DIE HARD 2: Die Harder (1990) Retrospective / Review

if you want to support the channel then please check out my patreon page to gain access to exclusive videos take part in q a's and watch my retrospectives before they go live on youtube ghost of christmas past nakatomi la you're john mcclane right who are you sam coleman wntw news i saw the stiff word is that was your handiwork no i only do needlepoint oh my god what the runway is shutting down emergencies we are in a code yellow backup systems won't come up every goddamn system's dead attention all controllers attention we have a code red alert we just bought ourselves maybe two hours after that those planes low on fuel aren't gonna be circles they're gonna be dropping on the white house lawn attention dulles tower attention how did you get on this line who is this who i am is unimportant what i want well if you don't want those planes to start splashing into the potomac as they run out of fuel what i want is very important any attempt to restore your systems will be met by severe penalties all right not a word of this leaves this room there must be 15 000 people in this airport and we don't need panic on our hands one airport huh listen uh you're not pissing in somebody's pool are you yeah yeah i know all about you with that nakatomi thing in l.a but just because the tv thinks you're hot [ __ ] that don't make it so 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 runway oh we are just up to our ass and terrorists again jeff this plane will not be met by anyone it will land on a runway of my designation where it will remain isolated and unapproached man i can't [ __ ] believe this another basement another elevator we call the government for help don't send in a special army unit now you're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time this what you expected this is just the beginning it's time to kick ass [Music] not yet the same [ __ ] happen to the same guy twice die hard 2 die harder smashed its way onto the big screen in the summer of 1990 arriving in the usa on the 3rd of july and in the uk in late august directed by rennie harlan and produced on a massive budget at the time costing over 17 million dollars and would become a box office hit bringing in 240 million dollars worldwide arriving very quickly after the first film the first die hard had only hit uk cinemas in early 1989 and just hit home video and a sequel was already at the cinema as everyone was in love with the first movie most critics reacted very positively to the sequel especially gene siskel and roger ebert roger gave the original film a mixed review but described a sequel as terrific entertainment praising the action and stephen e de souza's script gene siskel put on his list of the best movies of 1990. other critics however felt it was a disappointing follow-up comparing it to other sequels that were let downs that year with another 48 hours and robocop 2 being highlighted empire magazine which was in its early days rated the film three stars out of five stating its entertaining nonsense that doesn't quite manage to recapture the magic of the original still there are some nice moments here and there and willis is on solid ground as the iconic mclean the die hard series would take a break for five years and return with die hard with a vengeance which many felt was a stronger sequel and returned to form but john mcclane would end up taking another big break and not return for 12 years with live free or die hard or in some countries known as die hard 4.0 which did well at the box office but got some criticism for its watered-down violence to appeal to younger viewers this series would come to an end for the time being in 2013 with a good day to die hard which was poorly received and left a bad taste in the mouths of die hard and action fans alike with die hard now in the hands of disney it's unclear if another sequel will be made after the poor performance of the fifth entry with a sixth film being rumored with the working title of mclean i expect bruce willis would jump onto the role once again to keep his bank balance nice and healthy [Music] the building blocks of die hard 2 started shortly after the first film was a hit writer doug richardson early on in his career was writing spec scripts and he was getting a lot of attention and he was called in to meet the producers of die hard lawrence gordon and lloyd levin they wanted to know what doug thought of the movie doug had already seen it twice and was really impressed with it the producers wanted to move forward with the sequel right away but the president of production at fox wasn't yet ready to put a sequel into development but gordon was insistent and wanted a writer on board because as soon as you announce the sequel every agency in town starts asking for meetings to hire their writers actors crew etc and gordon wanted to avoid that but there was another reason for them to avoid such fanfare and that was joel silva the infamous producer was according to richardson compared working with to a heart attack once a sequel was announced joel was contracted to produce the sequel and would want changes the studio had recently acquired the rights to walter wage's 1987 thriller novel 58 minutes and they wanted this to form the basis for die hard 2 much like how roderick thoughts nothing lasts forever was adapted into the first film the novel has the same plot but differs slightly a police officer must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his wife's plane circles overhead and has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes doug had read the book and caught the drift of it saying it's die hard at an airport that was to deal he wasn't going to stay close to walters work in terms of adapting as his job was to keep it to die hard though richardson did his own research and sat in the tower at jfk airport for a few days learning how planes fly and ask the staff about various scenarios involving terrorism and whether planes can actually fly with relatively little fuel [Music] doug richardson submitted his script to the producers and they were impressed and it was perfect timing as joe roth took over goldberg at fox and asked where's die hard 2 which the producers found amusing as they handed roth the script as doug was warned about joel silva he was told that he fires the writer and brings in steven e de souza to rewrite the script to add more action and humor this is what happened on the first film doug found this difficult to accept he writes a movie that is green lit and his reward is to get fired joel silva said what are you complaining about you wrote a hit movie don't complain and let me do what i do desousa was a skilled writer and was very popular at the time as he had a number of hits under his belt with 48 hours commando the running man and of course the first die-hard one of d'souza's most notable contributions to the script came with general esperanza the military dictator of the republic of valverde a fictional central or south american country he created for commando also with d'souza borrowing heavily from america's real life involvement in the controversial iran contra affair the new draft of the script added more violence in particular the crash of the british jetliner doug didn't want to kill a plane load of people and instead wrote a fedex ups aircraft where the pilot and the crew died he didn't feel comfortable with that level of terrorism doug was happy with his contributions to die hard 2 and appreciated the producers gordon and levin for hiring him but his experience making it wasn't fun and later stated that d'souza took a lot of the credit for writing the script doug said everything in the film was pretty much his work until the snowmobile sequence which he felt it turned into a james bond movie all of a sudden but he said joel silva was right he got to write a hit movie this wouldn't be the last time doug was involved with the series and was asked to come back for die hard 3 and 4. he would contribute behind the scenes making adjustments to the scripts offering some input but was never credited director john mctinnon was set to reprise his directorial role from die hard but because of the quick turnaround for the sequel he was unable to do so because of a prior commitment to directing the hunt for red october so the producers had to find another director and settled on renny harlin who had great success on a nightmare on elm street part 4. fox executives were impressed by the dailies of the adventures of ford fairlane a movie starring controversial comedian andrew dice clay which had also been produced by joel silva ford fairlane would end up bombing on release and was hated by the critics but became a cult classic over the years renee harlan would end up having one hit and one flop in the summer of 1990 for the cast we have bruce willis returning as john mcclane the first film made him a superstar and he became very busy during this period his salary was boosted to 7.5 million dollars for reprising his role bruce did feel the sequel came around too quickly and he did try to move away from the action genre but many of the movies he chose to star in failed to make much of an impact until death becomes her he would eventually return to the role of john mcclane in 1995. william sadler is cast as colonel william stewart he takes control of the power and air traffic at the airport he leads his team in freeing general esperanza william after die hard 2 would play death in bill and ted's bogus journey and returned for its sequel in 2020. he also appeared in the critically acclaimed shawshank redemption the mist and iron man 3. the opening scene with him in the nude working out william told renny we have to do this at the end of the shoot so we can get a trainer and get into shape italian actor franco nero stars as general ramon esperanza who is fleeing trial for drug trafficking franco has appeared in over 200 films he has appeared in many films that have become cult favorites such as enter the ninja he also appeared in many action films over the years becoming popular with filmmakers appearing in django unchained and john wick 2. bonnie bedelia returns as holly mclean who this time spends her time sitting on a plane circling the airport as it's in danger of running out of fuel bonnie's career has mainly focused on tv starring in popular shows such as the division and parenthood william atherton returns as dick thornberg who has a restraining order against holly after she punched him due to his actions in the first film revealing the location of her family he finds himself stuck on a plane with her and manages to find out what's happening at the airport and uses it to his advantage causing chaos below john amos plays as major grant who is called in by the government to help deal with the terrorists jon was a popular star of tv appearing in shows such as all about the andersons and the west wing he's also made appearances in many movies such as coming to america and its sequel and the action movie ricochet dennis france stars as the short-tempered captain carmine lorenzo the head of the police at the airport dennis was a familiar face with tv starring in a hugely popular show nypd blue art evans plays leslie barnes the airport chief engineer who assists mclean in trying to restore power back at the airport art has starred in a number of films such as hill street blues fright night cb4 and metro the late fred dalton thompson plays as ed trudeau the air traffic flight director fed was a familiar face of matlock and law and order fred also starred in days of thunder and the hunt for red october in the original script writer doug richardson used the name of a real tower manager at jfk as a placeholder but once doug was no longer involved the name stuck he phoned trudeau to apologize as that the tower manager in the film had the same name as him and that a plane crashed and over 200 people were killed fortunately trudeau was a good sport and only wanted to know if the movie was going to be any good for the other cast members we have some familiar faces with tombow as marvin shelia mccarthy as samantha coleman reginald val johnson returning as sergeant al pal cole meaney as the windsor pilot john leguizamo as burke don harvey as garber don would also appear in hudson hawk as snickers and robert patrick who would be cast as the t-1000 in t2 shortly after the film plays o'reilly shooting started in late november of 1989 and ended in april the following year rennie harlan made a conscious effort to storyboard the entire movie in detail as he knew this was going to be a tough shoot filming was originally going to take place in washington state around the winter time but when the crew got there it was uncharacteristically warm so they decided to travel northwest in search of snow we went to four locations and as soon as we got there it stopped snowing said willis so we had to pack up 150 guys and take them somewhere else we even considered going to greenland the production company would make use of a number of locations such as michigan colorado and la most of the time the snow was either trucked in from canada or was made up of an assortment of look-a-like snow i.e paper flakes potato flakes marble dust rock salt etc but the snowmobile sequence they had the right weather conditions but it featured an elaborate stunt sequence which was difficult to do as you had a snowmobile driving over ice as the conditions made it tough for the crew who grew tired very quickly in the cold weather but with renny being from finland the cold weather didn't bother him rennie harlan and bruce willis both had a different opinion on the character of john mcclane willis felt as the script was pushing more of the dire circumstances of terrorism his counter should be played more serious and used less of the jokey one-liners but rene disagreed saying that's not the john mcclane the audience loves they feel like you are their friend now and they don't want to lose their friend renny went on to say the outcome was that bruce agreed to do as many takes as he wanted of the way he wanted to do it and then we'd do one take the way i wanted to do it with humor he did it reluctantly and not so happily but he did it and in the end every single funny moment that could be caught was put into the film the movie would have to go through many cuts to please the sensors in the usa and in the uk for it to avoid the dreaded x rating a number of trims to the violence had to be made and a large amount of swearing was removed for the uk release for it to earn a 15 rating in cinemas the film would get released uncut on home video in the uk and be given an 18 rating many films have sponsors you see soft drinks or cigarette brandings in the background in movies and one of die hard 2's most famous bits of trivia was that the film was supposed to feature a cordless drill by black decker which they agreed for 20 000 but during the editing the shot featuring this tool was left out black decker was very upset and the company promptly filed a lawsuit demanding 150 000 in damages for its loss of credibility with its customers the firm argued that it had numerous tie-in events and promotions planned but had to swiftly can them when it found out three days before the film's release that the univault's starring moment was no more also the credits would feature a spelling mistake roderick thorpe who wrote the 1979 novel nothing lasts forever upon which die hard was based was seized credit for creating certain original characters but his surname has an extra e at the end [Music] for the film story set on christmas eve 1990 john mcclane is waiting at dulles international airport for his wife holly to arrive in the airport bar mclean observes two men behaving suspiciously and pursues them into the baggage area after a shootout mclean kills one of them while the other escapes mclean reports his concerns to captain carmine lorenzo who wasn't interested and won't seal off the area as it's christmas eve and doesn't think it's a big deal mclean does his own investigating and discovers the dead man as a professional and not your run-of-the-mill criminal former us army special forces colonel william stewart and other former members of his unit establish a base in a church near the airport they plan to hack into the air traffic control systems serve a communication with the planes and deactivate the runway lights leaving the airport powerless to land aircraft mclean goes to the tower to report his findings but they failed to take him seriously and then suddenly the power goes out on the runway william stewart calls the tower and makes his demands in efforts to rescue general esperanza they demand a boeing 747 cargo plane so they can escape to another country with esperanza and warn the airport controllers against restoring control with mclean's wife being on one of the planes circling above and is running out of fuel mclean jumps into action to fight the terrorists with the help of leslie barnes the airport chief engineer and the janitor marvin to gain greater access to the airport barnes heads to an unfinished antenna ray with a swat team to re-establish communications but the team is ambushed by stewart's henchmen who are disguised as decorators the swat team are taken out luckily mclean rescues barnes in the nick of time and kills stewart's men colonel stewart gets revenge and impersonates the air traffic control team to crash a british jetliner killing everyone on board a special forces team led by major grant is called in to help by listening in on a two-way radio dropped by one of stewart's men mclean learns that esperanza having killed his captors is about to land shortly at the airport mclean has to reach him before colonel stewart and his men arrive [Music] die hard 2 would have industrial light and magic handle their visual effects replacing richard edlund's company boss film who worked on the first one a sequel would make use of miniatures optical effects map paintings and even digital compositing die hard 2 arrived during the infancy of computer graphics and digital effects and it would be the last batch of movies handled by ilm that would make use of the traditional methods of visual effects the film strengths lay in its miniature work and map paintings the final piece at the end was the only piece of the movie that would be digitally composited and scanned at the 2k resolution they shot four live action elements that would have a painting surrounding the material to blend it all into one shot it's absolutely incredible to look at probably one of the most ambitious visual effects moments is when bruce narrowly escapes as the plane explodes with the use of an ejector seat we see him fly up towards camera all in one shot done with blue screen and bruce strapped to a chair as it spins no digital work on this shot and considering its age and the technology at the time the shot still holds up really well today as you can't use snow with optical effects they decided to build a large miniature of the airport and had it be used for the exterior of the tower so the actors could look out the window to what could appear to be the airport runway but it was a miniature very clever the miniature planes were shot static with smoke blowing past to give the illusion of flight the weakest aspects of the effects is the odd blue screen shot that exhibits black matte lines and opticals that appear transparent but they're only on screen for a few seconds considering its age and really ambitious shots they push the old methods of visual effects to the max thus the film still holds up extremely well after 30 years composer michael caiman returned to provide the score for die hard 2. michael was a bit frustrated with what was required of him he was asked to provide a straight action score and bring back the themes from the first movie michael was never really a fan of action which is something i've brought up a few times on my channel but often found himself being handed jobs to compose for the action genre he was probably one of the most in demand composers around this time having worked on highlander lethal weapon one and two the first die hard roadhouse and license to kill he tended to tackle the action scores a lot differently to his colleagues in the business going with a more subtle approach the score ends up not being as unique as the first film but still delivers the goods for the explosive sequel the score is all action and suspense and cayman's unique style is all over it and the familiar four note motif for maclean that was featured heavily in the first film is used to great effect in the sequel as the original film made use of beethoven's ode to joy rennie harlan wanted to use finlandia for the sequel one of the most acclaimed pieces of finnish classical music and came in with his writing skills weaves it into the score and used it more prominently when the planes begin to land i'm not really a fan of finlandia don't get me wrong it's a fine piece of music but ode to joy just seemed to fit more naturally with die hard and the action genre the original album of the score for die hard 2 was released when the film came out on cd lp and tape it contained over 40 minutes of music including the performance of finlandia the score would eventually get expanded 22 years later including over two hours worth of music including alternative bonus tracks if you are after a bombastic score then die hard 2 certainly delivers it's a darker direction with not much there for emotional pieces which is where michael caiman often excels it starts out slow then once you hit the baggage fight everything kicks into fifth gear but saying that there wasn't any particular tracks that stood out that made me want to re-listen to the music that often in some cases it works better with the film than by itself i can happily listen to jerry goldsmith's score to say one of the rambo films and enjoy it without watching the film less so with cayman's die hard work if you are after the score it's sadly out of print but i'm sure you can track it down on ebay but you may have to pay more than its original retail price and i'm guessing the original album from 1990 will be more affordable than the expanded version [Music] die hard 2 did have a video game produced in 1992 by game developers grand slam it arrived on a commodore 64 pc atari st and amiga they don't go with the usual platforming style of affair but instead in the vein of a light gun shooter with the use of a crosshair now looking at the game it does appear that the makers of die hard trilogy on the playstation may have taken some inspiration from it i think they were probably more inspired by virtua cop at the time now you have five levels in the game with the first being the luggage hall then the airport annex the general's plane the old church while you're riding on a snowmobile and a final level shooting the bad guys on the end of the plane's wing you have to avoid civilians throughout though it's just one sprite a little girl walking along with a balloon surprisingly there is no boss characters they could have at least thrown in colonel william stewart but alas no just the same old soldiers recycled throughout the stages the amiga game runs smoothly and is nicely detailed despite it somewhat looking dull the c64 version looks pretty naff but at least it tries to offer a bit more story between each level as it has an ending unlike the amiga version which just says you've completed the mission well yipikaya not a particularly long game if you are good enough you could complete it in about 15 minutes it's fun for a quick play through but nothing special i saw die hard 2 when it hit tv in the mid 90s the first die hard was great and still to this day one of the best action movies around so there was a lot of excitement to see the sequel the funny thing about die hard 2 it has great production values the money is there on screen the action is explosive it does great photography with a warm glow to it with those strong christmas colors of red and green used throughout the humor works and bruce willis is on top form but i never fully connected with the film which i think is down to the villains and the overall story colonel stewart is set up to be this menacing threat and her audience is the main bad guy of this story he is the next hands gruber but as the story unfolds he's just another henchman and with major grant joining them to help general esperanza by the third act we have in total three guys who are all part of this master plan and they all struggle to get enough screen time or character development we aren't really given much backstory to these characters and their relation to one another we are shown news reports at the beginning with esperanza and drip fed bits of information here and there about colonel stewart but nothing really solid to demonstrate their friendship and their shared ideals the first film had hans gruber sure he had his henchmen but he was the leader and in charge and made a strong impression on audiences this role made alan rickman a superstar for die hard 2 william sadler who is a very talented actor just doesn't get the material to really shine and franco gets hardly any lines of dialogue to really make much of an impression to demonstrate that his character is in charge of colonel stewart and major grant in their escape the iconic scene from the first film with mclean bumping into gruber and not knowing who he is was a tense moment the sequel doesn't have this it has its twists in the plot like major grant's switching sides and his soldiers using blanks to confuse mclean but jon doesn't come face to face with colonel stewart for this great confrontation sure they get into a punch-up but he fights major grant first who loses the battle then he has to fight stewart it's like a video game take on the first moss to reach the main one bruce willis is given no opportunity to expand upon his character we don't really know much more about him it's just the same person we saw in die hard one the everyday man everyone can relate to going through the motions again we learn that he and his wife are happily back together he is now working in la but that's about it maybe the writers and producers felt that was enough at the time and that's probably how sequels worked back then as the film very closely follows the beats of the first movie weirdly very much like home alone too mclean again has to deal with people in authority who don't believe him or take him seriously but it does work in its favor for audiences to root for mclean to prove those guys in power that he is right it becomes mclean versus the world the direction for sequels back then was to give audiences more of the same but amp up the action and excitement about three times in the movie they jokingly reference why is this happening again by the third time they mention it the joke has been dragged out a bit throwing in mclean's wife and reporter thornberg is a nice touch and keeps things in continuity and i'm sure audiences were happy to see them back but they really have little to do stuck on a plane also the cop from the first film gets a brief cameo eating a twinkie of course to send the facts it's a bit on the nose we're trying to bring these players back for the fans but the sergeant and thornburg don't really need to be there another issue i have with it which is certainly a major nitpick is that the movie is a bit forgettable every time i go to watch it i've forgotten large chunks of it it's not like i've watched it three times over the space of three decades i've seen it dozens of times over the years but for some reason i've forgotten moments in the film which i think is down to the use of the location mclean spends a lot of time jumping between inside the airport and out on the runway it's always going back and forth with it set at night as well scenes begin to blend together so for me it's not quite as memorable as the first film with jumping from one act to another and so on 1990 was a great time for action movies especially ones for adults loads of r-rated or say 18 rated movies such as mark for death total recall and that year we had some big sequels robocop 2 predator 2 and of course die hard 2. these sequels all had one thing in common that has been brought up a few times in regards to its violence these films appear to be somewhat mean-spirited and overly violent for the sake of it die hard 2 goes full-on with the blood squibs and strong language from the offset everyone is shouting and angry with each other a lot of these supported characters are really toxic and short-tempered it doesn't hold back and strongly puts its foot down to say this is for adults only i suppose with the strong competition that year it had to keep upping the violence which you could happily argue is great to see because nowadays we'll never get a movie with a huge budget and big stars being pushed in an 18 rated movie as we saw with the sequels the violence gets toned down to appeal to a younger audience but i do think there's a fine line of going too far and die hard 2 nearly crosses that line of being too aggressive and using foul language for the sake of it rennie harlan is a solid director who's had a lot of success and failure throughout his career a very bumpy road he has had since the days of elm street 4. die hard 2 made him the ideal choice for the action genre he was going to direct alien 3 but left due to the creative direction the studio wanted to go he followed up with cliffhanger that gave stallone the career boost he needed but cutthroat island in 1995 he lost that momentum a massive box office failure but he still delivered some great pictures with the long kiss goodnight and the silly but very enjoyable deep blue sea he still works steadily today but doesn't have the success he once had but he was the right choice at the time to continue the die hard series he knows how to shoot action very well and makes great use of the scope format he must have been watching a lot of hong kong cinema at the time as he deploys the slow motion technique a lot which he does overdo in some scenes especially the shootout at the airport annex one thing i noticed is that renny loves shooting people as they walk into an elevator and the camera holds on them as the doors close this happens multiple times throughout the film die hard 2 is a good sequel and follows the traits of what a sequel should be bigger louder and more explosive it has some tense moments especially the british airliner crashing but with their quick attempts to turn around a follow-up to capture the magic of the first movie the script does suffer with character development the villains as pointed out earlier are less memorable and it is ultimately a repeat of the first film and it likes to point that out and joke that it's following similar beats overall it's nothing special however it's a good solid installment in the series that also can be enjoyed like the first film at christmas [Music] i think you're closer than 50 yards so is that airplane practically yeah there's quite a few of them out there looks like a regular traffic jam there's nothing regular about it give me one of the receivers it should be right here on our band all i'm getting is some kind of airport beacon it's weird it's like the tower isn't there this is a special bulletin from wcdc news there was a plane crash earlier this evening at dulles where other aircraft continue to circle with no explanation from airport or faa officials these are the old players when the longer runways went in that's that's 12 years ago if i'm right all of it would run right along the airport property and go right past this neighborhood barnes we looked at 12 [ __ ] houses and we're nowhere this is our last possibility over here there's an old church let's go it's barnes burns where the hell do you go where's maclean he's with me we're at the highland lake community church on the west side of the airport code red [ __ ] rep we got a positive idea on stewart's location let's move our escape plane will be ready within 30 minutes general there are no more surprises and this reporter has learned that the terrorists have virtual control of the entire airport the terrorists promised more bloodshed unless their demands are met the likelihood of a full-scale and deadly battle is dangerously close that stupid arrogant son of a [ __ ] amen to that lorenzo sacrifices best man i think you waste your time and we don't have who are you we're the good guys you see you're one of the bad guys and now that i got you sorry yes i'm gonna trade it for my wife [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 106,798

Keywords: die hard 2, die harder, die hard 2 review, bruce willis, renny harlin, oliver harper, retrospective review, die hard making of, michael kamen, die hard series

Id: shnckGNO_Kw

Length: 33min 22sec (2002 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021