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Easter eggs
Hidden details in every movie and series: 15 in total. Tap a poster to see its eggs. Titles you haven't marked as seen stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ReferenceBased on a novel, and Sinatra had first dibs
The film comes from Nothing Lasts Forever, a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp. It's the sequel to another Thorp book, adapted as The Detective (1968) with Frank Sinatra. So the studio was contractually bound to offer the role to Sinatra, who turned it down at 70. It ended up with Bruce Willis.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe tower was real and unfinished
Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, home of 20th Century Fox itself. Almost all of the filming happened there. Screenwriter Jeb Stuart befriended the construction superintendent of the then-unfinished tower and used it to lay out the floors and scenes.
source ↗ - CameoAlan Rickman's screen debut
Hans Gruber was Alan Rickman's first film role, in his early 40s. Producer Joel Silver had seen him on Broadway as the villain in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
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- ReferenceAnother book behind it
The script adapts 58 Minutes, a 1987 novel by Walter Wager. In the book a cop has 58 minutes to stop terrorists at an airport while his daughter's plane circles overhead. The plot is the same, with small differences.
source ↗ - CameoA new team behind the camera
Neither director John McTiernan nor writer Jeb Stuart came back. Renny Harlin directs. The story takes place during Christmas week, two years after the first film, at a snowed-in airport.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA pioneering runway shot
In the final runway scene, the film was the first to mix live action with a matte painting that had been photographed and scanned into a computer. It's the glow from that ending that guides the planes in.
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- Behind the scenesThe script was meant for another movie
The script began as Simon Says, written as a Brandon Lee vehicle. The project died when Lee died making The Crow. Warner rewrote it as a Lethal Weapon sequel, but it ended up at Fox, which turned it into Die Hard.
source ↗ - SetupHans's brother
Simon, Jeremy Irons's villain, is Simon Peter Gruber, Hans Gruber's brother. The reveal ties the film to the first one and explains why his game against McClane is so personal.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesZeus was meant to be a woman
In the original script, the character who became Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus Carver was written with an actress in mind. The odd-couple pairing with McClane came after the rewrite.
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- ReferenceIt started as a magazine article
The story is based on "A Farewell to Arms", a 1997 Wired article by John Carlin about hackers attacking US infrastructure. The title riffs on New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die".
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe only PG-13 Die Hard
It's the only Die Hard released in US theaters with a PG-13 rating. The unrated cut came later on home video. It was also the highest-grossing film in the series.
source ↗ - CameoKevin Smith is Warlock
Filmmaker Kevin Smith plays the hacker Warlock, who helps McClane and Farrell track down the villain. Smith made uncredited rewrites to his own scenes.
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- CameoMcClane father and son
Jai Courtney joins as Jack, the McClane son who'd never appeared before. Mary Elizabeth Winstead returns as daughter Lucy. It's the last film in the series with Bruce Willis.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA stand-in Moscow
The story is set in Moscow, but filming, which began in April 2012, was mostly in Budapest, Hungary. The car chase through heavy traffic is one of its trademarks.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe shortest of the series
At 98 minutes, it's the shortest Die Hard. The first runs 132. The finale takes the McClanes to Pripyat, Ukraine, the city abandoned after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
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