Die Hard

Enough time has gone by from Die Hard (and its many sequels) to see the first movie as the classic thriller it is – a modern day Rear Window perhaps.

The Spanish and Polish titles for the film (Crystal Jungle, and The Glass Trap, respectively) perhaps better encapsulate the film’s main theme – man versus modernist skyscraper. All the action occurs alternatively up and down the vast vertical spaces of the Nakatomi Plaza. Frank Llloyd Wright buildings and structures are quoted repeatedly throughout the film.

Bruce Willis was the sixth choice for the main role, and it was filmed at night to allow for Willis’ TV filming schedule in Moonlighting. Fans should track down the book it was based on, “Nothing Lasts Forever”, by Roderick Thorp. (Interestingly, the Fascist Hans Gruber is a veiled portrait of the author’s own tyrannical father.)

Watch too for the scene where McClane falls down a lift shaft – in reality it was the stuntman falling much further down than he should have. The shot was used anyway.