44 Responses to “Happy 25th Anniversary, DIE HARD”

1. 

   Griff

   July 22nd, 2013 at 7:16 pm

   HOT TOWN! summer in the city….

2. 

   Griff

   July 22nd, 2013 at 7:17 pm

   wait, that’s from With a Vengeance

3. 

   Mouth

   July 22nd, 2013 at 7:18 pm

   The arcade version of this game was the hotness, if I recall correctly. Very much worth your quarters.

   I’ve always hated & avoided barefootism, and I’ve never been a tank top man, but I’ve smoked some foreign cigarettes in weird situations and I’ve rocked some uniform tops that got plenty bloody in the course of explosive anti-terrorist operations, and so I salute you, Detective John McClane.

   Best Christmas Movie ever, best Action Movie ever, and arguably best Movie Movie ever. Yippee Ki-Yay, motherfucketc.

4. 

   Griff

   July 22nd, 2013 at 7:21 pm

   come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs

5. 

   CrustaceanHate

   July 22nd, 2013 at 7:41 pm

   If I recall correctly, this was an unrelated Japanese beat-em-up (DYNAMITE COP?) that was slightly rejiggered to be DIE HARD tie-in game in the West. Not based on any movie in particular, although you do fight your way through a skyscraper to save the President’s daughter from terrorists, so it’s very DIE-HARD-esque in that sense.

6. 

   Mr. Majestyk

   July 22nd, 2013 at 8:21 pm

   DIE HARD TRILOGY for PlayStation 1 is a pretty rockin’ game. You get three games in one (a third-person shooter, an aim-and-fire game, and a driving game), each based on one of the first three movies, and they’re all simple and satisfying in their own way. Pretty primitive by modern standards but still fun. It’s the kind of game you beat every time you play it, CONTRA-style.

   There was also a sequel that had the same three-pronged format but based on an original adventure set in Vegas. Not as good, but still. You get to be John McClane for a day. There are worse things.

7. 

   sebastien

   July 22nd, 2013 at 8:22 pm

   The Die Hard Trilogy game on the Playstation 1 was pretty cool.

8. 

   onthewall2983

   July 22nd, 2013 at 8:24 pm

   I think a big part of the movie that never gets enough credit is the music. Maybe it’s because I’m such a nut for Kamen’s stuff, but I think it clicked particularly here.

9. 

   Dan Prestwich

   July 22nd, 2013 at 8:50 pm

   I used to own that game for Saturn. And I played it a lot.

10. 

    grimgrinningchris

    July 22nd, 2013 at 9:05 pm

    Yes! The DIE HARD arcade game was the shit! And since you could continue as many times as you had quarters for if you had the time and the inclination you could always eventually beat the game. It’s was challenging enough to be…ummm…challenging? But easy enough to be fun. Fun gameplay, using pretty much anything and everything as de facto weapons. Just loved it. Definitely in my top three movie themed arcade games- along with the old STAR WARS vector graphic game and INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. “We walk…from here!”

    And it used the same gameplay and set up as some other game that was exactly as much fun…but not as cool since it wasn’t DIE HARD.

11. 

    Darth Irritable

    July 22nd, 2013 at 10:10 pm

    Temple of Doom game was the shit. Die Hard trilogy was pretty good too.

12. 

    Douglas.J.Needles

    July 22nd, 2013 at 10:13 pm

    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Arcade Game also rocked. Still have it for my NES.

13. 

    ANoniMouse

    July 22nd, 2013 at 10:34 pm

    The royal baby should be honoured to have been born on this day.

14. 

    ANoniMouse

    July 22nd, 2013 at 10:36 pm

    Well, crap. It’s Monday already. Never mind!

    Still grin like an idiot at the “Yippee Ki-Yay, Motherfucker” line. I miss Moonlighting-era Bruce.

15. 

    CrustaceanHate

    July 23rd, 2013 at 12:03 am

    I remember that DIE HARD TRILOGY game because if you shot an innocent civillian in the rail shooter section, John McClane would sarcastically say “Sorry, pal” which was pretty dickish.

16. 

    DirkD13

    July 23rd, 2013 at 12:34 am

    I thought the third-person shooter game through Nakatomi Tower was rock-hard and never completed it. Nailed the other two gamed every time though.

17. 

    Griff

    July 23rd, 2013 at 1:12 am

    there’s also a Die Hard FPS on the PC that’s a re-telling of the first movie

    it looks pretty interesting, but I’ve yet to play it

18. 

    CJ Holden

    July 23rd, 2013 at 1:16 am

    Ah yes, Happy Birthday DIE HARD. You may be underappreciated by today’s youth, who is used to movies with more and bigger explosions, but they are kids. What do they know?

19. 

    Ace Mac Ashbrook

    July 23rd, 2013 at 2:04 am

    Agreed DirkD13, I spent weeks trying to nail the Nakatomi game but pissed the rest.

    Happy anniversary Die Hard. I was about twelve when it came out on video in the UK. It changed my life!

20. 

    smitty

    July 23rd, 2013 at 2:44 am

    I still remember winning a VHS copy from our local paper when it was released, back when winning a copy of a movie on VHS was kind of a big deal. It’s a shame Bruce doesn’t seem to hold it in the same reverence as the rest of us, we might have been spared the travesty that appeared back in February…

21. 

    Ace Mac Ashbrook

    July 23rd, 2013 at 7:47 am

    I just mentioned the game to a friend, he and I spent many many hours playing the games…. nearly as long as we did watching the film.

22. 

    RBatty024

    July 23rd, 2013 at 8:22 am

    The Playstation 1 Die Hard Trilogy was my bag. The Die Hard 3 section was a nice precursor to the Grand Theft Auto games. I don’t play video games as much as I used to, but I’m still a sucker for movie tie ins. I like the idea of continuing the stories of these worlds without the expectation and eventually disappointment that comes from poor sequels. My favorite recent movie to video game adaptation is easily the Back to the Future adventure game. I would love for Telltale studios to do a Die Hard video game.

    By the way, has anyone read the Die Hard: Year One funny book? Is it any good? I heard John McClane’s role is minimized in his own story.

23. 

    The Limey

    July 23rd, 2013 at 10:45 am

    LEGO DIE HARD TRILOGY, please.

    LEGO games are excellent. And Happy Birthday DIE HARD. When I first saw you I was the only one in the audience. Mind you, it was only 1 pm.

24. 

    neal2zod

    July 23rd, 2013 at 11:57 am

    Griff – I was so excited about the Die Hard FPS (Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza) but it was nothing special – I actually don’t remember anything except there’s hundreds of terrorists now (it is a FPS after all) and I think you go into the sewers to help let the SWAT team in.

    Die Hard for NES was actually one of my favorite games – basically it was like Ikari Warriors/Commando in a building, and you had those hockey puck flashbangs, the C4, etc. There was an early GTA-like “sandbox” element to the game – there was a timer until they opened the vaults – you could do whatever you wanted until then, i.e. pick off the 40 terrorists one by one so you’d only have a handful left when they opened the vault and took Holly hostage, or you could run down the timer by running up and down the stairs, and then you’d be faced with all the remaining terrorists crowded on one floor. I always did the second option, simply because it was funny to flashbang like 10 guys and then gun them all down.

    But Die Hard Vendetta for Gamecube was probably my least favorite – in this one Lucy McClane is an LAPD cop and Hans Gruber’s son is out to commit an art robbery or something, and I know Reginald VelJohnson is back as Al Powell, but the controls are borderline broken and I think I gave up playing after a few hours.

25. 

    CJ Holden

    July 23rd, 2013 at 11:59 am

    See what you did there, Vern? Everybody is only talking about video games, instead of the movie!

26. 

    Broddie

    July 23rd, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    I can’t believe it’s been that long already. Congrats on a quarter century of badassery McClane you dumb irish flatfoot.

27. 

    Stu

    July 23rd, 2013 at 2:10 pm

    Wait…so the movie wasn’t RELEASED on Christmas? Huh.

    Anyway, here’s a rock song chronicling the saga up to part 4.

28. 

    The Limey

    July 23rd, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    Actually, for a fairly decent (i.e., not at all realistic and sort of Hollywood) idea of how to be John McLane, play Rainbow Six Vegas 2, terrorist hunt on lone wolf.

    Murdertown, Villa, CQB – bloody awesome fun. Even better, play it co-op.

29. 

    The Original... Paul

    July 24th, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    Fun fact: I have watched this movie every single Christmas since it first came out. Which I guess means I’ve now watched it twenty-four times. Whoa.

30. 

    Jimbolo

    July 27th, 2013 at 12:28 am

    Die Hard Trilogy. Every time you fired a missile John would say ‘happy trails!’ Good times.

31. 

    neal2zod

    August 16th, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    RBatty – I just finished Die Hard Year One, vol. I – it’s a fun, quick, read, but yeah, McClane is basically one character (albeit the hero) in a Robert Altman/Nashville-style slice of life with equal time given to the villains and damsel in distress. The first 2/3 is nice and moody; the characters are well-drawn, NYC is used as a setting and chess board reminiscent of Die Hard with A Vengeance. You know the villains are up to SOMETHING, and it’s fun waiting to see how the pieces fit together.

    Then the final 1/3 comes in and there’s no escaping that the villain’s ultimate plan is lame and anticlimactic. It’s weird saying I’m disappointed that this basically just ends up being another Die Hard in a ____ story, but it just lacks imagination and also makes no sense canon-wise (much like The Thing prequel, if this was supposed to be canon, John McClane probably would have had a huge sense of Deja Vu and spent most of Die Hard 1 wondering why the same shit is happening to him again). It’s not worth the $10 i paid for it on Amazon, but if your local library has it, I say it’s worth a read.

32. 

    neal2zod

    August 26th, 2013 at 5:56 am

    Die Hard Year One, vol. II is the book the first one should have been – the story and characters are better, and it has the good sense of not turning into a “Die Hard on a ____” like the first one did. The Forrest Gump-esque inserting of John McClane in the Bicentennial Celebration in part 1 was a nice idea but didn’t really have anything to do with anything; here he’s inserted in the New York blackout of ’77 and while the situation is huge and epic, I like that the villain’s plan is appropriately low-rent. The homages/callbacks to the film series (in the form of a certain character who shows up and a famous situation McClane finds himself in) are cute without seeming like a creative crutch like STiD.

    SPOILERS, I guess – I like that this is the only McClane adventure where he actually seems to want to arrest people. The body count in this one is super-low, which may seem un-Die Hard-esque, but something just rubbed me the wrong way about him killing so many people in the first one as a rookie cop. (He probably kills as many people in that one as he does in the Die Hard movie!) The events of the first one would have made him famous; I like how this one seems more like a slice of life, one particularly rough day on the job. I’m not sure if they’re making another one, but I hope they do. Hopefully they’ll throw in some of his cop buddies from part 3.

33. 

    MaggieMayPie

    July 30th, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    R.I.P. Mr. Takagi, thanks for a helluva Christmas party.

34. 

    Sternshein

    July 30th, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    I was just reading something about a prequel comic or something. Doesn’t that completely change what made the first movie so great? The whole point is that he’s just a regular cop doing regular cop things in New York. If he’s already had Die Hard moments prior to Die Hard, it’s no longer every man in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s the right guy at the right time.

35. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    July 30th, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    The comic adventures I read were actually way smaller in scope than any of the films. He had to shoot people, sure, but there weren’t any massive stunts or explosions or world-threatening situations. They seemed in keeping with the kind of shit a New York cop would get up to in the seventies.

36. 

    neal2zod

    June 19th, 2015 at 5:09 am

    RIP to Ric Ducommun, aka the guy down in the manhole, aka “Walt down here at Nakatomi”. He was also the poor pool owner Milo shot in the head in Last Boy Scout, which makes him an official Joel Silver Player. He also had that great bit in the Silver-esque Last Action Hero as The Ripper’s (or more accurately, Tom Noonan’s) agent. Loved his stand-up comedy when I was a kid, but I think his most beloved part was in The Burbs (I’ve had two people say to me already “Did you hear the guy from The Burbs died?”) I don’t think I’ve seen that one, but people seem to love it so it may have to go on my Netflix queue.

37. 

    CJ Holden

    June 19th, 2015 at 5:12 am

    I always keep forgetting that he was in DIE HARD, but seriously, I recommend THE ‘BURBS to you. It’s not just his best role, also one of Joe Dante’s finest hours and one of the favourite movies of my family. And the best thing is, it really just re-appeared on Netflix just a few weeks ago.

38. 

    MaggieMayPie

    June 19th, 2015 at 10:32 am

    THE BURBS is great. When I heard Ducommun died the first thing that popped into my head was, “You’re chanting, Ray. You’re chanting.” Although, my favorite in that movie is Bruce Dern.

39. 

    Broddie

    June 19th, 2015 at 11:10 am

    I remember him from so many things but some notable ones that haven’t been mentioned where his scene stealing role as the dad in SCARY MOVIE and his appearances on MAX HEADROOM. R.I.P. to a great character actor that will always have a place in the hearts of us 80’s babies as well as those born in the 70’s.

40. 

    Broddie

    June 19th, 2015 at 11:11 am

    Another observation; it’s really weird that he was like the male Mary Ellen Trainor and here they are gone within days of each other :(

41. 

    Broddie

    June 19th, 2015 at 11:12 am

    meant to type weeks not days. Eh ya get the point.

42. 

    CJ Holden

    June 19th, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    And don’t forget that we lost with him and Christopher Lee two actors who were in GREMLINS 2, during its 25th anniversary.

43. 

    onthewall2983

    June 19th, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    I remember him most from GROUNDHOG DAY, he had a nice chemistry with fellow funny dude Rick Overton (very much alive thankfully). He has a nice cameo in HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER as well.

44. 

    onthewall2983

    October 15th, 2015 at 6:18 am

    Instead of talking about the new “-quel” I’d much rather share this hilarious impression of Alan Rickman I found yesterday

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3OyvbJkj4