A long time ago, I wrote a very long article concerning my favorite comedy: Tropic Thunder. It wasn’t soon after I published that article did I think of my favorite movies from other dramas. It’s difficult to narrow them down, but I eventually settled on action movies. I thought hard about which action movie is very much worth calling, ‘the best’. But when you really come down to it, the most influential and generally awesome action movie of all time is “Die Hard”. Almost every person can relate to the lovable John McClane, the idea of one man vs. a dozen is well displayed here, and the outside help elements are film staples we see in just about every action film these days. It doesn’t take a movie critic or a film education to realize how elements from this movie have influenced the industry today, and I’ll try my best to break it down for you all. But first, a summary.
John McClane, a New York police cop, is heading west to join his separated wife for Christmas and their children. His wife is in the middle of a corporate Christmas party after a celebrated project wrap up, so he must make his way to the building itself. Admist meeting her and her fellow co-workers, the building is suddenly taken hostage while John narrowly escapes. In a game of cat and mouse between John McClane and the terrorists, led my Hans Gruber, he must shoot, trick, and explode his way back to his wife with the help of a local cop and a young limo driver.
1) John McClane is an Everyday American
One of the best reasons to watch this movie is for the main character, John McClane. Bruce Willis brings one of the most likable characters to screen. Right off the bat, we find out he has a fear of planes and is susceptible to comical superstition after ‘rubbing your barefeet on a carpet helps airplane phobias.’ What contrasts this amongst most movie heroes and characters is that he’s far more relatable than most. Others are near perfect heroes with little flaws, but we find out quickly that McClane is vulnerable and hilarious at the same time. In the peak of the action, McClane will often find himself talking to himself and trying to reason and grasp the situation that’s going on. He’s also very quick to find the humor in situations and delivered a number of hilariously bad-ass quotes, “Now I have a machine gun”, ‘no fcking sh!t lady, does it sound like I’m ordering a pizza?’, and ‘Who’s driving the car, Stevie Wonder?’.
Aside him being funny, McClane seems like an invincible bad-ass. He’s been shot, stabbed, punched, and has even had to run over glass on his bare feet. He’s made near impossible jumps and has shown his battle-wits when he makes an improvised explosion device and even derived the leader of the terrorist group via counting the numbers of terrorists and their names. And the amazing part of this movie is that we’re just introduced to him as an everyday New York cop who’s been thrown into such an unfortunate incident. A shtick that’s been used and used over since then.
2) Hans Gruber is a Fearsome and Cunning Villain
Playing opposite of John McClane is Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. Before he was Professor Snape, he was a German terrorist leader with a cold black heart and a deadly set of wits. Gruber has managed to get a versatile group of terrorists together to carry out a plan. This plan is nearly perfect, predicting the actions of the local police to the FBI. He has no problem executing innocent civilians and can act just as evil in a pinch. What’s also amazing is that, like John McClane, we have no idea who the man is or what is name is until halfway through the movie. This idea builds the tension and ominous feeling of who Hans Gruber truly is. Remember the time John McClane stumbled up him and Gruber pulled out an American accent out of his ass, strictly remembering that McClane doesn’t know what he looks like. He almost gets the jump of McClane, had he only checked his gun and decided to not be so rash. Otherwise, Gruber is as ruthless to the end where he holds the beloved Mrs. McClane hostage.
3) Lovable Supporting Characters that Help from the Outside
Al Powell and Argyle were some of the awesomest side characters of the show. I would hate to call them cliche, because they invented the external help character that is so cliche nowadays. In a sea of madness and misunderstanding, these two manage to keep their heads together and are ultimately key in truly stopping Hans Gruber’s plans.
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