Holly McClane

Holly is an executive at Nakatomi, a Japanese multinational. At the party she wears her maiden name, Gennero, on her badge, and it stings John. The marriage is in a rough patch: she and the kids live in Los Angeles for her career, and John stayed in New York. When Hans takes the tower, Holly is in the middle of the room with her colleagues, trying to stay calm and look after the hostages. The worst moment is watching her boss, Takagi, get killed in front of everyone. She knows her husband will turn up, just not how.

Hans learns Holly is John's wife and uses her as a bargaining chip. She stares down the villain without bowing her head. At the top of the tower he grabs her by the wrist, and Holly slips out of the watch that links him to her. Hans falls, and she is free. The couple reunite at the end, and the woman who bristled at the name signs McClane again.

When it's all over, reporter Richard Thornburg, who did everything to be the first to tell the story, turns up in front of Holly with cameras and microphones. She punches him, in front of everyone. It's payback for exposing the family on TV, which put Holly in Hans's sights.

Two years later, Holly is on a plane circling Dulles with little fuel. John is on the ground, fighting to save her. This time she has to act: in flight, she takes on reporter Richard Thornburg, who is getting in the way, and drops him with another passenger's taser. She isn't the girl waiting; she's part of the solution. In the end the two reunite in the snow.

Years later, in New York, John is separated from Holly. He tries to call her in the middle of the chaos and can't. Only at the end, when it's all over, does Zeus talk him into dialing her number again. It's a small gesture, but it says a lot about how he feels.

Bonnie Bedelia was cast as Holly at Bruce Willis's suggestion, after he saw her in a 1983 film.