Die Hard (1988) - #39

Empire top 301: #38
IMDb top 250: #104

Rating 9/10

Director: John McTiernan
Writers: Jeb Stuart & Steven E. de Souza
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Paul Gleason, Reginald VelJohnson & Bonnie Bedelia

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker"

Bruce Willis is John McClane an NYC cop visiting his family for Christmas in Los Angeles. He arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza building to reconcile with his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) who is at the company's christmas party. The party is disrupted by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his group of armed men intent on stealing $640million in bearer bonds held in the vault. McClane manages to escape capture from Hans and his men and sets about stopping the terrorists. 

Die Hard is quite simply a brilliant action film and the prototype for many movies that followed which featured a lone hero taking on a number of terrorists in a confined space. It's the movie that made Bruce Willis a star and gave the world the now iconic line "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker". The film is full of great dialogue and has so many twists and turns to keep you entertained. 

The character of John McClane has become a bit of a caricature now, diluted after 5 movies, 2 of which are pretty bad, IMO, but in Die Hard the character is brilliant. He's not some kick fighting, muscle bound, superhero killer he's an everyman with family problems who just so happens to be a cop. He's not a genius who manages to thwart the terrorists at every turn most of the time it's sheer luck, and/or craziness that gets him out of situations. Willis is great in the role delivering his comic lines with just the right amount of sarcasm and at this age he made for the perfect action hero. 

Rickman makes for a good villain, however the accent is a bit all over the place at times, part German part English part American but this is just a small thing. No complaints with the rest of the cast they all do a pretty good job. 

The action scenes are brilliantly executed with some epic explosions and shoot outs and having it set in a sealed off building with no escape just adds to the tension. After viewing all the other Die Hard movies it is easy to forget how awesome this one is but I assure you it is definitely worth its place on both Empire and IMDb greatest lists and the 9 out of 10 I have scored.