Great Scene: “Die Hard”

Hans Gruber turns Trickster when he meets McClane for the first time.

The 1988 movie Die Hard, screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, novel by Roderick Thorp. IMDB plot summary:

John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly Gennaro and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

McClane happens upon a stranger: It’s Hans Gruber, the story’s arch villain.

Here is the movie version of the scene:

Some background:

• The scene in which Gruber and McClane meet was inserted into the script after Alan Rickman (Hans Gruber) was found to be proficient at mimicking American accents. The filmmakers had been looking for a way to have the two characters meet prior to the climax and capitalized on Rickman’s talent.
• The character of Hans Gruber is rumored to be based on author Roderick Thorp’s father, a known tyrant amongst friends and family.
• Much of the script was improvised due to the constant screenplay tweaks that were being made during filming.
• In the original script, the action took place over three days, but John McTiernan was inspired to have it take place over a single night by Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

This scene is great for a lot of reasons, but I want to focus on just one: Twists. In a little over 4 minutes, there are numerous twists — surprises, shifts, reveals and so forth. Let’s track them using the time clock in the scene embedded above:

0:16: Gruber jumps to the ground only to discover he is standing next to McClane. Oops!

0:26: Gruber puts on his “scared hostage” act. Clever boy!

1:15: Gruber tries to get his pistol, which he has stashed in a wall, but McClane stops him. Sorry, Hans!

Note: There is actually a cutaway at 1:25, but the video puts together the two parts of the scene. The script excerpts reflect this cut.

2:25: McClane introduces himself by name and tests Gruber by asking his name. Busted! What’s cool is that there just happens to be a roster of employee names on the wall. So when Gruber answers, “Clay. Bill Clay,” at 2:32, the camera pushes into the roster revealing “Clay Wm 29”. A clever and observant Bad Guy!

2:50: McClane hands over a pistol to Gruber, a gun into which McClane has just inserted a ammo clip. Holy shit!

3:15: Gruber drops the act and mutters something in German on his CB radio. McClane, why’d you give this bastard the gun?!?!

3:40: Gruber demands that McClane put down the gun and turn over the detonators, but McClane starts walking toward Gruber who has the pistol trained on McClane. Crazy New York cop!

4:06: Gruber pulls the trigger. Click. Click. The gun is empty. Damn you, McClane! You are one smart mofo!

4:12: McClane grabs the pistol and says, “You think I’m fucking stupid, Hans,” when the elevator dings. Ruuuuunnnn!

I count 9 twists in a four minute scene. Surprises. Revelations. And a flip-flopping of who seems to be in the position of power. And, of course, like all good action scenes, it ends by seamlessly moving into the beginning of the next scene: A shootout and chase.

How about you? What’s your take on this scene? Why does it work so well? What takeaways are there for us?

To read all of the entries in the Great Scene archive, go here.

Thanks for the suggestion, Bretton! If you have an idea for this Great Scene series, check out the responses people have made so far here. If you have a different scene in mind you think would be worthy of analysis, please post it there or in comments for this post. Thanks!

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