Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) 20th Century Fox/Action RT: 131 minutes Rated R (strong violence and language) Director: John McTiernan Screenplay: Jonathan Hensleigh Music: Michael Kamen Cinematography: Peter Menzies Jr. Release date: May 19, 1995 (US) Cast: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp, Larry Bryggman, Anthony Peck, Nick Wyman, Sam Phillips, Kevin Chamberlain, Sharon Washington, Joe Zaloom, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Charles Dumas, Michael Christofer, Stephen Pearlman. Box Office: $100M (US)/$366.1M (World)
Rating: ***
In Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third entry in the successful series, Lt. John McClane (Willis) is having a bad day. He’s separated from his wife. He’s currently on suspension from the force and very hung over with a bad headache. What better time for him to be called back into action?
Like its two predecessors, Die Hard with a Vengeance takes place in a single day. Unlike its predecessors, it’s NOT set at Christmas. It’s summer in New York City and things are about to heat up real bad. It literally starts with a bang when a major department store (oddly enough, not Macy’s) goes BOOM! A man calling himself Simon (Irons, Dead Ringers) claims responsibility and threatens more such acts if his demands aren’t met. He wants McClane reinstated at once so he can play a game of Simon Says with him. This entails obeying every one of his commands.
First, Simon wants McClane to wear an extremely racist sandwich board in the middle of Harlem. Shopkeeper/electrician Zeus (Jackson, Pulp Fiction) spots him and tries to get him off the street before he gets himself killed. He ends up saving McClane from certain death at the hands of angry gang members. This also makes Zeus an unwilling participant in Simon’s game. He sends the two men racing all over the city under threat of additional bombings. One goes off in the Wall Street subway station causing much damage and confusion.
Because Die Hard with a Vengeance has been around for 30 years, I see no reason not to withhold spoilers. The bombings are merely a distraction. Simon’s real objective is stealing billions of dollars in gold from the Federal Reserve Bank. Now for the other jaw-dropper. Simon is the brother of Hans Gruber, the bad guy McClane dropped from the Nakatomi Tower several years earlier. He wants revenge. I’m okay with revealing all this info because everybody already knows what’s what in this third Die Hard flick.
As a means of facilitating their getaway, Simon has the police searching all the schools in the city for a bomb he supposedly had placed in one of them. This will keep all the cops and feds busy while Simon and his crew make off with the gold.
Directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard 1), Die Hard with a Vengeance is a great action movie. It’s almost as great as the first two. It fumbles the ball in the final ten minutes with a lackluster climax. SPOILER ALERT! After everything he’s done, Simon really deserves to go out on a higher note than he does here. In McTiernan’s defense, it’s not the original ending. He had something else in mind, but the studio made him change it to something more audience-pleasing. If you want to know more, read the Wikipedia entry.
Climax notwithstanding, Die Hard with a Vengeance is a solid actioner that benefits from a great performance by Irons as megalomaniacal bad guy having a ball screwing with McClane while getting rich. He makes Simon memorable by adding a few extra touches to the character, like stammering and stuttering when stressed. It reveals a sense of vulnerability. McTiernan made an excellent casting choice here. Of course, Irons is also to be praised for stepping outside his comfort zone and accepting a role in a major Hollywood production. At this point, Jeremy Irons was best known for his roles in quality films like Reversal of Fortune (1990), The Mission (1986) and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981). Who knew that he had this kind of performance in him? He tears up the scenery as the bad guy who will stop at nothing to achieve his objectives.
Willis once again does solid work as the burnt-out cop who doesn’t want to be a hero again. He’s a miserable alcoholic and has pretty much hit rock bottom when he finds himself in the middle of another outrageous situation. This could be his last chance to redeem himself. He finds a worthy partner in Zeus, an intelligent man who has little problem deciphering Simon’s clues, often in the form of riddles or nursery rhymes. Jackson does a great job with the role, depicting Zeus as somebody who clearly doesn’t want to get involved in white people’s business. McClane has to trick him into helping him out. The two actors work incredibly well with each other. Although they had no scenes together, they both appeared in Pulp Fiction, something Willis acknowledges by quoting lyrics from “Flowers on the Wall” by The Statler Brothers.
The supporting characters aren’t as memorable this time around. Reginald VelJohnson (as LAPD Sgt. Al Powell) is nowhere to be found this time. They’re still an interesting bunch though even if they’re underdeveloped as characters. Bomb expert Charlie (Chamberlain, In & Out) looks like a middle school science teacher. McClane’s colleagues include Detectives Joe Lambert (Greene, Dances with Wolves) and Connie Kowalski (Camp, Police Academy 2) and commanding officer Walter Cobb (Bryggman, Spy Game). On the other team, we have Simon’s right-hand guy Targo (Wyman, Planes, Trains and Automobiles) and Katya (musician Sam Phillips), a speechless psycho who’s handy with a blade.
The thing I miss most in Die Hard with a Vengeance is the sense of confinement of the others. The first movie took place in a tall building; the second in and around a busy airport. This time, McClane is running all over a major city trying to prevent more catastrophes. It’s still a cool movie though. The action set-pieces are very impressive, especially the scene where the subway derails and crashes through a busy station.
Die Hard with a Vengeance runs rings around other action sequels while reminding the viewer of what summer movies are all about. Forget about the ones with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of special effects and big name actors. It’s pure cinematic fun and it doesn’t have any greater aspirations than providing its audience with more than two hours of thrills and fun. What’s wrong with that?
