Little Bit of History: Directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis launching his movie career and cementing him as a genuine Hollywood star. Distributed by 20th Century Fox and originally released on July 15 (my birthday), 1988. Die Hard was an action/thriller like no other before it and changed Hollywood action cinema forever. Based on the novel: Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, which itself was a sequel to his: The Detective novel that was also turned into a film starring Frank Sinatra in 1968.
Little Bit of Plot/Story: Bruce Willis plays everyday New York cop, John McClane. On a visit to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife, Holly and their children. John McClane goes to meet his wife at her work in the Nakatomi Plaza building during a Christmas party. The party is prematurely cut short by the arrival of Hans Gruber and his heavily armed group of henchmen, where they seize the building and secure all inside as hostages, except for John McClane who manages to slip away undetected and fights back to free the hostages and take down Hans and his men.
Little Bit of Character: With Bruce Willis playing the now iconic action hero, John Mcclane. There was the brilliantly charismatic bad guy, Hans Gruber played by Alan Rickman. Holly McClane the no nonsense estranged wife played by Bonnie Bedelia. Hans henchmen such as Karl, Franco, Tony, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James.
Little Bit of Influence: For years after the release of Die Hard, most action movies were labeled as “Die Hard on/in a…” with films such as Speed (Die Hard on a bus), Under Siege (Die Hard on a ship), Passenger 57 (Die Hard on a plane) and even the cringeworthy, Anna Nicole Smith starring Skyscraper (Die Hard in a…well building). Die Hard influenced action cinema for decades with many production companies churning out similar films with similar plots and themes. But Die Hard went on to be a very successful franchise in itself spawning four cinematic sequels (with another one rumored), various video games and even a comic book series called Die Hard: Year One which served as a prequel to the original movie.
Little Bit of Memories: I remember my older brother coming home with a copy of this film when I was younger and we sat down to watch it, which was the first time I ever saw this film. I also recall the amazing, twisting plot where nothing was what it seems. Even to the point where the writing makes you think the hero could die.
Little Bit of Watchability: Still one of the very best films made in any genre and while it shows some ageing and is very 80’s in many respects. It also manages to avoid many of the action cliches of the time and brings something refreshing to the table. I most definitely recommend this to anyone that wants a good slice of action/thriller cinema which does pretty much everything perfectly. The film has become one of my alternative Christmas classics and gets watched every Christmas without fail.
John McClane: Was always kinda partial to Roy Rogers actually. I really like those sequined shirts.
Little Bits of Gaming & Movies 