Die Hard

1988

2h 12m

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

12K

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10 Videos

99+ Images

Action

Thriller

NYPD cop John McClane's plan to reconcile with his estranged wife is thrown for a serious loop when, minutes after he arrives at her offices Christmas Party, the entire building is overtaken by a group of terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down.

Directors

John McTiernan

Writers

Roderick Thorp(novel by)

Jeb Stuart(screenplay by)

Steven E. de Souza(screenplay by)

Stars

Bruce Willis

Alan Rickman

Alexander Godunov

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Videos10

Photos243

Top cast

John McClane

Hans Gruber

Karl

Holly Gennaro McClane

Al Powell

Dwayne Robinson

Argyle

Richard Thornburg

Harry Ellis

Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi

Franco

Tony

Theo

Alexander

Marco

Eddie

Uli

Heinrich

Directors

John McTiernan

Writers

Roderick Thorp(novel by)

Jeb Stuart(screenplay by)

Steven E. de Souza(screenplay by)

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User reviews9

Review

Featured review

7/10

***Big, dumb, fun action flick with Bruce Willis and a skyscraper*** RELEASED IN 1988 and directed by John McTiernan, "Die Hard" is the first of (currently) five installments in the Die Hard series. In this one New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) flies to Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his wife & kids. When McClane visits Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) at her company’s Christmas party a group of radical criminals take control of the skyscraper. Alan Rickman plays the nefarious mastermind of the operation while Reginald VelJohnson plays a cop on the ground that befriends McClane via walkie talkie. Meanwhile Paul Gleason is on hand as an exasperating police chief. This franchise fills the bill if you're in the mood for big, dumb, fun action thrills. Don't get me wrong because a lot of work goes into making these kinds of films and it takes talent & genius to pull them off. I mean "dumb" in the sense that the focus is on unbelievable action rather than deeper themes beyond "genuinely good people may be flawed, cocky and somewhat profane, but they're courageous and never give up in the face of evil." The Die Hard flicks are the natural progeny of over-the-top films like 1977's "The Gauntlet" where the action scenes are so overdone they're cartoony, but entertaining. There's a thin line that filmmakers must tread with these kinds of blockbusters because they can easily fall into overKILL, like 2001's "The Mummy Returns." Thankfully, "Die Hard" evades that ditch because it’s not too over-the-top and it offers entertaining protagonists & antagonists, amusing one-liners, worthy bits of character development and a compelling comic booky story. While all five Die Hard movies are of the same action expertise, I prefer the sequels because this one takes place almost entirely in and around a skyscraper. I favor the wider location scope of the others. THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours, 12 minutes and was shot entirely in Los Angeles. GRADE: B/B+

Wuchak19 Mar, 2019