Transcript

Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

Mr. Mystery Guest. Are you still there?

John McClane (Die Hard)

Yeah, I'm still here. Unless you wanna open the front door for me.

Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

I'm afraid not. But you have me at a loss. You know my name, but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne, Rambo, Marshall Dillon?

John McClane (Die Hard)

I was always kind of partial to Roy Rogers, actually. I really liked those sequined shirts.

Hans Gruber (Die Hard)

Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?

John McClane (Die Hard)

Yippie ki yay, motherfucker.

Steve

It's Two Dads, One Movie. It's the podcast where two middle-aged dads sit around and shoot the shit about the movies of the 80s and 90s. Here are your hosts, Steve Followow and Nic Briana. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Two Dads, One Movie. I'm Steve.

Nic

And I'm Nic.

Steve

And today we're talking about the 1988 action Christmas classic Die Hard. It is the fourth window of our dadvent calendar that we've opened up this year. And if you don't agree with us that Die Hard is actually a Christmas movie, bye bye. Bye bye. You're going. You can turn it off now.

Nic

See it.

Steve

It's clearly a Christmas movie. There's no denying it. Yeah, this was one of my picks for us. And you know, what do you even say about a movie like Die Hard? What do we even How do we even preface this? It's just it's one of the best, like every man action movies, right? Where it's not a Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Rambo, like unkillable, you know, the action hero is vulnerable, which is super fun and works in movies since. But I think before this was not a real common, you know, idea in action movies.

Nic

Yeah, no, there wasn't much of the main guy getting beat up because it would either be like a cop type, a dirty Harry type guy.

Steve

Right. Yeah, or like a superhuman, like a muscle guy. Predator, Commando, Rambo, stuff like that, which are also a ton of fun as well. But this was great. Bruce Willis really kind of broke the mold in a lot of ways of 80s action heroes. And we're gonna get into it, but there's a lot that was done in this movie that then carried on through the 90s in action movies that were really-- that were started here in this movie. It's a lot of fun to watch, and we're gonna have a ton of fun talking about it. And Nic, what's your history with Die Hard?

Nic

Oh, man. So, yeah, I probably saw this sometime in high school, I think, would probably would probably be the time when I was getting into the R-rated action movies and stuff. But, man, I mean, this was so enjoyable the first time and the second time and every subsequent time to watch. It's just your perfect, like, Blockbuster action movie. There's something for everyone. There's humor, there's a. There's a great lead character, there's a good villain, there's a good group of, like, sub bosses with the villain. And just the way it progresses, it, like, it's. It's fun to follow the stuff that he has to overcome is. Is really interesting relative to other action movies that had come out at the time. And yeah, and the Christmas element, I mean, it's a reason once a year to make your wife watch it with you.

Steve

Yes, absolutely fun. Christmas movie, great action movie. And I do agree with you, like the, you know, the cast, the kind of supporting cast, there's a bunch of like, both on both sides on the sort of terrorist, quote unquote, you know, the bad guy side, and then on the cop side, there's a bunch of like cannon fodder characters that like we don't care about, but there's at least three or four on each side of the aisle that are like really interesting, pretty well developed. We actually kind of care about them in one way or another, either like, oh, they're scary, or they're funny, or they're whatever, you know, kind of thing, not care about them necessarily, like we give a crap what happens to them, but they're like interesting enough to keep us kind of going with them. And that's great. I think too many action movies, you've got like the hero, and then everybody else is just like henchmen. Like one hero, one villain, and then nobody cares, you know. And this is a much more fleshed out group of characters. All right, let's jump into the facts on Die Hard. Die Hard did not come out around Christmas. It was a summer blockbuster. It came out on July 18th, 1988, with an R rating. Rating, a running time of 132 minutes, which might be, it's among the longest movies we've done. It's up there with the others that are long. Directed by John McTiernan, written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. D'Souza from the novel by Roderick Thorp, starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, and Bonnie Bedelia, but also Reginald VelJohnson and a whole bunch of other great people as well.

Nic

Was Bonnie Bedelia the third Bonnie Bedelia?

Steve

She was actually the second build in the movie. If you watch the credits in the movie, it's Bruce Willis 1, Bonnie Bedelia 2.

Nic

So... Is she married to John McTiernan?

Steve

No, she just had, she had a bit of a career before this movie. And so she was a bit of a name. Certainly there were a lot of people in this movie that were kind of, if not in their first movie or anything, they were still kind of up and coming as stars. And so she was close to that at the time. Rotten Tomatoes, 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. IMDb, 8.2, incredibly high score. And of course we have a thumbs up from Gene Siskel and a thumbs down from the contrarian Roger Ebert. I don't know how you give this movie a thumbs down. Really, we gotta get that boy's thumb fixed. It's bad. Awards, nothing major that it won, but it was nominated for four Oscars, kind of the action movie quartet of best sound, best sound editing, best film editing, and best visual effects. And it was added to the National Film Registry in 2017. On a budget of $28 million, which in 1988 was a pretty hefty sum of money, it pulled in 140.8 million in the box office for five times its budget, which is a bona fide smash hit. So those are the facts on Die Hard. And yeah, let's jump into it. We start off with flying into LAX. The first thing we see is a plane landing and we get the white knuckle grip of the plane, of the seat from who we find out is Bruce Willis. This is John McClane. This is our hero. He's a cop from New York flying to LA to visit his, you know, they're not divorced or anything, but somewhat estranged wife. But before we learn all of that, his seatmate, his little neighbor there is his businessman who apparently had been wearing a three-piece suit suede, but took the jacket off. He's looked very dressed up. And he goes, oh, you don't like flying? You know, this is the secret. When you get where you're going, you take off your shoes and your socks, you walk around on the carpet, you make fists with your toes. Make fists. I know it sounds crazy. I know it sounds crazy. Yeah. And he's like, oh, okay, I'll try that. And as he gets up, of course, he's got his, his sidearm, his pistol in a, in a holster under his arm. And the guy notices, like, okay. He's like, oh, no, no, it's okay. I'm a cop. Like, I've been doing this. You know, trust me, I've been doing this for 11 years, whatever.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Kind of a funny exchange, but it reminded me, like, I Can cops even fly with weapons? Yeah, I think so. Okay. All right.

Nic

I kind of figured possibly, but it's if you're just a random, like, oh, I'm in an Antioch cop and I'm going to Hawaii. I don't know if you can just bring your.

Steve

He's on vacation. You can.

Nic

And, you know, there's all these, I don't know if you know this genre of internet video where it's like a fake airplane setup where they have like an airplane freak out, but it's totally fake.

Steve

Oh, yeah.

Nic

It's not really on a plane.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

You know, and it's, and I remember seeing one where it's this guy where they're like, Sir, you have to put your seatbelt on.

Steve

And he's like, I'm an FBI agent.

Nic

You're blowing my cover right now. It's like, this shit is so stupid. I would feel less comfortable if there were just dudes like taking down Jack and Coxs with a gun on an airplane.

Steve

Seems like a bad idea.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know that any random off-duty cop should be able to carry a gun on a plane. But I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I'm not sure how the rules work. Anyway, so we see him, he arrives at LAX, and then I think the next thing we see right away, we go to Nakatomi Plaza and the Christmas party happening on the 30th floor.

Nic

On Christmas Eve at the office.

Steve

Once again, once again, just a great trading place.

Nic

Cinema, terrible for work-life balance.

Steve

Yeah, it's real bad.

Nic

Oh, we just want to show appreciation to the people that work here and make them stay at their desks for another six hours on the biggest holiday of the year for their family. But yeah, one funny thing there. So we have Holly, who's Holly McLean, Holly Gennaro, who's John's wife that he's coming to visit. She's a big, big wig executive there who looks like she's wearing a big wig herself. And her assistant, Assistant is this pregnant woman who's finishing up her day of work, and she's just like, I'm gonna go join the party. Do you think the baby can handle a little sip? Which I really like that. That's a very 1988.

Steve

But then she also says, that baby's ready to tend bar. And I'm like, Lady, you're a mother of two. You know that's not true. Come on now.

Nic

But yeah, the fist with your toes thing, I mean, we know that this is a device that needs to happen to get John McLean's shoes off. Brilliant. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because it, it's like, it disguises this thing that could happen in such a stupid way later. Yeah. And it's such a smart way to get you to this position that's, like, illogical otherwise.

Steve

Yeah. When, when we have him running around Barefoot without this sort of, you know, Preamble about the, the fists with the toes or whatever, we would all be asking, why the hell did he take his shoes off? He's, he's had a, a party in an office. He was, like, in the bathroom or whatever. It wasn't even a private bathroom because, yeah, Holly mentions she's gunning for Ellis's private bathroom or whatever. So she's taken him to, like, a hallway bathroom, and now he's taking his shoes. Socks off and like, it was just all kind of weird.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

But at least with this little bit of like beforehand we get, oh, okay. He's trying out that fist with his toes thing. Okay, fine. You know, and you're right, but it's a tiny thing and what it works nicely. And we will absolutely get to that. Holly does call home. She's wondering where John might be if he called in before he got on his flight. So his, her daughter Lucy answers, very cute, you know, McLean residence, you know, whatever. And then she also then speaks to Paulina, who is like the housekeeper nanny. Basically, you know, she's the one who's there with the kids while Holly's at work and, and just is is confirms that no, Mr. McClane did not call no telephono, she says, which is a very like fuego kind of thing. But that's okay. But yeah, so she confirms no, Mr. McClane did not phone in. Yeah.

Nic

So McClane, he's off the plane here. I know I skipped ahead a little bit. No, no, no.

Steve

Yeah, we're good.

Nic

Fist with their toes. But he's off the plane and he's kind of like giving this look around like, oh, California, can you believe it? And the things that he sees is like, A blonde woman in a half.

Steve

Shirt who, like, runs and, like, jumps in her boyfriend's arms. I used to think that was crazy. And then I realized she's wearing, like, tights as pants, which today is 1,000% normal.

Nic

Yeah, that's true.

Steve

In 1988, nobody went out in public like that.

Nic

That's true. I mean, nobody. His seatmate wearing a three-piece suit on the plane, which is how people used to be like, well, I'm gonna be out in the world traveling, representing my family crest. I better get dressed up.

Steve

There's a moment in the movie, which I will have to watch this one, too, at some point, Last Action Hero. I don't know if you've ever seen that one. Righteous, yeah. Comment because they're in the movie world and the kid comments about how the women are dressed. And at the time, it seemed psychotic that they were dressed so scantily. And now it's like, no, that's just kind of where the culture went. So, yeah, I think he's commenting on the fact that this woman is basically out wearing tights and nothing else for people. There's no skirt over it or anything else, which in '88 would have been scandalous, basically. And he's like, California.

Nic

He's like, oh, California. He can't believe it. So he gets off. So he's, you know, fish out of water here, and he sees a guy, you know, holding his sign with his name on it.

Steve

And this is his limo driver.

Nic

We're introduced to Argyle, who I love.

Steve

Argyle's the best.

Nic

Really good character. I think in the Blues Brothers, he is the guy who is trying to steal the guitar off the wall at Ray's Music Exchange, where Ray Charles fires at him with the gun with two shots there. So Argyle basically is like, this is my first time driving a limo, and John McClane is like, this is my first time riding in one. And he has this big stuffed bear that he's meant to kind of a Cameron Poe style delivery of a stuffed bear. Stuffed animal to his child.

Steve

Well, no, but wait, is it for his wife? Because he's got two kids and just one bear. So is the bear for Lucy and John Jr. gets nothing, or is the bear for Holly? Like, that's what I've always wondered. 'Cause he's only got one big bear.

Nic

True. But we're two dads and we're only doing one movie and everybody gets everything. Oh, yeah. That's a really good point. Unless it's like a Trojan horse type thing. It's a two-person bear costume that they could put on. But because John McClane is an everyman, he's sitting in the front seat of the limo. Which I love to see. So him and Argyle sitting up there in the front, chopping it up, the bears in the back. And Argyle's playing Run DMC's Christmas in Hollis, which is just so good.

Steve

Great song.

Nic

I mean, really, really good. And at the time, it was very new for this movie and unexpected to have even rap in a mainstream movie, period.

Steve

It wasn't like a black heavy cast, right?

Nic

Yeah, let alone the Christmas.

Steve

Well, John makes a comment, Clayne makes a comment, like, does she have any Christmas music? And Argyle's like, this is Christmas music, man.

Nic

And sure enough, great scene of them rolling. Rolling in there.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

So. So John's dropped off now in the lobby of Nakatomi Plaza.

Steve

Yeah. And Argel says, like, hey, look, if you strike out with your wife, because he said, like, where are you gonna stay? If it doesn't work out with her? He's like, I don't figure it out. He's like, well, if you strike out, like, give me a call. He hands him his card. Give me a call. You know, if you score, let me know.

Nic

I'll go home.

Steve

If you strike out, let me know, and I'll. I'll find you a hotel or something. I'll help you find a place.

Nic

Yeah. And good, very, like, astute observations by Argel as John's telling him the situation. He's like, oh, okay. So she moved out here. Or you don't want to move out here. Because you thought she wouldn't be successful out here. He's just on the money there. So he's this young, like 19 year old kid, but he's really very fast. He really.

Steve

Says a couple times. You're very fast, Argyle. Yeah.

Nic

When John ends up in the lobby of Nakatomi Plaza, it's weird because there's one of those security guy desks. There's a Christmas tree in the lobby that's turned off.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And I, again, the time of day.

Steve

Is, it's like Sunset.

Nic

Cloudy to me. Right. So it's probably like 6:00 PM.

Steve

That time of year, maybe more like 5:00, right? Because it gets dark early.

Nic

But it's weird. So he goes up to the security guy and he asks for Holly and.

Steve

He, you know, tries to search her.

Nic

Holly McLean tries to search her in the computer. Oh, no, she must be using her maiden name. It tried to search her, but then the security guy's like, okay, just go down the elevator. They're on the 30th floor. They're the only ones here.

Steve

It's like, just tell them to go.

Nic

What are we doing here? You get paid by the word? Like, just let me roll through.

Steve

Yeah, so he goes up to the party on the 30th. It's a rollicking bash. Lots of people, yeah, lots of people, lots of drinks flowing. He gets handed a drink by a waiter, like, you know, it was already in a cup and it looks really bright pink. He takes a sip, doesn't like it, gives it back to another waiter. It was probably some fruity, you know, really sweet kind of thing, whatever. It's not whiskey neat, so it's not something John McClane would drink, you know, that kind of thing. And he meets Takagi, Joe Takagi, who is sort of the, well, he's Holly's boss. It seems like he's the head honcho for like this office of Nakatomi, like for whatever, like this branch of the Nakatomi Corporation. Joe Takagi is the head guy. And so he, you know, thanks Takagi for the, for the limo and stuff. And he's like, oh, I'll take you to Holly's office. You know, she'll be right back or whatever. She went to finish up some work. So they walk into Holly's office and Ellis is in there snorting Coke off the, off the desk. And I love Takagi's thing. Ellis, what are you doing? This is Holly's husband, John McClane. Holly's policeman husband. Yeah.

Nic

When Ellis gets up, he's like, oh, I just had to make a phone call.

Steve

This was the closest. This is the stuff. This is the closest phone. And then John's like, you missed a.

Nic

Spot when he still had some coke on his nose. So good.

Steve

So fun.

Nic

The Ellis character is just one of the best representations of that guy.

Steve

One of the most fun to hate, like 80s douchebags in all movies ever. Like really just perfect encapsulation of the me generation, the yuppie, everything. And he is just, yeah, he's a slime ball in every way. And he is one of the only non bad guys who gets capped that I don't care about. When he I'm like, Good fucking Alice.

Nic

No, he's, he's not going to cause.

Steve

More damage if you stayed alive.

Nic

Because you know that he's going to like, he's going to run over some old lady with his Ferrari or something. Like he's causing problems outside.

Steve

That guy drives a beamer for sure, right? And calls it that. It's my beamer.

Nic

It's funny at the beginning. So, so John and Holly are talking and she's like, well, what are you doing tonight? He's like, oh, I'm staying with my friend in Ramona. And she's like, Ah, you dumb bitch, it's Pomona. It's like, All right, that joke doesn't work that well if you don't know LA. Like, that's a normal thing to. I don't think.

Steve

I think she did correct him, but I think she was laughing at how far Pomona is from, you know, whatever.

Nic

But she did mention that it was far.

Steve

You'd be in the car the whole time.

Nic

But anyway, then this is something I'm noticing in the first time watching this, is that Holly's just like, why don't you stay with us? The kids would like it, and I would, too. It's like, are we conceding that this early in the film, when it's kind of supposed to be about him rekindling eventually with her, she's already.

Steve

Like, hey, we can go back to my house and I will suck your dick tonight. Like, I don't know if it was quite. He didn't have to work for a lot.

Nic

He was applying that, fair enough.

Steve

I think the reason, though, that we have to have this here is that we need John a to not tell Argyle to leave. Because if everything's going well or everything's going poorly, he's supposed to call and tell Argyle to get on. Go ahead and go home. Like, I'm good. Right. So we want him not. We want that to not happen. So when he does talk to Argyle in a little bit, it's more just like, I don't know for sure yet, right? Okay, there's that.

Nic

But we also need there to be.

Steve

This, like, element of John going like, oh, okay, maybe she's not totally so pissed at me that this isn't going to work out. Like, he needs to operate through this movie like his wife and him are going to be back together.

Nic

Well, he starts a fight with her immediately, so it throws her, like, her welcomeness out the window because he immediately it up.

Steve

Yeah, he does.

Nic

The whole thing could have ended if he was like, hey, why don't we ditch this party and go take the kids out for.

Steve

For a, Hawaiian. Shaved ice. Could have. Yeah, could have. Yeah, because he makes a big deal about using Gennaro instead of McLean. Except when signing checks or something, which I'm like, what the fuck is that about? You're a cop. She is like the director of global development for Nakatomi Corporation. Which one of you makes more money? What is this? He acts like it's her, you know, his money. She signs checks. McLean.

Nic

I know.

Steve

It's like, what the fuck?

Nic

It is. Yeah, it is really funny. And this is like what they depict cops as, like, having the shittiest lifestyle, like not making.

Steve

The cinema universe doesn't really take into account the very generous pensions that they get.

Nic

That's true. So yeah, if he was just fine with her using her maiden name, he'd be home with the kids right now. Yeah, right.

Steve

Nothing happens.

Nic

So now we get kind of the truck that's holding the bad guys.

Steve

The arrival.

Nic

Pulling up. We don't really see them until they start walking into the building.

Steve

Yeah, yeah.

Nic

And there's like a taller dude and then the short Theo, the shorter dude, the black dude with the glasses, who I love this character.

Steve

And the big guy is Carl, who's basically the main bad guy's right hand man.

Nic

Okay. Carl and Theo, and they're walking in there. And the way Theo, he's not approaching the guard, he's just like describing this basketball game to Carl. He's like, and Worthy passes it to Kareem and right here. And then Carl shoots the security guard at the front desk.

Steve

Yep.

Nic

And Theo's like, two points. And then he like hops over the desk and does like a double foot kick to like kick the guy away.

Steve

It's a corpse now.

Nic

It's like so disrespectful. That character is really, really fun.

Steve

Theo is probably the most fun character.

Nic

I would like a Theo spin.

Steve

Yes, I would watch a movie of how did Theo get into this group? Because he's not German. He's one of two characters, three characters that don't appear to be like European. Right. There's maybe three bad guys that are like Americans, or there's Al Liang, who's just always there. I got Al Liang written down here, baby. So it's like, yeah, how did he join up with this group? It would be interesting to find out, because that character is super interesting. He's a computer hacker. He's like all kinds of cool technology stuff. And he's very funny. And so, yeah, we get a lot of good Theo stuff throughout the movie. But, yeah. So right away they arrive, they kill two guards right off the bat. I started keeping a body count at this point. Oh, nice. So I, we'll get through that near the end of the movie. I'll see. I may have miscounted, but I think I got it. They start locking down all the entrances and exits. So they're locking the front doors. They're locking stuff in the, you know, turning down the, the gates for the parking garage. So now argile is locked inside because he took the limo into the parking garage doing all this stuff. And Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber, you know, one of the best villains of 80s action movies, gets a bunch of his buddies, a bunch of his crew, and they go up to the 30th floor.

Nic

And And they disabled the elevators from all the other floors and stuff, so they're kind of isolating the 30th.

Steve

It's like 30th and up. I think they can use the elevator from the 30th and up, and that's about it. So, or maybe, yeah, whatever, they kind of control it. So Gruber and his men arrive on the 30th floor, and immediately, you know, they kind of come out into the party, and a woman sees them and screams and starts gunshots, like whatever. They're like, you know, starting to enforce rule over the room. And that's when McClane, who's still in the bathroom and now has, this is important, right? He has taken off his shoes and socks. To try the fists with your toes thing, recognizes the sound of the gunfire, gets his pistol out, and is looking down the hall and is, you know, while all this stuff is happening, they're pulling people out of offices and coming down the hall, and he looks like he's gonna get caught. But then luckily one group of bad guys goes into the next office down, or two offices down, and pulls a couple who are clearly having sex, like off a table. So this topless woman gets pulled out, which draws the attention of all the other bad guys, and we don't actually see it, but he is then able to kind of run to the stairwell and get out of the office he's in before they investigate.

Nic

There's a couple very brief titty distractions in this movie, which is funny.

Steve

You can't have an R-rated movie in the 80s that doesn't have some topless somewhere.

Nic

No, you can't have that. For sure. And the henchmen are doing these other things. They're disabling the electricity and stuff. And it looks like one of them, there's kind of two very tall blond dudes.

Steve

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

So there's Carl and the other guy.

Steve

Tony. Tony.

Nic

That's his brother. He has glasses and he's like figuring stuff with the communication system. And Carl is just obviously like the behemoth who doesn't give a shit. And he comes in with a chainsaw just going through the conduit to like destroy all the electrical system.

Steve

It's all the phone trunk. It's actually the phone trunk. So because it says PacBell employees only on the outside. What he's doing is he's taking over all of the phone lines that are important. So all of the calls going in or out of the building will route through their equipment instead. But in order to make sure that happens, they then need to cut the trunk to all the rest of the lines so that nothing can get through. And that's what Carl's doing with the chainsaw. But Tony is scrambling to get the last hookups done. Yeah. And they're speaking to other Germans. I don't know exactly what they're saying, but you know, you can sort of figure out like, dude, give me a second. Nope, it's time. No, no, give me a second. No, here we go. No, come on, stop. I gotta. And then he kind of breathes a sigh of relief as he gets the last alligator clip on, which I'm kind of like, I don't even. If you were still gonna reroute it, would it matter that it didn't cut first? I don't know. I'm not gonna get into it. But anyway, there, there is this interaction between Carl and.

Nic

Good drama and some good sibling rivalry.

Steve

Absolutely. Right.

Nic

Yeah. So, so yeah, Hans, now they're basically like, they have shot the machine guns in the air and he's kind of talking about what they're looking for.

Steve

Yeah, he's got this speech about like, because of the Nakatomi Corporation's, like, you know, decades of greed. He's going on and on, basically saying, you're all going to witness the Nakatomi Corporation pay for its sins. And he's being very highfalutin sounding, very mission-driven sounding, kind of like they have this larger mission they're going for. And now he's got to find Takagi, because again, we was established earlier, Takagi is the head guy in the building, at least. And they love it. He runs down Joseph Takagi, Yoshinobu Takagi, Bald and Kyoto, 1937. He's going through this whole...

Nic

I love that.

Steve

He's got where he went to college, JD, MBA, all this stuff.

Nic

It's like, Chairman soldiers where they're picking up kids running through the resume. I love that device.

Steve

And then, you know, then Takagi finally steps up and goes, I am Joe Takagi, and he goes, and Father to Five. And I just love the way that, like, the last thing he mentions is that this guy's a dad. And it's just like, kind of, it's all so sinister and wonderful. And Rickman is ludicrously good in this movie. Just unacceptable.

Nic

The way that he talks as being like the character of the kind of, like, gentleman criminal. He does such a good job at it. And he takes Takagi and they're going, going to pull him to another area of the office. And they're on the elevator, and he makes a comment about-- that's a nice suit. John Phillips, London. I have two myself.

Steve

I have two myself.

Nic

A rumor is our Arafat gets his suits there. I love that all the dudes that Frank Drobbin beats up at the beginning of Hack and Gun all have a group text about where they're getting their clothes from.

Steve

From.

Nic

Exactly.

Steve

Oh, my God. So. So.

Nic

And I love this scene because this.

Steve

Is something I always enjoy seeing in.

Nic

A movie, is they take Takagi through this office, which is just full of models.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

I love models. They're very film friendly.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Really like to see that. So, you know, they're taking him there and they're basically like, all right, we got our computer guy. He's this far in getting into the Vault. Give him the rest.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're basically asking for code. And Takagi's still a little confused. He's like, if I give you codes now, Now, by the time they wake up in Tokyo, they'll have everything changed. You're not going to be able to blackmail our executives. You're not able to do this. And this is when Gruber is like, I understand, but we need the code to get into, I'm not interested in your corporate secrets. I'm interested in the $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds that you have in your vault. And I need the code to get into the vault. And Takagi's like, what kind of terrorist are you? And he's like, who said we're terrorists? We want the money. And so then Takagi still refuses. He claims he doesn't have the code, but it's a weird I can't tell. I can't tell if he does or not. So he says, Gruber does, I'll count to three, he's got the pistol. And Takagi's like, I don't have the code, you'll simply have to kill me. And he goes, okay, and shoots him. Now, before this actually happens, John McClane has arrived on that same floor and is sort of hiding under a desk in the next room, kind of seeing this all happen. I don't think we get the sense that he can hear them, because they're in the next room with a closed door, but he sees them shoot Takagi. And at that point, he bangs his head on the desk he's hiding under, which attracts everybody's attention momentarily. McClane's able to get away, but it does sort of like, Carl and Theo and Gruber, they're all kind of looking around like something happened. Nobody's here. So they put it aside, but it sort of does trick. I think it trips that sort of like something different. We're not necessarily fully have everything under lock. Because Gruber does seem like the guy who wants to cover every possible scenario.

Nic

Totally. And he shows us throughout the film, he's very prepared. So as Takagi is where he's telling us, telling them, like, I'm not gonna give them the code.

Steve

Yeah, yeah.

Nic

You're just gonna have to kill me. Theo and Carl appear to have a side bet with each other of if Takagi is going to give the code if he's going to get killed or not. So after he gets shot, Carl gives Theo $5 there. So it's kind of a Duke plays.

Steve

Yeah. Duke.

Nic

Brother style bet.

Steve

I also love that, like, like Gruber. Hans does mention quite specifically, like, look, this is $640 million we're gonna steal. That's, I think he He says it's less than 10 days operating capital for your company.

Nic

His motives that are stated are not necessarily true is kind of like the main point of this is that if he's saying, We want to bring your company down, we're going to do this. And of course, Takagi thinks, well, you're going to do that by stealing our IP or whatever, but that's not actually what he's doing. So yeah, he's a bit all over the place here. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Let's see here. So, McClane has managed to get himself to the 32nd floor.

Steve

Right.

Nic

And pull a fire alarm.

Steve

Oh, is that at this point? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

Right after that.

Steve

We should mention before that happens, we see, McClane doesn't, but we see Hans buddies, bad guys, setting up the C4 up on the roof. They start placing the C4 and putting detonators and things. So they are arming the roof with bomb, basically with big blow up boomy bomb. So it's important to know that.

Nic

But, yes, McLean pulls a fire alarm.

Steve

Now, because the bad guys have taken over the phone system or whatever, then they're able to call from their own phones as if they're calling from the plaza, basically, and, and sort of explain what happened to the 911 and be like, I was a false alarm. Don't send anybody. So they do end up turning, turning around.

Nic

Yeah. And McLean sitting. There's a great scene of him watching them through the window, and he sees this, like, whole army of fire trucks approaching, and then they're turning around as He's like, what are you doing? What the fuck are you doing? And he's being kind of loud, but in the meantime, they know what floor the fire alarm was tripped from. And they send up Tony, right? Who has, my wife pointed this out, he has a very Jeffrey Dahmer look. Yes, he's like a German, he's like a Jeffrey Daimler. He's like a German-looking, like Norwegian Dahmer-type guy. So he comes up and he's going straight after McClane. He's got his machine gun. He's like, I'm not going to hurt you, whatever. And he's like, he turns around and fires at him. So they end up- I love that.

Steve

He slaps the safety off the MP5 he's carrying while saying, I'm not going to hurt you.

Nic

Yeah, so he's clearly intended to hurt him. And they have a great tussle. And basically, McLean gets him in a position and he's like, basically, I'm going to shoot you. And I love this line where he's like, you're a policeman. There are rules for police. I love that.

Steve

Confidence of that. That. And the McLean's response. Yeah, my captain keeps telling me that. But they fight and they wrestle and they tumble, and then they end up falling down the stairs, and Tony's neck is broken. And so now, you know, McLean's able to get his walkie-talkie he is able to get his machine gun, his MP5, and, like, some ammo, and then this, like, bag that he doesn't even really know what's in it. He's just got the bag with him, but it's got, like, detonators and stuff. Maybe he did notice, but anyway, he goes to try on Tony's shoes. And they're too small. And he says, you know, all the millions of terrorists in the world, I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister. It's a great line. But he puts a Santa hat on Tony, puts him in the elevator, writes on his sweatshirt, Now I have a machine gun, ho ho ho. And sends him back to the 30th, down to the 30th floor.

Nic

And he's doing some impressive move, like jimmying the elevator with a mop handle, like the way he's able to stop it at the point where he can get out, but he can still reach the button to send it down.

Steve

Sitting on top of it, is that why? Yeah, I thought to myself, why wouldn't he just just, like, press the button and step back out. But then I realized that wouldn't have put him on top of the elevator car. So. Okay, yeah, he's got to do this whole thing, but it works.

Nic

Now I have a machine gun.

Steve

Ho, ho, ho.

Nic

It's so good. And, you know, this being Tony, the brother of Carl, who's, like, the most, like, the number two guy to Hans Gruber. Yeah, he's lost. I mean, obviously. And Holly is kind of noticing, like, that there's some chaos among the.

Steve

Among the terrorists. Yeah. And at one point when, I think maybe before, oh, as they're getting the elevator to come down, Gruber has, Hans addresses the assembled Nakatomi employees. He has a great line where he says, like, you know, I'd hoped this to be, like, cordial, but Mr. Takagi did not agree. And unfortunately, he won't be joining us for the rest of his life.

Nic

So good.

Steve

And then people, like, scream, whatever. But, yeah, but, yeah, Holly kind of makes a comment in earshot of Ellis that, like, oh, that's, like, John. I think it says something like only John makes people that angry or- oh, that's later. She says that a little later, yeah.

Nic

But she has that look for sure, 'cause I was thinking the line was coming there, because the way she looked, it was like, oh, this is the guy who knows how to make people that fucking angry.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

And John has gotten ahold of the radio from Tony. So he has something, and he's trying to like radio for help. And I think he's trying to call the 911 emergency dispatch.

Steve

Yeah, he got up on the roof, and channel nine on a CB basically is like, kind of like 911 for telephone. And so he's up on the roof to try to increase the broadcast distance. And it's trying to call out to just anybody who will listen, like, hey, there's this emergency, Nakatomi Plaza, this, whatever. But especially because the fire alarm was already pulled and was turned out to be a prank or a mistake or whatever, the operators, the dispatchers are very unconcerned, whether they think he's just screwing around, like, sir, this is for emergencies only. And he's like, what do you think I'm ordering a pizza?

Nic

You know, like, they're being so dismissed.

Steve

But in the meantime, because Gruber can hear them on the radio and he thinks to himself, where would you go if you're trying to transmit? He must be on the roof. He sends Carl and a couple other rise up. And I want to pause for a.

Nic

Second and point out that, like, this.

Steve

Movie is so much like a video game in that the rank and file bad guys all carry MP5s, which ended up becoming, like, the standard bad guy machine gun in 90s movies. Really wasn't super common. If you look at movies pre-Die Hard, the MP5 is not a standard issue bad guy weapon. Yeah, it is in, like, everything for, like, the next 10 years, at least, is just an interesting thing. And then Gruber, the head boss, he only has a pistol. He's that little, like, German.

Nic

Right.

Steve

But the right hand. Man, the enforcer guy, Carl, has what's called a Sturmgauz, and it's this German, crazy looking, futuristic, psychotic, big rifle thing. It's Austrian, I think, technically, but like, it just looks amazing. He has to like attach the barrel to it. It just, it looks so like big bad guy, you know, end boss kind of thing. And sure enough, when he starts firing that thing at John on the roof, man, it is, it's a huge noise, you know, the muzzle blast is enormous, like everything is like wild. Now, luckily for McClane, right? He's on the walkie-talkie with 911 or the equivalent, and the gunfire starts while he's still on. So they hear it and they're like, what is that? Kind of thing.

Nic

We got to send someone.

Steve

But now he's, you know, he's got to get the fuck away from these guys. He's going to get his ass killed up on the roof.

Nic

Oh my God. Yeah. So now we have a, you know, we're being shown Reginald Vel Johnson.

Steve

Sergeant Al Powell.

Nic

Al Powell, Carl Winslow. And he's in like a 7-Eleven, you know, buying some snacks or whatever. And he gets the call while he's in there and there's some good banter between him and the clerk there. And the guy's kind of like, oh, you're gonna eat, you know, all this. I thought you guys like donuts 'cause he's buying Twinkies. They're for my wife. And then he does like the most passive-aggressive putting change into the little charity bucket at the register. So he gets the call. Oh, I will say.

Steve

Gas. Oh, 74 cents. Holy crap. In downtown LA. Yeah. Good God.

Nic

Wow. So there's, like, a shootout happening on the roof, and basically he's going. He doesn't know this stuff is happening. So Al just takes his car over to go. Go take a look at nakatomi.

Steve

Well, doesn't he see muzzle flashes from.

Nic

The nice, not yet? Or he might see that something's off because, you know, he gets there and then he leaves.

Steve

Yeah, that's true.

Nic

So it doesn't concern him quite enough, but he's just like, okay, I'll go check it out. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so he, let's see.

Steve

Oh, so, so Carl now and McLean.

Nic

Are having this great shoot. One of the other henchmen kind of looks like Steve Perry from Journey. He's like a big version of Steve Perry.

Steve

Marco, I think.

Nic

And there's some good stuff there. At one point, McLean is like falling into the elevator shaft and he's hanging by like the strap of the machine gun, which is great tension of like showing the strap It unravels and it's.

Steve

Like it would have fallen immediately, but.

Nic

I love the way that shot, you know.

Steve

But is that even an elevator shaft? 'Cause I wrote this, I'm like, I mean, they call it an elevator shaft, but I guess I think it's next elevator shaft. I think he's in the ducting. I think that's part of the heating system.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

Somehow. Yeah, that's an enormous thing. 'Cause there's no wires or, you know, there's no infrastructure in there for an elevator. I think they had to walk past an elevator to get there.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

But it's like, that's why there's all these ducts.

Nic

Just a generalized shaft.

Steve

Which is like still weird as hell that there would be that big, 'cause if that's pushing hot air through the building, It's huge, I don't know. But anyway, I think that's what it's supposed to be. The way he falls, trying to reach the other duct, misses the initial grab, clearly falls away from the wall a bit towards the center of the ship, and then is able to fingertip catch himself, is maybe the most unbelievable thing in the whole movie. It might be the most unbelievable thing. It's awesome, but it is so crazy. So he's able to grab pull himself. He's lost his machine gun now, but.

Nic

He'S able to pull himself up into.

Steve

This air duct, you know, this heating duct. And he, for whatever reason, decides right away to, like, use his, the Zippo lighter he took from Tony to, like, check his surroundings, which I'll give you a hint, pal, you're in a duct. Like, not much to see. But that Clues Carl in. Then he's looking down from where John sort of came in initially into the shaft and can see. He actually sees the light go out as he Clips closed the Zippo, and.

Nic

Now he knows kind of where he is again.

Steve

It's like, John, you're giving away your location. Oh, man. And crawling in the duct, it just seems like it.

Nic

Can you imagine being in that? There's no way it would hold me. I feel like I would fall the second I walked on it. It's not built for, like, 200 pounds going through it.

Steve

Exactly.

Nic

But, yeah, just iconic scene of McLean crawling through the Ducks with the lighter. I mean, one of the. The best shots of the movie. McLean, he ends up. Getting.

Steve

And they're, like, on top of them, but they can't quite spot them, so.

Nic

They don't catch them in the Ducks.

Steve

Right. Well, and that's when the police arrive and Carl and other boys get called off. They have to rush back to, to, like, basically now they got. They wanted the police to arrive. It's part of their plan, but it's like they need to deal with it now, kind of. Yeah.

Nic

And they see, you know, mlan sees the cop car. He's now in the room where Takagi was killed. Room with all the models and stuff. There's the blood splatter on the door. It's pretty gnarly. And he looks down and he sees the cop car there. So he's kind kind of like, you know, hey, it's about time. And at the same time, Al now has come into the lobby and he's talking to the guard who's the fake, the replacement guard that's part of Gruber's crew. So again, at this point, the time kind of confusing me. So I think we're probably at what, six, seven?

Steve

Yeah, it's dark out now. Yeah, right. So it's actually sun has set. Yeah.

Nic

So. So when Al comes in and, and Eddie, the security guard there, and he's like watching the football game, he's like, God damn, I got 50 bucks bet on them. And it's a Notre Dame USC It.

Steve

Would be a Christmas Eve Bowl game probably. Yeah.

Nic

Did they do Christmas?

Steve

I guess they do do Christmas Eve Bowl game. Usually not schools that big.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Schools that big would be playing like New Year's Day. In fact, it's incredibly possible. Actually, USC Notre Dame. Notre Dame wasn't in the Big Ten. Still isn't. But USC could have won the Pac-10 that year easily. And I don't know, normally you'd have the big schools from the Midwest and the West Coast playing on the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. That was the standard, right? But yeah, apparently there's a USC Notre Dame rivalry game.

Nic

Christmas Eve game.

Steve

Those teams always did play each other. Back then they would always Schedule each other's rivals, but usually earlier in the season, you think, because this is like division two playoff slash, you know, crappy bowl game time.

Nic

Yeah. This isn't where, I don't know what the timeline was, but I was always like, and imagine you're at Notre Dame, you gotta, you gotta play football on Christmas Eve. I mean, so, so McClain is, he's like looking out the window, kind of like, you know, what's this cop doing? And at the same time, the guy.

Steve

The henchmen are after him. So they come into the room. Well, because he like smashed a window to like try to whatever he's trying to get into. And a lookout basically from a higher floor was able to see that that happened and go, Somebody's two floors down, go. And so Heinrich, who was the guy originally setting all the bombs, and one of the other guys, I don't remember which one, both come in to the floor that McLean's on. Now the first guy shows up and McLean's yelling, I'm like, Drop the gun, drop the gun. He's like, okay, okay, I'll drop, I'll drop. And that's when Heinrich comes behind him to shoot. But McClane catches him right between the eyes with one, and that guy's down. And now we got the scene where, much like in the Crow, although thankfully, you know, everybody survived this filming, above a table and getting shot up through it, like, you know, McClane ends up shooting the guy through the table. And because he says something like, Next time you have a chance to kill someone, don't wait.

Nic

And as he's chasing, he's like, Where are you going, pal?

Steve

There's no more table.

Nic

So.

Steve

So McClane kills those two, and then Powell is like, this is dumb. There's nothing wrong here. He's down in the lobby. Still doesn't know anything that's happening 30 floors above him or whatever. So he's like, this is stupid. I'm gonna go. He goes to leave, and that's when McClane goes ahead and throws that guy's body through the hole he made in the window. Yeah. It lands right on Powell's car, which then causes him to speed backwards. And at which point, also, all the other people, like, doing Lookout on this, realize, he knows something's wrong. Now let's kill him. Yeah. They're now firing at him as well, so his car. Car is getting shot up and he's calling in, I need backup. They're turning my car into Swiss cheese. Like, he's just going off until he finally kind of backs far enough away that he falls down an embankment and is no longer within range, I guess, right, of these machine guns.

Nic

Yeah, and he's-- I like the body being dropped accurately. We saw that in Con Air as well. We love a body drop here. And then Al is backing away and he's driving like mother in sneakers when he has to drive the van there. And he's just speeding away in the stupidest way. I mean, you're getting shot at, whatever. He's not paying a whole lot of attention. So yeah, that's great. And now, okay, it's official. The cops are aware that there's some shit going down in the Plaza.

Steve

And this is when one of McClane's great lines in the movie, when he looks out the broken window and goes, Welcome to the party, pal. Yes, it's a classic.

Nic

Oh, and Al is singing, he's singing Let It Snow to him. So that's kind of funny. Let it snow as the body comes and crashes.

Steve

Be white body. It's a white guy too.

Nic

It's raining white guys.

Steve

So now the cops arrive for real. Yes. And we cut very briefly to William Atherton, the actor playing the character Thornberg. Atherton's probably up there for ranking on the actor who played the most stupid assholes everybody hates in 80s and 90s movies, 'cause he was also Peck in Ghostbusters, and he was the like asshole scientist in biodome and all kinds of stuff.

Nic

Yes, yes.

Steve

So there's that.

Nic

The news reporter.

Steve

The news reporter, yeah, so he hears over the police band radio, radio, the, you know, shooting in Nakatoma Plaza, you know, police officer needs assistance, all this stuff. And he goes, whoa, we gotta check this out. So he goes to try and, like, get a van, get approval from his producer, like, get a van to go down there. And the guy's, like, getting the evening news started, right? We're probably as close to, like, seven or seven o'clock news or something like that. And so there's this little banter back and forth. And I love it that he kind of distracts the male news anchor enough that the guy's, like, grimacing at him.

Nic

I love that scene.

Steve

Harvey, you're on TV, you know, and he's like, hello, welcome, whatever. And I love a little, another, like, who, what else were they in? Gail, the, the anchor woman sitting next to her is This is the Goonies, Mrs. Walsh from the Goonies.

Nic

Shit, she looked familiar. Okay, thank you for that.

Steve

Who's the mom and the Goonies?

Nic

Where's this lady from? And no, I'm not gonna look it up. Yeah, the News Guy subplot is very fun, especially with it taking place in LA. It's a very LA thing of fighting for the story and all this kind of stuff, and being unethical on your way to try to get the scoop. McLean is on the radio. He's basically on the radio with Hans. And he had found the C4, some detonators and stuff. And Hans is basically ridiculing, like, oh, you Americans, you're all playing cowboys and Indians. You think you're a cowboy? He's like, Do you have a chance, Mr. Cowboy? And this is where McLean says, Yippee ki yay, motherfucker.

Steve

Yeah, 'cause he says, like, we're like John Wayne or whatever. He says somebody else. And he goes, I've always liked Roy Rogers myself.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr.

Nic

Cowboy? So really good. And McClane now has been in contact with Al. So he's gotten a hold of Al. He knows that Al's the cop down there. And he's given him some info, not a bunch about himself, but he's giving him, you know, like, this is what I know. And he's written the name. I noticed you have that too, Steve. You have all the terrorist names written on your wrist like John McClane. That's why you're so good with the names here. But yeah, so I always love that where you're like, just like in Toy Soldiers where we're gathering some intel and ready to dump it to the outside.

Steve

Because then he names them all by name. He's like, like, oh, like Fritz and Carl and whatever, we'll have time, good time with Marco and, you know, sorry about your buddy Heinrich and Tony, but all of a sudden he's naming everybody. And that's freaking out some of the, not Hans so much, but some of his guys, like, why do they know so much? What's going on, you know? Yeah. And at that point, Carl confirms that, hey, he's not lying. Heinrich's dead and the detonators are missing. And that's a huge problem for Hans. Like, regardless of all this other stuff, he doesn't care that the cops are coming. He doesn't care that there's, I mean, he cares, but that there's another guy that he can deal with a lot of this. And some of it he needed to happen. He talks, he needs the cops, he needs the FBI to show up, but he needs the detonators. If he can't, you know, set the, the, the roof to blow when he wants to, it up his plans. He needs that back. So that becomes the new sort of, like, driving force for Hans. It's like, we need to get this guy because he's got the detonators. And so, yeah, Powell is chatting with McLean for a while, calling him Roy, because he's, like, trying not to give his real name away over the radio. He mentions it's a party line, you know, neighbors are listening. Yeah, neighbors got 80 trigger fingers or whatever, but they're chatting back and. A little bit, at which point more cops show up down where Powell is, including Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson, played by everybody's favorite asshole from the 80s, maybe more than Bill Atherton, Paul Gleason, who we recently saw in Trading Places as Clarence Beeks, but also maybe more famously was Principal Vernon in the Breakfast Club.

Nic

And he is excellent. He's like so good at just being upset and being undeservedly in charge. He's just really, really good at that.

Steve

Yeah. So, so now we're kind of back with the hostages.

Nic

And, and of course, Dwayne Robinson, he's like, Al, why are you talking to this guy? He probably is one of the terrorists. Like, he does not buy a single thing that McClain has told him.

Steve

That's right. He probably, he's probably yanking your chain.

Nic

Yeah. And, and then some of the leaps that he makes later where he's doing the, well, it's probably just this.

Steve

Yeah. Yeah.

Nic

Dude. Right side. What are we, maybe you're a terrorist. This is terrible police work because Powell.

Steve

Says something about, like, I think he might be a cop, maybe not La, but I think he's a badge. Like, why do you think that? Well, Stuff he said about like being able to spot a fake ID. And he goes, Jesus Christ, Powell, he might be a bartender. Like, bro, really?

Nic

So Holly basically approaches Hans because it kind of Takagi's gone. She's like, well, I didn't want to talk to you, but you killed the boss, and now people are looking at me. Like, I'm the person in charge here.

Steve

Idiot put you in charge. You did when you killed my boss.

Nic

And just doing, you know, very, very basic, like, Hey, Hey, I'm not trying.

Steve

To tell you to let us go, but we need to go to the bathroom.

Nic

We need some comfort for this pregnant woman and negotiate. And he's being reasonable with her. He has some level of respect for her, I think.

Steve

Well, again, the hostages, he needs them alive because he really needs them to not be alive later.

Nic

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Steve

He needs to keep them all good now.

Nic

We need to keep them alive and not alive later on. So, and Robinson not listening to any of this stuff is like, We're sending the SWAT team in. I wouldn't have this shiny new SWAT team if I wasn't going to use it. Let's go.

Steve

One of the best things when they start attacking, when they start their assault on the building and they're running up, one of the cops runs through rose bushes and just goes, Ow!

Nic

He gets stuck by the thorn. I wrote that down. That is so funny. There was some other instance of a really minor thing bothering the cops, too, which was good. But that made me laugh so hard.

Steve

It made me think of Toy Soldiers, where they assault the school and one of them comes out of the helicopter and just falls on his ass and.

Nic

Then keeps running or whatever.

Steve

Oh my God. So, and as Hans's crew is preparing.

Nic

This assault, 'cause they see 'em all coming. One of our favorites, Al Liang, the Asian dude with the great balding mullet and the mustache and stuff. He's at the concession, the little store area, and he's got his eye on the candy bar and sheepishly starts ganking candy bars. 'Cause it shows him eating a different candy bar every time.

Steve

He's chewing on something, yeah, and it's just like, man, the best possible place to stake out. Oh, I would love that. Is like, by the candy? Heck yeah, man. Let's get a little sugar rush going before we start taking out these cops.

Nic

Imagine if you're by the batteries or the rope or, you know, something that's not like candy. You got something to do there.

Steve

And I love too, like, so they go, they get all set up, they send some cops here and they're like positioned or whatever. And then the sort of captain, the sort of second in command on scene, who by the way was in Brewster's Millions as one of the journalists at the political rally. I mentioned that in that episode too. He's the get the car guy. But he goes, he goes to turns to Robinson, he goes, We're ready. And Gleeson, he looks, he goes, Kick ass. It's just so bullshit bravado.

Nic

And they have this crazy armored assault vehicle.

Steve

Yes, the car.

Nic

Which is this six-wheeled beast of a thing.

Steve

It kinda looks like a tank without a turret. Yeah, that's kinda what it looks like. Yeah, yeah.

Nic

It's one of these things that for a movie like this, I'm like, oh, cool. And then I find out my local PD bought one at the expense of field trips for all the kids in LA. And it's not as cool, but cool in this movie.

Steve

And as it's going up there, I.

Nic

Mean, they just absolutely take this thing out with a fucking rocket launcher.

Steve

Yeah, I love Theo over the line over the walkie-talkies. Like, the police have themselves an RV. And yeah, they've got this huge floor-mounted rocket launcher thing. Shooting a rocket launcher, missile launcher, whatever, out of an office building did make me think of Terminator 2 as well, for sure, when they're at Cyberdyne. But this is like an even even bigger rocket launcher thing. It's like they have to, like, bolt it into the ground so it doesn't so the kickback doesn't, like, make it fly out of your hands.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

And they shoot and they actually shoot it twice, this this car thing. So I don't know if we're supposed to believe anybody in there or did they die? How many people were in it? Did they get out? Like, I can't remember whatever.

Nic

I did them kind of like, like writhing outside.

Steve

Those were the guys that were trying to break into the front door and got shot by Ali Young and the other guys in the lobby was those guys. They just took it in the knee or in the arm.

Nic

And they were instructed by Gruber to not kill them. He's pulling a little bit of an Ed Harris in the Rock where he's like, I don't want this to go too sideways. He's not as righteous as in his cause or whatever, but he doesn't want fucking chaos. He knows that's gonna throw the whole thing off.

Steve

He can't escalate too quickly. Theo is still trying to get through the different locks of this. There's seven locks of this safe. We kind of didn't mention this part where he's able to get through, he says, I can get through up to six of them, but the last one, like the circuits can't be cut locally. It's electromagnetic. There's no way to get around it. You need a miracle for that. I can get you there.

Nic

Okay.

Steve

But you gotta take it from there. And Hans is basically like, Don't worry, Theo. It's Christmas. It's the season of miracles, you know, whatever. But Hans can't have there be too much escalation and have the cops too coming in or whatever and screw everything up until Theo gets through the right locks. There's a timing to all of that. Slow play it a Slow play little. it a little.

Nic

Oh, and one other quick Theo thing. When they shoot that vehicle, which I would have loved like a toy of that vehicle.

Steve

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nic

When they blow it up with the rocket launcher, Theo goes, oh my God, the quarterback is toast. Which is like, I enjoy it 'cause I like this movie, but it's like some note was given that they're like, oh, Theo should say sports stuff.

Steve

How often can we have the black gentleman talk about sports? Can we fit in a few more? It's like, Jesus, guys, really?

Nic

But I do like his enthusiasm and his dismissal of human life. So at this point, McLean has like this, he has some of the C4s.

Steve

He has Heinrich's bag. Heinrich still had not placed all of the C4 bricks up on the roof, just most of them. So there was like one or two, I think, bricks of C4 left, along with some of the detonating, you know, coils or whatever they, how they are. And so he, like, you know, sets all that up, puts it on an office chair with a monitor on top of it just so he could, like, keep it in place. Right. And he goes, he wants, he's going to throw this down the, down the elevator shaft. Yeah. Now, I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure even unplugged, a cathode ray tube monitor or television, a CRT like that, those old Stool monitors, they can shock you. Like, if you were to open up the back of one of those, you can get an incredible electrical shock, even when it's not plugged in. So the idea that that Cracking, breaking and being on top of this C4 would ignite it actually makes a ton of sense, which is really interesting. So he shoves it down the elevator shaft and says, Geronimo motherfucker.

Nic

I like, yeah.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

We gotta have alternate catchphrases here for certain parts. So how, like his accuracy of that bomb blowing up at the correct floor, that was weird. When he threw it down, was kind of crazy because he didn't have any kind of remote thing to detonate it.

Steve

It was just like whenever it hit, should have happened. It landed and then that, right? And so maybe they were talking about some of the elevators or express elevators. Maybe not all the elevator shafts went all the way to the lobby. I don't know. But it did seem like maybe the third floor from the ground is where it really blows up. So somehow that's where it stopped. Maybe that's where the elevator was in that shaft. So it's hitting the top of the elevator.

Nic

That makes sense.

Steve

The elevator car and blowing up, something like that.

Nic

But cool explosion.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

It? See Huge explosion. Great, great. Enormous. So on the news now, they've kind.

Steve

Of learned they know about Hans Gruber.

Nic

They have some names and stuff and they're showing some information. And there's a scene where the news person has a picture of Hans Gruber and he's standing next to this big coffee urn that looks just like R2-D2. I don't understand. He's like next to this gigantic coffee thing where I was like, is that fucking R2-D2?

Steve

I missed that.

Nic

But it's cool that the news is catching up so fast. Like the author of Hostage Terrorist, Terrorist Hostage is like down at the station on Christmas Eve. His family's like, wait, you said that was the last book and then we get to have holidays together. And then during this whole time, Argyle is still in the garage having the time of his life. He's waiting for McLean to call him. So in his mind, dude, I'm gonna watch some TV, enjoy some CD, enjoy some VCR, all this stuff that I.

Steve

Have in my- CD, CB.

Nic

And chilling with the bear and having the time of his life with sunglasses.

Steve

Pouring some drinks. I love that. So at this point, I think this.

Nic

Is when Ellis decides that he's gonna try to, you know, work his magic, right?

Steve

He's an international businessman. He cuts deals. He's doing it, so he does a little coke off his finger, off his knuckles, tries to tighten his tie, does a terrible job of it.

Nic

If you're a hostage, is there a worse scenario to do coke in than I am a hostage?

Steve

As a non-cokE doer, I'm not sure.

Nic

It's not- yeah, not either, but I.

Steve

Can imagine it being- if you're addicted to cocaine, maybe it's exactly when you need it. Like it seems like Ellis is doing a lot of coke at work on Christmas. If you're doing a lot of Coke at work on Christmas Eve, you probably do a lot of Coke, period.

Nic

That's right.

Steve

You have a lot of boundaries. This is not like taking half a gummy before visiting your family at the holidays.

Nic

Yeah, he's not taking the edge off. His life is the edge. Exactly.

Steve

So he does this more Coke and is like, I'm gonna talk to these guys, whatever, and he makes a comment. He walks in and is talking to Hans about like, Hans, I can give you this, I can do that. And I love the line where he's like, I've seen 60 minutes. I know into you're this or whatever. I don't care if you need, I don't care if it's, and he says racist. Things about, like, Middle Easterners or, like, I think, like, you know, the Northern Ireland, like, whatever. He says, like, all this stuff. And then he goes, Hans, booby, I'm your white knight. And it's that line is so good. And I love that Hans is, like, confused. He goes, I must have missed that episode of 60 Minutes. What are you talking about? Like.

Nic

Yeah. And again, you know, Ellis, not on it, not on screen a ton. But you get such a picture of this guy. You could imagine what his life would be like outside of the 100%, which I think is the best compliment you could pay to a minor character.

Steve

Like that guy had the first infinity pool ever installed on Mulholland.

Nic

Dude, 1000%. And if Ellis is not an ice bath guy right now, I will eat my hat.

Steve

That dude is tracking his macros, you know what I mean?

Nic

So Ellis basically tells Hans that he's like, oh yeah, John is my guest at the party. He's an old friend of mine. Which is at least, to Ellis's credit, he didn't blow up his spot completely. So that is like one redeeming thing.

Steve

But he did give his name away. Yeah. That's not great.

Nic

Bad, bad move.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Another great characteristic of that type of like overconfident 80s cocaine guy is saying capiche.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

And he drops the capiche. So he's like, Hey, John, come on. Just tell him where the detonators are here. Oh, and then he'll be on the phone with, he's on the CB with John. He's like, He's gonna shoot me. And then he kind of gives a look over to Gruber like, Huh, wait for it. This guy thinks I'm really in danger. Yeah, yeah. Really funny scene there. And of course, you know, Gruber's had enough of this fucking guy. He's not gonna help him or do anything.

Steve

Well, and I love it. He's like reaching for the gun, and over the walkie, you can hear Ellis go like, Hans, buddy, come on. What am I, a method actor? This is radio, not TV. Like, put the gun down. And John's trying to tell him, Ellis, like, tell him you don't know me, like, whatever. He shoots him, and then immediately, because the gunshots happen now, the entire crowd out on the 30th floor is screaming and stuff because they heard a gunshot. And he pulls, Hans pulls the walkie-talkie out, and like, I hear that, like, I'll start shooting, you know, I'll start shooting random people. Maybe some, someday I will hit somebody that you care about. Like, bring me my detonators. Like, he's pissed. Yeah, but, but that is all for Ellis. Ellis has waved bye-bye. So this is, I think, where Hans then decides to actually call the police. Right. And start making demands.

Nic

Yes. So, and, and he basically, he has a good list of demands, which is like, I would like the release of my revolutionary brothers and sisters, and he's naming a few different movements and, like.

Steve

Where They're imprisoned and stuff.

Nic

And at a certain point, you know.

Steve

Carl's looking at him like, what?

Nic

Yeah, 'cause he says, I'm with the Asian Dawn movement. And then he says, I heard about them on...

Steve

I read about them in Time Magazine.

Nic

Oh, yeah, I read about them in Time. They do drop a lot of media references in this film, you know?

Steve

Oh, it's LA. Yep.

Nic

Yeah, so that's happening. And then we're at the news station, and they're interviewing the author of this book about hostages and terrorists and stuff. So we have the news angle happening. We have him making his demands.

Steve

And then we have John McClane. And then he's told, Hans has now told Carl, Now it's time for you to hunt him down. Like before he was holding Carl back, he's like, you could have neutralized him, like whatever, but now he's got the detonators. Hunt that rat down, go get my detonators, find him wherever he is. So now Carl is on a mission. He's already super pissed because John killed his brother Tony, but now he also has sort of carte blanche from the boss to just tear the place up, find him, kill him, get my detonators back. Real quick, the author on the news thing talks about the Helsinki syndrome, which is a funny that makes a joke that Harvey the dumb anchor goes as in, Helsinki, Sweden. And the guy's like, Finland. But why didn't they just call it the Stockholm joke?

Nic

'Cause that's like the real thing.

Steve

It's so weird, 'cause he could have done the joke the other way around and go, as in Stockholm, Finland, and be like, Sweden. You know, they could have made the joke, but like, what is the Helsinki joke?

Nic

No, that is so strange. That is a funny thing. I caught that a little bit too. So, oh, so the purpose, I guess, for Gruber to make these specific demands is that he knew this would get the FBI in trouble.

Steve

Correct, 'cause he's asking the State Department to do something. So that's gonna involve federal agents now.

Nic

Yeah, right.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Now we're introduced to two great characters. Once again, we've got Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson, the FBI agents, no relation.

Steve

No relation.

Nic

And one of them is played by the great Robert Davi, who we've seen in several films. And he was all around this area.

Steve

Jake Fratelli and the Goonies.

Nic

Yeah, fantastic. And I have a quick Robert Davi story. And then the other guy, so it's funny that Robert Davi, white guy, the other Asian is a black guy. And he was in, I think, Demolition Man. We've seen him a few places.

Steve

He was the young version of Zachary LamB in-- He was the helicopter pilot and the sort of preamble, the prologue of Demolition Man. In addition, by the way, both that actor's name is Grand L. Bush is actually his name. He and Robert Davi also both together in License to Kill, the James Bond movie.

Nic

Nice.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Funny little Grand L. Bush, my favorite Spanish language female porn star as well. So, okay, really?

Steve

Maybe law?

Nic

Real quick on Robert Davi. Please. Killed me. So I know a person who is distantly related to Robert Dahvi, and Robert Dahvi has kind of a reputation of being, like, kind of a dick, right? Great actor, like, very talented, whatever. But he's also one of these, like, he thinks he's in the Rat Pack in real life kind of guys, which is a very funny character trait to me. So this guy, because he was a distant cousin, he got married, you know, 20 years ago and was like, oh, so I invited, you know, all these people in my family, so.

Steve

I invited Robert, thinking like, oh, well.

Nic

He'S a cousin, he'll get invited. He returned the invitation, basically saying that my appearance fee is $5,000.

Steve

For family?

Nic

Wow.

Steve

Hold on.

Nic

What are you gonna do there? Say goonie stuff? Like, what's justifying this?

Steve

Oh, my God.

Nic

Oh, we want a lot of people who feel like their skin looks better than it does, so they're gonna stand next to you.

Steve

I was Agent Johnson. No, the other one.

Nic

That will never stop making me laugh that this guy wanted an appearance fee to come to a family wedding. So shout out, Robert. Okay, so now we've got these guys. Hans is frantically looking for these.

Steve

Well, he decides Heinrich's dead and Carl's looking for John for the dentists. Like, basically, Hans, like, I'm gonna go check.

Nic

Make sure the.

Steve

How far did they get? Basically, how far did Heinrich get? How big, how. How covered are we? So he goes up to check the explosives. They say on the roof, but it seems like really they're just underneath the roof right inside still. But that's where McLean. Sort of spots him. And now, you know, Hans, being an incredibly smart guy, immediately takes on an American accent and is like, oh, no, you're one of them. Oh, no, don't hurt me.

Nic

Great. Really smart, great, scared. And, again, quick on his feet, too.

Steve

Absolutely. And so, you know, he plays, basically plays pretend, you know, that, that he's one of the, I was trying to get away, like, whatever, all this stuff. And so he and, you know, McClane end up, like, talking a little bit, and John's like, you know, you gotta come with me. He's trying to go back for his gun. He's like, no, no, no, you gotta come this way. There's, if you want it to you got to stay with me, John says. But they go down to where they're near one of the elevators on one of the levels because there's like a directory nearby. And so John offers Hans a cigarette and says, you know, say, so, hi, I'm John McLean. And very, again, very quickly, we see on the directory there is a clay comma WM, right? Which means it was short for William. So he says, clay, Bill Clay, you know? And so he's like, very smart. And he says, so Bill, you ever use one of these? He hands him a pistol, his sidearm, and he's like, oh, I went to a shooting ranch once or something like that, whatever, right? You know, with paintballs. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, well, this is the real thing. And he actually, like, pulls the clip out and, like, checks it and puts the clip back in and hands it to him. And as John starts walking away, Hans gets on the radio and is saying something in German, right over the radio, and while pointing the gun at him, and it's like, sure enough, he click, click, and nothing. And so he's like, what are you doing? Stupid off!

Nic

Stupid off! He goes, Oops, no bullets!

Steve

No bullets!

Nic

I wanted to make like a, like a mix, like just a sequence of no more table, no bullets, no more table, no bullets. Yeah, I think that could work, dude.

Steve

A little bit of a Skrillex, you know, like drop the beat background.

Nic

Honestly, like if they successfully pulled this off, I think that song would play at the after party that the Gruber crew would have. So yeah, great scene. And I love the Bill Clay thing. I mean, just quick thinking, really, really smart. So right as basically McClane has him, like there's no bullets. You're screwed. I got a gun on you. But the elevator opens and the henchmen.

Steve

Yes. Carl and two others, I think it's Carl is there and there's like two other guys. One of them gets shot right away. And then the end, then everybody starts shooting whatever and everybody's getting guns. It's now everybody's shooting.

Nic

Oh, and Gruber had noticed when he was talking to McClane earlier, he looked down and noticed that he was barefoot.

Steve

That's right. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so they're shooting at him and he's ducked into like this computer room. It looks like a little servers and stuff. And they're shooting back at each other and it's not really there's not much advantage being had. But now two more of Hans's guys are dead and it's just Hans and Carl, at which point Hans says in German to Carl, shoot the glass, but he kind of looks back at him like he can't hear him or whatever. So he says, and he's like, shoot the glass. And sure enough, they both, with their machine guns, the Steyr AUG and the MP5, they're just blasting just the glass windows all around McClane. I mean, it's like, holy crap. And of course he has to run through it in order to like get away. Away and there's nowhere to go but to run through broken glass and his bare feet, just like Marv in Home Alone, coming through the window.

Nic

It's a Christmas tradition running through glass and bare feet. Yeah. And at this point, I mean, the terrorists are kind of becoming unhinged and this is where Holly sees them losing their mind.

Steve

We should mention real quick before we pass on when John, had to leave the bag. So Hans is basically, he's got all of the equipment he needed back.

Nic

Very important. Yeah, yeah. And they're, but they're still losing their fucking mind. And Holly observes this and she's like, you know, I know John's still alive because only John can drive somebody that crazy.

Steve

Yeah, 'cause Carl's going nuts and it's like, Carl, like, Hans is happy. Hans has his detonators. He's like, I'm good. I actually don't care what happens to that guy now, in a sense. Like, I've got what I need and my plan's gonna work. And Carl's like, I still want blood. This guy killed my brother. And so he's freaking out. This is also when Thornberg, Bill Atherton, the journalist, he has become one of his assistants or somebody that works from comes by and is like, tell me you got something. All I've got is, you know, McLean's, you know, like, department in New York, his badge number, his entire employment history, and his wife's address in here in LA. And they're like, holy. So they drive off to Holly's home, right, where, of course, she is not, but Paulina and the kids are. And we cut, and then I think from that we cut back to John.

Nic

Pulling the glass out of his feet in the bathroom.

Steve

It's just horrific. Terrible, dude. I've talked about my sort of issue with Achilles tendons and anything happening to ankles in movies. This is close. Not quite as bad, but it's adjacent.

Nic

It is so bad. And so during this time, McLean is kind of having a conversation with Al. And this is where he's learning a bit about Al. And he's saying, Hey, what's wrong with you? You got flat feet or something? Kind of asking, Why are you, you know, desk jockey?

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Why are you doing this job, not out on the streets? And Al, you know, has a very sad story about the tragic thing that happened to him, Al, the cop who has to deal with the rest of his life, the very sad fact that he shot a kid and killed some 13-year-old kid because he thought his gun was whatever. But the story is framed so that it's like, oh, poor Al, what an unfortunate thing. It's like, bro, it should not be your fucking choice to be a cop anymore if you do something like that.

Steve

He also says he had a ray gun that looked real intense. Enough. Like, what?

Nic

Real enough, dude.

Steve

And a ray gun. So I'm imagining, like, one of those bulbous Mars attacks. Martian pistols, dude. Like, come on, man.

Nic

So, Lord, you know, so, Al. And I think that the fact that it was his idea where he was like, oh, the day after I shot that kid, I went, hey, Sarge, I think I'd like to be at a desk. Like, you, dude, I think I'd like.

Steve

You to be in a holding cell.

Nic

Mr. Powell, there's plenty of jobs you can do that are not having a gun, and you can do one of those for the rest of your fucking life. So, yeah, it always blows my mind. That he's like the second to the main good guy in this movie. And he's basically a child murderer who's trying to redeem himself.

Steve

That's right.

Nic

Monkey jokes. Oh my God.

Steve

So now we cut back to Agents Johnson and Johnson. Yes. So the FBI agents are going to cut the power, which they don't know will open up the final lock on the safe, but that's what Hans has been counting on, right? So Theo has gotten him through the six sort of more physical locks on the vault. And the last one left is the electromagnetic that they can't cut the power. Power to. So the FBI, the FBI is saying you got to cut, it's going to cut off 10 square blocks or something like that when they cut the power to completely black them out. And I love it. The guy who calls in the power shutdown was one of the townies in Groundhog Day that hangs out with Bill Murray. Okay.

Nic

He looked familiar, too. Yeah. And it was great that he's doing the like, hey, you know, this is my ass if I do this thing, you know, and you get the competing guys telling you what to do. Sure enough, they shut it down. And it opens up the vault. And the vault is beautiful because not only are there the marketable securities or the bear bonds, right? Which is cool. It shows Theo flipping through them and they're in these varying amounts, like 50 grand, 400 grand, all different amounts.

Steve

And I think different currencies too. There was like Yen and Deutsche Mark and something else. There was like a couple of them that were not dollars, but yeah, yeah.

Nic

And then also in there, just for the effect, since it's a cool Japanese company, there's all this Japanese artifacts. It looks like it would be in Steven Seagal's home dojo. How he would decorate. You know, you need these, like, Samurai armor suits and all this kind of. So I really enjoyed the. The opening of the Vault. It was absolutely.

Steve

And there's great. The music plays or whatever, and it's like, you know, I can't remember which song it is now, but some classic music. And it's just a glorious day for the bad guys. They get their fault, and they start emptying it, basically, and putting things in the bags, and they're starting to work. Meanwhile, outside, the FBI agents. Are now ordering the choppers. So they've been asked for helicopters to transport people off. And Agent Johnson calls in the choppers or whatever, and he goes, this is what he says. This is Agent Johnson. No, the other one. Get the choppers ready, like, whatever. And they're bringing in not, of course, transport helicopters. They're bringing in what they say gunships, right? Like attack helicopters.

Nic

The news van. So basically, McLean, he looks bad and he gives Al this very long, hard to remember message to relate to his wife. He's like, Dude, if I knew you were going to talk for this long, I would have I just started writing, but now we're a minute and a half into your ramble, and I'm not even sure if I'm at the part I'm supposed to say to her yet.

Steve

I think at the end it was pretty much tell her, I'm sorry. She never heard me say, I'm sorry, but he did take them a while to get there.

Nic

It was. You know what? My favorite version of that is the, Tell my wife, just tell her. Like, that's my favorite way to do it, was where they say it like that. So that's happening. And then the news asshole is going to McClain's house and knocking on the door, and the nanny, Paulina, is there. Pauline is like, no, you're not coming in.

Steve

It's in the middle of the night at this point. The kids are asleep.

Nic

It's Christmas Eve. Like, whatever. Like, screw off. It's Christmas Eve. We're not going to have a random guy show up to the house. That's not what Christmas is all about. And then he basically pulls her aside and says, like, he pulls a. A Jeremy renner and says, hey, I'm going to call the ins on you.

Steve

Ice of the 80s.

Nic

Yeah, exactly.

Steve

It's just up.

Nic

So that's how they.

Steve

How they get, you know, access there.

Nic

Yep.

Steve

Let's see.

Nic

So McLean has found. He. He sees that the C4 is all over the roof.

Steve

That's right. Yeah. Because he was kind of like, why does. He thought he used the only C4 when he blew up, you know, he sent it down the elevator shaft. He had the bag. And then when he realized that Hans was after the detonators, he goes, why does he still need detonators if I use the C4 on the thing? And that's when he's like, why was he up on the roof? That must be why. So he goes back up there and sees, of course, the ridiculous. It's a ridiculous amount of C4. I mean, 40 or 50 of those multi-pound bricks. I mean, it looks like a ton of explosive, right? Yeah, insane. Unfortunately for him, that's when Carl finds him up there, and they start a fantastic fight. It's not a single cut the way the They Live fight where it just goes on, but it does go on for about four minutes, give or take, four to five minutes, as we are cutting to other things, but they fight for a long time.

Nic

And they're finding things to hit each other with. I like that.

Steve

And I think at one point, John tells Carl.

Nic

I'm gonna fucking cut you.

Steve

Up and I'm gonna fucking eat you. I'm gonna cook you and eat you, he says at one point, which is like the most insane thing. But I guess when you're fighting somebody like that, you're just kind of whatever comes to mind, he's saying to threaten them. But yeah, he says, I'm gonna cut you up and I'm gonna cook you and I'm gonna eat you. Like, really?

Nic

What the fuck? Yeah, and him and Carl are fighting. And now there's a news broadcast on the TV, which is the McLean kids being interviewed against their will, woken up on Christmas Eve.

Steve

By this asshole, but Gruber clicks with him and he flips the picture up.

Nic

And sees, oh, that's the same.

Steve

And now that he's seen John his face and he knows, so he actually calls out to Holly and refers to her as Mrs. McClane, right? Not Ms. Gennaro.

Nic

And so, so the stakes are raised here. The FBI guys now in their attack helicopter, they're cruising in there. And the Robert Dahvi, the Johnson, he, he makes a comment about like, oh, this is just like Saigon or what, like some Vietnam reference.

Steve

Saigon, how slick.

Nic

And the other guy's like, I was He was in middle school. But one comment that the Robert Dahvi character says is, he's like, well, what do you figure for breakage?

Steve

Oh, yeah.

Nic

And he goes, we might, we might lose 20 to 25% of the hostages. And he goes, I can live with that. So, I mean, the plan is that we're going to take it over, but we don't really care. We're not protecting the lives necessarily. We just want an overall W here.

Steve

Yeah, they're going to aim at the, because they're imagining if the terrorists are all waiting for them with the hostages on the roof like they were told they would be, they're just going to aim gonna They're clip some innocents while they do that, but they're aiming for the terrorists. They're trying.

Nic

So as long as-- I mean, the important thing is that you try.

Steve

Yeah, sure.

Nic

Fuck.

Steve

God damn. So at this point, Carl has clipped John in the shoulder 'cause their fight has continued on, and he does get a shot off with just a pistol, thankfully not that ridiculous rifle he had. But he clips John in the shoulder as he jumps back into the building, and the hostages are being corralled up to the roof. So some of the other bad guys are basically leading them up to the roof. And yeah, there's a great line here where now Hans has Holly, he's kept her kind of as a personal hostage. And he's gone down to where Theo is, they're loading stuff from the vault, the barabons and stuff, and he's loading them into a bag. And she looks and goes, For all your big speeches and everything, you're nothing but a common thief. And he is so pissed at that. He is sitting on the ground, kneeling on the ground doing this, and runs, he moves to her in such a weird, cool way, but so angry. And he goes, I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane. And since I've upgraded to kidnapping you, she should be more polite. Right. Like, Alan Rickman just crushes that line.

Nic

He is incredible in that scene.

Steve

So good. And she is, rightfully, just looks terrified.

Nic

Oh, yeah.

Steve

'Cause who knows what this guy's capable of at this point.

Nic

Right, 'cause he's just coming. He's just coming to touch. And so McLean and Carl are still fighting there. And McLean manages to get this chain wrapped around Carl's neck.

Steve

And just kind of push him.

Nic

Again, just a chain on some kind of a track to push things around.

Steve

It looks like the loading dock. Are they all the way down on the ground floor at this point? Weird. I don't know where the hell in the building they are. Yeah.

Nic

But you know what? Suspend disbelief. Cool way for him to get dispatched there.

Steve

Quote unquote killed.

Nic

Yes.

Steve

Quote unquote. Right.

Nic

So McClane basically knows that the roof is going to blow. The hostages are up there.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

And the helicopter's coming and all he. He has no communication. So he's just shooting his gun.

Steve

Like, yeah, get the. Back down. Get back down. Yeah.

Nic

And the helicopter's like, there's the guy we're trying to kill.

Steve

They clocked us, bureau. You got a shooter on the roof. Yeah.

Nic

So now he's in, like, a. A Richard Kimble situation where he's.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

He's getting blasted at by the good guys on the roof there. And he's trying to get these hostages out of here. It's a cool scene where he's sending the hostages back down the stairs. And they're walking by Carl just hanging on that chain.

Steve

Yikes. But now Eddie, who's one of the last remaining not dead Hans guys, I mean, there's Eddie, the guy who played the security guard, Theo is still around, there's Hans and there's like one other guy at this point. And Eddie comes down where Hans is and is like, Something's wrong, the hostage is coming back down. And so Hans is like, Let's just blow the roof, let's do it now. It'll be close enough. We'll get a bunch of them, whatever. And so he doesn't know what's going on upstairs, right? But on the roof, John is tying a fire hose around his waist to try to jump off the roof just to get away from the chopper. But as he's doing that, Hans has got the detonator ready to go and it's a great sequence. And it's like probably the most famous visual, right, from the movie is John leaping off the building. Hans has pressed the plunger of the detonator. The entire roof explodes, engulfing both attack choppers. Which I counted as five additional deaths, but it might have been even more. And he flies off and it has to do the whole thing where he starts trying to kick the window and then he's like, it's coming through, so he's shooting it with the gun, he gets through, I mean, it's a great sequence. He has to struggle to get the fire hose off his waist so that it doesn't drag him back out the window into his death. I mean, really fantastic stuff.

Nic

His bloody feet hitting the window before he breaks it is such a great effect there.

Steve

Absolutely.

Nic

Yeah, I mean, that is just an excellent scene. And the chopper, so yeah, I mean, there's multiple people in these helicopters. It blows up and it crashes. And then Robinson looks at it and he goes, We're gonna need some more FBI guys.

Steve

I love it. He says, We're gonna need some more FBI guys. Or no, we're gonna need some new FBI guys.

Nic

I guess. I guess, yeah, I guess. It's not a, We're gonna need a bigger boat type.

Steve

It's close, though. I like it, though. It's very good. I felt like that.

Nic

So, oh, so now, so Argyle is down there and he's heard some chatter because earlier, When he was, when he was chilling in the limo, he was hearing some like banter on the CB.

Steve

Well, no, he saw the news. He saw the news report was the thing that really tipped him off. Seeing the news report of when Thornberg went to, the McClain home and spoke to the, to the daughter, I think Argall sees that and they make a big deal about like, there's a hostage situation at Nakatomi Plaza. And he's like, Whoa, what? That's where I am, you know, like, yeah. So he knows. And then he looks over and sees there is that big, the big van that they showed up in the bad guys.

Nic

Yeah.

Steve

Wouldn't be possible because we saw the inside of the van. When they all arrived, by the way, there's nothing else in it. But an ambulance conveniently is in it and drives out. And Theo sees this. Like, why would an ambulance drive out of a vehicle that's so bizarre? Yeah. And Theo is the one driving it. And so Argyle decides he's gonna. He's gonna go ahead and do something about this. But. But wait, before he actually does anything, John has arrived. Now he's flown off the roof, he's flying through, and he gets to where Hans and Eddie and Holly and. And one other guy are, and he sees, before he goes to them, he notices he's only got two bullets left in his gun, and there are three bad guys and his wife.

Nic

Yeah, so Argyle crashes into this ambulance that Theo's in. He doesn't kill Theo. One way to do it would have been that Theo was all the way out of the vehicle and he got- oh, yeah.

Steve

Like if he'd shot him in ShamalAnd.

Nic

Right? But I think it was cool that Argyle gets out and then he punches Theo. So like, knock him out cold. And you know what? Open for future sequels, Theo not dead, so maybe we'll see him again.

Steve

Yeah, probably gets arrested, I would assume. But, you know, but yeah, I love then too. So now we don't know exactly what's happening, but John sees a wrapping station. There's like tape and wrapping paper and stuff. And then he comes around the corner and the guy who isn't Eddie or Hans, I don't remember, just gets smacked in the head with the butt of something, whatever. He knocks him out, basically. Right. So now there's just the two bad guys and Holly, and he comes around the in the corner, and I love, he goes, Hans! Like, he just, like, the way he yells it is so, like, it was.

Nic

Kind of like Winthorpe yelling in the sandstorm.

Steve

Yes! Yes! He's got the gun on his back, and he grabs it and basically yells, Holly! And she ducks. So he shoots Hans, and it's, like, in the chest or arm or-- It doesn't kill him right away. But then he goes, and before Eddie can pick up his rifle, he shoots him between the eyes. So he's done, and Hans starts falling back towards towards the window. And that's when he says, Happy trails, Hans, is sort of the line he gives there. Problem for everybody is that Hans still has a hold of Holly's wrist. So as he's falling back towards the open window, Holly's going with him. John has to fall, you know, jump forward, grab her, and ends up reaching down and undoes the watch that actually, I don't think we mentioned in the beginning, but Ellis makes a big deal about how Holly was given a gold Rolex for how well she's doing, whatever the company, and that he, like, unattach, you know, he, like, undoes that wristwatch, and that's enough to get Hans to slip and actually fall. And I don't know if you've read this, but it was a great, it's kind of like a pretty well-known little fun fact, but in order to get that shot just right, so Alan Rickman was held up about 20 feet above one of those big cushy, you know, inflatable things with all green screens that they could, might have been blue back then, but whatever result they could replace it with the view of going to a thing. And to get a really good surprised, oh my God, I'm falling look from him, they told him, we're gonna count to three and we're gonna let you go. One. And they let him go. And so they got an actual, like, you know, kind of look from him, but. That's a great, another kind of one of the most iconic.

Nic

That's him falling backwards.

Steve

Yeah, that visage of Alan Rickman falling backwards is fantastic. And then I don't remember which character, maybe it's Paul Gleason's character says, I'm like, I hope that's not a hostage as they're seeing him fall.

Nic

His commentary was really good.

Steve

Oh my God.

Nic

Yeah, and then also because there was an explosion in an office building, it's required to rain printer paper for like.

Steve

The next two hours.

Nic

Those are supposed to be the bear bonds.

Steve

I think those are supposed to be the bear bonds, yes.

Nic

I was trying to see it. They all look blank to me.

Steve

Well, I'm sure they were, 'cause they couldn't, from the props department, didn't print 5 million bear bonds, fake bear bonds to do it. But I think the idea is that that part of the, you know, that's where it kind of came from. But yeah, it's snowing. It's snowing in LA.

Nic

And as Holly and McClain are coming out of the building, he sees Al. He's never seen Al. And Al didn't say anything, but somehow they just knew that each other was the guy. So they had a little, like, Hey, man, that's a real cop there. Right, right. And then just a little cherry on top for us, all of a sudden, Carl fucking emerges. He survived dying 500 times.

Steve

Oh my God. Hung by a chain. How do you even get down from there? Although he is wearing, here's the thing, he's wearing a blanket, like somebody came and rescued him and is putting a blanket on him, but he still has that crazy rifle with him. So he ends up throwing the blanket off with that, stair rifle and like, you know, go aiming at John, like he's gonna shoot him. But who the hell helped him out? You know, got him down.

Nic

And they didn't take his gun. Didn't take his gun. I'm sure that gun's giving you a lot of comfort right now, so we don't wanna take it from you.

Steve

But yes.

Nic

Oh, that is a good point. I didn't know that he had been rescued.

Steve

Yeah.

Nic

Yeah, and luckily Al is able to pretend that Carl's head is an unarmed child and he takes him out. Oh my God. And then, you know, the last little bit.

Steve

That we get here is, you.

Nic

Know, McClane and Holly are there, and the news guy is ready to get in their face with the microphone, and Holly punches his ass out.

Steve

And then Argyle drives through the closed, locked gate of the parking garage, which apparently he could have done at any time. Yeah. And they have to like... And Al goes to point his gun at him, he goes, no, no, no, he's with me. But it's like, there are also 500 other law enforcement officers with weapons nearby. Argyle, are you gonna chill out?

Nic

You're the guy who figured it out.

Steve

Right, yeah.

Nic

So, but yeah, Yeah, that's, yeah, they get it right home with Argyle and.

Steve

They'Re, you know, making it up as they go.

Nic

Whether or not the side is right, right, is that what plays in the end? Let it snow to end it.

Steve

Exactly, so that's Die Hard. Gosh darn it, that's a good movie.

Nic

It really is. It really is. And I mean, with the Christmas thing, it's like, yeah, it's inarguable. The number of like Christmas related things that come into play, even the wrapping paper station being relevant and all this kind of stuff, like it's very intentional.

Steve

Intentionally set up the rest.

Nic

100%, absolutely.

Steve

Oh, my God. Well, let's see. This was my pick. I'll start off and I'm just gonna say it like this. This is basically, in my opinion, an unimpeachable action movie. As an action movie, it set standards. It gave us, I think, and I'm not saying it's the first ever, it was like the first massive hit that was like we talked about the everyman hero, the guy who's not unstoppable, the guy who's not a superhuman. Arnold Schwarzenegger's roles all through the 80s, they're fun, great action movies, but he was basically I never really worried about him in Predator. I always figured out he'd figure out how to get by the Predator. You see, whatever, you know? But, like, with John McLean, you're like, since, like, dude, this dude's. He's all cut up. He's all beat up. It's like, oh, this is crazy. Like, and he's just a cop. He's not, like, some super soldier, right? He's not Rambo. So this movie did so much for action movies. And then the fact that it's a Christmas movie, too, and it, you know, that. Which makes it something that is, like, super on brand to watch this time of year is fantastic. I literally. I I don't think the movie's too long. I wouldn't cut any of the scenes. I think that all the little side characters are interesting and fun and add to the movie. I already talked about how well of a job they do, how good of a job they do making the villains who aren't the top guys interesting and more than just, you know, random henchman number two. I see no reason not to give a five to Die Hard. I'm a five out of five for Die Hard. This is just, I think, one of the best action movies ever. And so that's where I'm at.

Nic

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to argue with that. Yeah, even taking the Christmas elements outside of it completely and just putting this as an action movie that came out in 1988, which, you know, was. There was kind of a shift in action movies generally after that. So this is a five for me. I'm not gonna drag it out. This is absolutely a five out of five. It's super fun. It was super influential. So there's lots of great stuff that we ended up getting after the fact. And how many times has a movie been described as Die Hard and.

Steve

Yes.

Nic

You know, right. Die Hard and whatever, you know, speed.

Steve

Is Die Hard on a bus.

Nic

Yeah, dude. You know, it's like a basketball player being the next George. Or whatever. You know, it's just a thing that you use now to describe other films. That's how influential it is. Super fun, not a dull moment. It is long, but it's not for dragging things out. I mean, what do you do? You're going to cut some action, you're going to cut some funny lines, you're going to cut, you know, so I don't take anything out of this. This is a solid five out of five. And please watch this on Christmas. It's delightful, it's fun, it's a great one with the adults when the kids go to bed, whatever.

Steve

You can dip in at any time.

Nic

It's just, if you haven't seen it and you're still listening to this episode, welcome to Earth once again, yeah.

Steve

Well, yeah. So that's wonderful.

Nic

Five out of five for me.

Steve

We are, the two dads are a 10 out of 10 on Die Hard, which should surprise no one. And by the way, if you're listening to this episode the day it comes out, Merry Christmas Eve, because today is December 24th.

Nic

Yeah, Merry Christmas Eve.

Steve

Which means, Nic, we have one more door on the dadvent calendar. But now, I know most advent calendars actually stop at Christmas, but we're going through to the end of December.

Nic

All the way.

Steve

There is another Christmas movie that is in store for us. Why don't you tell us what it is?

Nic

Yeah. Yeah. And, and do remind me, actually, it being Christmas Eve, I know we have our two dads, one movie, office Christmas party tonight. No, no plus ones invited. Exactly. Me and you and employees standing there. Yeah. So, yeah, this last one, I, I know we're going to be past actual Christmas, you know, so it doesn't have to be one that necessarily gets you as I was super excited about Santa and eggnog and everything. And I thought maybe I'd take another swerve to something that is much more arguably not a Christmas movie.

Steve

That's okay.

Nic

So the main action of this film does take place on Christmas Day.

Steve

Love it.

Nic

And we are going into the more sports action genre here. We're gonna visit one of our favorite characters from film history, a Rocky Balboa. And we're gonna join Rocky, who's set to fight Ivan Drago for free on Christmas Day. In Rocky IV, they're fighting in Russia. He's chopping logs and the other guy has high tech training. This is a really fun one. I don't think I've watched this in like 15 years. So we'll see how it'll hold up, but I think this will be some good 80s. I don't expect a 10 out of 10 from the two dads, but that doesn't mean that it won't be a 10 out of 10 episode.

Steve

Rocky IV. I love it. Rocky IV, that's gonna be great. I do think for me, I think I actually watched this movie three or four years ago, but it had been a long time before then. One thing I remember about it is, and I'll see how this pans out, but I remember there being not a ton of plot and a lot of music. Music oriented montages that don't have a lot happening to it. They're like training montages. There's a whole montage where he's just driving around town at one point in his car for like a good four minutes. It's really interesting. We'll see how it goes. I can't wait for it. Funny enough, Rocky Balboa, my third favorite Ivan Drago in Apollo Creed, I'd like better than Rocky Balboa, but that's okay.

Nic

Incredibly likable.

Steve

They're great. So, yeah. So that's fantastic. Next week we'll do Rocky four and we will wrap up the dadvent calendar and all of our Christmas themed movie choices. That about wraps it up. So if you like what you hear and we hope you do, please consider heading to Apple or Spotify and leaving us a five star review. It really helps new folks find the show. If you want to drop us a line, share your thoughts on an episode, tell us what we got wrong or suggest a movie we should do next, you can do so at theshow@2dads1movie.com that's the number two and the number one. You can also follow us on Instagram at 2dads1movie and check out our website at 2dads1movie.com once again, this has been Die Hard, another episode of 2 Dads 1 Movie.

Nic

I'm Steve and I'm Nic.

Steve

Thank you so much for listening and we'll catch you next week.

Nic

Thanks everyone.