Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers (WGA):

Jonathan Hensleigh (written by)
Roderick Thorp (certain original characters)

Release Date:

19 May 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Think fast. Look alive. Die hard.

Plot:

John McClane and a store owner must play a bomber's deadly game as they race around New York while trying to stop him.

Plot Keywords:

Gore | Action Hero | Death | Car | Gun

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	John McClane
Jeremy Irons	...	Simon Gruber
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Zeus Carver
Graham Greene	...	Joe Lambert
Colleen Camp	...	Connie Kowalski
Larry Bryggman	...	Insp. Walter Cobb
Anthony Peck	...	Ricky Walsh
Nicholas Wyman	...	Mathias Targo (as Nick Wyman)
Sam Phillips	...	Katya
Kevin Chamberlin	...	Charles Weiss
Sharon Washington	...	Officer Jane
Stephen Pearlman	...	Dr. Fred Schiller
Michael Alexander Jackson	...	Dexter
Aldis Hodge	...	Raymond
Mischa Hausserman	...	Mischa

Also Known As:

Die Hard 3
Die Hard New York (USA) (working title)
Simon Says (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and pervasive strong language.

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Peru:14 | Malaysia:18SG (DVD) | USA:R (certificate #33828) | Finland:K-15 (DVD version) | Malaysia:(Banned) (theatrical) | Brazil:14 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 | UK:15 (video rating) | Australia:M | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Iceland:16 | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (cut)

Filming Locations:

72nd Street, Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Cinergi Pictures Entertainment

Trivia:

McClane (Bruce Willis) tells Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) "I was working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." The second line is from the song "Flowers on the Wall" by The Statler Brothers from the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction (1994), starring both Willis and Jackson. Willis' character (Butch) sang the song in Fabienne's car when he spotted Marsellus Wallace.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The ship travels from Hudson River to the middle of the Long Island Sound in an impossibly short time.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Inspector Cobb: Alan, Bomb Squad, Special Services, State Police and the F.B.I. Lt. Jurgensen, you, Plummer, go to St. John's Emergency in case we got any walk-ins from the street. Kramer, get the City Engineer. I got to find out our damage report.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Saw (2004)

Soundtrack:

Gift Rapped

Not your average action movie

This movie gets right to the point and starts off with an explosion. I love that. A crazy guy named Simon (played very well by Jeremy Irons) blows up a store, and asks to speak to John McClane, who is on suspension. The cops grab McClane, who is by now a heavy drinker, and put him on the phone with Simon. Simon makes him walk through Harlem with a very offensive sign. Just when he is about to get beat down, he is rescued by the racist Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Zeus. It seems as though Simon wants revenge on McClane for something, but nobody knows why. Now, Zeus and McClane are at the mercy of Simon, who meanwhile is committing a massive robbery.

This movie is considerably different from the other two, which is probably a good thing. Who wants the same thing three times in a row? The plot has as many twists and turns as a snake, and the movie keeps the viewer involved. Watching Zeus and McClane bicker is amusing as well. Samuel L. Jackson pulls off the role of the "racist black man" very well. I would highly recommend this movie.