137 Fun Facts About Die Hard

What is John McClane's profession at the beginning of 'Die Hard'?

He is a New York City police detective, out west only to try to patch things up with his estranged wife.

In Die Hard, John McClane battles Hans Gruber's gang inside which fictional skyscraper?

Nakatomi Plaza is the Nakatomi Corporation's fictional headquarters, played by a real Century City tower that was still unfinished when the film was shot in 1987–88.

On what holiday does the film 'Die Hard' primarily take place?

McClane arrives on Christmas Eve to reconcile with his estranged wife at Nakatomi's Christmas party, and the siege runs through that night.

Who portrays the main antagonist, Hans Gruber, in 'Die Hard'?

Alan Rickman, a Royal Shakespeare Company stage actor, made his feature-film debut as Hans Gruber; critics singled out his villain even when they panned the film.

What is the name of John McClane's estranged wife in 'Die Hard'?

Holly Gennaro is a high-ranking Nakatomi executive who goes by her maiden name at work, one of the reasons the McClane marriage is strained.

In Die Hard, what $640 million haul is Hans Gruber's gang really after in the Nakatomi vault while posing as terrorists?

Bearer bonds, $640 million in untraceable paper, are the prize; the whole hostage drama is a diversion while the vault's locks are cracked.

In which U.S. city does the film's skyscraper siege take place?

Los Angeles: McClane flies in from New York to see his wife, and the film was shot largely on location in Century City.

In Die Hard, Hans Gruber plans to blow the Nakatomi roof and fake his gang's deaths once he has what?

The contents of the vault are the real goal: the terrorist act is theatre for a $640 million heist, ending with the roof blown to fake the gang's deaths.

Who is the limousine driver who drops John McClane at the tower and later aids him?

Argyle is the limo driver who waits for John in the parking garage and eventually plays a crucial role in preventing the terrorists' escape.

Die Hard was adapted from which 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp?

Nothing Lasts Forever, Thorp's 1979 sequel to The Detective, supplied the plot; its hero is an ageing retired cop, rewritten as the much younger John McClane.

Which singer-actor did the studio contractually have to offer the role of John McClane to first?

Frank Sinatra had starred in 1968's The Detective, the first Roderick Thorp adaptation, so Fox was contractually bound to offer him the sequel; in his seventies, he declined.

Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down Die Hard to make which 1988 comedy instead?

Twins, the 1988 comedy pairing him with Danny DeVito, is what Schwarzenegger made instead; he wanted to branch out from muscle-bound action roles.

Bruce Willis was only free to make Die Hard because production paused on which TV series he starred in?

Moonlighting went on an eleven-week hiatus when co-star Cybill Shepherd became pregnant, and Willis used the gap to shoot Die Hard.

Bruce Willis's controversial fee for Die Hard, huge for a TV actor at the time, was how much?

$5 million was Willis's fee, a startling sum for a TV actor; the press mocked it, and Fox's first posters showed the building rather than his face.

Which Broadway role had Joel Silver seen Alan Rickman play before casting him in Die Hard?

Rickman's Vicomte de Valmont in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1987 Broadway run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses impressed Silver, who cast him as Hans Gruber, his first film role.

Which real Century City skyscraper, still under construction during filming, stood in for the villains' target?

Fox Plaza, 20th Century Fox's new Century City headquarters, was still being finished during the 1987–88 shoot, so its bare upper floors appear on screen as construction levels.

The film's premise was famously pitched to the studio as 'Rambo in' what?

'Rambo in an office building' was the pitch; director John McTiernan took it on condition that the film would have 'some joy' rather than grim terrorism.

What surname did McClane have in Jeb Stuart's early script, rejected as disrespectful to a dead director?

John Ford was the script's original name, dropped because it belonged to the late Western director; Stuart then picked McClane as a 'good strong Scottish name'.

McClane's 'Yippee-ki-yay' catchphrase was inspired by which singing cowboy star's sign-off?

Roy Rogers is the cowboy McClane tells Hans he was 'always kinda partial to' moments before the catchphrase, which riffs on the singing cowboy's sign-off.

Which classical piece did composer Michael Kamen initially object to McTiernan using in Die Hard?

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, whose 'Ode to Joy' scores the vault opening; Kamen offered to 'misuse' Wagner instead and in exchange insisted on also licensing 'Singin' in the Rain'.

Which Run-DMC track, later embraced as a holiday standard, features in Die Hard?

'Christmas in Hollis' plays in Argyle's limo as he drives McClane to Nakatomi; the 1987 Run-DMC single has since become a hip-hop Christmas standard.

The music for Karl's final ambush was an unused cue McTiernan borrowed from which 1986 film?

Aliens: McTiernan preferred James Horner's temp track from the 1986 sequel to the cue Kamen wrote for Karl's reappearance, and kept Horner's music in the finished film.

Willis's very first day of shooting, coming straight from his TV set, was which stunt?

He jumped 25 feet from a parking-garage ledge onto an airbag as a 60-foot wall of flame went off behind him.

To capture Hans Gruber's genuinely shocked expression as he falls, what did the crew do to the actor?

McTiernan said 'there's no way he could fake that'; the first take was used.

Reginald VelJohnson's friendly LAPD sergeant role got him cast as Carl Winslow in which sitcom?

Family Matters cast VelJohnson as Chicago police officer Carl Winslow from 1989 to 1998, another cop with a big heart.

The hostages' floor of the tower contained a recreation of which famous Frank Lloyd Wright house?

Fallingwater, Wright's Pennsylvania house over a waterfall, was recreated on the party floor; production designer Jackson De Govia said it stood for Japanese firms buying up American assets in the 1980s.

Which of these lines was improvised by the actor rather than scripted?

'The quarterback is toast' was ad-libbed by Clarence Gilyard as Theo; Hart Bochner's 'Hans, bubby, I'm your white knight' was another improvised line.

An early design for the Japanese corporation's logo was redesigned because it looked too much like what?

A swastika is what the first Nakatomi logo resembled, so it was scrapped; the replacement was styled after a samurai warrior's helmet.

Die Hard opened in limited release on July 15, 1988, in how many theaters?

21 theaters: the film took $601,851 that weekend, a $28,659 per-screen average that built must-see buzz before the wide release on July 22.

Which of these was NOT one of Die Hard's four Academy Award nominations?

Best Supporting Actor was never in play, as Alan Rickman was overlooked entirely; the four nominations were Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.

Rare for any film, what CinemaScore grade did opening audiences give Die Hard?

The critics were split, but audiences were not: it earned the top possible mark.

Which Die Hard costume item did Bruce Willis donate to the Smithsonian in 2007?

His bloodstained undershirt went to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2007; the grimy tank top marked McClane out from invincible action heroes.

Die Hard was added to the US National Film Registry in which year?

2017: the Library of Congress added Die Hard to the National Film Registry that December as 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

Which 1994 film was famously pitched as 'Die Hard on a bus'?

Speed was the 'Die Hard on a bus', and 'Die Hard on a…' became Hollywood shorthand for a lone hero trapped with overwhelming odds.

A 2018 poll of Americans found what share agreed Die Hard is a Christmas film?

25%: a 2018 Morning Consult/Hollywood Reporter poll found only a quarter of Americans called it a Christmas film; Bruce Willis said that year it isn't, though Fox insisted it is.

Which Shakespeare play inspired McTiernan to compress Jeb Stuart's three-day script into a single evening?

A Midsummer Night's Dream gave McTiernan the model of one chaotic night resolved by dawn; he also insisted the villains be thieves, finding political terrorists 'too mean' for summer entertainment.

What did the classical musicians at the office party in the tower play?

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is what the party's string ensemble plays on the 30th floor before the gunmen arrive, one of several diegetic classical pieces in the film.

The Rock (1996) was nicknamed 'Die Hard on' what?

Alcatraz Island: The Rock strands Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery inside the former prison with rogue marines, the classic confined-space 'Die Hard on...' setup.

Die Hard 2 (1990) is set at which airport?

Washington Dulles International Airport is the setting: Holly's plane circles over Dulles while mercenaries seize its control systems on a snowy Christmas Eve.

Die Hard 2 was adapted from a 1987 novel by Walter Wager with what title?

In the book the hero is a cop named Frank Malone with 58 minutes to save his daughter's circling plane.

Who directed Die Hard 2?

Renny Harlin, fresh from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, directed Die Hard 2; McTiernan returned for the third film, making Harlin the trilogy's only other director.

In Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jeremy Irons's riddling villain Simon is revealed to have what link to the first film?

Simon is Hans Gruber's brother: his alias 'Peter Krieg' is unmasked as Simon Peter Gruber, using revenge for the first film as a cover story.

Simon's real target in Die Hard with a Vengeance is the gold bullion vault of which New York institution?

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's vault under Wall Street is the target; Simon's men haul its gold out in dump trucks while the NYPD hunts a school bomb.

The script that became Die Hard with a Vengeance was originally written as a standalone film called what?

Simon Says, Jonathan Hensleigh's spec script about a bomber playing a riddle game, was briefly considered as a Lethal Weapon sequel before Fox retooled it into a Die Hard film.

Which actor was first offered the role of Zeus Carver, before Samuel L. Jackson got it?

Laurence Fishburne was the first choice for Zeus Carver, but his pay negotiations stalled; after seeing Pulp Fiction, the producers gave the part to Samuel L. Jackson.

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) takes its title from the state motto of which US state?

New Hampshire's state motto is 'Live Free or Die', from General John Stark's 1809 toast; outside North America the film was titled Die Hard 4.0.

Live Free or Die Hard was the first Die Hard film to receive which MPAA rating?

PG-13: the first three Die Hards were R-rated, and Fox trimmed the 2007 film for a wider audience; an unrated cut later appeared on home media.

Which filmmaker plays the basement hacker 'Warlock' in Live Free or Die Hard?

Kevin Smith, the Clerks writer-director, plays Warlock, the hacker holed up in his mother's basement who helps McClane track the cyber-terrorists.

A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) sends McClane to Russia, but where was it mostly filmed?

Budapest stood in for Moscow across most of the shoot, its boulevards doubling for the Russian capital's streets in the film's long car chase.

In A Good Day to Die Hard, Jack McClane turns out to work for which agency?

The CIA: Jack, whom John believes is a petty criminal on trial in Moscow, is revealed to be a CIA operative extracting the whistleblower Komarov.

Producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver hired John McTiernan to direct Die Hard after working with him on which 1987 action film?

Predator, which John McTiernan made with the same producers, Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver, got him the Die Hard job.

Roderick Thorp dreamed up his source novel after watching which 1974 disaster film?

The Towering Inferno: after watching it, Thorp dreamed of gunmen chasing a man through a skyscraper, and that dream became his 1979 novel.

What is the name of the novel's hero, later reworked into John McClane?

Joe Leland, a retired New York detective turned security consultant in the novel, had been played by Frank Sinatra in 1968's The Detective.

In the source novel, whom does the hero visit at the tower on Christmas Eve?

His daughter, Stephanie Gennaro, is the hostage in the novel; she falls to her death alongside villain Anton Gruber, a far darker ending than the film's.

Which ballet star played Karl, Gruber's vengeful second-in-command?

Alexander Godunov, the Bolshoi star who defected in 1979, played Karl; his rampage is driven by McClane killing his brother Tony early in the film.

Who plays Holly, McClane's estranged wife?

Bonnie Bedelia played Holly Gennaro in Die Hard and Die Hard 2; by the third film the couple are separated and Holly never appears on screen.

Which sleazy Nakatomi executive tries to negotiate with Gruber and pays for it?

Harry Ellis, the smooth-talking dealmaker played by Hart Bochner, tries to broker a deal with Hans and is shot when McClane won't surrender the detonators.

What alias does Hans Gruber use when he runs into McClane on an unfinished floor?

Bill Clay is the name Hans picks off the Nakatomi directory board when McClane finds him, feigning an American accent as a frightened escaped hostage.

Who plays Richard Thornburg, the unscrupulous TV reporter?

Atherton had already played a memorable jerk as Walter Peck in Ghostbusters.

What surname do the two FBI agents who take over outside the tower share?

Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush play 'Big Johnson' and 'Little Johnson'.

Which Nakatomi executive does Gruber shoot after failing to get the vault code?

Joseph Takagi, the Nakatomi president played by James Shigeta, refuses to give up the code and is shot in the head in his own boardroom.

What does McClane write on the sweatshirt of the dead terrorist he sends down the elevator?

'Now I have a machine gun. Ho-ho-ho' is scrawled on the sweatshirt of the first terrorist McClane kills, sent down in the lift wearing a Santa hat.

In a deleted scene, the terrorists synchronize watches of which brand?

Cutting the scene removed the watch clue McClane originally used to unmask Gruber.

What gift from Nakatomi is Holly wearing that Gruber grabs as he falls?

A Rolex watch, Nakatomi's gift to Holly for closing a big deal, is what Hans clings to; McClane unclasps it, freeing her from employer and villain at once.

Who was Die Hard's cinematographer, known for handheld shots close to the characters?

Jan de Bont shot Die Hard with restless handheld camerawork, then moved into directing with Speed (1994) and Twister (1996).

What was one condition Fox Plaza's owners set for letting the crew film there?

No filming during the day was one rule, so the crew worked nights in the still-unfinished tower, which suited a story that unfolds over a single Christmas Eve night.

Roughly how old was Hans Gruber's actor when Die Hard became his film debut?

Early 40s: born in February 1946, the actor was 42 when Die Hard was released in July 1988, after years as a stage actor.

What direction did Gruber's actor refuse, saying it did not fit the 'civilized' character?

Throwing Holly to the floor was the direction Rickman refused, arguing the cultivated Gruber would never do it and that Holly, a self-possessed executive, would not have allowed it.

Whom did Willis spend his time with between takes, rather than the rest of the cast?

Bedelia and VelJohnson, by contrast, mostly hung out with the man playing Gruber.

How tall was the wall of flame behind Willis during the fire-hose rooftop leap?

The blast pushed him toward the edge of the airbag and the crew feared he had died.

At what frame rate was Gruber's 1.5-second fall filmed to stretch it into slow motion?

270 frames per second, about eleven times the normal 24, stretched Rickman's drop; even so, the camera could not hold focus throughout, so the shot cuts away.

Which effect was the only miniature used in the entire film?

The rooftop explosion was the film's only miniature shot; the other blasts were real, produced by propane 'mortars' giving six-second bursts of flame.

How many cameras filmed the final helicopter scene above Fox Plaza?

Six months of preparation went into a shot the crew had just two hours to capture.

What did the C-4 elevator-shaft explosion unexpectedly do to the building?

The owners had made 'no damage from explosions' a condition of filming.

Which US president later kept his post-presidency office in Fox Plaza?

Ronald Reagan set up his post-presidency office on Fox Plaza's 34th floor in 1989, a year after the film wrapped in the tower.

Which film was 1988's top domestic earner, well ahead of Die Hard?

Rain Man topped 1988's domestic chart with about $173 million; Die Hard's roughly $83 million placed it seventh for the year.

Where did Die Hard rank on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list in 2001?

39th on the AFI's 2001 100 Thrills list; Hans Gruber separately placed 46th on the AFI's 2003 Heroes and Villains list.

Empire ranked Gruber fourth-greatest villain ever, behind Vader, the Joker and whom?

Empire praised his 'most perfect combination of voice and face' for a villain.

Die Hard Arcade was known by what name in Japan, where Sega lacked the license?

Dynamite Deka ('Dynamite Detective') was Sega's Japanese title; its hero Bruno Delinger became John McClane when the game was rebranded as Die Hard Arcade abroad in 1996.

Whom do the heroes rescue from terrorists in Die Hard Arcade?

The President's daughter is the hostage; the two heroes fight up the skyscraper to final boss Wolf 'White Fang' Hongo to free her.

Which country banned the PlayStation game Die Hard Trilogy over its violence?

Players could run down pedestrians with blood splashing across the windshield.

What subtitle did the follow-up game Die Hard Trilogy 2 carry?

Viva Las Vegas: the 2000 sequel sends McClane to Nevada for an original story unconnected to the films, again mixing shooting, driving and on-foot stages.

Which company's 2020 car-battery commercial brought Willis back as McClane?

Advance Auto Parts, which bought the DieHard battery brand in 2019, reunited Willis with Theo and Argyle actors Clarence Gilyard and De'voreaux White for the 2020 spot.

Detective Jake Peralta of which sitcom treats the Die Hard films as sacred texts?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Jake Peralta quotes the films constantly; in the episode '99' he detours the squad to Fox Plaza, and they miss their flight home.

Call of Duty: Warzone's 2021 '80s Action Heroes' event paired McClane with which other hero?

John Rambo: the May 2021 '80s Action Heroes' event sold Rambo and McClane operator bundles and added Nakatomi Plaza to the Verdansk '84 map.

The Nakatomi tower turns up in the Void of which 2024 superhero film?

The building was 'pruned' and sent there by the Time Variance Authority.

In Die Hard with a Vengeance, Inspector Cobb calls McClane 'two steps away' from what?

McClane jokingly corrects him: only one step.

Who plays the villainous Colonel Stuart in Die Hard 2?

William Sadler plays Colonel Stuart, a disgraced ex-Army officer seizing Dulles to free the drug-running General Esperanza; Franco Nero plays Esperanza himself.

What is the job of Marvin, the man who helps McClane inside Dulles in Die Hard 2?

Airport janitor: Marvin, played by Tom Bower, guides McClane through Dulles's service tunnels and drives the McClanes away in his cart at the end.

How does Colonel Stuart crash the British airliner in Die Hard 2?

By faking its altimeter reading: posing as the tower, Stuart resets the plane's sea-level reference 200 feet low, so the crew thinks they are still airborne when they hit the runway.

Die Hard 2's snowy scenes moved to which state after Denver proved too warm?

Michigan: Alpena County Regional Airport and the former Kincheloe Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula stood in for a wintry Dulles.

How much was Willis paid to return for Die Hard 2?

The budget was originally $40 million but reportedly ballooned toward $60-70 million.

Which 1996 film broke Die Hard 2's record for the biggest pre-opening gross?

Independence Day's Tuesday-night previews in July 1996 beat the mark Die Hard 2 had set in 1990 with $3.7 million from 1,828 theaters before its official opening.

The Simon Says script was first developed as a vehicle for which star?

Brandon Lee was the intended star until his death on the set of The Crow in 1993; Warner Bros. then briefly rewrote the script as a Lethal Weapon sequel.

Die Hard with a Vengeance opened at #1 ahead of which submarine thriller?

Crimson Tide, the Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman submarine thriller in its second weekend, dropped to second place when Die Hard with a Vengeance opened on May 19, 1995.

How much gold do Simon's men haul out of the vault in dump trucks?

$140 billion in gold bullion, by Simon's own count, goes out in dump trucks; the gang escapes through the still-unfinished Water Tunnel No. 3.

In the filmed alternate ending, McClane confronts Simon in a bar in which country?

Hungary: in the discarded ending, a fired McClane tracks Simon to a bar there and makes him play 'McClane Says' with a rocket launcher missing its sights.

What trade does Zeus Carver, Samuel L. Jackson's character, ply in Harlem?

Electrician: Zeus runs a small electrical shop in Harlem and is dragged into Simon's game after he pulls McClane, in a racist sandwich board, out of danger.

Live Free or Die Hard was based on a 1997 Wired article with what title?

'A Farewell to Arms', John Carlin's May 1997 Wired piece on the threat of cyber-warfare against US infrastructure, inspired the screenplay that became the fourth film.

Who plays cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel in Live Free or Die Hard?

Timothy Olyphant, fresh from playing Sheriff Seth Bullock in HBO's Deadwood, plays Thomas Gabriel, the ex-government cyber-security chief who attacks America's infrastructure.

Who plays hacker Matt Farrell, McClane's reluctant sidekick in the fourth film?

Justin Long, then best known as the 'Mac' in Apple's 'Get a Mac' ads, plays hacker Matt Farrell, the sidekick McClane is sent to collect.

Who plays Lucy McClane in Live Free or Die Hard?

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Lucy, McClane's estranged daughter, who is taken hostage by Gabriel; she returned for a cameo in A Good Day to Die Hard.

What is the three-stage cyber-attack in Live Free or Die Hard called?

A fire sale, because 'everything must go': stage one hits transport, stage two finance and telecoms, stage three the utilities.

What was the title of David Marconi's original cyber-terror script that became the fourth film?

WW3.com was Marconi's title for the script, developed in the late 1990s; it stalled after 9/11 before being revived and rewritten by Mark Bomback.

Before its final title, IGN reported the fourth film would be called what?

Die Hard: Reset was the title IGN reported in 2006; Willis and director Len Wiseman both said they preferred Die Hard 4.0, which became the international title.

Who scored the fourth and fifth Die Hard films after Kamen's death?

Marco Beltrami scored both Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard, weaving Michael Kamen's themes into his music; Kamen had died in 2003.

Which fighter jet chases McClane's truck on the freeway in Live Free or Die Hard?

The F-35B Lightning II, the hovering short-takeoff version, shreds the freeway with cannon fire; director Len Wiseman cameos as its pilot.

The Woodlawn data facility Gabriel raids was secretly built by which agency?

The NSA built Woodlawn as a secret failsafe backup of the nation's financial records, and Gabriel, who designed it, raids it to download everything.

Live Free or Die Hard opened at #2 behind which animated film?

Ratatouille, Pixar's rat-chef comedy, opened to about $47 million that weekend; Live Free or Die Hard took about $33 million in second place.

Live Free or Die Hard's DVD was the first ever to include what?

A digital copy of the film: Fox's November 2007 DVD was the first to bundle a transferable file, letting viewers move the movie to a PC or portable player.

Which future John Wick director worked as a stunt performer on Live Free or Die Hard?

Between 200 and 250 stunt people worked on the film.

Who directed A Good Day to Die Hard?

John Moore, director of Max Payne and the Omen remake, took over; Noam Murro had been attached but left to make 300: Rise of an Empire.

Which Australian actor plays McClane's son Jack in A Good Day to Die Hard?

Jai Courtney, who had just played a villain opposite Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher, was cast as Jack; Liam Hemsworth was among those also considered.

The working title Die Hard 24/7 fueled speculation about a crossover with which TV series?

Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer never appeared.

Who plays Yuri Komarov, the whistleblower turned villain of A Good Day to Die Hard?

Sebastian Koch, acclaimed for the 2006 Oscar-winner The Lives of Others, plays Komarov, the supposed whistleblower who turns out to be the villain.

A Good Day to Die Hard's climax takes place in which city?

Pripyat, the ghost city evacuated after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, hosts the climax, where a vault holds weapons-grade uranium Komarov has hidden.

Vehicle stunts for A Good Day to Die Hard were shot at which Formula One circuit?

The Hungaroring, Hungary's Formula One circuit near Budapest, hosted much of the car-chase stunt work, since the whole production was based in Hungary.

Which name belongs to Komarov's treacherous daughter in A Good Day to Die Hard?

Irina, played by Yuliya Snigir, stages her father's rescue only to hand him over to Chagarin's men, and dies in the finale's helicopter crash.

Which line does McClane repeat so often in the fifth film that a critic suggested a drinking game?

'I'm on vacation!' is McClane's running complaint in Moscow; Peter Howell of the Toronto Star suggested a drinking game for each repetition.

How many weeks did the composer have to write the score for A Good Day to Die Hard?

He wrote around 120 minutes of music, 80 of which made the film.

The 25th-anniversary mural at the Fox lot depicts McClane doing what?

Crawling through a vent: the 2013 mural on a Century City soundstage shows McClane squeezing through an air duct, lighter in hand, as in the 'come out to the coast' scene.

Roughly how much have the five Die Hard films grossed combined worldwide?

$1.4 billion: about $141 million, $240 million, $366 million, $384 million and $305 million across the five films, with Willis the only actor in all of them.

Willis retired from acting in 2022 after being diagnosed with what?

Aphasia, a language disorder, was the diagnosis announced with Bruce Willis's retirement in March 2022; a frontotemporal dementia diagnosis followed in February 2023.

Entertainment Weekly nicknamed McClane what on its list of coolest pop-culture heroes?

He ranked sixth on the 2009 list.

Which group does Hans demand be freed, admitting he only read about them in Time magazine?

'Asian Dawn' is the group Hans adds to his list of comrades to be freed, admitting to Karl that he read about them in Time magazine.

Which 1983 biopic persuaded Willis to suggest its star for the role of Holly?

Heart Like a Wheel, in which Bonnie Bedelia played drag racer Shirley Muldowney, persuaded Willis to push for her as Holly.

Which of these actors was considered for the role of Sergeant Al Powell?

Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman and Laurence Fishburne were also in the frame before Reginald VelJohnson landed his first major film role.

What did Hart Bochner decide was driving his character, against McTiernan's Cary Grant idea?

Cocaine use and insecurity were Bochner's keys to Ellis; McTiernan hated the performance until he noticed producers Gordon and Silver were thoroughly entertained by it.

What does McClane strap the C-4 to before dropping it down the elevator shaft?

An office chair: McClane straps C-4 and detonators to a computer monitor on the chair and drops it down the shaft, wiping out the rocket team firing on the SWAT vehicle.

Why was Argyle's scene stopping Theo's getaway added in the last ten days of filming?

With the TAG Heuer synchronisation scene deleted, McClane could no longer spot Gruber by his watch, so the ending had to change.

Which Bruce Willis western flopped earlier in 1988, raising doubts about his leading-man potential?

Sunset, Blake Edwards's Tom Mix and Wyatt Earp comedy-western with James Garner, flopped in April 1988, so Fox's marketing initially played down Willis in favour of the building.

Although it never hit number one, Die Hard spent how many straight weeks in the US box-office top five?

Its roughly $83 million domestic take made it 1988's seventh-biggest film, behind Rain Man, Roger Rabbit and Coming to America.

Who co-wrote Die Hard's screenplay with Jeb Stuart?

Steven E. de Souza, who had written Commando and co-written 48 Hrs., rewrote Jeb Stuart's draft and shares the screenplay credit.

A 2017 YouGov poll found what share of Britons considered Die Hard a Christmas film?

Believers skewed under 24 while doubters were mostly over 50; Fox itself called it 'the greatest Christmas story ever told' in 2018.

Which publisher issued the prequel comic Die Hard: Year One, following rookie cop McClane in 1976?

BOOM! Studios published Die Hard: Year One, scripted by Howard Chaykin, in eight issues between September 2009 and April 2010.

In which 1993 spoof did Bruce Willis make a comic cameo as John McClane?

Loaded Weapon 1, the 1993 Lethal Weapon spoof, has Willis cameo uncredited as McClane in a mobile home that gets blown up.

Die Hard: The Nakatomi Heist, released in 2019, is what kind of product?

A board game: USAopoly's 2019 release pits one player as McClane against up to three controlling Gruber's crew, with opposing goals across three acts.