Die Hard with a Vengeance

Die Hard with a Vengeance
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John McTiernan
Screenplay by	Jonathan Hensleigh
Based on	Simon Says by Jonathan Hensleigh Characters by Roderick Thorp
Produced by	John McTiernan Michael Tadross
Starring	Bruce Willis Jeremy Irons Samuel L. Jackson Graham Greene Colleen Camp Larry Bryggman Sam Phillips
Cinematography	Peter Menzies Jr.
Edited by	John Wright
Music by	Michael Kamen
Production company	Cinergi Pictures
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	May 19, 1995 (1995-05-19) (United States)
Running time	128 minutes
Country	United States
Languages	English German
Budget	$90 million
Box office	$366.1 million

Die Hard with a Vengeance is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by John McTiernan (who directed the first installment). It was written by Jonathan Hensleigh, based on the screenplay Simon Says by Hensleigh and on the characters created by Roderick Thorp for his 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third film in the Die Hard film series, after Die Hard 2 (1990). It is followed by Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

The film stars Bruce Willis as NYPD Lieutenant John McClane and Samuel L. Jackson as McClane's reluctant partner Zeus Carver, who team up to stop bomb threats across New York City carried out by "Simon" (Jeremy Irons). It was released on May 19, 1995 to mixed reviews and became the highest-grossing film of the year. The film later gained a cult following and has been considered by many critics and fans as the best sequel of the franchise.

Plot

The Bonwit Teller department store in New York City is destroyed by a bomb during the morning commute. The New York Police Department gets a call from "Simon" claiming responsibility. He threatens to detonate another unless suspended police officer Lt. John McClane is dropped in Harlem, wearing a sandwich board with a racial slur on it. They comply, and McClane is called in.

Zeus Carver, an electrician with a nearby shop, sees McClane wearing the board. McClane explains that he is an officer on a case, but is soon attacked by a group of angry black men. He and Carver manage to escape in a taxi. At NYPD headquarters, they learn that a large quantity of binary liquid explosive has been stolen, part of which was used for the bomb. Simon demands that McClane and Carver both follow his instructions, posing a series of timed challenges that lead them to the Wall Street subway station. McClane boards the Brooklyn-bound 3 train in search of a bomb Simon has placed on it, while Carver hurries to answer Simon's call at a pay phone. McClane finds the bomb and throws it off the train just before it detonates, derailing the train and damaging the station.

McClane and Carver regroup with the police and FBI and CIA agents, learning that Simon is "Peter Krieg", a former colonel in the East German People's Army and a mercenary-for-hire. However, Krieg's real name is Simon Peter Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, whom McClane had killed years earlier in Los Angeles.

Simon then calls the group, telling them about a bomb in a New York public school, set to explode once class lets out and equipped with a radio detonator triggered by the use of FBI and police bands. Simon will give McClane and Carver the school location if they follow his riddles, warning that he will detonate the bomb if any evacuation attempts are made. While McClane and Carver do Simon's next task, the police organize a search of the city's schools, using 9-1-1 to coordinate. McClane realizes that Simon is using the bomb threat to distract the police away from Wall Street, which has no public schools. They return there to find that Simon's men have tunneled into the Federal Reserve Bank and stolen $140 billion of gold bullion in dump trucks. They follow the trucks into an aqueduct in Tunnel No. 3. Carver continues Simon's game while McClane follows the trucks.

McClane kills the crew members of one dump truck and commandeers it. Simon blows up a cofferdam, intending to flood the tunnel and drown McClane, but McClane is ejected through an air vent and reunites with Carver. Surviving a car chase with Simon's men who had followed Carver, they find that each driver was carrying enough money to pay for a bridge toll. They sneak aboard a tanker vessel docked in Long Island Sound, but Simon and his crew capture them and place them next to a bomb in the cargo hold. The school bomb, Simon explains, was a fake intended to distract the police. He broadcasts a message proclaiming his intent to destroy the tanker and scatter the stolen bullion across the bottom of the sound, destabilizing the Western world's economy. After he leaves, Carver and McClane free themselves and escape the tanker just before the bomb detonates.

As McClane and Carver are debriefed by the police, McClane reports that none of the bullion was on the tanker, using his knowledge of the Gruber family to deduce that Simon had intended to keep it. While trying to call his estranged wife Holly, McClane glances at a bottle of aspirin given to him by Simon and notes that it was purchased at a truckstop in Quebec on the Canada–U.S. border. McClane, Carver, and the police arrive at a warehouse near the truckstop where Simon and his men are distributing the bullion and planning their escape. The rest of Simon's men are captured, while Simon and his girlfriend Katya attempt to escape via helicopter. McClane shoots an overhead power line that falls onto the helicopter, causing it to crash and explode. After celebrating their triumph, Carver persuades McClane to call Holly again.

Cast

• Bruce Willis as Lieutenant John McClane
• Jeremy Irons as Simon Peter Gruber / Colonel Peter Krieg
• Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus Carver
• Graham Greene as Detective Joe Lambert
• Colleen Camp as Detective Connie Kowalski
• Larry Bryggman as Inspector Walter Cobb
• Anthony Peck as Detective Ricky Walsh
• Nick Wyman as Mathias Targo
• Sam Phillips as Katya
• Stephen Pearlman as Dr. Fred Schiller
• Kevin Chamberlin as Bomb Squad Officer Charlie Weiss
• Richard Russell Ramos as FBI Chief Hugh Prantera
• Charles Dumas as FBI Agent Andy Cross
• Michael Cristofer as CIA Agent Bill Jarvis

Additional cast members include Simon's goons: Richard Council as Otto, Mischa Hausserman as Mischa, Phil Theis as Erik, Robert Sedgwick as Rolf, Sven Toorvald as Karl, Timothy Adams as Gunther, Tony Halme as Roman, Greg Skrovic as Kurt, Bill Christ as Ivan, Gerrit Vooren as Nils and Willis Sparks as Klaus. Aldis Hodge and Michael Alexander Jackson appear as Raymond and Dexter respectively, Zeus's nephews caught in the school bomb panic; Hodge would later play a different role in A Good Day to Die Hard. Alan Rickman appears as Hans Gruber via archive footage from Die Hard.

Production

Development and writing

Like most of the films in the series, the premise of this film was repurposed from a stand-alone project. Producer Joel Silver and 20th Century Fox wanted the third Die Hard film to take place on a ship, which is why between 1991 and 1992 they hired screenwriter W. Peter Iliff to write a script for Die Hard 3 which would take place on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, where John McClane and his wife are when it gets taken over by terrorists who threaten to blow it up with a bomb. Iliff, who just wrote Point Break (1991) which turned into a huge hit and was one of the main reasons why he got the job of writing Die Hard 3, was actually re-writing a spec script titled Troubleshooter by another writer, James Haggin, who wrote it in late 1989 and sold it to Largo Entertainment in March 1990, but Fox bought it from them in 1991 because they thought it was good enough to be turned into Die Hard 3. Since the original script wasn't written as a Die Hard film, the script had to be re-written, but the re-writes lead to a constantly increasing budget due to the addition of several action scenes.

Iliff was at his second re-write of the script when a similar film titled Dreadnought, starring Steven Seagal, went into production at Warner Bros. By the time Iliff did his third re-write to make sure their Die Hard 3 wouldn't be similar to Dreadnought, the Seagal film was re-titled, first to Last To Surrender (because producers wanted three word title like Seagal's previous films had), and then to Under Siege (1992). Fox then decided it was pointless to keep trying to make this version of the third Die Hard film due to the perceived similarities with Under Siege. Ironically enough, before it was bought by Warner Bros for $1 million, J.F. Lawton's original 1990 spec script for Under Siege (titled Dreadnought) had been offered to Joel Silver to be possibly re-written into Die Hard 3, but Silver had refused. During script development, Warner Bros. offered Iliff a job of re-writing Dreadnought, not knowing he was already working on Die Hard 3. Silver and Fox even bought another similar spec titled Supertanker just to shelve it to make sure it doesn't gets made before Die Hard 3 they were developing.

After 20th Century Fox ended up not using it for Die Hard 3, Largo Entertainment got the Troubleshooter script back and tried to make it into a film around 1994, but never did. There is a rumor about how the script was later changed and used for Speed 2: Cruise Control, but this is not true. Jan De Bont, the director of Speed and Twister was the one who came up with the story for Speed 2, although some small moments from what Fox developed for the "cruise ship" version of Die Hard 3 were used in some way in that film. Following all the issues during early development and previous problems he and Bruce Willis had with one another following the very troubled production of The Last Boy Scout (1991), Silver left the Die Hard 3 production and never worked on any other Die Hard film or with Willis again, and John McTiernan, who was going to return to direct this version of the third film, also quit the project. McTiernan didn't even like the plot idea of the entire film taking place on a ship in first place. Director Danny Cannon was then involved to direct the film for some time, possibly when later different scripts were in development.

Between 1993 and 1994 at least three more versions of Die Hard 3 were written, and each one was very different from others. The first one was written by John Milius and it took place in a jungle, and once his version was rejected, two more were written at the same time by two different writers. One by Doug Richardson which took place in Los Angeles subways taken over by terrorists who are actually planning to rob the federal reserve of the city, and second by John Fasano which took place across the entire city (New York or L.A.) as McClane chases kidnappers who took his teenage daughter, thinking she was the daughter of some rich industrialist. Both scripts were rejected by Willis who felt they were more like Die Hard rip-offs, although the ending of Richardson's script was used for the ending of Speed, which Richardson confirmed in interviews. Interestingly, the "Die Hard in the jungle" storyline was also at one point going to be used for the fourth Die Hard film which was in development around 1997, based on the original script by Alan B. McElroy titled Tears of the Sun, about a group of people who go to the Amazon to set up a radio relay station only to end up encountering drug dealers and then having to escape through the jungle from them. Bruce Willis really liked McElroy's script, which was also considered to be re-written into a new modern Tarzan film before Willis had it changed into Die Hard 4, and even when the version of Die Hard 4 based on it wasn't made, he requested for the title of his 2002 action war film Man of War to be changed into Tears of the Sun, which is why it's often mistakenly mentioned how that film was originally going to be a Die Hard 4, which is not true.

Finally, after Brandon Lee's death on set of The Crow, Fox took another spec script titled Simon Says by Jonathan Hensleigh which was supposed to be Lee's next film, or possibly be re-written into a sequel to Lee's Rapid Fire, and decided to change that one into what eventually became Die Hard With a Vengeance. Hensleigh's original script was about a mad bomber who wants revenge against a police detective who is forced by the bomber to find and stop his bombs from exploding, and the only help he has is a shop owner who becomes involved by accident. Originally in early 1993 Joel Silver and Warner Bros. tried to buy Simon Says to have it re-written into Lethal Weapon 4, but 20th Century Fox bought it instead. The script then went through dozens of different re-writes by writers such as Hensleigh, Dan Bronson, Lorenzo Semple Jr, David Shaber, and others. It was mostly the second half and the ending which kept getting re-written. At some point during re-writes Zeus was changed into a female character which Angela Bassett was in talks to play. Even after the movie was made, the new ending had to be written and filmed to replace the darker original ending in which McClane is blamed for everything that's happened and loses his job, but still manages to track down Simon months later and makes Simon kill himself by accident after playing a game called "McClane Says".

Andy Vajna replaced Joel Silver and Larry Gordon as the producer on the film due to a fall-out with Willis. As a result, Vajna's company, Cinergi, acquired foreign rights to the film. In most regions, the film rights were acquired by Disney and Summit Entertainment, while Fox retained domestic rights. In July 1997, Cinergi sold its 50% stake in the film to Fox for $11.25 million.

Casting

Laurence Fishburne was originally offered the co-starring role of Zeus Carver, a part also written for him, but wanted a higher fee. Producer Andy Vajna held out on the deal. Fishburne had earlier turned down the role of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, which was eventually played by Samuel L. Jackson. Fishburne was talked out of playing Jules by his representatives who wanted him to only accept leading parts, otherwise he would be stuck career-wise as a supporting actor. Subsequently, Pulp Fiction premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the same time as Fishburne's pay negotiations. Vajna also attended the event to support Willis who was appearing in the Quentin Tarantino film. Tarantino recalled that Vajna was so impressed by Jackson's performance that he offered him the part of Carver instead. Fishburne later filed a lawsuit against Vajna's company Cinergi for reneging on a verbal agreement. The lawsuit took two years and Fishburne received a settlement.

Music

Soundtrack

RCA Victor album

Michael Kamen returned to score the third film, again incorporating other material into his score (most notably "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", not included on the soundtrack album). Excerpts from his scores for Die Hard and Die Hard 2 were also included in the new film. The soundtrack was released by RCA Victor.

1. Summer in the City – The Lovin' Spoonful (2:44)
2. Goodbye Bonwits (6:28)
3. Got It Covered – Fu-Schnickens (4:13)
4. John and Zeus (3:19)
5. In Front of Kids – Extra Prolific (2:44)
6. Papaya King (5:20)
7. Take A-nother Train (2:55)
8. The Iron Foundry – Alexander Mosolov (3:08)
9. Waltz of the Bankers (4:13)
10. Gold Vault (3:45)
11. Surfing in the Aqueduct (2:30)
12. Symphony No. 1 – Johannes Brahms (15:00)
13. Symphony No. 9 – Ludwig van Beethoven (9:46)

La-La Land album

In 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition two-disc soundtrack containing the Kamen score.

All tracks composed by Michael Kamen except where noted.

1. Summer in the City – The Lovin' Spoonful (2:45) (by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian & Steve Boone)
2. Main Title (0:16) (cue deleted from final film)
3. Goodbye Bonwits (6:28)
4. John and Zeus (3:20)
5. Taxi (1:51)
6. Neat Bomb (2:11)
7. Papaya King (5:19)
8. 72nd Street Phone (3:18)
9. Taxi Chase (5:08)
10. The Subway, Pt. 1 (4:24) (final film version)
11. The Subway, Pt. 2 (2:15) (final film version)
12. Take a-nother Train (2:54)
13. Feds (4:42)
14. Rings a Bell (8:28) (features music from Ode to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven)
15. Infiltration (5:33) (features music from Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner & When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Louis Lambert (Patrick Gilmore))
16. Bank Invasion (4:15)
17. Back to Wall Street (2:55)
18. Fake Cops (1:42)
19. The Federal Reserve (2:18) (features music from Daisy Bell by Harry Dacre & When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
20. Bank Elevevator (2:54) (features music from When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
21. Gold Room Aftermath (1:36)
22. Panic (2:04)
23. Aqueduct (2:10)
24. Santa Claus (2:36)
25. Yankee Stadium & School and Tunnel (3:42) (features music from When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
26. Refrigerator Bomb (0:40)
27. Surfing in the Aqueduct (2:29)
28. Ticking Refrigerator (0:50)
29. Mercedes Chase & School Assembly (3:14)
30. Aftermath & Waiting and Falling (2:00)
31. Hooking the Boat (5:45) (final film version)
32. Bunny & Fire Drill (2:39)
33. Running in the Halls (1:42)
34. Bomb Goes into Hold (5:42)
35. John Makes it Mad (1:39)
36. Holly & Celebration (3:17) (features music from When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
37. Oh, Canada! (Showdown with a Vengeance) (3:23) (features music from O Canada by Calixa Lavallée & Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier)
38. Johnny Comes Marching Home (End Credits) (1:45) (features music from When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
39. Regret (1:50)
40. Hooking the Boat (4:23) (version from earlier cut of the film)
41. On the Freighter & John Makes it Mad (3:33)
42. Wall Street Station (1:29)
43. The Subway, Pt. 1 (1:30) (segment deleted from final film version)
44. The Subway, Pt. 2 (0:47) (segment deleted from final film version)
45. Ode to Johnny (3:13) (features music from Ode to Joy and When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
46. No Rush (1:20)
47. Escape (2:04)
48. The Foundry (Iron Foundry) – Alexander Mosolov (3:09)
49. Waltz of the Bankers (4:17) (track original to the first soundtrack album)
50. Gold Vault (3:50) (track original to the first soundtrack album)
51. Somebody Had Fun (Wild Snare) (1:14)
52. Johnny Comes Marching Home (Wild Vamps) (1:28) (features music from When Johnny Comes Marching Home)

Release

Theatrical

Unlike its predecessors, Die Hard with a Vengeance did not take place during Christmas. It opened in theaters on May 19, 1995, five years after Die Hard 2. Even though the Oklahoma City bombing occurred the previous month, the film was released on time as originally planned.

Home media

Die Hard with a Vengeance was released on VHS on December 19, 1995 along with a THX certified version. It was then released on LaserDisc on January 17, 1996, and on DVD on March 9, 1999. A special edition was released on DVD on July 10, 2001 and then re-released in February 2005 and 2007. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2007 and 2013.

Alternative ending

An alternative ending to the one shown in the final movie was filmed with Jeremy Irons and Bruce Willis, set some time after the events in New York. It can be found on the Special Edition DVD. In this version it is presumed that the robbery succeeds, and that McClane was used as the scapegoat for everything that went wrong. He is fired from the NYPD after more than 20 years on the force and the FBI has even taken away his pension. Nevertheless, he still manages to track Simon using the batch number on the bottle of aspirins and they meet in a bar in Hungary. In this version, Simon has double-crossed most of his accomplices, gotten the loot to a safe hiding place somewhere in Hungary, and has the gold turned into statuettes of the Empire State Building in order to smuggle it out of the country; but he is still tracked down to his foreign hideaway. McClane is keen to take his problems out on Simon, who he invites to play a game called "McClane Says". This involves a form of Russian roulette with a small Chinese rocket launcher that has had the sights removed, meaning it is impossible to determine which end is which. McClane then asks Simon some riddles similar to the ones he played in New York. When Simon gets a riddle wrong, McClane forces him at gunpoint to fire the launcher, which fires the rocket through Simon, killing him.

In the DVD audio commentary, screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh claims that this version was dropped because the studio thought it showed a more cruel and menacing side to McClane, a man who killed for revenge rather than in self-defense. The studio was also displeased with the lack of action in the scene, feeling that it did not fit as a "climax" and therefore chose to reshoot the finale as an action sequence at a significant monetary cost. Hensleigh's intention was to show that the events in New York and the subsequent repercussions had tilted McClane psychologically. This alternative ending, set some time after the film's main events, would have marked a serious break from the Die Hard formula, in which the plot unfolds over a period of roughly 12 hours.

According to the DVD audio commentary, a second alternative ending had McClane and Carver floating back to shore on a makeshift raft after the explosion at sea. Carver says it is a shame the bad guys are going to get away; McClane tells him not to be so sure. The scene then shifts to the plane where the terrorists find the briefcase bomb they left in the park and which Carver gave back to them (in this version it was not used to blow up the dam). The film would end on a darkly comic note as Simon asks if anyone has a four-gallon jug. This draft of the script was rejected early on - possibly due to the similarity of the ending to Die Hard 2, where all the villains board a plane that later explodes - so it was never actually filmed. The rocket-launcher sequence was the only alternative ending to be filmed.

Reception

Box office

Die Hard with a Vengeance opened in the United States on May 19, 1995 and earned $22,162,245 in its opening weekend. In Japan, it set a record opening for 20th Century Fox with a five-day gross of $13.5 million, beating Return of the Jedi and ranking number one for five consecutive weeks, grossing over $81 million. Its opening in France set a summer record with a gross of $8.8 million in its first 8 days. The film went on to gross $100,012,499 in the United States and Canada, and $266,089,167 in other markets, giving it a total worldwide gross of $366,101,666 and making it the highest-grossing film of 1995.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 59% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Die Hard With a Vengeance gets off to a fast start and benefits from Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson's barbed interplay, but clatters to a bombastic finish in a vain effort to cover for an overall lack of fresh ideas." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, praising the action sequences and the performances of Willis, Jackson, and Irons, concluding: "Die Hard with a Vengeance is basically a wind-up action toy, cleverly made, and delivered with high energy. It delivers just what it advertises, with a vengeance." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman disliked the film, stating that while "[John] McTiernan stages individual sequences with great finesse... they don't add up to a taut, dread-ridden whole". James Berardinelli thought that the explosions and fights were "filmed with consummate skill, and are thrilling in their own right". Samuel L. Jackson's performance in the film was also praised by critics. Desson Howe of The Washington Post thought that "the best thing about the movie is the relationship between McClane and Zeus," saying that Jackson was "almost as good as he was in Pulp Fiction." For Variety, Brian Lowry wrote the film was the "least accomplished" of the Die Hard series, but "even a subpar adventure won't kill this series, as the pic's built-in audience will make it a major summer attraction, if perhaps one lacking quite the stamina of the first two movies".

Empire magazine's Ian Nathan gave the film a three out of five stars review, stating that "Die Hard with a Vengeance is better than Die Hard 2, but not as good as the peerless original. Though it's breathless fun, the film runs out of steam in the last act. And Jeremy Irons' villain isn't fit to tie Alan Rickman's shoelaces." In the Crime Time Filmbook, which archives various UK film reviews, the film was given a 5/5 star review citing it as "...simply the best Action film of the decade, leaving imitators like Bad Boys, Executive Decision, The Rock and Chain Reaction in varying depths of shadow.

Empire considered it to be one of the 50 greatest film sequels in 2009. Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant regarded it as the best sequel of the franchise. Johnny Hoffman from Movieweb considered it a step up from the previous film and praised Willis and Jackson's chemistry and the action scenes.

Novelization

A novelization by Deborah Chiel was first published on May 28, 1995. The novel is written in third person omniscient and has a somewhat darker tone in comparison to the final film.

The novel provides a deeper exploration into McClane's psyche and shows how angry and broken he has become since leaving Holly and becoming an alcoholic. McClane's introduction is also different. In the film, McClane is first seen in the police van to Harlem while being briefed on what is going on. The novel includes a scene before this where Connie and Joe find McClane in his messy apartment.

Simon's henchwoman Katya appears much later into the story than she does in the film. She is not involved in the Federal Reserve robbery and instead appears just before Simon and Targo take off in one of the dump trucks. Like the final film, she ends up killing Targo for Simon.

The original placement of the "Yippee-Ki-Yay" line is included. Instead of being used at the end, McClane uses the line when talking to Simon over the radios while in the aqueducts. This was meant to be in the same vein as the original use of the line in the first movie.

Zeus' original backstory is presented in the novel, explaining why he is looking after his nephews and why he hates white people. During the car chase, Zeus explains that his brother was killed during a drug raid. When McClane suggests that it was his brother's own fault, Zeus explains that his brother was never involved in drugs and the only reason he was there was to bring Zeus home.

The novel also uses the "McClane Says" ending rather than the film's version of the finale.

External links

• Die Hard with a Vengeance at IMDb
• Die Hard with a Vengeance at the TCM Movie Database
• Die Hard with a Vengeance at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:Allmovie title
• Die Hard with a Vengeance at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films