Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)

John McClane and a Harlem store owner are targeted by German terrorist Simon Gruber in New York City, where he plans to rob the Federal Reserve Building.

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers:

Jonathan Hensleigh, Roderick Thorp (certain original characters)

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

John McClane is now almost a full-blown alcoholic and is suspended from the NYPD. But when a bomb goes off in the Bonwit Teller Department Store the police go insane trying to figure out what's going on. Soon, a man named Simon calls and asks for McClane. Simon tells Inspector Walter Cobb that McClane is going to play a game called "Simon Says". He says that McClane is going to do the tasks he assigns him. If not, he'll blow off another bomb. With the help of a Harlem electrician, John McClane must race all over New York trying to figure out the frustrating puzzles that the crafty terrorist gives him. But when a bomb goes off in a subway station right by the Federal Reserve (the biggest gold storage in the world) things start to get heated up.

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Plot Keywords:

bomb | subway station | new york city | police | subway | 

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Taglines:

This time, it's personal

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and pervasive strong language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Romanian

Release Date:

19 May 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Hard: New York

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$90,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

£8,923,493 (UK) (15 September 1995)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the scene where Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) is trying to get out of going with McClane (Bruce Willis) on the trip across the city, he [Zeus] gets up, exclaiming, "I'm not jumping through hoops for some psycho! That's a white man with white problems, you deal with him! Let me know when he crosses 110th street." The line "Across 110th Street" is a reference to the song of the same name that was played in the film Jackie Brown, which also starred Samuel L. Jackson.

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Goofs

The wrist watch Bruce Willis is wearing throughout the movie changes model several times. The 1st half of the film he is seen wearing a Breitling Chronomat , but after he is thrown from the water pipe and sorts through the coins in the dead drivers pockets of the car they force off the road , the face of the Breitling is missing the chronograph and the watch has a serrated bezel not like the Chronomat. it then switches back before they attempt to board the boat , and then reverts again when handcuffed. This is seen clearly in the Blu-ray version.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Inspector Cobb: Alan, Bomb Squad, Special Services, State Police and the F.B.I. Lt. Jurgensen, you, Plummer, I want you to 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.

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Connections

References Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

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Soundtracks

"Westwood on a Friday Night"
Written, Performed and Produced by Mark A. Mangini (as Mark Mangini)
Courtesy of Mark Mangini (ASCAP)

User Reviews

The best of the three!

Die Hard With A Vengence is a near-perfect summer movie. This franchise effort is a gleeful no-brainer with nonstop action. It gives some additional perverse pleasure, as we get to watch smartypants Bruce Willis get smacked around for 112 minutes. In this third outing with John McClane, we are faced with yet another mad bomber on the loose. Jeremy Irons plays Simon, a nasty piece of Eurotrash who has a score to settle with Detective McClane. Simon's bombing game comes complete with crafty riddles, which must be solved in a specified time or everything goes boom. McClane has no choice but to play. Along the way, he picks up an unlikely accomplice named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson), a Harlem shopkeeper. Together they tear all over New York trying to head off disaster. Sure, it's all perfectly preposterous, but DIE HARD 3 has been directed with breathless intensity by John McTiernan, who certainly has a way with wrecking things. Was he very destructive as a child? Loved the spectacular subway crash, John. That hair-raising taxi ride through Central Park wasn't bad, either. Don't forget to fasten your seat belts for this ride.