It's
Christmas time in L.A., and there's an employee party in progress on the
30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. The revelry comes to a
violent end when the partygoers are taken hostage by a group of terrorists
headed by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who plan to steal the $600 million
locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe. In truth, Gruber and his henchmen are
only pretending to be politically motivated to throw the authorities off
track; also in truth, Gruber has no intention of allowing anyone to get out
of the building alive. Meanwhile, New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis)
has come to LA to visit his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), who
happens to be one of the hostages. Disregarding the orders of the
authorities surrounding the building, McClane, who fears nothing (except
heights), takes on the villains, armed with one handgun and plenty of
chutzpah. Until Die Hard came along, Bruce Willis was merely that
wisecracking guy on Moonlighting. After the film's profits started rolling
in, Willis found himself one of the highest-paid and most sought-after
leading men in Hollywood, and his cool wise-guy persona set the tone for the
new style of ultra-violent yet ultra-ironic action movie, continued in the
sequels Die Hard 2 (1990) and Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995), as well as
in countless imitations. | Bruce Willis | John McClane |
| Alan Rickman | Hans Gruber |
| Bonnie Bedelia | Holly Gennero McClane |
| Alexander Godunov | Karl |
| Reginald VelJohnson | Sgt. Al Powell |
| William Atherton | Thornburg |
| Paul Gleason | Dwayne T. Robinson |
| De'Voreaux White | Argyle |
| Hart Bochner | Ellis |
| James Shigeta | Takagi |
| Robert Davi | Big Johnson |
| Grand L. Bush | Little Johnson |
| Clarence Gilyard, Jr. | Theo |
| Fred Lerner | Guard |
| Robert Lesser | Businessman |
| Al Leong | Uli |
| Bill Margolin | Producer |
| Bill Marcus | City Engineer |
| Tony Peck | Young Cop |
| Richard Parker | Man |
| Kym Malin | Hostage |
| Michele Laybourn | Girl in Window |
| Wilhelm von Homburg | James |
| David Ursin | Harvey Johnson |
| Mary Ellen Trainor | Gail Wallens |
| Kip Waldo | Convenience Store Clerk |
| Andreas Wisniewski | Tony |
| Joey Plewa | Alexander |
| Tracy Reiner | Thornburg's Assistant |
| Shelley Pogoda | Dispatcher |
| Dustyn Taylor | Ginny |
| Gary Roberts | Heinrich |
| Bruce P. Schultz | Cameraman |
| Carmine Zozzora | Rivers |
| Betty Carvalho | Paulina |
| Lorenzo Caccialanza | Marco |
| Hans Buhringer | Fritz |
| George Christy | Hasseldorf |
| Rick Cicetti | Guard |
| Terri Lynn Doss | Girl at Airport |
| Cheryl Baker | Woman |
| Selma Archerd | Hostage |
| Rebecca Broussard | Hostage |
| P. Randall Bowers | Kissing Man |
| Scot Bennett | Hostage |
| Gerard Bonn | Kristoff |
| Matt Landers | Capt. Mitchell |
| Diana James | Supervisor |
| Shanna Higgins | Hostage |
| Dennis Hayden | Eddie |
| Noah Land | John Jr. |
| Bob A. Jennings | Cameraman |
| David Katz | Soundman |
| Bruno Doyon | Franco |
| Kate Finlayson | Hostage |
| Rick Ducommun | City Worker |
| Stella Hall | Stewardess |
| Jon E. Greene | Boy at Airport |
| Taylor Fry | Lucy McClane |
| Mark Goldstein | Station Manager |
Genre/Type - Action, Action Thriller
Produced by - 20th Century Fox / Gordon Company / Silver Pictures
Release - Jul 15, 1988 (USA)
Released by - 20th Century Fox
Running time - 114 min.
Daylight (1996, Rob Cohen)
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995, Geoff Murphy)
Broken Arrow (1996, John Woo)
High Risk (1995, Corey Yuen, Wong Jing)
The Peacemaker (1997, Mimi Leder)
Whiteout (2000, Setsuro Wakamatsu)
Speed (1994, Jan de Bont)
Airboss (1997, J. Christian Ingvordsen)
is followed by: Die Hard 2 (1990, Renny Harlin)