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186-462: Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp . It stars Bruce Willis , Alan Rickman , Alexander Godunov , and Bonnie Bedelia , with Reginald VelJohnson , William Atherton , Paul Gleason , and Hart Bochner in supporting roles. Die Hard follows New York City police detective John McClane (Willis) who
372-509: A summer blockbuster for 1988. As Die Hard was based on the novel sequel to The Detective film, the studio was contractually obliged to offer Frank Sinatra the role. Sinatra, who was 70 at the time, declined. The role was offered to various major stars including Sylvester Stallone , Richard Gere , Clint Eastwood , Harrison Ford , Burt Reynolds , Nick Nolte , Mel Gibson , Don Johnson , Richard Dean Anderson , Paul Newman , James Caan , and Al Pacino . The prevailing action archetype of
558-586: A "desperate attempt to mask the lack of content." Geoff King argued that the spectacle can also be a vehicle for narrative, opposed to interfering with it. Soberson stated that Harvey O'Brien had "perhaps the most convincing understanding of the genre", stating that the action film was "best understood as a fusion of form and content. It represents the idea and ethic of action through a form in which action, agitation and movement are paramount." O'Brien wrote further in his book Action Movies: The Cinema of Striking Back to suggest action films being unique and not just
744-532: A C-4 charge being thrown down an elevator shaft and the central character, Joe Leland, leaping from the roof. However, the novel is told entirely from Leland's perspective, and events he is not present for are not detailed. Its tone is also more cynical and nihilistic : Leland visits his drug-addicted daughter at the Klaxon building, and she dies having fallen from the building alongside villain Anton Gruber, who
930-449: A Christmas classic, in part because of its use in the film. The perception of film stunts changed shortly before production of Die Hard following a fatal accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), and a push was made to prioritize a film's crew over the film itself. Even so, Willis insisted on performing many of his own stunts, including rolling down steps and standing on top of an active elevator. The first scene he shot
1116-510: A Global release status of Chinese-language martial arts films, most notably Zhang Yimou 's Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), Stephen Chow 's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Chen Kaige 's The Promise (2005). Most Hong Kong action films in the first quarter of the 21st century, such as those in Cold War (2012), Cold War 2 (2016) and The White Storm film series have their violence toned down, especially compared to
1302-517: A better, but not a different, person. Having no experience writing action films, Stuart drew on his experience writing thrillers, focusing on making the audience care about McClane, Holly, and their reconciliation. As Stuart pitched his story to executives, Gordon interrupted him, told him to complete a draft, and left the meeting. Stuart finished his first draft just under six weeks later. Stuart credits Levin for helping him understand Nothing Lasts Forever . He adapted many sequences faithfully, including
1488-801: A broader range of films were released that year. More films targeted older audiences rather than teenagers, a reflection of the increasing age of the average audience member. Sequels to successful films, Crocodile Dundee II and Rambo III , were predicted to control the May box office and break opening weekend revenue records. Industry executives also had high expectations for the comedies Coming to America and Who Framed Roger Rabbit . Expectations for Die Hard were low compared to its action film competition—the Schwarzenegger-starring Red Heat and Clint Eastwood's The Dead Pool . The New York Times noted that Die Hard , and
1674-623: A bus". It created a franchise comprising the sequels Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), plus video games , comics, and other merchandise. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress , Die Hard was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2017. Due to its Christmas Eve setting, Die Hard
1860-423: A cowboy and asks if he thinks he stands a chance. McClane replies, "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker". At the end of the film, before his death at the hands of McClane, Gruber echoes the phrase before McClane overpowers him. At the end of Die Hard 2 , he delivers it before lighting a trail of fuel to destroy the enemy airplane. At the end of Die Hard with a Vengeance , he says it in a low voice after shooting down
2046-531: A different one in which McClane kills Theo was excised. In Stuart's original script, Die Hard took place over three days, but McTiernan was inspired to have it take place over a single night like Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . He did not want to use terrorists as the villains, as he considered them to be "too mean", and avoided focusing on the terrorists' politics in favor of making them thieves driven by monetary pursuits; he felt this would make it more suitable summer entertainment. McClane's character
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#17327757319512232-412: A failed terrorist act. McClane evades detection of the group and hides throughout Nakatomi Plaza, systematically killing the group members as he disrupts their plot. Gruber, aware of John's presence and his name, eventually identifies Holly as John's wife and takes her as his personal hostage. At the climax of the film, a badly injured McClane locates Hans and Holly near the vault on the 30th floor. Gruber
2418-436: A fight sequence. In the 1980s, American martial arts films reflected the national move towards conservatism, reflected in films of Chuck Norris and other actors such as Sho Kosugi . The genre would shift from theatrical releases towards the end of the decade with the rise of home video, the lower box-office of American martial arts productions, and a significant portion of direct-to-video action films that first were made in
2604-564: A fire sale to bidders, taking out the nation's infrastructure: power plants, traffic lights, transportation, and financial markets. McClane has been divorced from Holly for ten years, and is not speaking to his daughter Lucy ( Mary Elizabeth Winstead ), who is kidnapped by Gabriel as leverage. McClane's previous actions seem forgotten. Farrell is unaware of his track record of thwarting bad guys. McClane cynical about his fame. With Farrell, McClane again thwarts disaster. Farrell counters Gabriel's hacks, while McClane eliminates his men. The culmination
2790-418: A full blown alcoholic ", on which McClane jokingly corrects him saying only "one step". McClane is consistently portrayed as a reluctant hero who, with little or no assistance from others, is required against his wishes to thwart the elaborate plans of a group of like-minded villains because no one else is in a position to do so. The trailer for the first Die Hard film states, "The last thing McClane wants
2976-401: A further gross of $ 6.1 million, just behind Coming to America ($ 6.4 million), Who Framed Roger Rabbit ($ 6.5 million) and the debuting romantic comedy Cocktail ($ 11.7 million). In its fourth weekend, it rebounded to the number three position with $ 5.7 million. While the film never claimed the number-one box office ranking, it spent ten straight weeks among
3162-500: A global audience of these films in the United States and Europe, but was cut short on Lee's death in 1973 leading the phases popularity to decline. Following a period of stagnation, Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung revitalized the genre with shaolin kung fu films and Chor Yuen 's series of darker swordplay films based on the novels of Gu Long . Kung Fu comedies appeared featuring Jackie Chan as martial arts films flourished into
3348-566: A hero overcoming enemies or obstacles and physical conflicts or challenge, usually battling other humans or alien opponents. By late 2010s studies of genre analysis, the term "genre" itself is often replaced or supplemented with the words "mode" and "narrative form" with all three terms often being used interchangeably. Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet said that the difference between these concepts are elusive, but stated that genre could be defined as belonging to specific historical and cultural moments while "mode" and "form" can refer to
3534-454: A larger pattern that operates across a wider historical and cultural field. In their book Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024), Tasker, Lisa Purse, and Chris Holmlund stated that thinking of action as a mode is more helpful than thinking of it as a genre. The three authors suggested that action frames a certain manner of filmmaking and viewing exceed genre without eclipsing it stating that websites such as IMDb and Misplaced Pages rarely label films by
3720-512: A length of firehose. Willis found acting in Die Hard difficult because it differed from previous experiences in that he was often alone, not having any personal encounters with others. He did not spend much time with the rest of the cast between takes, opting to spend it with his new partner, Demi Moore . In contrast to their on-screen dynamics, Bedelia and VelJohnson spent most of their time between scenes with Rickman. When asked to throw Holly to
3906-462: A mostly incomplete version of Die Hard and was unimpressed. He saw the film as primarily about a "phenomenal bad guy" who made McClane seem less important. Kamen was dismissive of film scores, believing they could not stand alone from the film. His original score incorporates pizzicato and arco strings , brass, woodwinds and sleigh bells added during moments of menace to counter their festive meaning. There are other uses of classical diegetic music in
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#17327757319514092-417: A news report by Richard Thornburg on McClane's children and deduces that he is Holly's husband. The hostages are taken to the roof while Gruber keeps Holly with him. McClane drives the hostages from the roof just before Gruber detonates it and destroys the approaching FBI helicopters. Meanwhile, Theo retrieves an escape vehicle from the parking garage but is knocked out by Argyle, who has been following events on
4278-554: A propensity for violent action, identified with the films of Chang Cheh . Violent female characters have been part of cinema since its early inception, with characters such as Kate Kelly brandishing a shotgun in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Women traditionally appear in action films as romantic interests, tomboys , or sidekicks to male protagonists. Violent white women would appear in other genres as well such as
4464-413: A reputation as an "arrogant" actor concerned with his own fame. His refusal to address this, or speak about his personal life to the media, had reinforced this perception. For his part, Willis said that he wanted the media to focus on his acting. There were reports that cinema audiences would moan at Willis's appearance in Die Hard trailers, and that a representative from an unnamed theater chain had pulled
4650-480: A scene between McClane and Gruber before the film's denouement, but De Souza could not think of a plausible scenario until he happened to overhear Rickman affecting an American accent. He realized this would allow Gruber to disguise himself when he met McClane, and the earlier scene of Takagi's murder was reworked to conceal Gruber's identity from McClane. Due to the addition of the Gruber/McClane meeting scene,
4836-456: A series of action sequences, stating that that the difference between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Die Hard (1988), that while both were mainstream Hollywood blockbusters with hero asserting masculinity and overcoming obstacles to a personal and social solution, John McClane in Die Hard repeatedly firing his automatic pistol while swinging from a high rise was not congruent with
5022-745: A significant portion. These films include Taxi 2 (2000), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), District 13 (2004) and Unleashed (2005). Whan asked about the Americanization of these French films, Christophe Gans , director of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) stated that "Hollywood ownership of certain elements [...] must be challenged, in order to show that these elements have also long been present in European culture." The most significant producers of French action films with international ambitions
5208-658: A similar level of popularity to that of the Western in the United States. The most internationally known films of this era were the films Kurosawa with Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961). By at least the 1950s, Japanese films were looked upon as a model to be emulated by Hong Kong film production, and Hong Kong film companies began actively enlisting professionals from Japan, such as cinematographer Tadashi Nishimoto to contribute to color and widescreen cinematography. New literary sources also developed in martial arts films of this period, with
5394-406: A single genre and that streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix similarly dilutes what is marketed and received as action. In transnational cinema, there are two major trends in action films: Hollywood action films and their style being imitated around the globe and the other being Chinese-language martial arts films. The roots of action films extend into the beginning of film but it
5580-489: A six-second burst of flame. The explosion of the Nakatomi rooftop was created using a miniature model ; this was the only miniature used in the film. Because Hans Buhringer (Fritz) was an inexperienced actor and filming was behind schedule, a Native American stuntman was put in a blond wig and equipped with squibs to capture the character's death in one take. To prevent the in-building locations looking similar because of
5766-451: A three-act structure centered on survival, resistance and revenge with narratives where the physical body of the hero is tested, traumatized and ultimately triumphant. The third shift in action cinema, the postclassical, was defined by the predominance of Eastern cinema and its aesthetics, primarily the wire-work of Hong Kong action cinema from the classical era, through the convention of the increasingly computer generated effects. This saw
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5952-594: A tough police officer protects society by upholding the law against systematic corruption. This extended into films which O'Brien described as "knee-jerk responses" to perceived threats with rogue cop and vigilante films such as Dirty Harry (1971) and Death Wish (1974) where the restoration of order is only possible by force and antisocial characters prepared to act when society does not. The vigilantism reappears in other films that were exploitative of southern society such as Billy Jack (1971) and White Lightning (1973) and "good ol' boy" comedies like Smokey and
6138-463: Is Luc Besson 's France-based EuropaCorp , who released films like Taxi (1998) and From Paris with Love (2010). EuropaCorp produced Transporter franchise starred British actor Jason Statham and made him an action film star, which led him to feature in The Expendables series by the end of the 2010s. The action film genre has been a staple of Bollywood cinema . In the 1970s,
6324-560: Is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as David Bordwell suggested they were films that favor spectacle to storytelling, others such as Geoff King stated they allow the scenes of spectacle to be attuned to storytelling. Action films are often hybrid with other genres, mixing into various forms such as comedies , science fiction films , and horror films . While
6510-574: Is a generic term to refer to several types of films containing martial arts. The wuxia film is the oldest genre in Chinese cinema. Stephen Teo wrote in his book on Wuxia that there is no satisfactory English translation of the term, with it often being identified as "the swordplay film" in critical studies. It is derived from the Chinese words wu denoting militarist or martial qualities and xia denoting chivalry, gallantry, and qualities of knighthood. The term wuxia entered into popular culture in
6696-421: Is about to leave, having found nothing amiss, McClane drops a terrorist's corpse onto his car. After Powell calls for backup, a SWAT team attempts to storm the building but is counterattacked by the terrorists. McClane throws some C-4 down an elevator shaft, causing an explosion that kills some of the terrorists and ends the counterattack. Holly's co-worker Harry Ellis attempts to negotiate on Gruber's behalf but
6882-553: Is also often named one of the best Christmas films , although its status as a Christmas film is disputed. On Christmas Eve, New York City Police Department (NYPD) Detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles, hoping to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly, at a party held by her employer, the Nakatomi Corporation. He is driven to Nakatomi Plaza by a limo driver, Argyle, who offers to wait for McClane in
7068-509: Is assigned to take hacker Matt Farrell ( Justin Long ) into FBI custody. McClane has been on the force over 30 years, and is a senior detective, most likely a detective squad commander, since he holds the rank of lieutenant. Although McClane's NYPD file, accessed by Thomas Gabriel, notes he has been a Lieutenant since 1987, it also states he currently holds the rank of Detective . Terrorists, led by Thomas Gabriel ( Timothy Olyphant ), are conducting
7254-493: Is assumed by the FBI that at least part of Simon's motive involves seeking revenge against McClane for his brother's death. Like Hans, Simon is determined to use acts of terror as a smokescreen to perpetrate thievery. Using a fake bomb threat concerning New York City area schools, Simon draws nearly all of the city's police force away from his target: New York's Federal Reserve . While the police frantically search local schools to locate
7440-729: Is based on Twin Dragons (1992). Other films such as the martial arts film Bhadrachlam (2001), borrows from American cinema with the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer (1989). SS Rajamouli 's RRR (2022) was among the highest budgeted films made in India, and became a rare hit film outside of Indian diaspora, where it broke box office records in Japan and performed exceptionally well in American box office. Japan
7626-476: Is caught up in a terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper while visiting his estranged wife. Stuart was hired by 20th Century Fox to adapt Thorp's novel in 1987. His first draft was greenlit immediately, as the studio was eager for a summer blockbuster the following year. The role of McClane was turned down by a host of the decade's most popular actors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone . Known mainly for work on television, Willis
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7812-439: Is described as being a "foul-mouthed, wisecracking, no-nonsense New York cop with an itchy trigger finger ... and a never-say-die maverick spirit." McClane's marriage is in a constant state of crisis, his vigilantism and disregard for authority have put him in danger of losing his job more than once, and he is a chain-smoker who is described by Inspector Cobb in Die Hard with a Vengeance as being "two steps away from becoming
7998-426: Is hanging from the building. A set was used for the following scene where McClane shoots out a window to re-enter the building. It was shot approximately halfway into the filming schedule so that all involved had gained more stunt experience. The window was made of fragile sugar glass that took two hours to set up, and there were only a few takes for this reason. Instead of a hoist, a team of stuntmen positioned below
8184-442: Is itself empowering and, if not, whether a hypersexualized female character can still represent strength and autonomy. Hypersexualized female action leads had tight fitting or revealing costumes that Tasker identified as "exaggerated statements of sexuality" and in the tradition of "fetishistic figure of fantasy" derives from comic books and soft pornography . This originated in television with characters like Buffy Summers ( Buffy
8370-476: Is killed by Gruber when McClane refuses to surrender. While checking the explosives on the roof, Gruber encounters McClane and pretends to be an escaped hostage; McClane gives Gruber a gun. Gruber attempts to shoot McClane but finds the weapon is unloaded, and he is saved only by the intervention of other terrorists. McClane escapes but is injured by shattered glass and loses the detonators. Outside, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents take control. They order
8556-470: Is not present, expanding upon or introducing characters: he gave Powell a wife and children, allowing him to relate more closely to McClane; and Argyle, whose novel counterpart disappears early in the story, is present throughout Stuart's draft, supporting McClane by broadcasting rap music over the terrorists' radios. Among the script's original characters is the unscrupulous journalist Richard Thornburg. A fan of prominent Western film actor John Wayne , Stuart
8742-513: Is shot by McClane and falls through a shattered window, but manages to grab onto Holly's wristwatch. Gruber tries one last time to shoot them both, but McClane unstraps the watch and Gruber falls to his death. In aftermath events of the first Die Hard , McClane transfers to the Los Angeles Police Department and is promoted to lieutenant. He dislikes his rise to national fame. Dialogue in the second film reveals that he
8928-439: Is stranded, her plane circles overhead. McClane discovers a conspiracy between the mercenaries and an active military unit to rescue a notorious dictator from being imprisoned for crimes against humanity. He foils their plans and provides a visual landing signal for the circling aircraft by exploding the plane the villains were using for their exit strategy. In Die Hard with a Vengeance , McClane has returned to New York City and
9114-409: Is to be a hero, but he doesn't have a choice." In the second film, he is told "You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time", to which he replies, "The story of my life." In the fourth film, he says he gets involved in dangerous situations "because there is nobody else to do it" and if there were, he would gladly let someone else do it. Unlike many "one man army" action heroes of the 1980s,
9300-732: Is toast", Bochner's "Hans, bubby, I'm your white knight", and the henchman Uli stealing a chocolate bar during the SWAT assault. McTiernan took stylistic influence from French New Wave cinema when editing the film. He recruited Frank J. Urioste and John F. Link to edit scenes together while in mid-motion, contrary to the mainstream style of editing used at the time. Before hiring composer Michael Kamen , McTiernan knew he wanted to include Beethoven 's 9th Symphony (commonly known as "Ode to Joy"), having heard it in Stanley Kubrick 's A Clockwork Orange (1971). Kamen objected to "tarnishing"
9486-506: Is using naïve male and female guerrilla soldiers to rob the building because of Klaxon's support for a dictatorial government. This made their motivations less clear and Leland more conflicted about killing them, especially the women. Leland is written as an experienced older man working as a high-powered security consultant. Stuart rejected the novel's tone for being "too sad", and believed an older action hero—Leland being over 60—was nonsensical. Stuart created new material for scenes when McClane
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#17327757319519672-413: Is when McClane shoots through his own shoulder to kill Gabriel. His actions restore Lucy to friendliness. She introduces herself as Lucy McClane to Farrell. In the past, she had introduced herself as Lucy Gennero, and told guys her father was dead. In the fifth film, A Good Day to Die Hard , John travels to Russia when son John "Jack" Junior ( Jai Courtney ) is arrested. He does not know Jack works for
9858-578: The femme fatales in film noir and horror films of the 1970s. Violent women were common in action films since the 1960s. These films featured working-class women exacting revenge. Films of the 1970s featured black women such as Pam Grier in films like Foxy Brown (1974). In the 1980s, a new symbolically transgressive character emerged in the form of Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and
10044-582: The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time in 2008 and number 7 in 2015. In a survey by MTV , "accomplished" filmmakers, actors and fans voted on the "Greatest Movie Badass of All Time". McClane came in third, behind only Ellen Ripley and Dirty Harry . In April 2009, Entertainment Weekly ranked John McClane sixth in list of the top twenty "All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture", describing "Bruce Willis' wisecracking, terrorist-foiling New York cop" character as "the anti- Bond ". The magazine called
10230-550: The Bollywood action film consolidated with two films starring Amitabh Bachchan : Prakash Mehra 's Zanjeer (1973) and Yash Chopra 's Deewaar (1975). The box office success of these films made Bachchan a star and spawned the "angry young man" film in Bollywood cinema. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the action genre film declined considerably with new films predominantly featuring former bodybuilders failing to reach
10416-517: The Hong Kong action cinema , such melodramatic male bonding and marginalized women characters, while the Korean films also have greater elements of tragedy and romance emphasized. Most martial arts films made before the mid-1960s were Cantonese-language productions. In comparison, Mandarin-language films were an integral part of Hong Kong cinema due to the influx of Shanghai film talent in
10602-564: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which suggested an end to fantastical elements that defined the action hero and genre. Following the release of Quentin Tarantino 's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) revisited the tropes of 1970s action films leading a renaissance of vengeance narratives in films like The Brave One (2007) and Taken (2008). O'Brien found that Tarantino's films were post-modern takes on
10788-510: The xinpai wuxia xiaoshuo (or "new school martial arts fiction") coming into prominence with the success of Liang Yusheng 's Longhu Dou Jinghua (1954) and Jin Yong 's Shujian enchou lu (1956) which showed influence of the Shanghai martial arts films but also circulated from Hong Kong to Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas. This led to a growing demand in both local and regional markets in
10974-428: The 1960s with films like The Born Losers (1967) which was predominantly a drama, interspersed with martial arts scenes. American martial arts films predominantly came into production following the release of Enter the Dragon (1973), with the only higher-budgeted American film to follow in its wake being The Yakuza (1974). Lott noted the two films would lead to the two subsequent styles of martial arts films in
11160-609: The 1970s. James Monaco wrote in 1979 in American Film Now: The People, The Power, The Money, the Movies that "the lines that separate on genre from another have continued to disintegrate." Tasker said that most post-classical action films are hybrids, drawing from genres as varied as war films, science fiction , horror , crime, martial arts , and comedy films . In Chinese-language films, both wuxia and kung fu are genre-specific terms, while martial arts
11346-446: The 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever written by former private investigator Roderick Thorp . Thorp had been inspired to write Nothing Lasts Forever by a dream he had—in which armed assailants chase a man through a building—after watching the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno . Fox had adapted the book's 1966 predecessor, The Detective , for the 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra as NYPD detective Joe Leland, and purchased
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#173277573195111532-784: The 1980s. Other films again modernized the form with gangster films of John Woo ( A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989)) and the Wong Fei Hung saga returning in Tsui Hark 's Once Upon a Time in China featuring Jet Li which again revitalized the swordplay styled films. By the turn of the century Hollywood action films would look towards Hong Kong cinema and bringing some of their major actors and directors over to apply their style to their films, such as Chan, Woo, Li, Michelle Yeoh and Yuen Woo-Ping . The release of Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) led to
11718-486: The 1980s. This was followed by the post-classical era where American action films were influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and the growing using of computer generated imagery in film. Following the September 11 attacks , a return to the early forms of the genre appeared in the wake of Kill Bill and The Expendables films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that action films are both one of
11904-448: The 1983 biographical film Heart Like a Wheel . VelJohnson appeared as Al Powell in his first major film role at the suggestion of casting director Jackie Burch, with whom he had worked previously. Robert Duvall , Gene Hackman , Laurence Fishburne , and Wesley Snipes were considered for the role. Ellis is portrayed by Hart Bochner, an acquaintance of Silver. His role was shot in chronological order over three weeks. McTiernan had wanted
12090-706: The 21st century have been comic book adaptations, which commenced with the X-Men and is seen in other series such as Spider-Man , and Iron Man series. Tasker wrote that despite the central characters in superhero cinema being extraordinary, occasionally even God-like, they often followed the traces of the central character becoming powerful of which is fundamental to action films, often dealt with origin stories in superhero films. Action films often interface with other genres. Tasker wrote that films are often labelled action thrillers, action-fantasy and action-adventure films with different nuances. Tasker later discussed that
12276-522: The Bandit (1977). This era also emphasizes the car chase scenes as moments of spectacle in films like Bullitt and The French Connection (1971). O'Brien described these films as emphasizing "the fusion of man and machine" with the drivers and vehicles acting as one, concluding with what he described as "the ultimate in apocalyptic modernity and social erasure" in Mad Max 2 (1981). O'Brien described
12462-754: The Bollywood press who reported on him in the headlines of Bollywood magazines for his public brawls and affairs with leading actresses. In Dabangg (2010), Khan continued with this public persona, which was repeated in several of his later films such as Ready (2011), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Dabangg 2 (2012). From the 1980s, generations of actors in Telugu cinema have invoked Hong Kong action films, such as Srihari who stated he wanted to become an actor after watching his first Bruce Lee film. Several films in Telugu cinema were remakes of Hong Kong films, such as Hello Brother (1994) which
12648-712: The CIA against high-ranking Russian official Chagarin ( Sergei Kolesnikov ). Chagarin's ex-partner, Yuri Komarov ( Sebastian Koch ) was imprisoned for a file incriminating Chagarin. John meets Jack and Komarov fleeing custody and Chagarin's thugs. Chagarin's henchmen attack again as they hide out in a CIA safe house. John holds them off, allowing himself, Jack and Komarov to escape. John and Jack help Komarov meet up with Komarov's daughter, Irina ( Yuliya Snigir ). She betrays them to Chagarin's main enforcer Alik (Radivoje Bukvić). John and Jack must escape again, but without Komarov. Following Komarov to Chernobyl , John and Jack learn that Komarov
12834-598: The Dragon briefly allowed an influx of Hong Kong films to Japan, but the trend did not last, with 28 Hong Kong films, mostly kung fu films, being released in 1974, and the number decreasing to five in 1975, four in 1977 and only two in 1978. Ryuhei Kitamura , director of Versus (2000), said in 2004 that he grew frustrated with the Japanese film industry as producers felt they couldn't make action films in competition with Hong Kong or American productions. Versus grew to become popular outside of Japan, and Kitamura said he
13020-602: The Hong Kong film industry after the handover in 1997. Anglophone action film scholarship has tended to emphasize bigger budget American action films, with academics tending to find films that fall out of Hollywood productions as not quite fitting definitions of the genre. By 2024, many national and regional industries were known for action films. These include international films such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam , South Korean, Japanese, Thai , Brazilian , Chinese , South African , French and Italian action titles. At
13206-454: The NYPD, retaining his rank of Lieutenant. He is separated from his wife and suspended from the police force; probably due to alcoholism. At the beginning of the film, an unidentified terrorist known only by the name "Simon" ( Jeremy Irons ) has detonated at least one bomb in the city and threatens to detonate others unless McClane undertakes to solve a series of challenges and riddles modeled after
13392-507: The Plaza. Months of negotiations took place for permission to drive a SWAT vehicle up the steps of Fox Plaza. A railing knocked over during shooting was never replaced. Small explosives moving along a guidewire were disguised as the terrorist rockets, giving the appearance of them striking the vehicle. In the scene where McClane throws C4 down the elevator shaft to stop the assault, the effects team unwittingly blew out every window on one floor of
13578-807: The Red Lotus (1965) and King Hu 's Come Drink with Me (1966). In the 1970s, the Hong Kong martial arts films began to grow under the format of yanggang ("staunch masculinity") mostly through the films of Chang Cheh which were popular. This transition led to the kung fu film sub-genre at beginning of the decade and moved beyond the swordplay films with contemporary settings of late Qing or early Republican periods and had more hand-to-hand combat over supernatural swordplay and special effects. A new studio, Golden Harvest quickly became one of independent filmmakers to grant creative freedom and pay and attracted new directors and actors, including Bruce Lee . The popularity of kung fu films and Bruce Lee led to attract
13764-484: The United States, Europe and Japan had during this period. Yip described Japanese cinema as the most advanced in Asia at the time. This was showcased by the international breakthrough of Akira Kurosawa 's films like Rashomon (1950). The film genre known as the chanbara was at its height in Japan. The style was a sub-genre to the jidai-geki , or period drama with an emphasis on sword fighting and action. It had
13950-406: The United States, with films like Enter the Dragon about people who reveled in combat, often in a tournament setting, and The Yakuza which had several genres attached to it, but featured several martial arts sequences. By the end of the 1970s, the style was an established genre in American cinema, often featuring tough heroic characters who would fight and not think about their actions until after
14136-591: The Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)) and Xena ( Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001)). These series popularity demonstrated a growing market for female action film heroes, in films of the 2000s like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Charlie's Angels (2000), Ultraviolet (2006), Salt (2010) and series like Underworld and Resident Evil . These series like their television series earlier, had their leads eroticized as active and physically capable while also being scantily-clad, hyper-feminized similar to
14322-445: The access code from him and tasks Theo with breaking into the vault. The terrorists are alerted to McClane's presence, and Karl's brother, Tony, is sent after him. McClane kills Tony and takes his weapon and radio, which he uses to contact the skeptical Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Sergeant Al Powell is sent to investigate. Meanwhile, McClane kills more terrorists and recovers their bag of C-4 and detonators. Realizing Powell
14508-594: The action film genre has been a subject of scholarly debate since the 1980s. Soberson wrote that repeated traits of the genre include chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work while other scholars asserted there were more underlying traits that define the genre. David Bordwell in The Way Hollywood Tells It wrote that audiences are "told that spectacle overrides narrative" in action cinema while Wheeler Winston Dixon echoed that these films were typified by "excessive spectacle" as
14694-553: The action heroine's dual status of an active subject and sexual object was overturning the traditional gender binary because the films "assume that women are powerful" without resorting to justify her physical aggression through narratives involving maternal drive, mental instability or trauma. Purse found that female leads in films like Elektra (2005), Kill Bill , Underworld , Charlie's Angels and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) did showcase women having expensive cars, clothing, travel, homes and often high-paying jobs, but that this
14880-498: The advertising began featuring Willis more prominently. Despite his dislike of interviews, Willis appeared on several daytime shows to promote the film. Explaining why he was more involved in the promotion for Die Hard , Willis said, "I'm so excited about this film... To me, it represents why I wanted to be an actor." Die Hard' s premiere took place on July 12, 1988, at the Avco theater in Los Angeles, California. In North America,
15066-585: The alleged bomb, Simon raids the gold bullion held in the underground vault of the Reserve and flees towards the Canada–US border. With the help of Carver, McClane tracks Simon near the border. McClane kills Simon by shooting a power line which collapses into the blades of Simon's helicopter. The fourth film, Live Free or Die Hard (titled Die Hard 4.0 in releases outside North America), which takes place on Independence Day , takes place 13 years later. McClane
15252-435: The book Australian Genre Film , Amanda Howell suggested that this label was used to help distance Australian cinema from Hollywood films as it would be suggesting commerce over culture and that it would be "quite unacceptable to make Australian movies using conventions established in the U.S.A." Howell stated this to be the case with action films of the 1970s and 1980s with Brian Trenchard-Smith 's Turkey Shoot (1982) being
15438-406: The building, enhancing the realism. De Bont frequently used handheld cameras to film closer to the characters, creating a more cinematic "intimacy". Very little of the film was storyboarded beforehand because De Bont believed intricate storyboarding made his job redundant. Instead, he and McTiernan would discuss that day's filming in detail, and the feeling or sensation they wanted to convey. De Bont
15624-623: The building. The script continued to undergo changes up to and during filming. Several subplots and traits for characters other than McClane were created during the first few weeks of filming because Willis was still working on Moonlighting . He would film the show for up to ten hours and then work on Die Hard at night. McTiernan gave Willis time off to rest and tasked De Souza with adding the new scenes. These included scenes with Holly's housekeeper, Holly confronting Gruber following Takagi's death, an introductory scene for Thornburg, and more moments between Powell and his fellow officers. Silver wanted
15810-405: The building. The final helicopter scene took six months of preparation, and only two hours were set aside to film it. It took three attempts above Fox Plaza, and nine camera crews filming with twenty-four different cameras. De Bont said the different angles enhanced the on-location realism. Mortar-like devices filled with propane were used for explosions. They took ten minutes to install and offered
15996-431: The camera fast enough to prevent the image from blurring as Rickman fell away. Supervised by visual effects producer Richard Edlund , Boss Film Studios engineered an automated system using a computer that rapidly refocused the camera via a motor on its focus ring . A wide-angle lens camera shooting at 270 frames per second was used, creating footage that played 10 times slower than normal. Despite these innovations,
16182-510: The camera struggled to keep Rickman entirely in focus during his 1.5-second fall; the scene cuts away from Rickman as the usable footage runs out. To complete Gruber's fatal descent, Bates was lowered 318 feet (97 m) from Fox Plaza in a harness that slowed his fall as he neared the ground. Some of the Fox Plaza residents, frustrated by the debris and destruction around the building, refused to turn off their office lights for exterior shots of
16368-417: The character to be suave like actor Cary Grant , but Bochner conceived of the character's motivations coming from cocaine use and insecurity. McTiernan hated the performance initially until he noticed Gordon and Silver were entertained by Bochner's antics. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza rewrote Stuart's script because he had experience in blending action and comedy. He approached the story as if Gruber were
16554-410: The character, including "that attitude and disrespect for authority, that gallows sense of humor , the reluctant hero". Rickman was already in his early 40s as he made his screen debut as Hans Gruber. He was cast by Silver, who had seen him perform in a Broadway version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses , playing the villainous Vicomte de Valmont. Bedelia was cast at Willis's suggestion after he saw her in
16740-409: The children's game Simon says . A shopkeeper from Harlem, Zeus Carver ( Samuel L. Jackson ), saves McClane during the first challenge and is forced to further accompany McClane at Simon's request. After attempting to solve and complete several riddles and challenges, the FBI finally reveal to McClane that "Simon" is Simon Peter Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber (the antagonist of the first film). It
16926-550: The classical form of action cinema to be the 1980s. The decade continued the trends of formative period with heroes as avengers ( Lethal Weapon (1987)), rogue police officers ( Die Hard (1988)) and mercenary warriors ( Commando (1985)). Following the continuity of the car and man hybrid of the previous decade, the 1980s featured weaponized men with who were either also carrying weapons such as Sudden Impact (1983), trained to be weapons ( American Ninja (1985)) or imbued with technology ( RoboCop (1987)). O'Brien noted that
17112-429: The comedies Big Top Pee-wee and Bull Durham , would be closely scrutinized by the industry for success or failure. Die Hard was singled out for Willis's salary, and the failure earlier that year of his previous film, the western Sunset , which brought into question his leading man capabilities. Lawrence Gordon agreed that not using a major action star like Stallone or Eastwood meant audience interest in Die Hard
17298-464: The decline of overt masculinity in the action film which corresponded with the end of the Cold War in 1991, while the rise of self-referential and parodies of this era grew in films like Last Action Hero (1993). O'Brien described this era as being soft where the hard bodies of the classical era were replaced with computer generated imagery such as that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). This
17484-559: The direct-to-video field, or in similarly low-budget theatrical releases such as Bulletproof Monk (2003). While the American styled-films were predominantly made in the United States, productions were also made in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa, and were predominantly shot in the English-language. Heroic Bloodshed is a that originates with English-language Hong Kong action and crime film fan communities in
17670-487: The earlier work of directors like Woo and Johnnie To . Antong Chen, in his study on the Hong Kong action film, wrote that the influence of China and the amount of Chinese co-productions made with Hong Kong created a shift in these films, particularly following the release of Infernal Affairs (2002). Harvey O'Brien wrote in 2012 that the contemporary action film emerged through other genres, primarily Westerns , crime and war films and can be separated into four forms:
17856-432: The early 1960s and saw a surge in production of Hong Kong martial arts films that went beyond the stories about Wong Fei-hung which were declining in popularity. These new martial arts films featured magical swordplay and higher production values and more sophisticated special effects than the previous films with Shaw Brothers a campaign of "new school" ( xinpai ) martial arts swordplay films such as Xu Zenghong's Temple of
18042-491: The end of the 1990s. Films such as Chunhang (2000) and Memento Mori (2000) and action films Shiri (1999) and Nowhere to Hide (1999) received commercial releases in North America, Asia, and Europe. The success of the latter two films was unprecedented, and was followed by other South Korean action films in the early 2000s reaching the top of the local box office. These South Korean films mimic some traits of
18228-410: The enemy helicopter. In the fourth film, Live Free or Die Hard , McClane is held captive by cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel. Gabriel taunts him, claiming that McClane's tombstone will read "always in the wrong place at the wrong time". McClane replies, "How about 'yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker'?" as he shoots himself through the shoulder in order to kill Gabriel. The last two syllables are drowned out by
18414-497: The era was a muscle-bound, invincible macho man like Arnold Schwarzenegger , who was offered the role, but he wanted to branch out into comedy and turned it down to star in Twins (1988). Willis was known mainly for his comedic role in the romantic comedy television series Moonlighting , starring opposite Cybill Shepherd . He declined the role because of his contractual obligations to Moonlighting , but when Shepherd became pregnant,
18600-506: The events of the movie actually take their toll on McClane physically, with McClane entering the climax of the movie severely injured. At the beginning of the first film , New York City Police Department Detective John McClane is seen traveling to Los Angeles to attend a Christmas Eve party at Nakatomi Plaza , the workplace of his recently separated wife Holly Gennero ( Bonnie Bedelia ); she and their two children, Lucy and John Jr., live in Los Angeles. Shortly after McClane arrives at
18786-532: The female leads in implausible elements, such as in Charlie's Angels , Fantastic Four (2005) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006). The fighting styles of women also tend towards more traditionally feminine fluid movements of martial arts, over using guns or directly punching. Purse wrote that the contemporary female action film lead's sexualized brand had her in close proximity of post-feminism discourse about choice, power and sexuality. Marc O'Day interprets
18972-402: The film received a limited release in 21 theaters in 13 cities on July 15, 1988, earning $ 601,851—an average of $ 28,659 per theater. It was considered a successful debut with a high per-theater average gross. The Los Angeles Times said that the late change in advertising focus and diminishing popularity for action films should have worked against Die Hard . Instead, positive reviews and
19158-539: The film; the musicians at the party play Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach . McTiernan did not like a piece created for the final scene where Karl attempts to kill McClane, and decided to use a temporary track that was already in place: a piece of James Horner 's unused score for Aliens (1986). Cues are also used from the 1987 action film Man on Fire . Die Hard also features " Christmas in Hollis " by Run-DMC , which would go on to be considered
19344-400: The floor, Rickman refused because he believed it was not a fitting action for the "civilized" Gruber and that Holly, "a self-possessed career woman", would not have let him. The film's ending had not been finalized when filming began. In the finished film, Theo retrieves an ambulance from the truck the terrorists arrived in to use as an escape vehicle, but as this was a late addition, the truck
19530-414: The following films were voted the top ten best action films of all time. In Hong Kong, the "new school" of martial arts films that Shaw Brothers brought in 1965 featured what featured what Yip described as "strong, active female characters as protagonists." These female-centered films were challenged with the rise of a new male heroic prototype marked by a strong sense of youthful energy and defiance and by
19716-448: The formative trends at this point had become "identifiably generic" as film industries began to reproduced these films during the decade producers like Joel Silver and production companies like The Cannon Group, Inc. began to formulate production of these films with both high and low budgets. The action films of this era have roots in classical story telling, specifically rooted from martial arts films and Westerns, and are built around
19902-610: The formative, the classical, the post-classical and neoclassical phases. Yvonne Tasker reiterated this in her book on action and adventure films , saying that action films became a distinct genre during the New Hollywood period of the 1970s. The formative films would be from the 1960s to the early 1980s where the Anti-hero appears in cinema, featuring characters who act and transcend the law and social conventions. This appears initially in films like Bullitt (1968) where
20088-551: The former was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in Japan. Following LoveDeath , Kitamura's next directing work was in the United States. The action cinema of South Korea mostly existed on the margins of the film industry in South Korea. The genre was initially called the Hwalkuk ("living theatre") was a term that indicated plays and films driven by action scenes, while this term has not been used regularly since
20274-496: The garage. While McClane washes himself, the tower is seized by the German radical Hans Gruber and his heavily armed team, including Karl and Theo. Everyone in the tower is taken hostage except for McClane, who slips away, and Argyle, who remains oblivious to events. Gruber is posing as a terrorist to steal the $ 640 million in untraceable bearer bonds in the building's vault. He kills executive Joseph Takagi after failing to extract
20460-430: The ground. While heroes in kung fu films often display chivalry, they generally hail from different fighting schools, namely wudang and shaolin . American martial arts films feature what author M. Ray Lott described as a more realistic style of violence over the Hong Kong wuxia films with more realism and are often low-budget productions. Martial arts began routinely appearing in fight scenes in American films in
20646-514: The gunshot in the theatrical version. In the "unrated version," the line is altered to remain intact. In the fifth film, A Good Day to Die Hard , McClane says the catchphrase before driving a truck out of an airborne helicopter in the final confrontation in Chernobyl . The film title references the catchphrase's reputed meaning, a Native American war-cry meaning " This is a good day to die !" Empire ranked him number 12 on their list of
20832-416: The highest-grossing action film. Receiving four Academy Award nominations, it elevated Willis to leading-man status and made Rickman a celebrity. Die Hard has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered one of the greatest action films of all time . It is considered to have revitalized the action genre, largely due to its depiction of McClane as a vulnerable and fallible protagonist, in contrast to
21018-489: The image of Indiana Jones in Raiders swinging his whip to fend off villains in the backstreets of Cairo. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker expanded on this topic, stating that action films have no clear and constant iconography or settings. In her book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015), she found that the most broadly consistent themes tend to be a characters quest from freedom from oppression such as
21204-520: The late 1920s. These films were popular during the period, which comprised almost 60% of the total Chinese films. Man-Fung Yip stated that these film were "rather tame" by contemporary standards. He wrote that they lacked the kind of dazzling action choreography as expected today and had crude and rudimentary special effects. These films came under increasing attack by both government officials and cultural elites for their allegedly superstitious and anarchistic tendencies, leading them to be banned in 1932. It
21390-570: The late 1970s, with "action movie" becoming the more familiar term. The Korean action films came from Japanese cinema, James Bond series , and Hong Kong action cinema. As North Korea borders China, it block access to the continent from a South Korean perspective, the Cold War allowed South Koreans to substitute deferred travel beyond the border through films with locations shot in Hong Kong. While melodrama and comedy were staples in South Korean cinema, most action films were sporadic and tied to
21576-508: The late 1980s and early 1990s. In the Chinese language, the term used for these films is jinghungpin , literally meaning "hero films". Academic Laikwan Pang asserts that these gangster films appeared at a time when Hong Kong citizens felt particularly powerless with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China set for 1997. The key directors of the genre were John Woo and Ringo Lam , and producer Tsui Hark , with
21762-513: The late 1980s and early 1990s. Author Bey Logan stated that the term was coined by Rick Baker, in the British fanzine Eastern Heroes . The term is used broadly. Baker described the style as Hong Kong action films which feature gangsters and gunplay and martial arts that were more violent than kung fu films and academic Kristof Van Den Troost described it a term used to distinguish Hong Kong gun-heavy action films from period martial arts films from
21948-431: The late 1980s in the United States were martial arts films. Towards the end of the 1990s, production of low-budget martial arts films declined as no new stars in the genre developed and older actors such as Cynthia Rothrock and Steven Seagal started showing up in less and less films. Even internationally popular films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) had negligible effects in American productions in either
22134-469: The limited release had made it a "must-see" film. It received a wide release the following week on July 22, 1988, across 1,276 theaters, and earning $ 7.1 million—an average of $ 5,569 per theater. The film finished as the number three film of the weekend, behind Coming to America ($ 8.8 million)—in its fourth week of release—and Who Framed Roger Rabbit ($ 8.9 million), in its fifth. The film fell to number four in its third week with
22320-418: The limo's CB radio . A weary and battered McClane finds Holly with Gruber and his remaining henchman. McClane surrenders to Gruber and is about to be shot but grabs his concealed service pistol taped to his back and uses his last two bullets to wound Gruber and kill his accomplice. Gruber crashes through a window but grabs onto Holly's wristwatch and makes a last-ditch attempt to kill the pair. McClane unclasps
22506-439: The marital problems of his peers, including divorces and ex-wives reverting to use their maiden name. John McClane was named John Ford initially, but 20th Century Fox felt this was disrespectful to the deceased director of the same name . Stuart chose McClane as a "good strong Scottish name", based on his own Celtic heritage. He described the character as a flawed hero who learns a lesson in the worst possible situation and becomes
22692-459: The melodies of "Ode to Joy", "Winter Wonderland", and "Singin' in the Rain" into his score, mainly to underscore the villains. The samples of "Ode to Joy" are played in slightly lower keys to sound more menacing; the references build to a performance of the symphony when Gruber finally accesses the Nakatomi vault. The score also references " Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! ". Kamen initially saw
22878-412: The moderately successful comedy Blind Date (1987). At the time, there was also a clear distinction between film and television actors. Though films like Ghostbusters (1984) had demonstrated that television stars could lead a blockbuster film, other television actors like Shelley Long and Bill Cosby had failed in their recent attempts to make the transition. Willis received $ 5 million for
23064-624: The most notorious. Smith had previously released films like Deathcheaters (1976) and Stunt Rock (1979) when financial incentives were available for overtly commercial projects. She commented that action films did tell identifiably Australian stories such as the Sandy Harbutt 's biker film Stone (1974) and Miller's post-apocalyptic film Mad Max (1979) derived from Australia's social and cultural realities, as well as how George Miller 's later Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) derived from Australia's long-standing cinematic fascination with
23250-475: The most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that the reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." In the Journal of Film and Video , Lennart Soberson stated that
23436-415: The muscle-bound and invincible heroes of other films of the period. Retrospective commentators also identified and analyzed its thematic concerns, including vengeance, masculinity, gender roles, and American anxieties over foreign influences. The film produced a host of imitators; the term " Die Hard " became a shorthand for plots featuring overwhelming odds in a restricted environment, such as " Die Hard on
23622-604: The notion that traditional marks of masculinity are not exclusive to men and that musculature was not natural, but something to be achieved. Accusations of these muscular women of the era were levelled at that them by 1993 were that they were "men in drag" and that the films generally have to "explain" why their female leads displayed physical aggression and why they were "driven to do it." As the 1990s went on, Hollywood films began having more conventional looking women in their action films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). A vibrant debate exists about whether hypersexualization
23808-402: The party, Hans Gruber ( Alan Rickman ), a recently excommunicated member of a radical West German political movement, initiates his plan to steal $ 640 million worth of bearer bonds stored in the Nakatomi Corporation's vault. Gruber and a legion of mostly European henchmen under his command take hostage the Nakatomi Corporation employees and Holly in a bid to conceal the theft under the guise of
23994-435: The physical effort required to completing a task and the abilities and skills acquired over time. Films from the period reflected on the cultural and social climate from the period, as seen in invoking Japanese or Western imperialist forces as foils. The kung fu film came out of the wuxia films. In comparison to the wuxia , film, the focus on the kung fu film is on the martial arts over chivalry, The martial arts films
24180-448: The piece in an action film and offered to misuse German composer Richard Wagner 's music instead. Once McTiernan explained how the 9th Symphony had been used in A Clockwork Orange to highlight the ultra-violence, Kamen had a better understanding of McTiernan's intentions. In exchange, Kamen insisted that they also license the use of " Singin' in the Rain " (1952) (also used in A Clockwork Orange ) and " Winter Wonderland " (1934). He mixed
24366-574: The popularity Bachan had. These films predominantly earned their revenue through longer runs at B-grade theatres. A cycle of action films came from these films in the 1980s and 1990s called the Avenging Woman film, where female protagonists seek justice for a rape victim, where the protagonist seeks revenge through violence. In 2009, the action genre was re-popularized with the box office success of Wanted (2009) starring Salman Khan . Khan reinvented his screen persona with that of his image in
24552-543: The postwar period. These films were targeted at the more educated and more refined middle-class audiences who saw themselves as above the contemporary martial arts films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that Hollywood action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
24738-420: The power to be shut off, which, as Gruber had anticipated, disables the final vault lock so his team can collect the bonds. The FBI agrees to Gruber's demand for a helicopter, intending to send helicopter gunships to eliminate the group. McClane realizes Gruber plans to blow the roof to kill the hostages and fake his team's deaths. Karl, enraged by Tony's death, attacks McClane and is seemingly killed. Gruber sees
24924-401: The protagonist. He said, "If [Gruber] had not planned the robbery and put it together, [McClane] would have just gone to the party and reconciled or not with his wife. You should sometimes think about looking at your movie through the point of view of the villain who is really driving the narrative." De Souza used blueprints of Fox Plaza to help him lay out the story and character locations within
25110-545: The publicity team determined that the setting was as important as McClane. Upon its release in July 1988, initial reviews were mixed: criticism focused on its violence, plot, and Willis's performance, while McTiernan's direction and Rickman's charismatic portrayal of the villain Hans Gruber were praised. Defying predictions, Die Hard grossed approximately $ 140 million, becoming the year's tenth-highest-grossing film and
25296-402: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." Tasker wrote that when action and adventure films secured awards, it is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Time Out magazine conducted a poll with fifty experts in the field of action cinema, including actors, critics, filmmakers and stuntmen. Out of the 101 films ranked in the poll,
25482-441: The road and cars and a history of cultural anxiety towards a bleak and forbidding outback landscape opposed to the optimism of American action films. France is a major European country for film production and has made co-production commitments with 44 countries around the world. Around beginning of the 21st century, France began producing a series of films explicitly intended for international markets, with action films representing
25668-490: The role, giving him a salary comparable to more successful, established film actors like Dustin Hoffman , Warren Beatty , and Robert Redford . 20th Century Fox president Leonard Goldberg justified the figure by saying Die Hard needed an actor of Willis's potential, and Gordon said that Willis's everyman persona was essential to conveying the idea that the hero could actually fail. Other Fox sources were reported as saying
25854-528: The sequel rights before Nothing Lasts Forever had been written. Levin gave Stuart creative freedom as long as he retained the Christmas-in-Los-Angeles setting; the concept, he considered, would provide an interesting aesthetic. The film was pitched as " Rambo in an office building", referring to the successful Rambo film series. Producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver hired director John McTiernan because of his work with them on
26040-529: The serialization of Jinaghu qixia zhuan (1922) ( transl. Legend of the Strange Swordsmen ). In wuxia , the emphasis is on chivalry and righteousness and allows for phantasmagoric actions over the kung fu film 's more ground-based combat. The Kung fu film emerged in the 1970s from the swordplay films. Its name is derived from the Cantonese term gong fu which has two meanings:
26226-431: The show's production was stopped for eleven weeks, giving Willis enough time to take the role. McTiernan's girlfriend had a chance meeting with a representative of CinemaScore and asked them for analysis of Willis as the star. Their analysis showed that casting Willis would not have a negative impact; his participation was confirmed two weeks later. The choice was controversial as Willis had only starred in one other film,
26412-410: The standard fluorescent office lighting, De Bont concealed small film lights in high locations. He controlled these to create more dynamic and dramatic lighting. This gave him the opportunity to use unusual light positioning. He also placed fluorescent tubes on the floor in one scene to indicate they had not been installed. The shifting nature of the filming script meant some sets were designed before it
26598-485: The starting point of the genre being traced to Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986) make a record-breaking HK$ 34.7 million at the Hong Kong box office. The style of these films would influence American productions, such as Michael Bay 's Bad Boys II (2003) and the Wachowskis ' The Matrix (1999). Korean media recognized the more fatalistic and pessimistic tone of these films, leading to Korean journalists to label
26784-543: The studio was desperate for a star after being turned down by so many popular actors. Willis said, "They paid me what they thought I was worth for the film, and for them." He described the character as unlike the larger-than-life characters portrayed by Stallone or Schwarzenegger, saying "even though he's a hero, he is just a regular guy. He's an ordinary guy who's been thrown into extraordinary circumstances". Willis drew upon his working-class upbringing in South Jersey for
26970-422: The stunt himself and falling onto a pile of cardboard boxes. Rickman was told he would be dropped on a count of three, but he was let go earlier to elicit a genuine look of surprise. McTiernan said, "there's no way he could fake that". The first take was used, but McTiernan convinced Rickman to perform a second one as backup. Capturing the stunt was difficult because it was impossible for a human operator to refocus
27156-433: The style as "Hong Kong noir ". The influence of these films was evident in early Korean films such as Im Kwon-taek 's General's Son (1990) and later films such Song Hae-sung 's A Better Tomorrow (2010), Cold Eyes (2013) and New World (2013). Postcolonial Hong Kong cinema has struggled to maintain its international identity as a provider of these types action films because the talents involved had abandoned
27342-485: The successful 1987 action film Predator . McTiernan agreed to direct on the condition that the film would have "some joy" and not simply contain "mean, nasty acts", seen in other terrorist films. Stuart began working 18-hour days at his office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank , which left him exhausted and "on edge". After an argument with his wife, he went for a drive and saw a box in his lane; unable to avoid it, he
27528-406: The term "action film" or "action adventure film" has been used as early as the 1910s, the contemporary definition usually refers to a film that came with the arrival of New Hollywood and the rise of anti-heroes appearing in American films of the late 1960s and 1970s drawing from war films , crime films and Westerns . These genres were followed by what is referred to as the "classical period" in
27714-450: The term action film genre and adventure are often used in hybrid, and are even used interchangeably. Along with Holmund and Purse, Tasker wrote that the action films expansiveness complicates easy categorization and though the genre is often spoken of as singular genre, it is rarely discussed as singular style. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing a film as " crime /action" or an "action/crime" or other hybrids
27900-416: The terrorists had been filmed arriving in was too small to hold an ambulance. Another scene, showing the terrorists synchronizing their TAG Heuer watches, also showed the truck was empty; this scene had to be deleted, leading to other necessary changes. As scripted, McClane realizes that the American hostage he encounters is Gruber because of the distinctive TAG Heuer watch he observed on the other terrorists;
28086-445: The themes that rescinded irony to restore " cinephile re-actualization of the genre's conventions." The genre went into full circle resurrecting films from the classical period with Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Rambo (2008) finding the characters navigating a contemporary world while also acknowledging their age, culminating into The Expendables (2010) film. The most commercially successful action films and franchise of
28272-529: The title character in China O'Brien (1990) who were physically muscular and or enacted more extreme violence that was usually reserve for male action leads. In her book Contemporary Action Cinema (2011), Lisa Purse described the media response to female leads in action films reveal a discomfort about their presence and are often described with hesitant terms of women moving into territories that are perceived as masculine. Revealing woman in this form deconstructs
28458-594: The top five highest-grossing films. In total, the film earned an approximate box office gross of between $ 81.3 million and $ 83 million. This made it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 1988, behind Crocodile Dundee II ($ 109.3 million), buddy comedy Twins ($ 111.9 million), fantasy-comedy Big ($ 114.9 million), Coming to America ($ 128.1 million), Who Framed Roger Rabbit ($ 154.1 million) and comedy-drama Rain Man ($ 172.8 million). Action film The action film
28644-536: The trailer in response. Research by several film studios revealed that audiences had a negative opinion of Willis overall and little or no interest in seeing him in Die Hard . Newsweek ' s David Ansen called Willis "the most unpopular actor ever to get $ 5 million for making a movie". As 20th Century Fox's confidence in Willis's appeal faltered, the film's posters were changed to focus on Nakatomi Plaza, with Willis's name billed in tiny print. Willis's image
28830-539: The turn of the millennium, Australian genre films have gained increasing acceptance in the Australian feature film industry, while the action genre represented a small percentage of its output in the 21st century. Scholars of Australian genre film generally used the term "action-adventure" which allows them to apply it to various forms of narratives such as tongue in cheek heroic posturing stories like Crocodile Dundee (1986), road movies or bush/outback films. In
29016-422: The use of locations such as Hong Kong. These films often featured one-legged or otherwise handicapped action characters similar to those of Japanese films ( Zatoichi ) and Hong Kong films ( The One-Armed Swordsmen ). These included Im Kwon-taek's Returned Left-Handed Man (1968), Aekkunun Bak's One-Eyd Park (1970) and Lee Doo-yong's Returned One-Legged Man (1974). In the 1990s, the country's national cinema
29202-928: The watch, and Gruber falls to his death. Outside, Karl ambushes McClane and Holly but is shot dead by Powell. Holly punches Thornburg when he attempts to interview McClane. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo and drives McClane and Holly away together. Other cast members include Gruber's henchmen: Bruno Doyon as Franco, Andreas Wisniewski as Tony, Joey Plewa as Alexander, Lorenzo Caccialanza as Marco, Gerard Bonn as Kristoff, Dennis Hayden as Eddie, Al Leong as Uli, Gary Roberts as Heinrich, Hans Buhringer as Fritz, and Wilhelm von Homburg as James. Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush appear as FBI Special Agents Big Johnson and Little Johnson, respectively, Tracy Reiner appears as Thornburg's assistant, and Taylor Fry and Noah Land make minor appearances as McClane's children Lucy McClane and John Jr. The development of Die Hard began in 1987, when screenwriter Jeb Stuart
29388-507: The watches were no longer an established plot point. It necessitated the introduction of a heroic scene for Argyle, who gets to stop Theo's escape. De'voreaux actually punched Gilyard during the scene, which was added in only in the last 10 days of filming. There was flexibility with some roles, depending on the actors' performances, meaning some characters were kept in the film longer and others killed off sooner. The actors were also given some room to improvise, like Theo's line, "The quarterback
29574-539: The window dragged the hose and pulled Willis towards the edge, as they could better control Willis's fall if he went over. Editor Frank Urioste kept the scene where McClane falls down a ventilation shaft and catches onto a lower opening; Willis's stuntman accidentally fell further than intended. During a scene where McClane shoots a terrorist through a table, Willis suffered a permanent two-thirds hearing loss in his left ear caused by firing loud blank cartridges close to his head. For Gruber's fall from Nakatomi Plaza, Rickman
29760-475: The woman of exploitation films of the 1970s such as Caged Heat (1974) and Big Bad Mama (1974). While characters like Frank in The Transporter series are permitted to visibly sweat, strain and be bloodied, Purse found a reluctance for filmmakers to have their female leads have any appearance warping injuries to ensure a perfectly made-up face. Comedy is often used in films of this period to place
29946-448: Was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir (2013) said that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews who are rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Film Studies began to engage generic hybridity in
30132-712: Was a debate over whether to use "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" or "yippee-ti-yay, motherfucker"; Willis endorsed the former. Principal photography began in November 1987, and concluded by early March 1988, with an approximate $ 25–$ 35 million budget. Filming took place almost entirely in and around Fox Plaza in Century City , situated on the Avenue of the Stars . The location was chosen late in production by production designer Jackson De Govia. A mostly unoccupied building
30318-408: Was a difficult market for Hong Kong action cinema to break into. Prompted by the success of Enter the Dragon and the popularity of Bruce Lee, Toei made their own Bruce Lee-style martial arts films, with The Street Fighter and its two sequels starring Sonny Chiba as well as a spin-off with a female lead similar to Hong Kong's Angela Mao called Sister Street Fighter . The success of Enter
30504-474: Was actually using them to steal weapons-grade uranium from Chagarin. Surviving yet another battle, John and Jack mend their relationship. Throughout the films, McClane is known for his catchphrase, "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker". He frequently says it to taunt his adversaries, or in the moments before killing them. McClane adopts the phrase in the first film, Die Hard , when villain Hans Gruber calls him
30690-466: Was aiming for the foreign audience, as he was disappointed with the current state of Japanese films. Kitamura's characters have been described as "a careful combination of the maverick independence of 1980s Hollywood action heroes and the calmness and acceptance of Japanese samurai, a consistent criticism of Japanese people today." Kitamura followed up Versus with two manga-inspired big-budget action films, Azumi and Sky High . Both released in 2003,
30876-417: Was displayed in corresponding with corresponded with millennial angst and apocalypticism showcased in films like Independence Day (1996) and Armageddon (1998). Action films of mass destruction began requiring more overtly super heroic characters with further comic book adaptations being made with increased non-realistic settings with films like The Matrix (1999). The fourth phase arrived following
31062-436: Was dropped between 20 and 70 feet (6 and 21 m); reports are inconsistent. He was suspended on a raised platform and dropped onto a blue screen airbag. This allowed the background behind him to be composited with footage taken from Fox Plaza and falling confetti that looked like bearer bonds. Rickman had to fall backward onto the bag, something stuntmen avoid to control their fall. McTiernan convinced Rickman by demonstrating
31248-508: Was featured in People Magazine , did a spot on Nightline , and was referred to (by Colonel Stuart) as "the policeman hero who saved the Nakatomi hostages" along with a local news crew. In Die Hard 2 , on Christmas Eve, mercenaries seize control of Dulles International Airport 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. They take control of the airport's communications and threaten to cause plane crashes unless their demands are met. Holly
31434-461: Was forced to drive over it and discovered it to be empty. According to Stuart, he pulled over on the side of the freeway, his "heart pounding". From this, Stuart conceived a central theme of the story of a man who should have apologized to his wife before a catastrophe. He returned home to reconcile with his wife and wrote 35 pages that night. To shape the McClanes' relationship, Stuart also drew upon
31620-457: Was his leap from the top of Nakatomi Plaza with a firehose wrapped around his waist. The stunt involved a 25-foot (7.6 m) leap from a five-story parking garage ledge onto an airbag as a 60-foot (18 m) wall of flame exploded behind him. He considered it to be one of his toughest stunts. The explosive force pushed him towards the edge of the airbag and the crew was concerned he had died. Stuntman Ken Bates stood in for Willis when his character
31806-469: Was in decline by the mid-1970s in Hong Kong in relation to the stock market crash which went from over 150 films in 1972 to just over 80 in 1975, which led to a downfall in martial arts films produced. When the economy became to rebound, a new trend of martial arts films, the Shaolin kung fu films emerged and sparked a revival of the genre. Unlike the wuxia , the kung fu film primarily focuses on fighting on
31992-509: Was in decline leading to Hong Kong gangster films filled in this void leading to large commercial success at the national box office. Early Korean heirs to Hong Kong action films include Rules of The Game (1994), Beat (1997), and Green Fish (1997) involving men who gain confidence and achieve personal growth as they embark on journeys to protect national state and meet devastating ends. South Korean cinema only received international attention in both art film and blockbuster formats towards
32178-478: Was in dire financial straits. His script purchased by Columbia Pictures had been abandoned and a contract at Walt Disney Pictures was not providing him with sufficient income. Stuart had six weeks between contracted work so his agent Jeremy Zimmer contacted Lloyd Levin , the head of development at the Gordon Company, a producing arm of 20th Century Fox . Levin asked Stuart to work on an adaptation of
32364-456: Was inspired to carry a Western motif throughout the script, including cowboy lingo. He befriended a construction superintendent at the under-construction Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, allowing him access to the building to gain ideas on how to lay out the characters and scenes. He delivered the finished screenplay in June 1987. It was greenlit the following day, in part because 20th Century Fox needed
32550-485: Was known what they were to be used for. The Nakatomi Building's 30th floor—where the hostages are held—was one of the few sets. It contained a recreation of the Frank Lloyd Wright -designed house Fallingwater . De Govia reasoned that it reflected the contemporary trend of Japanese corporations buying up American corporate assets. An early design for the Nakatomi logo was too reminiscent of a swastika and it
32736-420: Was lower than it might have been. The larger salaries paid to these stars were based on the built-in audience they could attract to a film's opening week, with good word of mouth supporting the film thereafter, but Willis did not have a built-in audience. Willis featured prominently in the film's early marketing campaign, but it underwent several changes as the film's release date drew nearer. Willis had developed
32922-410: Was more concerned with creating a dramatic rather than an attractive shot. He cited the use of real flares in the film that generated unpredictable smoke and sometimes obscured the image. Willis's first day on set was on November 2, 1987. He came straight from filming Moonlighting to shoot one of his most pivotal scenes, where McClane leaps from a rooftop as it explodes behind him, saved only by
33108-428: Was needed which the under-construction Fox Plaza offered; it was secured with two main conditions: no filming during the day and no damage from explosions. Cinematographer Jan de Bont said the building's design was distinct, making it a character on its own, and clear views of the building were available from a distance, enabling establishing shots as McClane approaches it. The surrounding city could be seen from within
33294-400: Was not fully realized until almost halfway through production. McTiernan and Willis had determined that McClane is a man who does not like himself much but is doing the best he can in a bad situation. McClane's catchphrase, "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker", was inspired by old cowboy lingo, including cowboy actor Roy Rogers 's own "Yippee-ki-yah, kids", to emphasize his all-American character. There
33480-402: Was not included in the film's first full-page newspaper advertisement in mid-July. 20th Century Fox executive Tom Sherak denied that Willis was being hidden, saying their marketing strategy had changed when they realized that the building was as important a character as the actor. Defying expectations, sneak previews of the film were well received by audiences, and the week following its release,
33666-599: Was not until the base of Chinese commercial filmmaking was relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the late 1940s that martial arts cinema was revived. These films contained much of the characteristics of the previous era. During this period, over 100 films were based on the adventures of real life Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung who first appeared in film in 1949. These films primarily on circuited within Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas with Chinese diaspora . Yip continued that these Hong Kong films were still lagging behind in aesthetic and technical standards that films from
33852-504: Was only in the mid-20th century when action films developed into their own recognizable genre instead of being a collection of other types of films such as Westerns, swashbucklers or adventure films. Films have been described "action films" or "action-adventure film" as early as the 1910s. Only by the 1980s was the term action as its own unique genre used routinely in terms of promotion and reviewing practices. The first Chinese-language martial arts films can be traced to Shanghai cinema of
34038-676: Was only shown as being applicable to white middle-class women. Purse found that these women were empowered at the price of women of other ethnicities. This is seen in Aeon Flux (2005) where Sithandra dies protecting Aeon and Rain's death to make way for Alice in Resident Evil (2002). John McClane John McClane Sr. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Die Hard franchise , based on Joe Leland from Roderick Thorp 's action novel Nothing Lasts Forever . McClane
34224-532: Was paid $ 5 million for his involvement, placing him among Hollywood's highest-paid actors. The deal was seen as a poor investment by industry professionals and attracted significant controversy towards the film prior to its release. Filming took place between November 1987 and March 1988, on a $ 25 million to $ 35 million budget and almost entirely on location in and around Fox Plaza in Los Angeles. Expectations for Die Hard were low; some marketing materials omitted Willis's image, ostensibly because
34410-806: Was portrayed in all five films by actor Bruce Willis , and he is known for his sardonic one-liners , including the famous catchphrase in every Die Hard film: "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker". Per the franchise's name, he confounds repeated attempts to kill him, driving his enemies to distraction, by adding up and exploiting dumb luck. John McClane was originally based on the fictional character Detective Joe Leland from Roderick Thorp 's bestselling 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever . Other aspects are derived from Frank Malone from Walter Wager 's 1987 novel 58 Minutes (adapted as Die Hard 2 ). Die Hard villain Hans Gruber describes him as "just another American.... who thinks he's John Wayne ," to which McClane replies that he "was always partial to Roy Rogers ." He
34596-413: Was re-designed to look closer to a samurai warrior's helmet. A 380-foot-long (120 m) matte painting provided the city backdrop as viewed from inside the building's 30th floor. It featured animated lights and other lighting techniques to present both moving traffic, daytime and nighttime. The summer of 1988 was expected by film industry executives to be dominated by action and comedy films, although
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