Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan, with a screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. It is based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, and it stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, and Bonnie Bedelia. Die Hard follows New York City police detective John McClane (Willis) who is caught up in a terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper while visiting his estranged wife. Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Paul Gleason, and Hart Bochner feature in supporting roles. Stuart was hired by 20th Century Fox to adapt Thorp’s novel into a screenplay in 1987.
The deal was seen as a poor investment by industry professionals and attracted significant controversy towards the film prior to its release. Filming took place between November 1987 and March 1988, on a $25 million–$35 million budget and almost entirely on location in and around Fox Plaza in Los Angeles.
Expectations for Die Hard were low; some marketing efforts omitted Willis’s image, ostensibly because the marketing team determined that the setting was as important as McClane. Upon its release in July 1988, initial reviews were mixed:
Die Hard has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered one of the greatest action films, and is also often named one of the best Christmas films. It revitalized the action genre, largely due to its depiction of McClane as a vulnerable and fallible protagonist, in contrast to the muscle-bound and invincible heroes of other films of the period. Retrospective commentators also identified and analyzed its thematic concerns, including vengeance, masculinity, gender roles, and American anxieties over foreign influences.
Plot.
On Christmas Eve, New York City Police Department (NYPD) Detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, hoping to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at a party held by her employer, the Nakatomi Corporation. He is driven to Nakatomi Plaza by a limo driver, Argyle, who offers to wait for McClane in the garage. While McClane changes clothes, the tower is seized by German radical Hans Gruber and his heavily armed team, including Karl and Theo. Everyone in the tower is taken hostage except for McClane, who slips away, and Argyle who remains oblivious to events. Gruber is posing as a terrorist to steal the $640 million in untraceable bearer bonds in the building’s vault. He kills executive Joseph Takagi after failing to extract the access code from him, and tasks Theo with breaking into the vault. The terrorists are alerted to McClane’s presence and one of them, Tony, is sent after him. McClane kills Tony and takes his weapon and radio, which he uses to contact the skeptical Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Sergeant Al Powell is sent to investigate.RELATED:
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Meanwhile, McClane kills more terrorists and recovers their bag of C-4 and detonators. Having found nothing amiss, Powell is about to leave until McClane drops a terrorist’s corpse onto his car. After Powell calls for backup, a SWAT team attempts to storm the building but is assaulted by the terrorists. McClane throws some C-4 down an elevator shaft, causing an explosion that kills some of the terrorists and ends the assault.
Holly’s co-worker Harry Ellis attempts to negotiate on Gruber’s behalf, but when McClane refuses to surrender, Gruber kills Ellis.
Development and writing.
The development of Die Hard began in 1987, when screenwriter Jeb Stuart was in dire financial straits. His script purchased by Columbia Pictures had been abandoned and a contract at Walt Disney Pictures was not providing him with sufficient income. Stuart had six weeks between contracted work so his agent Jeremy Zimmer contacted Lloyd Levin, the head of development at the Gordon Company, a producing arm of 20th Century Fox. Levin asked Stuart to work on an adaptation of the 1978 novel Nothing Lasts Forever written by former police officer Roderick Thorp. Thorp had been inspired to write Nothing Lasts Forever by a dream he had—in which armed assailants chase a man through a building—after watching the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno.
The film was pitched as “Rambo in an office building”, referring to the successful Rambo film series. Producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver hired director John McTiernan because of his work with them on the successful 1987 action film Predator. McTiernan agreed to direct on the condition that the film would have “some joy” and not simply contain “mean, nasty acts”, seen in other terrorist films.
Stuart began working 18-hour days at his office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which left him exhausted and “on edge”. After an argument with his wife, he went for a drive and saw a box in his lane; unable to avoid it, he was forced to drive over it and discovered it to be empty.
Casting.
As Die Hard was based on the novel sequel to The Detective film, the studio was contractually obligated to offer Frank Sinatra the role. Sinatra, who was 70 at the time, declined. The role was offered to various major stars including Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, Nick Nolte, Mel Gibson, Don Johnson, Richard Dean Anderson, Paul Newman, James Caan, and Al Pacino. The prevailing action archetype of the era was a muscle-bound, invincible macho man like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was offered the role, but he wanted to branch out into comedy and turned it down to star in Twins (1988).
Their analysis showed that casting Willis would not have a negative impact; his participation was confirmed two weeks later. The choice was controversial as Willis had only starred in one other film, the moderately successful comedy Blind Date (1987). At the time, there was also a clear distinction between film and television actors. Though films like Ghostbusters (1984) had demonstrated that television stars could lead a blockbuster film, other television actors like Shelley Long and Bill Cosby had failed in their recent attempts to make the transition.
Willis received $5 million for the role, giving him a salary comparable to more successful, established film actors like Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, and Robert Redford.
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and Gordon said that Willis’s everyman persona was essential to conveying the idea that the hero could actually fail. Other Fox sources were reported as saying the studio was desperate for a star after being turned down by so many popular actors. Willis said, “They paid me what they thought I was worth for the film, and for them.” He described the character as unlike the larger-than-life characters portrayed by Stallone or Schwarzenegger, saying “even though he’s a hero, he is just a regular guy. He’s an ordinary guy who’s been thrown into extraordinary circumstances”. Willis drew upon his working-class upbringing in South Jersey for the character, including “that attitude and disrespect for authority, that gallows sense of humor, the reluctant hero”
Filming.
Principal photography began in November 1987, and concluded by early March 1988, with an approximate $25–$35 million budget. Filming took place almost entirely in and around Fox Plaza in Century City, situated on the Avenue of the Stars. The location was chosen late in production by production designer Jackson De Govia. A mostly unoccupied building was needed which the under-construction Fox Plaza offered; it was secured with two main conditions: no filming during the day and no damage from explosions. Cinematographer Jan de Bont said the building’s design was distinct, making it a character on its own, and clear views of the building were available from a distance, enabling establishing shots as McClane approaches it.
De Bont was more concerned with creating a dramatic rather than an attractive shot. He cited the use of real flares in the film that generated unpredictable smoke and sometimes obscured the image.
Willis’s first day on set was on November 2, 1987. He came straight from filming Moonlighting to shoot one of his most pivotal scenes, where McClane leaps from a rooftop as it explodes behind him, saved only by a length of firehose. Willis found acting in Die Hard difficult because it differed from previous experiences in that he was often alone, not having any personal encounters with others.
Marketing.
Willis featured prominently in the film’s early marketing campaign, but it underwent several changes as the film’s release date drew nearer. Willis had developed a reputation as an “arrogant” actor concerned with his own fame. His refusal to address this, or speak about his personal life to the media, had reinforced this perception. For his part, Willis said that he wanted the media to focus on his acting. There were reports that cinema audiences would moan at Willis’s appearance in Die Hard trailers, and that a representative from an unnamed theater chain had pulled the trailer in response Research by several film studios revealed that audiences had a negative opinion of Willis overall and little or no interest in seeing him in Die Hard. Newsweek’s David Ansen called Willis “the most unpopular actor ever to get $5 million for making a movie”.RELATED:
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As 20th Century Fox’s confidence in Willis’s appeal faltered, the film’s posters were changed to focus on Nakatomi Plaza, with Willis’s name billed in tiny print. Willis’s image was not included in the film’s first full-page newspaper advertisement in mid-July. 20th Century Fox executive Tom Sherak denied that Willis was being hidden, saying their marketing strategy had changed when they realized that the building was as important a character as the actor. Defying expectations, sneak previews of the film were well received by audiences, and the week following its release, the advertising began featuring Willis more prominently.
Box office.
Die Hard’s premiere took place on July 12, 1988, at the Avco theater in Los Angeles, California. In North America, the film received a limited release in 21 theaters in 13 cities on July 15, 1988, earning $601,851—an average of $28,659 per theater. It was considered a successful debut with a high per-theater average gross. The Los Angeles Times said that the late change in advertising focus and diminishing popularity for action films should have worked against Die Hard. Instead, positive reviews and the limited release had made it a “must-see” film.In its fourth weekend, it rebounded to the number three position with $5.7 million. While the film never claimed the number-one box office ranking, it spent ten straight weeks among the top five highest-grossing films. In total, the film earned an approximate box office gross of between $81.3 million and $83 million. Outside North America, Die Hard is estimated to have earned $57.7 million, giving it an approximate cumulative gross of between $139.1 million and $140.7 million.
Cast:
- Bruce WillisasJohn McClane, a New York City police detective.
- Alan RickmanasHans Gruber, the terrorists
- Alexander Godunov as Karl, Gruber’s
- Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Gennaro-McClane
- Reginald VelJohnsonasAl Powell
- Paul Gleason as Dwayne T. Robinson
- De’voreaux White as Argyle, John’s
- William Atherton as Richard Thornburg
- Clarence Gilyard as Theo
- Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis
- James Shigeta as Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi