10 Best Non-Action Moments In “Die Hard”
My best friend has said more than once that it doesn’t feel like Christmas for him until he sees Die Hard, primarily because its setting is Christmas Eve at the Nakatomi Tower in Los Angeles where a lavish holiday party is taken hostage by a crew of high tech thieves before the heroic everyman John McClane (Bruce Willis) saves the day.
It is generally considered among the greatest action movies of all time, and this is true, but I also believe the true reason the film is still recalled so fondly to this day and that people such as my best friend return to it again and again at Christmas are because of the numerous fantastic moments that crop up when no guns are being fired and no explosions are ripping through the building. It is a movie as much about little asides and sly, twisted Christmas references and character personality as about the action.
Therefore, in that spirit and to get us all into the Christmas spirit, I present the 10 Best Non-Action Moments In Die Hard.
10. “He’s still alive. Only John can drive somebody that crazy.”
There is no better reason for our everyday action hero to keep going to such ludicrous lengths than the uber-fiery Holly Gennero and/or McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), the woman whom John wants to save and re-woo, and it’s moments such as the one when the main terrorist’s right hand man busts up a drink cart right in front of their hostages which prompts Holly to smile and say this line because she knows exactly what it means. Is it just me or did the 3rd and 4th installments in this series from a distinct lack of Mrs. McClane?
9. “Merry Christmas.”
When Hans Gruber and his crack team of terrorists finally crack the seventh lock on the vault containing their precious $640 million in bearer bonds, Ode To Joy strikes up on the soundtrack. Arriving later in the movie it is merely a reminder that for all the bad stuff going on, Die Hard, more than anything else, is just meant to be a good time.
8. “Hans! Booby!”
Ellis, the master negotiator, coke-head and world class idiot attempting to negotiate with Hans and McClane in order for McClane to give himself up contains one of the finest uses of product placement in cinema history when Ellis is brought a glass and a can of, ahem, Coke in the midst of this inevitably disastrous tete-a-tete. There is just something unsettling about that shot of Ellis, desperate, down to his last second, clutching that glass of Coca-Cola that gets me every time.
7. “When these revolutionary brothers and sisters are free…”
When Hans is making his false demands for his “brothers” to be released to stall for time he lists “In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement” and when Karl gives him a strange look he advises, simply, “I read about them in Time Magazine.” Movies are packed wall to wall with scenes of terrorists reciting demands and this moment is a nice little spin on those scenes. Well done, and one of the many, many reasons Hans Gruber is so much more than your ordinary villain.
6. “No, sir. You couldn’t drag me away.”
One of the finest aspects of Die Hard is how it eloquently morphs into a Buddy Cop Movie without the two Buddies ever coming face to face until the closing (and gratuitous) sequence. Reginald VelJohnson was simply (disbelievingly?) scintillating as Sgt. Al Powell, the man who fields the call from base to scope out the tower and finds himself reporting the crisis and communicating via CB for the rest of the movie with “Roy” (i.e. John McClane). And Powell’s best moment is when he finally calls out Deputy Dwayne T. Robinson, on site to be wrong about absolutely everything (played by Paul Gleason who made a career out of play characters who were wrong about absolutely everything). Robinson in a sense is comedic relief which makes it that much more impressive that VelJohnson makes this moment so spine-tingling. “Why don’t you wake up and smell what you shovelin’?!” Go, Al, go!!!
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“Does it sound like I’m ordering a pizza?!”
Ah, the clueless police dispatcher. There’s one at every terrorist takeover.
“Welcome to the party, pal!”
“They’re for my wife. She’s pregnant!”
A statement I relate to all the more as I found myself as a girthy man with a pregnant wife that had constant cravings. Poor Carl Winslow — no one will ever believe that the twinkies aren’t for you, big guy.
Can we add an honorable mention of Harry Ellis sleazing his way into a negotiation with Hans: “Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast. I think I can handle this Eurotrash.”
I almost added the part where Carl – er, Al – recites the Twinkie ingredients to McClane. I mean, that alone proves he eats his own Twinkies!
You missed THE line: “Yippee Kay-Ay Motherfucker”
It’s an iconic line, of this there is no doubt, but I will eternally argue that “Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs” is more quintessentially McClane.
Yes, but the line should at least be SOMEWHERE on the list
Yeah, that’s fair. It should be. Especially considering how non-action based its reciting is in the first installment.
My Top 10′s always tend to more personal, though, and these 10 are my personal faves.
Hi, Nick and company:
Hans Gruber commenting on Jospeh Takagi’s dapper attire across the conference table:
“Nice suit. John Phillips, London. I have two myself. Rumor has it Arafat buys his there.”
John McClane watching fire truck approach after pulling the fire alarm:
C’mon baby, come ta’ papa, I’ll kiss ya’ f*ckin’ dalmatian.
Only Hans Gruber could get away with discussing fashion the moment before murdering someone.
Die Hard is truly one of the best films ever. It’s not only perfect because of all the action and violence but also for the tension, non-action moments, and humor.
I loved the scene where McClane is in a bathroom bleeding from his foot as he’s talking to Al about all the mistakes he’s made and asks Al to do something for him if he doesn’t make it. I love the conversations between McClane and Al, it felt so natural.
Action films really lack the element of drama and character as of late in which we the audience need people to root for. That’s what great action films do and this is why Die Hard is the best of that genre.
I could write a Favorite Films essay on this but I’ll have it for 2013 for its 25th anniversary.
So many of those 80′s actions movies had the reptuation for being big and brawny, however you want to put it, but none of them could approach “Die Hard” in terms of everything else, which is why it’s so long lasting and why it still stands above, as you state, the action movies of late.
I still appreciated the majority of the action sequences in “Live Free or Die Hard” but the characterization….that’s just not the same.
I agree. I didn’t like that last “Die Hard” movie and I don’t want another one to work.
The reason that didn’t work is because John McClane is not supposed to be this invincible badass. John McClane is a cop. Plain and simple. A man that everyone can relate to. A working-class guy who proudly wears his badge and just loves to do what is right. That is why people rooted for him in the first film and making him into something else just doesn’t work.
I think to some degree he is still the same static guy he was in the first one. He still seems very confused with the modern world. My favorite line in the most recent movie was when he says in the middle of the Maggie Q rumble: “Enough of this kung fu shit.” I like to think that was a commentary on modern day action movies (not that I dislike kung fu).
But certainly the situations they plop him into are much, much more beyond belief. It’ll be interesting to see if maybe they go back to the basics for the next installment. But I’m sure they won’t.
It was hard nice to root for Ellis to get shot. Dumbass.
We should create the Annual Harry Ellis Award – given to the biggest dumbass at the movies each year.
i love it…this movie rocks. but of course when i think about it, i go right to the action scenes. bruce willis is just SO boss in this.
Well, the action scenes themselves certainly are iconic too. Especially the fireball ripping through the elevator shaft. Boo yah.
The whole sequence when he has to get off the roof, grabbing the fire hose, talking to himself then jumping off. His bloody feet on the glass before he shoots it out then the hose dragging him down when you think he’s safe.
Blew me away when I first saw it. Sums up for me his character and his flaws about getting it done but not being able to think of everything.
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