Die Hard 2 is darker and crueller than the first film, but it's also a lot sillier. It doesn't manage to live up to the impossibly-high standards set by its classic predecessor, but it has a damn good go and is still an enjoyable sequel.
Set a year after his heroics at Nakatomi Plaza, the film sees luckless Cop John McClane caught up in a terrorist plot at Dulles International Airport. A renegade military unit led by William Sadler's ice-blooded Colonel Stewart hijacks the airport landing systems and threatens to start crashing passenger planes unless he's allowed to rescue a dictatorial South American General whose flight is due any minute. This leaves several passenger planes circling in the skies overheard, unable to communicate with the tower. Their fuel is running low and to add to the pressure, John's wife Holly is on board one.
From this premise, Die Hard 2 manages to wring a series of explosive action set-pieces. Despite obvious similarities with the original, it's also just different enough to have its own distinct identity. The airport is a much bigger playground for John McClane to shoot to bits, and it's also refreshing that our hero is running around trying to find the bad guys, rather than the other way round.
However, it's also riddled with plot holes. The planes are left circling the airport for ninety minutes and despite a brief mention of other airports being closed, it seems a bit daft they can't, you know, fly somewhere else and land. Planes can travel a long way in 90 minutes and there are a lot of airports in the United States. It also seems bizarre that none of these planes seems to have an altimeter on board.
That being said, providing you can suspend your disbelief, Die Hard 2 is a reliably entertaining popcorn flick. There's a nice variety in the action scenes, including a shoot-out in an unfinished terminal, a snowmobile chase and a punch-up on the wing of plane. It's violent too, almost comically so. Blood fountains and bullets punch holes in people, and John gets to deliver an inventive kill with an icicle that could have been stolen from a Freddy Kreuger flick.
It must be said though, despite being pure stone-hearted evil, William Sadler does not have the same villainous gravitas as Alan Rickman did. However, he outdoes Hans Gruber for sheer malevolence; the scene where he intentionally crashes a plane full of innocent bystanders is genuinely horrifying. It's easily the nastiest scene in the entire franchise and gives Die Hard 2 a wicked, unpleasant edge.
While it's no Die Hard 1, Die Hard 2 is a lot better than its reputation would have you believe. Unlike most of the following films, it also feels 'more Die Hard.' McClane hasn't evolved into the indestructible super cop of later entries yet, and some of the punches he takes look hideously painful. By the time the film reaches a hugely satisfying and explosive finale, he's covered in blood, completely exhausted and looks like he's not going to be 100% until the next Christmas. In that respect, Die Hard 2 is a lot like Jaws 2; they're both sequels that fail to live up to groundbreaking originals, but do feel like they belong in the same universe and deserve another look.
Set a year after his heroics at Nakatomi Plaza, the film sees luckless Cop John McClane caught up in a terrorist plot at Dulles International Airport. A renegade military unit led by William Sadler's ice-blooded Colonel Stewart hijacks the airport landing systems and threatens to start crashing passenger planes unless he's allowed to rescue a dictatorial South American General whose flight is due any minute. This leaves several passenger planes circling in the skies overheard, unable to communicate with the tower. Their fuel is running low and to add to the pressure, John's wife Holly is on board one.
From this premise, Die Hard 2 manages to wring a series of explosive action set-pieces. Despite obvious similarities with the original, it's also just different enough to have its own distinct identity. The airport is a much bigger playground for John McClane to shoot to bits, and it's also refreshing that our hero is running around trying to find the bad guys, rather than the other way round.
However, it's also riddled with plot holes. The planes are left circling the airport for ninety minutes and despite a brief mention of other airports being closed, it seems a bit daft they can't, you know, fly somewhere else and land. Planes can travel a long way in 90 minutes and there are a lot of airports in the United States. It also seems bizarre that none of these planes seems to have an altimeter on board.
That being said, providing you can suspend your disbelief, Die Hard 2 is a reliably entertaining popcorn flick. There's a nice variety in the action scenes, including a shoot-out in an unfinished terminal, a snowmobile chase and a punch-up on the wing of plane. It's violent too, almost comically so. Blood fountains and bullets punch holes in people, and John gets to deliver an inventive kill with an icicle that could have been stolen from a Freddy Kreuger flick.
It must be said though, despite being pure stone-hearted evil, William Sadler does not have the same villainous gravitas as Alan Rickman did. However, he outdoes Hans Gruber for sheer malevolence; the scene where he intentionally crashes a plane full of innocent bystanders is genuinely horrifying. It's easily the nastiest scene in the entire franchise and gives Die Hard 2 a wicked, unpleasant edge.
While it's no Die Hard 1, Die Hard 2 is a lot better than its reputation would have you believe. Unlike most of the following films, it also feels 'more Die Hard.' McClane hasn't evolved into the indestructible super cop of later entries yet, and some of the punches he takes look hideously painful. By the time the film reaches a hugely satisfying and explosive finale, he's covered in blood, completely exhausted and looks like he's not going to be 100% until the next Christmas. In that respect, Die Hard 2 is a lot like Jaws 2; they're both sequels that fail to live up to groundbreaking originals, but do feel like they belong in the same universe and deserve another look.