
Jeremy Irons shines as the villain , Simon Gruber, a mad bomber with a grudge against McClane, sending the burned-out cop on a series of tasks all over the city to solve a series of riddles all over New York City, lest he detonate a number of hidden bombs all over New York City. Along for the ride is Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus , a Malcolm X-inspired character with a short temper and a penchant for witty banter with McClane.
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