Die Hard 3 (1995)
Die Hard with a Vengeance is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by John McTiernan (who directed the first installment). It was written by Jonathan Hensleigh, based on the screenplay Simon Says by Hensleigh and on the characters created by Roderick Thorp for his 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third film in the Die Hard film series, after Die Hard 2 (1990). It is followed by Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). The film stars Bruce Willis as NYPD Lieutenant John McClane and Samuel L. Jackson as McClane’s reluctant partner Zeus Carver, who team up to stop bomb threats across New York City carried out by “Simon” (Jeremy Irons). It was released on May 19, 1995 to mixed reviews and became the highest-grossing film of the year. The film later gained a cult following and has been considered by many critics and fans as the best sequel of the franchise.
Plot.
he Bonwit Teller department store in New York City is destroyed by a bomb during the morning commute. The New York Police Department gets a call from “Simon” claiming responsibility. He threatens to detonate another unless suspended police officer Lt. John McClane is dropped in Harlem, wearing a sandwich board with a racial slur on it. They comply, and McClane is called in. Zeus Carver, an electrician with a nearby shop, sees McClane wearing the board. McClane explains that he is an officer on a case, but is soon attacked by a group of angry black men. He and Carver manage to escape in a taxi. At NYPD headquarters, they learn that a large quantity of binary liquid explosive has been stolen, part of which was used for the bomb.
McClane and Carver regroup with the police and FBI and CIA agents, learning that Simon is “Peter Krieg”, a former colonel in the East German People’s Army and a mercenary-for-hire. However, Krieg’s real name is Simon Peter Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, whom McClane had killed years earlier in Los Angeles.
Simon then calls the group, telling them about a bomb in a New York public school, set to explode once class lets out and equipped with a radio detonator triggered by the use of FBI and police bands. Simon will give McClane and Carver the school location if they follow his riddles, warning that he will detonate the bomb if any evacuation attempts are made.
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Development and writing.Â
Like most of the films in the series, the premise of this film was repurposed from a stand-alone project. Producer Joel Silver and 20th Century Fox wanted for third Die Hard film to take place on a ship, which is why between 1991 and 1992 they hired screenwriter W. Peter Iliff to write a script for Die Hard 3 which would take place on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, where John McClane and his wife are when it gets taken over by terrorists who threaten to blow it up with a bomb. Iliff, who just wrote Point Break (1991) which turned into a huge hit and was one of the main reasons why he got the job of writing Die Hard 3, was actually re-writing a spec script titled Troubleshooter by another writer, James Haggin, who wrote it in late 1989 and sold it to Largo Entertainment in March 1990, but Fox bought it from them in 1991 because they thought it was good enough to be turned into Die Hard 3. Since the original script wasn’t written as a Die Hard film, the script had to be re-written, but the re-writes lead to a constantly increasing budget due to the addition of several action scenes.
Iliff was at his second re-write of the script when a similar film titled Dreadnought, starring Steven Seagal, went into production at Warner Bros. By the time Iliff did his third re-write to make sure their Die Hard 3 wouldn’t be similar to Dreadnought, the Seagal film was re-titled, first to Last To Surrender (because producers wanted three word title like Seagal’s previous films had), and then to Under Siege (1992). Fox then decided it was pointless to keep trying to make this version of the third Die Hard film due to the perceived similarities with Under Siege.
Casting.
Laurence Fishburne was originally offered the co-starring role of Zeus Carver, a part also written for him, but wanted a higher fee. Producer Andy Vajna held out on the deal. Fishburne had earlier turned down the role of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, which was eventually played by Samuel L. Jackson. Fishburne was talked out of playing Jules by his representatives who wanted him to only accept leading parts, otherwise he would be stuck career-wise as a supporting actor. Subsequently, Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the same time as Fishburne’s pay negotiations. Vajna also attended the event to support Willis who was appearing in the Quentin Tarantino film. Tarantino recalled that Vajna was so impressed by Jackson’s performance that he offered him the part of Carver instead.RELATED:
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Box office.
Die Hard with a Vengeance opened in the United States on May 19, 1995 and earned $22,162,245 in its opening weekend. In Japan, it set a record opening for 20th Century Fox with a five-day gross of $13.5 million, beating Return of the Jedi and ranking number one for five consecutive weeks, grossing over $81 million. Its opening in France set a summer record with a gross of $8.8 million in its first 8 days. The film went on to gross $100,012,499 in the United States and Canada, and $266,089,167 in other markets, giving it a total worldwide gross of $366,101,666 and making it the highest-grossing film of 1995.Cast:
- Bruce Willis as John McClane
- Jeremy Irons as Simon Peter Gruber
- Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus Carver
- Graham Greene as Joe Lambert
- Colleen Camp as Connie Kowalski
- Larry Bryggman as Walter Cobb
- Anthony Peck as Ricky Walsh
- Nick Wyman as Mathias Targo
- Sam Phillips as Katya
- Stephen Pearlman as Fred Schiller
- Kevin Chamberlin as Charlie Weiss
- Michael Cristofer as Bill Jarvis
- Richard Council as Otto
- Mischa Hausserman as Mischa
- Phil Theis as Erik
- Sven Toorvald as Karl
- Robert Sedgwick as Rolf
- Timothy Adams as Gunther
- Tony Halme as Roman
- Aldis Hodge as Raymond Carver
- John Doman as Foreman
- Elvis Duran as Radio DJ