Die Hard 2 Revisited "Not the kind of ride I'm lookin for!"

Right, first off I will start by saying Happy New Year to ya'll out there and hope you had a good one.  Secondly I figured its time I might aswell start off the new year with my first post and this one is another revisitational one and will be a re-write of one of my older posts and the film in question is Die Hard 2 (aka Die Hard 2 - Die Harder).  But how does it compare to the stellar original???  Let's find out....

Oh and the usual warning is coming right up....

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY 

OK so the film is set on Christmas Eve 1990, where John McClane (Bruce Willis) is waiting at Washington Dulles International airport for his wife's flight to come in.  McClane while waiting in the airport bar notices two men, who appear to be wearing army fatigues and carry parcels.  McClane follows the men to the baggage area, where he confronts them, and they pull a gun on him, in the enusing gunfight, McClane kills one of the men, while the other gets away.

McClane after the incident speaks with the police captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) who dismisses his request to close off the baggage area and investigate further, as he thinks it was just a punk stealing luggage, McClane is then escorted out of Lorenzo's office.

After this McClane manages to borrow a fingerprint press and lifts prints off the dead man's hands, and calls up his fellow police officer Al Powell (Reggie VelJohnson again) and faxes a copy of the man's prints to check out who he is.  Al soon calls McClane back and informs him that the man was a former army sergeant who apparently died two years ago.

McClane then goes to the chief of the airport tower's operations, Trudeau (Fred Thompson) with his findings, but at that point the airport runway lights all start to go off.  It is soon revealed the airport has been taken over by a terrorist group lead by an ex special forces operative, Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) who intends to use the airport for their own means, so that they can intercept a plane carrying the drug lord General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero), who has been brought to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking charges.

With the terrorists now in control of the airport tower systems, all communications to the planes have been cut off, which leaves the planes in the air, unable to land, which includes Holly's plane.  And a botched attempt by Lorenzo's SWAT team and the airport tower's director of communications Barnes (Art Evans) to re-establish comms with the planes, ends with all the team killed by Stuart's men in an ambush, but McClane at the last moment steps in saves Barnes, and shoots Stuart's team.

This enrages Colonel Stuart who then recalibrates the instrument landing system, and pretends to be the tower chief, and causes one of the planes to crash into the ground, killing 230 people onboard.  McClane realises he must do something to stop the terrorists and try to ensure that his wife's plane will be able to land, and Trudeau tells him his wife's plane will soon run out of fuel.

Meanwhile on Holly's plane, she discovers that she has the misfortune of having to share the same aisle as Dick Thornburg (Richard Atherton), the sleazy news reporter from the first film, who protests that he is put near Holly, as he filed a restraining order against her for assaulting him (at the end of the first film again).

McClane with Barnes help soon locates the terrorists hideout, which is an old church, and by then a Special Forces platoon is brought in to help try and resolve the terrorist situation, lead by Major Grant (John Amos).  Colonel Stuart and his men soon evacuate the church when the Special forces team arrive, a firefight ensues, and McClane chases after Stuart on snowmobiles, but Stuart gets away.

McClane having taken one of Stuart's machine guns soon realises that the ammo they used was actually blanks, and it dawns on him that the Major Grant and his team are working together with Stuart.  McClane goes back to Lorenzo and after failing to convince him that Grant is in cahoots with Stuart, he fires the machine gun loaded with blanks at him.

Lorenzo then sends out all his police units to go after Stuart and Grant's men, and McClane catches up with the pesky news reporter Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy) who has been bothering everyone throughout the movie, to get a ride in her news chopper, in order to stop Stuart and Grant's men from leaving on a plane.  McClane soon with help of the ride, jumps on the plane before it takes off and a final fight ensues with the terrorists....

THOUGHTS 

It has to be said, well for me anyway, that Die Hard 2 is one of the weaker films in the franchise, however that's not to say it isn't enjoyable, it is, but in comparison to the other films in the series, it falls short of the mark a little.  And I will get more into the reasons why in the flaws section but suffice to say that the film is riddled with cliched dialogue and the bad guys are pretty bland and one dimensional as the film really needs a stronger villain for it to work properly.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!)
 
As for the performances things aren't too bad here as the cast are fairly strong so let's take at the key performers and some notable scenes.

Starting with Bruce Willis who reprises his role well as John McClane, the wise-cracking cop, who once again pits himself against a group of terrorists at Christmas Eve (coincidences, coincidences!).

Bruce has his share of good moments although I will try and keep it down to only a few to not over extend this review.

But for starters there is the scene where McClane first meets with Chief Lorenzo who refuses to listen to him regarding his concerns over the man he killed in the luggage area.  And as Lorenzo says to McClane "I don't need full fuckin forensics to tell me all this was, was some punk stealing luggage!".  And McClane angrily retorts "That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It's a porcelain gun made in Germany. Dosen't show up on your airport X-ray machines, here, and it cost more than you make in a month!".  And Lorenzo smugly says "You'd be surprised what I make in a month" and McClane says to him "If it's more than a dollar ninety-eight I'd be very surprised!".

And as Lorenzo has McClane escorted out his office by two officers, McClane asks Lorenzo one last question "Hey, Carmine, let me ask you something. What sets off the metal detectors first? The lead in your ass or the shit in your brains?!" and he mutters under his breath "Fat fuck".   

Then there is the scene where McClane makes his way onto the Dulles airport control tower and he show Trudeau the fax on the man that McClane killed earlier.  And after Trudeau looks at it he says to McClane "Alright, we've got a body in the morgue that seems to have died twice. Assuming it's not a computer error, what do we assume?" and McClane says "That somebody's about to seriously fuck with this airport!".  And McClane continues as he refers to the fax saying " What the fuck do you this is, huh? The safety patrol, here? This is the resume of a professional mercenary! You got the world's biggest drug dealer on his way here, now. What, do you need, a slide rule to figure this out? Or maybe another body in a zipper bag before you start asking questions?!".

Another good moment is when McClane interrupts Stuart's call to the airport tower and as Stuart says to them "Now you'll pay the penalty!" McClane says on the radio "I've got five dead officers down here, Colonel Stuart! Is that penalty enough?!".  And as Lorenzo blurts out McClane's name, Stuart says "Oh McClane!  I read about you in People Magazine. You seemed a bit out of your league on Nightline, I thought!" and McClane says "Hey, Colonel, blow me!  How much drug money is Esperanza paying you to turn traitor?!".

And then we have the (somewhat ridiculous) scene where McClane arrives back at the airport and tells Lorenzo that (SPOILER!!) the Special Forces unit sent in to combat the terrorist situation are in on it with Stuart.  And McClane says to Lorenzo, who tells that Major Grant, who leads the unit "Grant and his unit are gonna kill that son of a bitch and take that remote from him!" and McClane says to him "No, they're not gonna do that!  They're gonna get on that goddamn plane and get off with him!" but Lorenzo protests and says "Get the fuck out of here!".  And McClane says to him "When the army canned Stuart, he must have loaded that unit with his own men!" but Lorenzo still refuses to believe him and says "McClane you are completely round the bend!  You know what else? You're under arrest you motherfucker!".  And then McClane pushes back Lorenzo and opens fire on him with one of the machine guns from Stuart's men, which fires blanks and McClane after takes out the clip and shows it to a shaken Lorenzo "These are the bullets they used out there tonight!  Blanks!".

Then there is the moment where McClane finds the news reporter Sam Coleman in admist the people outside the airport and he calls over to her and she gives him a lift in her TV helicopter saying "Jeez! If you give me this story and I'll have your baby!" and McClane quips "Not the kind of ride I'm lookin for!".

And lastly there is McClane last fight scene between Grant and Stuart and as he fights Grant first, Grant says as they struggle "Too bad, McClane!  I could have liked you!" but then McClane gains the upper hand and says to Grant "I've got enough friends!" and he kicks off the wing of the plane right into one of the engines.  And after he loses his fight with the superior Special Forces trained, Stuart, he is kicked off the plane but not before, the McClane releases the fuel from the wing of the plane and as he lies in the snow he takes out of his lighter and lights it and says those immortal words "Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!" and sets the fuel alight and well, you know the rest!   

William Sadler next is one of the weaker links in the cast here however as even though he is an excellent actor, his character is a pretty one dimensional villain who has been given some pretty lame dialogue to deliver and his loaded threats have no real menace to them. 

Regardless of that though, Sadler still has some moments worth mentioning such as the scene near the start where he walks through the aiport and he is stopped by Sam Coleman.  And Coleman says to Stuart "Colonel Stuart, could we have a few words, please?" and Stuart says "You can have two: "fuck" and "you!".

Then there is the scene where Stuart and his men take control of the runways and he addresses the tower saying "They say blind men become very attentive by way of compensation. Now that you're blind and deaf, I think I've got your attention!".  And after Stuart finishes his demands to the airport, Trudeau says to him "Damn it, you can't do this!" and Stuart coldly says to him "I AM doing this!" and hangs up.

Another good scene from Sadler is when McClane talks to Stuart over the radio after Lorenzo's SWAT team have been killed by Stuart's men.  And Stuart says to McClane who asks how much did Esperanza pay him to turn traitor " I think Cardinal Richilieu said it best: "Treason is merely a matter of dates." This country's got to learn that it can't keep cutting the legs off of men like General Esperanza. Men who have the guts to stand up against Communist aggression!".  And McClane, outraged says "And Lesson #1 starts with killing policemen? What's Lesson #2, the neutron bomb?!" and Stuart says "No, I think we can find something in between!  Watch this!" and he proceeds to crash one of the planes in the sky.  

And lastly there is the scene near the end where Stuart fights McClane and kicks his ass swiftly thanks to his Special Forces training.  And as Stuart charges out to McClane with a knife in his hand on the wing of the plane they are trying to escape in, he shouts "OK, McClane!  Time for the main event!".  And as Stuart has McClane beat and is about to kick him off the wing of the plane, he shouts to McClane "How's it going?!  Bon voyage!" and he kicks McClane off and Stuart shouts "Happy landing, asshole!".  

Art Evans next does well in his role as Barnes, the airport's chief engineer who helps McClane in their fight against Stuart.  

And I will only (for time) a couple of Evans's scenes and its the one where McClane tries to get Barnes's help to decode one of the terrorist's radio so they can listen in on them.  

The first one is the scene where the SWAT team accompany Barnes to the airport antennae but they are soon ambushed by Stuart's men.  However they before get there Barnes says to one of the SWAT team "This kind of thing wasn't in my job description" and the team member says "Don't worry, Mr Barnes.  We'll watch your back" and Barnes says "Yeah?  Who watches yours?!". 

 

And McClane gives Barnes the radio and asks "Can you do anything with it?" and Barnes quickly looks and says "No. This scramble mode must activate on this code panel. Even if we scan their frequency, we can't listen in. These guys are pros!" and McClane says to him "So are you, break the code.  I want to hear what those bastards are saying!".  And Barnes takes another look at the radio and says "This is a ten-digit control panel. Six-digit read-out. Hell, there could be a million combinations! Next time you kill one of these guys, get him to enter the code first!" and McClane wearily says "Yeah!".

Dennis Franz next up is good as the incompetent chief of the Dulles airport police, Lorenzo, who grudges McClane's interference.  And Lorenzo complains to McClane when he asks that Lorenzo shut down the luggage area to let his people investigate and Lorenzo says "I got international diplomats, I got a fucking reindeer flying in here from the fucking petting zoo! But John McClane, he's got a little problem. Let's shut down the whole fucking airport!".  

And Lorenzo warns McClane "You are in my little pond now, and I am the big fish that runs it!"

So you capped some lowlife. Fine! I'll send your fucking captain in LA a fucking commendation! Now, get the hell out of my office...before I have you thrown out of my goddamn airport!".

Then later there is the scene Lorenzo has McClane thrown out of the airport tower and he get's on the radio to one of the cops in the lobby area and barks at him "This is Captain Lorenzo. We've two unauthorised personnel in the tower!  Would you get your thumb out of your ass? Get them out of the elevator, or you'll get a goddamn pink slip for Christmas!".  

And lastly there is the scene where Lorenzo confronts McClane after McClane discovers (SPOILER!) that the Major Grant's special forces team are with Stuart and he tries to explain to Lorenzo who won't listen.  And Lorenzo shouts at McClane "McClane, you are completely around the fucking bend!  And you know what?!  You're under arrest, you motherfucker!" but then McClane pushes back Lorenzo and shoots the machine gun at him, which is loaded with blanks and says "These are the bullets they used out there tonight!  Blanks!".  

And Lorenzo, shaken, takes the gun magazine and says "Jesus Christ!" and then get's on the phone to his men and says "This is Chief Lorenzo. I want every officer recalled and in body armour and full weaponry...in the motor pool in five minutes!" and he hangs up and says "Its time to kick ass!". 

Bonnie Bedelia next up is really good once again as Holly, McClane's wife who suffers two indignities, one being trapped on a plane in the air waiting to land during the terrorist incident and two being stuck on a plane with the obnoxious reporter, Dick Thornburg.

And Bonnie has some good moments in the film that include the scene where Dick suddenly notices Holly and he complains to the one of the air stewardess's that he can't be put near him.  And Holly explains to the stewardess "He means he's filed a restraining order against me. I'm not allowed within 50 feet of him" and Thornburg corrects her "50 yards! So by keeping me in the section you are violating a court order. I can sue you and this airline. That woman assaulted me and she humiliated me in public".  And the stewardess asks Holly quietly afterward "What did you do?" and Holly smiles saying "Knocked out two of his teeth" and the stewardess grins and says "Would you like some champagne?"

And lastly for Bonnie I will mention the scene where Dick get's closer to Holly as he leans in next to her to look out the window, which annoys Holly.  So Holly says to Dick "Listen Dick. That is your name? Dick. If you're gonna continue to get this close do you think you might consider switching aftershaves?" and Dick, trying to hold back his offence says "Anything else?" and Holly says "Stronger mouthwash would be nice!".  

William Atherton is also really good as the aforementioned reporter, Dick Thornburg who is stuck on an airplane with Holly McClane and also learns about the terrorist incident via a private carry-on radio his aide and later does a broadcast on the terrorist attack.  

And I've already mentioned two of his scenes with Bonnie but I will quickly mention one of his last scenes where he is in the bathroom doing his TV broadcast, which has caused panic and pandemonium at the aiport.  But Thornburg toward the end of his broadcast starts to get a bit emotional and says "But at least the truth, is NOT among the hostages because I, Richard Thornburg, just happen to be here. To put his life and talent on the line for humanity and country...." and at this point Holly enters the bathroom with a taser and Thornburg says "....and if this should be my final broadcast..." and Holly zaps him with it and says "Amen to that, Dick!".  

John Amos is excellent as the Special Forces, Major Grant, who appears to be a good guy but is he??? 

Amos's best moments include the scene where Grant tells off McClane for failing to try and grab Esperanza just as he landed.  And Grant angrily says to McClane in the scene "Listen, you wise-ass!  We're here to jerk off that cocksucker until he tries to take off!  Period!  You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time!" and McClane looks at him and says "Story of my life!".  

Then later there is the scene where a beaten up McClane has just killed one of Stuart's men at the church and he meets up with Grant.  And Grant says to McClane "Jeez, McClane? You OK? You want a medic?" and Lorenzo chastises McClane for his actions but Grant defends McClane and says to Lorenzo " Lorenzo, shut the fuck up and do something useful!  Go seal the street!" and Lorenzo taken aback says "Hey, you can't talk to me like that!".  And Grant says "Oh, no, Carmine?!  Sergeant, get this bureaucrat out of Mr. McClane's face! Now!".  And McClane grins and says to Grant "I guess I was wrong about you.  You're not such an asshole after all" and Grant says "No, you were right.  I'm just your kind of asshole!" and McClane smiles.

Lastly there is the scene where Grant interrupts a radio call between Stuart and Trudeau as Stuart asks Trudeau to have a ground crew ready to check his escape plane but Grant then decides to butt in and he says to his men "Do you believe the balls on this son of a bitch???!".  And Grant picks up the radio and says "Colonel, you're quite capable of confirming it yourself. Don't ask us to gift-wrap
potential hostages for you!" and Stuart says "Major Grant, isn't it?" and Grant says "If you remember me, Colonel...then you remember I know the drill as well as you do. Check out your own fucking plane!". 

Franco Nero is for me one of the weaker cast members however as his Esperanza is another prime example of a one dimensional villain.

Regardless of that, Nero still has the odd good moment such as in the scene where Esperanza takes control of the jet he is being held captive in and he holds the pilot at gunpoint, who disputes the instructions that Stuart has given him for landing.  

And in the scene, Esperanza holds his gun to the pilot's head and says "Captain, please tell the tower you will proceed as ordered" and as the Captain says he will, the co-pilot struggles with Esperanza who shoots the co-pilot dead and then holds his gun to the Captain's head.  And the Captain says "Are you going to shoot me?!  Who will fly the plane??!" and Esperanza says "Don't worry about it, its not your problem!" and he shoots him in the head.  

Then later there is the scene where Stuart and Esperanza are about to escape with Grant and his men and Grant says to them "I don't about you guys, but I've seen enough fucking snow to last me a lifetime!".  And Stuart says to Grant "You don't get much of that in the tropics, major!" and Esperanza quips "For you gentlemen, we'll import it!".     

Fred Thompson also does well in his role as the chief controller at Dulles airport, Ed Trudeau who has some good moments too.  

And Thompson has one of the film's most cheesily amusing lines that comes when McClane barges into the airport control tower.  And as Lorenzo tries to barr McClane from talking to Trudeau, Lorenzo says to Trudeau "L.A, Mr Trudeau! Doesn't mean shit!" and McClane shows Trudeau his badge and Trudeau says "Yeah, that's what I said about my last cholesterol test!". 

And lastly there is the scene where Trudeau tries to offer a few words of support to a shaken McClane after Stuart crashes one of the planes on the runway, killing 230 people.  And Trudeau says to McClane "McClane, I know how you must feel" and McClane, emotionally says "I wanted to help those people tonight.  I was pretty goddamn useless!".  And Trudeau takes a moment and tells McClane the bad news about Holly's plane "We called the government for help. They're going to send in a Special army unit. A counterterrorist team. Your wife's plane... They're still broadcasting, even though we can't answer. They're going to run out of fuel in 90 minutes". 

And last of all Reginald VelJohnson makes a welcome, albeit brief reappearance as McClane's good buddy and fellow officer, Al Powell.  

And I will just quickly mention one of Reggie's scenes and its the one where McClane phones up to send a fax of the dead merc's fingerprints to get them ID'd.  And Al asks McClane "What's this about?" and McClane says "Oh, its just a feeling a I have!" and Al says "Ouch!  When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt!". 

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Directionally speak, the film's director, Renny Harlin does a pretty decent job with the action and the set pieces are generally pretty good (mostly) and he keeps the film's pacing pretty tight and it rarely lags at any time.  Harlin would also continue to do well in the action genre as he would go on to direct Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger three years later.

As for the music, Michael Kamen also contributes another fine score to the film, building on the original score and adding some extra passages, as composers tend to do in sequels!  Track wise, "Let it Snow" sun by Vaughan Munroe, is used once more, but an additional fine choice is Sebilius's "Finlandia", which is used in the film's climax. 

FLAWS (Warning this section may also have one or two spoilers!)

As for flaws.....yep Die Hard 2 has its fair share.


And to kick off one of the biggest problems of the film is to do with the bland one-dimensional villains, particularly Stuart and Esperanza who are pretty much your run of the mill baddies who aren't that interesting and their parts are very much underwritten and given some lame dialogue.  Not to mention its the same for Stuart's men, who are also pretty bland and deliver some bog standard dialogue, especially the one guy in the SWAT team shootout scene who is about to charge at McClane on the escalator and he says "I'm gonna kick your fuckin ass!".  Oh yeah, very original!

The film is also hampered again by the incompetent depiction of the police as yet again, McClane is the only intelligent cop in the whole film (with the exception of Al of course but he only appears briefly here) where as Lorenzo and the rest of his men are idiots.  And Lorenzo refuses to listen to McClane at all turns despite the fact that some pretty bad shit went down in his airport with one guy get's killed, it means more to Lorenzo to worry about the reindeer flying in from a petting zoo then that!

Another problem I had with the film was to do with the whole idea of using a large commerical airport at one of the busiest times of the year (at Christmas Eve) as the one place to land a plane carrying one of the most infamous druglords in the world, rather than use a private airfield instead!  I mean it would allow Stuart and his men to attract a hell of a lot LESS attention on themselves!  But nope!  The incident has to happen in the most public area imaginable, yet they could have avoided all this only if they planned it to happen anywhere but in a very busy public airport that also happens to have John McClane there, too!

Then there is of course the whole idea of Holly just happening to be onboard the very same plane as Dick Thornburg, which makes for a pretty ludicrous coincidence especially considering that he has filed a restraining order against her, yet he decides to get closer to her later anyway to check out other airline planes visible outside Holly's window!

Then we have the death defying scene where McClane narrowly escapes death by ejecting himself from Esperanza's plane just after Stuart and his men chuck some grenades onboard it.  Yet for the amount of time it would have taken McClane to sit on the ejector seat and strap himself in, surely the grenades would have exploded long before he could have safely ejected himself from the plane!  But again its John McClane we are talking about here and just maybe someone had set the grenade detonation times just long enough for primary protagonists to escape.    

I also felt that the film gives away its main twist in a rather obvious way a bit too soon as we see Stuart's men change their ammunition from live to blanks when they see Grant's team arrive, thanks to the colour coded magazines they use.  I mean here the writers are pretty much throwing the twist right in your face and saying "YES, GRANT'S MEN ARE ALSO BAD GUYS!".

Another daft snag is to do with the fact that Esperanza is the only one that can fly a plane out of the 20 or so guys who are on this mission!  I mean surely they should have recruited at least a couple of guys that could fly a plane as a back-up just in case something went wrong rather than have Esperanza as the designated pilot!

Then there is the scene where McClane fights Stuart and get's his ass kicked but before Stuart kicks him off the wing of the plane, McClane manages to release the wing's fuel dump, spraying fuel everywhere yet Stuart fails to notice this himself, yet his is pretty close to the dump so you think he really should have seen it!

And to add to this scene, I find it pretty ridiculous that when McClane uses his lighter to light the trail of fuel that would ultimately catch fire to the plane just as it takes off.  I am now expert on the effects of fire and fuel and how they interact with each other in various environmental conditions but would it be possible for the fuel to be set on fire in snowy conditions???  I'm not entirely sure about that one myself!     

And last of all there is the stupid moment where McClane takes it upon himself to shoot at Lorenzo using the machine gun loaded with blank bullets, yet he easily could have been taken out by the dozen cops that surrounded him in the building at that point!  But because its John McClane they just stand around and do nothing and let McClane go blazing!  Wouldn't it have been a better idea to have McClane maybe say to Lorenzo "Look, here they used blanks!" and fire a few blank shots off in the corner rather than fire them directly at a police chief and risk getting himself blown away!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Die Hard 2 is a mixed bag, its a film that has its moments and features some good action, another good turn by Bruce Willis and a decent supporting cast with good performances from Art Evans, Bonnie Bedelia, Fred Thompson, William Atherton and John Amos, as well as a good score from Michael Kamen.

However it is hampered by a very cheesy script, some bland villains and a truck load of plot-holes that you could well....drive trucks through!  And this prevents it from being a potential classic rather than the only slightly above average film that it really is.

Yes Die Hard 2 is still entertaining and has just about enough going for it to warrant a repeated viewing once in a while, but for me its still not one of the better films of the series and they could have done alot better than they did here but thankfully in Die Hard With a Vengeance, they did just that.

Anyway, so that's it for now and for my first post of 2017 and I will be back sometime soon for yet another post.

Till then next one, Happy New Year and yippee ki-yay mo-fos! 

P.S. Just have to say, I love that title pic I got for this post, its priceless! ;-)