A Quick Tip by RabidChihuahua

Die Hard is the movie franchise that made a movie star out of TV star Bruce Willis, and created an entire action-movie genre of its own. In the original 1988 film, Willis plays wisecracking New York cop John McClane, who arrives at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles to meet up with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonny Bedelia), at her office Christmas party. As luck would have it, the company ends up in the middle of a terrorist plot led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his gang of expert killers, and with little help coming from outside, McClane has to pick off his enemies one by one. Thus was born the "Die Hardgenre", epitomized by such films asUnder Siege("Die Hardon a ship"),Passenger 57("Die Hardon a plane" ),Speed("Die Hardon a bus"), andCliffhanger("Die Hardon a mountain"). But few measure up to the explosive brilliance ofDie Hard. Director John McTiernan develops the action at a fast and furious pace, culminating in some fantastic set-pieces on the top of the building, in the elevator shaft, and in the building's outer plaza. Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza's script, based on Roderick Thorp's novelNothing Lasts Forever, is smart, funny, and full of memorable lines (among them "Welcome to the party, pal!" and of course "Yippee ki-ay, motherf*****"), and the cast is perfection, especially Rickman as the cunningly evil villain, and Willis, whose McClane character--bloodied, beaten, bruised, ...

Cast: Al Leong, Bill Marcus, Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Clarence Gilyard, Jr., Gary Roberts, Reginald VelJohnson, Bonnie Bedelia, George Christy, Matt Landers, Robert Lesser, Michele Laybourn, Paul Gleason, Anthony Peck, David Ursin, Shelley Pogoda, Rick Ducommun, William Atherton, Robert Davi, Kym Malin, Fred Lerner, Grand L. Bush, James Shigeta, Diana James, Carmine Zozzora, Stella Hall, Mary Ellen Trainor, Cheryl Baker, Joey Plewa, Terri Lynn Doss, Andreas Wisniewski, Selma Archerd, Alexander Godunov, Bob A. Jennings, De'Voreaux White, Hart Bochner, Bruno Doyon, Taylor Fry, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Betty Carvalho, Gerard Bonn, P. Randall Bowers, Rebecca Broussard, Wilhelm von Homburg, Mark Goldstein, Dennis Hayden, David Katz, Tracy Reiner, Richard Parker, Scot Bennett, Hans Buhringer, Rick Cicetti, Kate Finlayson, Jon E. Greene, Shanna Higgins, Noah Land, Bill Margolin, Bruce P. Schultz, Dustyn Taylor, Kip Waldo

Director: John McTiernan

Genre: Action, Adventure

Release Date: July 15, 1988

MPAA Rating: R

Screen Writer: Jeb Stuart, Roderick Thorp, Steven E. de Souza

DVD Release Date: June 19, 2007

Runtime: 1hr 54min

Studio: 20th Century Fox