Wikipedia

Die Hard 2

Die Hard 2(also known by its taglineDie HarderorDie Hard 2: Die Harder)[Note 1]is a 1990 Americanaction thriller filmdirected byRenny Harlin,written bySteven E. de SouzaandDoug Richardson,co-produced byJoel Silver,and starringBruce Willis[4]asJohn McClanealongsideBonnie Bedelia,William Sadler,Art Evans,William Atherton,Franco Nero,Dennis Franz,Fred Thompson,John Amos,andReginald VelJohnson.The second installment in theDie Hardfilm series,the film was released on July 4, 1990, in the United States.

Die Hard 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRenny Harlin
Screenplay by
Based on
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyOliver Wood
Edited by
Music byMichael Kamen
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • July 4, 1990(1990-07-04)
Running time
124 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$62–70 million[1][2][3]
Box office$240 million[1]

As with the first film, the action inDie Hard 2takes place onChristmas Eve.McClane is waiting for his wife to land atWashington Dulles International Airportwhen terrorists take over the air traffic control system. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash. During the night, McClane must also contend with airport police and a military commander, none of whom want his assistance.

The film was released to generally positive reviews with critics praising the film's action and tone while criticizing elements of the plot.Die Hard 2was a majorbox-officesuccess, grossing $240 million and doubling the earnings of its predecessor and finishing as the year's seventh-highest-grossing film. The film was preceded byDie Hard(1988) and followed byDie Hard with a Vengeance(1995),Live Free or Die Hard(2007), andA Good Day to Die Hard(2013).

Plot

edit

OnChristmas Eve,two years after the events of theprevious film,[Note 2]John McClaneis now a lieutenant with theLAPD,who arrives atDulles International Airportto pick up his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, a plane carrying corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza is also headed to Dulles under extradition for using U.S. funds to buy drugs.

Waiting to meet Esperanza's plane is disgraced former Colonel William Stuart and a group of ex-military sympathizers who supported Esperanza's actions. Suspicious, McClane follows two of Stuart's men into a restricted baggage sorting area where a gun fight ensues. He kills one man, but the other escapes.

With the help of his friend SergeantAl Powell,he discovers that the dead man's fingerprints correspond to an American soldier who died in a helicopter accident two years earlier. Putting this together with Esperanza's imminent arrival, McClane reports his concerns to the ill-temperedairport policechief, Carmine Lorenzo, andair traffic controldirector Ed Trudeau, but neither believes him.

Later, they are convinced when Stuart and his men, operating out of a church on the outskirts of the airport, cut all communications with incoming airplanes, disable all runway lighting, and demand that Esperanza's plane be allowed to land without interference. Under Stuart's direction, Trudeau orders all air traffic controllers to have all planes in Dulles airspace hold in the air despite their low fuel warnings.

McClane becomes worried about Holly's plane and enlists the help of the airport janitor Marvin to fight back. Chief airport engineer Leslie Barnes decides to try using an unfinished antenna array to communicate with the stranded circling airplanes. Lorenzo sends an airportSWATteam with him, but Stuart's men kill them all and destroy the antenna. Barnes is saved by McClane, who kills Stuart's men in turn.

In retaliation, Stuart crashes a British airplane killing everyone on board by impersonating air traffic control and faking the airplane'saltimeterreading by recalibrating sea level. Once Esperanza's plane lands, McClane wounds Esperanza before Stuart and his men arrive. They blow up the plane and take Esperanza to the church, but fail to kill McClane. AU.S. Special Forcesteam arrives, led by Major Grant, of whom Stuart is aprotégé.

Grant's men and McClane attack the church. McClane kills one of Stuart's men and gives chase with his gun, but the mercenaries escape on snowmobiles. McClane follows but his vehicle is destroyed by gunfire. Confused as to why he failed to wound anyone, McClane realizes the gun was filled withblanks,meaning the earlier firefight was staged and Grant's team are secretly cooperating with Stuart.

Grant, Stuart, their men, and Esperanza all rendezvous at an airport hangar, where aBoeing 747that they demanded is waiting for them. On Holly's flight, arrogant reporter Richard Thornburg becomes suspicious as to why the plane has not landed. He taps into the cockpit communications and records an earlier surreptitious transmission from Barnes to all the circling airplanes describing the situation. From the airplane's lavatory, Richard broadcasts the recording live on television, leading to a panic in the airport terminal which prevents McClane and Lorenzo from getting to the 747. Holly subdues Thornburg with a fellow passenger's stun gun.

McClane asks a news crew to fly him via helicopter to intercept the 747. McClane jumps onto the wing and uses his coat to jam theaileron,preventing the plane from taking off. During a fistfight, Grant is killed when McClane kicks him into a jet engine. While fighting Stuart, McClane opens a fuel valve in the engine pylon just as Stuart kicks him off the wing. McClane uses a cigarette lighter to ignite the fuel trail, exploding the plane and killing everyone on board. The fire trail also serves as a landing guide for all airborne aircraft, including Holly's, to land safely.

After McClane and Holly are reunited, Marvin picks them up in his airport cart and drives them away.

Cast

edit

Additional cast members include Colonel Stuart'shitmen:Don Harveyas Garber,John Costelloeas Sergeant Oswald Cochrane,Vondie Curtis-Hallas Miller,John Leguizamoas Burke,Robert Patrickas O'Reilly,Tom Vericaas Kahn,Tony Ganiosas Baker, Michael Cunningham as Sheldon,Peter Nelsonas Thompson, Ken Baldwin as Mulkey, andMark Boone Junioras Shockley.Patrick O'Nealappears as Telford, Major Grant's radio operator.

Production

edit

Development and writing

edit
EvergreenBoeing 747 (registration N473EV) used in the film
Filming of the Dulles airport concourse scenes took place in the Tom Bradley International Terminal atLAX.

The screenplay was adapted fromWalter Wager's 1987 novel58 Minutes.The novel has the same plot but differs slightly: a police officer must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead, and has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes.Roderick Thorp,who wrote the 1979 novelNothing Lasts Forever,upon whichDie Hardwas based, receives credit for creating "certain original characters", although his name is misspelled onscreen as "Roderick Thorpe".

One of the writers of the screenplay, Steven E. de Souza, later admitted in an interview for the bookAction Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Moviethat the villains were based on America's "Central American" meddling, primarily theIran–Contra affair.[5]

The film was originally budgeted at $40 million.[6]Bruce Willis was paid $7.5 million for reprising his role for the film.[7][8]ProducerJoel Silverwas accused of profligate spending and it was claimed the film cost $62–70 million.[9][6]Fox domestic distribution presidentTom Sherakdismissed the $70 million claim as "absurd".[6]It was reported at the end of filming that Silver had been relieved of day-to-day producing duties.[10]

Scenes of Dulles airport in the snow were to be filmed in Denver but filming was scrapped due to warm weather. Some outdoor scenes were filmed inAlpena, Michigan,while others needing to accommodate the landing of the 747 with snow were filmed at formerKincheloe Air Force Basein Kincheloe, Michigan.[11]Other scenes were filmed on a soundstage in Los Angeles using fake snow.[10]

Die Hard 2was the first film to use digitally composited live-action footage with a traditionalmatte paintingthat had been photographed and scanned into a computer. It was used for the last scene, which took place on a runway.[12]

According to Franco Nero, Silver got the idea to cast him after he saw movie posters of Nero hanging in the office of their mutual accountant. Nero did not want to doDie Hard 2because he did not like the script and he had committed to do the filmBreath of Life.Finally, Silver scheduled Nero's scenes in such a way that the actor could do both films.[13]

Release

edit

Marketing

edit

In a trailer for the film screened during Christmas 1989, the film had a planned release date of June 29, 1990. This was brought forward to June 22; however, following claims of the film running over time and budget, the release date was pushed back two weeks to July 4.[6]

Home media

edit

The film debuted on video in the United States on January 31, 1991, and it was the most rented video in its first week aboveNavy SEALs[14]and sold a record 505,000 units for rental.[15]

The film became available onDVDon March 9, 1999, followed by a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD on July 10, 2001, as part of the Die Hard Ultimate Collection DVD and re-released again in early 2005 as a Widescreen Edition and June 19, 2007, followed by aBlu-rayrelease on November 20, 2007, and a re-release on January 29, 2013.[16]

Reception

edit

Box office

edit

Die Hard 2exceeded all expectations by outdoing the box-office success ofDie Hard.[17]The film had the largest pre-opening, earning $3.7 million from 1,828 theaters. For six years, it would hold this record until it was surpassed byIndependence Dayin 1996.[18]It had awide releasein 2,507 theaters in the United States and Canada, grossing $21.7 million its opening weekend.[19]Die Hard 2went on to gross $117.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $122.5 million internationally, earning over $240 million worldwide,[1]almost doubling that ofDie Hard.The film was re-released internationally in 1993 and made $216,339 more, which totaled its gross to $240.2 million.[1]

Critical response

edit

OnRotten Tomatoes,Die Hard 2has an approval rating of 69% based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "It lacks the fresh thrills of its predecessor, butDie Hard 2still works as an over-the-top – and reasonably taut – big-budget sequel, with plenty of set pieces to paper over the plot deficiencies. "[20]OnMetacritic,the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21]Audiences polled byCinemaScoregave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[22]

Roger Ebert,who gave the original film a mixed review, described the sequel as "terrific entertainment", despite noting substantial credibility problems with the plot.[23]Jay Boyar of theOrlando Sentineldubbed the film as being as disappointing a sequel asAnother 48 Hrs.andRoboCop 2,and said,

Whatever small pleasure there is to be found in this loud dud is due mostly to the residual good feelings from the first film... As played by Bruce Willis, McClane is still an engaging character, even if he is much less amusingly drawn this time. Willis is in there trying, but the qualities that helped to make his character sympathetic in the first film are missing. McClane no longer worries openly about his personal safety, as he did in the original movie. His quasi-cowboy personality fromDie Hardis all but forgotten – he has become more of a Rambo and less of a Roy Rogers. And though the filmmakers try to establish McClane as resistant to advanced technology, this promising idea isn't developed.[24]

Empiremagazine rated the film three out of five stars, while stating, "It's entertaining nonsense that doesn't quite manage to recapture the magic of the original. Still, there are some nice moments here, and Willis is on solid ground as the iconic McClane."[25]

Gene Siskelranked the film as the sixth best movie of 1990.[26][27]Maximmagazine ranked the film's plane crash #2 on its list of "Greatest Movie Plane Crashes".[28]

Notes

edit
  1. ^The film's onscreen title isDie Hard 2,as also given at the initial home-video release'sofficial website.The film's original advertising used "Die Harder" as a tagline, and many releases of the film (e.g. the 2006 DVD release and 2007 Blu-ray release) were marketed under the titleDie Hard 2: Die Harder.
  2. ^There is a deleted scene included with the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film where McClane tells Marvin the janitor "This is how I spent Christmas last year", which seems to suggest that, given the release date of the first film,Die Hard 2takes place during Christmas 1989. However, given the various references to the 1990s in the film (including the featured episode ofThe Simpsons,"There's No Disgrace Like Home",being released in 1990), and the scene in question having been removed, the film can be assumed to take place during Christmas 1990.

References

edit
  1. ^abcde"Die Hard 2".Box Office Mojo.IMDb.RetrievedApril 22,2022.
  2. ^"Bruce Willis: Where Am I?".Newsweek.RetrievedApril 20,2020....What did they spend that reported $62 million on making 'Die Hard 2'?
  3. ^Greenburg, James (May 26, 1991)."Film; Why the 'Hudson Hawk' Budget Soared So High".The New York Times.RetrievedMay 1,2020....'Die Hard 2' (1990), which also ran over budget and wound up costing a reported $70 million.
  4. ^Heritage, Stuart (June 21, 2013)."Die Hard 2 recap: 'Insane bloodlust, gratuitous profanity, zero logic'".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.RetrievedApril 22,2020.
  5. ^Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie,page 165
  6. ^abcd"Fox Pushing 'Hard' Bow Back 2 Weeks".Daily Variety.May 14, 1990. p. 1.
  7. ^Die Hard 2at theAFI Catalog of Feature Films
  8. ^"Battle of the Biceps".People Magazine.RetrievedApril 16,2020.
  9. ^Easton, Nina J. (September 5, 1990)."Hollywood's Summer of Love: Romantic 'Ghost' Outguns Macho Movies to Become Season's Biggest Hit".Los Angeles Times.RetrievedOctober 16,2012.
  10. ^abFleming, Charles (April 25, 1990). "Rush hour for summer pix".Variety.p. 1.
  11. ^"From Sonic Boom, to Die Hard 2".Soo Today.
  12. ^Leonard, Matt."The History of Computer Graphics and Effects".Ohio State UniversityDepartment of Industrial Interior and Visual Design. Archived fromthe originalon May 17, 2007.RetrievedJuly 10,2009.
  13. ^"Franco Nero interview".THE FLASHBACK FILES.RetrievedFebruary 23,2021.
  14. ^"Top 50 Video Titles".Variety.February 11, 1991. p. 35.
  15. ^Berman, Marc (January 6, 1992). "Rentals Reap Bulk of 1991 Vid Harvest".Variety.p. 22.
  16. ^"Die Hard 2 DVD Release Date".DVDs Release Dates.RetrievedMay 22,2018.
  17. ^Tom Sherak(commentator) (May 19, 1995).Die Hard with a Vengeance(DVD). Beverly Hills, California:20th Century Fox.Event occurs at 35:12.Die Hard 2 actually, as I recall, did better than Die Hard 1, which is very unusual. Sequels normally do about 65% of their original, but this one just exploded.
  18. ^"Aliens Arrive! And a Nation Stands in Line: 'Independence Day' Tops $11 Million, Making Movie History".Los Angeles Times.July 4, 1996.
  19. ^"SPIKE, DOING THE SHREWD THING".The Washington Post.
  20. ^"Die Hard 2".Rotten Tomatoes.Fandango Media.RetrievedOctober 5,2021.
  21. ^"Die Hard 2".Metacritic.Fandom, Inc.RetrievedApril 22,2022.
  22. ^"CinemaScore".CinemaScore.Archivedfrom the original on April 13, 2022.RetrievedApril 16,2022.
  23. ^Ebert, Roger(July 3, 1990)."Die Hard 2: Die Harder (Review)".Chicago Sun-Times.RetrievedJanuary 1,2020.
  24. ^Boyar, Jay (July 3, 1990)."'Die Hard' – 2nd Time Around The Mayhem Misses Mark In 'Harder'".Orlando Sentinel.Florida. Archived fromthe originalon November 4, 2016.RetrievedJuly 30,2016.
  25. ^Thomas, William (October 14, 2015)."Die Hard 2 Review".Empire.RetrievedJuly 30,2016.
  26. ^"Gene Siskel's Top Ten Lists 1969–1998".Alumnus.caltech.edu. February 20, 1999. Archived fromthe originalon July 17, 2011.RetrievedJuly 30,2016.
  27. ^"Siskel and Ebert Top Ten Lists (1969–1998)".Innermind.com. May 3, 2012.RetrievedJuly 30,2016.
  28. ^"The Greatest Movie Plane Crashes".Maxim.Archived fromthe originalon September 30, 2009.RetrievedAugust 8,2009.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Die_Hard_2&oldid=1234077859"