Die Hard - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[alyssa]

The addresses and phone numbers depicted on the LAPD dispatch's computer for the Nakatomi plaza management are the actual numbers for management of Fox Plaza, where the film was shot.

[linda]

Bruce Willis worked with some of the actors who were considered for his role as John McClane later on. He worked with Don Johnson in an episode of Miami Vice (1985), Richard Gere in The Jackal (1997), Michael Madsen in Sin City (2005), and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables (2010) and The Expendables 2 (2012).

[bryan]

The scene where John McClane tries to smash the window with a chair in order to get the attention of Al Powell required multiple takes because the glass window was too strong to break from a single blow as depicted in the film. In fact the glass window was so strong that Bruce Willis actually ended up breaking the chair before he broke the window. Willis and the crew can be seen having a laugh over this in the vintage "Making-of" documentary.

[michele]

The building has ties to the nighttime plaza scene from 1973's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Century City, Los Angeles, had previously been part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, and to the University of California, Irvine, in Orange County. Half of the backlot was sold off where Elizabeth Taylor nearly bankrupted 20th Century from elaborate costs of filming Cleopatra movies.

[violet]

The centerfold that John McClane sees and ultimately uses as a point of reference while navigating his way from the elevator shaft to the air vent is that of Playboy Playmate Pamela Stein (November 1987). Another Playboy Playmate, May 1982 star Kym Malin, has a small role in the picture as the hostage who is originally discovered by the terrorists having sex with another party goer, and a third, July 1988 Playmate of the Month Terri Lynn Doss, plays the woman at the airport who runs past McClane to hug another arriving passenger.

[oscar]

When the bomb in the elevator shaft blows out the side of the building, the effect was accomplished by (a) collecting virtually every camera flashbulb of a particularly powerful type in the Los Angeles area and wiring them on the outside of the actual building to simulate the flash, and (b) by superimposing a shot of an actual explosive blowing a hole in the wall of an all-black miniature of the building at the appropriate location.

[linda]

Robert Davi (FBI Special Agent Big Johnson) and Mary Ellen Trainor (Gail Wallens) were both in The Goonies (1985).

[victoria]

The original release poster for the film did not feature Bruce Willis' likeness, just the building (pre-release promo posters did show Willis). The producers originally thought it might deter non-Willis fans from seeing the movie. Posters were later altered after the early box office success.

[caroline]

The scene in which John embraces Holly, (when Hans Gruber is killed), had to be re-shot four times, because Bruce Willis kept making Bonnie Bedelia crack up with laughter. The first take he made his co-star unintentionally laugh when he says "Didn't want to do this", and said "Ye!" in a funny voice. In the second take, Willis made Bedelia laugh again when he did an impression of a monkey, and in the third take, he broke into song by singing "Paris in Spring" by Mary Ellis, upon which the whole crew laughed.

[kim]

The music cue when Powell shoots Karl at the end of the film was actually an unused track from James Horner's Academy Award-nominated score for Aliens (1986). Specifically, the music was originally intended for a scene near the end of the film, in which Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) battles with the alien queen on board the Sulaco. Instead, an earlier music cue was reused, leaving the cue available for this film. A second music cue, scored by John Scott for the film Man on Fire (1987), was also used. The music can be heard when John and Holly meet Powell at the end of the movie.

[melinda]

The Hungarian title is "Give your life expensive", the title of the sequel is "Your life is more expensive", and the third part is "The life is always expensive"

[morris]

Many believe Uli only said one line in the movie ("Move it!!! Come on!") to the hostages, but he also said another line ("Got It") to Hans when he threw him a bag of detonators. Al Leong claims that his lack of lines is due to him being a stuntman, not an actor. Al Leong (Uli) had also played another ill-fated henchman called Endo, a year earlier in another iconic action movie thriller Lethal Weapon (1987). Lethal Weapon (1987) shares the same composer of the first three Die Hard movies Michael Kamen.

[lena]

In the first scene where the two helicopter gunships appear, the lighted building letters in the background read: Agfa-Gevaert.

[ivan]

Of the thirteen members of Hans Gruber's gang, only Theo and Kristoff survive. They are also the only two members of the gang who are never seen to threaten or harm anyone in the film. Of those who are killed, only Karl's death is not caused by McClane.