"Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!"
Few action movies hold up better than Die Hard (1988). John McTiernan's magnum opus shot Bruce Willis to stardom and spawned innumerable imitators, including four sequels. Along with The Terminator and Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's the best of its kind.Gunmen capture Los Angeles' Nakatomi building on Christmas Eve, taking several employees hostage. Narrowly escaping is John McClain (Bruce Willis), a New York cop visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia). While Los Angeles police negotiate with Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the terrorist leader, McClain wages a one-man war, helped by Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), a cop who communicates by radio. As the body count grows, Gruber's demands grow more unreasonable, leaving McClain to save the day.
Die Hard offers nearly nonstop action, served with relish. McTiernan stages shootouts so bloody they'd make Sam Peckinpah wince; a single gunshot kills bystanders but villains require dozens of rounds to stay down. McClain himself survives bullet wounds, beatings and feet maimed by glass, losing little more than his shirt. He endures an epic beat down from Gruber's henchman Karl (Alexander Godunov), then leaps unscathed from an exploding rooftop. Not even Flash Gordon or Indiana Jones matches his improbable feats of endurance.
Screenwriters Steven E. DeSouza and Jeb Stuart punctuate violence with overdone cynicism. The boneheaded LAPD chief (Paul Gleason) plays into Gruber's hands, his stupidity infuriating McClain. Powell's haunted from accidentally shooting a teen; by film's end, he heartwarmingly learns to kill again. Jackal-like reporters and pointy-headed professors bloviate on television; gung-ho FBI agents cheerily put the hostages at risk. It's Dirty Harry on steroids, giving audiences liberal boogeymen to jeer while our rugged hero saves the day.
"Have no illusions. We are in charge."
More effective is Hans Gruber, one of cinema's classic villains. Posing as an international terrorist, Gruber's an extortionist possessed of psychotic charm and devious cunning. Cornered by McClain, he affects an American accent to escape; negotiating with the FBI, he declares solidarity with terror groups encountered in Time magazine. Alan Rickman perfectly inhabits the role, his mellifluous verbosity never better-used. He's a perfect adversary for McClain, equally adept at quips and killing. Gruber's such a fun villain we almost root for him.Bruce Willis ensures that we don't. Fresh off TV's Moonlight, Willis has something peers like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone lack: personality. McClain is Harry Callahan mixed with Macguyver, tough, resourceful and down-to-earth, his coarse wit a match for Gruber's sinister intellect. We don't doubt his indestructibility because he's such a compelling hero; we don't even doubt Holly's making out with McClain, drenched in blood and grime from two hours' gunplay.
Most '80s actioners rely solely on violence, proving more cheesy than engrossing. Die Hard isn't more realistic than Commando, but it's smart enough to lace its silliness with human elements. The protagonist is cool, the villain fun to root against, the humor more dark than silly. The result is a compelling package of holiday mayhem.
