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3. Die Hard - The Roof

“God, please don’t let me die.”

John McTiernan’s 1988 action classic culminates in a sequence that cuts effortlessly between converging narrative threads while making the most of one of the most unconventional action heroes of its day.

With his editors John F. Link and Frank J. Urioste, McTiernan combines four separate stories into one symphony of action. Hans kidnaps Holly downstairs while John fights Karl upstairs while hostages are bullied onto the roof while helicopters come to kill, maybe, 25% of them, give or take. McTiernan punctuates this symphony with little plot points and payoffs, like the discovery of Holly’s true identity, which leads to her kidnapping. The action moves the plot forward, even this late into the game.

Once these threads have combined to place John on the roof a moment before the sequence’s explosive denouement, the film is still combining as many elements as possible. He faces death from three distinct directions. He could die from the fall. He could die from the explosion. He could die from getting shot. All at the same time. That’s tension.

And at the moment where all of this comes together, you have one of the most vulnerable moments in action hero history. “God, please don’t let me die.” When does an action hero say that? Die Hard stood in contrast to it’s 80’s predecessors in that it’s protagonist was not a supercop or supercommando (though apparently this film was originally supposed to be Commando 2). He was an ordinary Joe. Well, he was still a cop, which means he had specialized training, but he came off like a regular guy.

Resourceful. MacGyverish, even. But still scrappy and down to earth in contrast to his cultured Eurotrash adversaries. This even comes through in his fighting style against Karl, played by former ballerina Alexander Gudonov, whose experience informs his character’s relatively graceful fighting style. John is rough and sloppy by contrast.

On the other end of the action archetype rainbow are the FBI guys, who are every bit the cowboys that Hans accuses John of being. And if we weren’t convinced enough that John is vulnerable, he goes through this whole sequence (and movie, for that matter) barefoot.

Ironically, this role was originally intended for one of those beefy, standard 80’s action icons, being offered to Arnold and Sly before they passed.

Even the editing in the film went against the contemporary action grain. McTiernan employs jump cuts and cuts while the camera is moving which, while very popular today, were unheard of practices in American action cinema at the time (they’d been common in Europe for years). The result is a kinetic style that feeds a breakneck momentum.

Speaking of style, does anyone else miss lens flares? McTiernan had to use older cameras to achieve them here. His cinematographer, by the way, was Jan de Bont, who would go on to direct Speed and, um, other films.

This sequence also has some of the best punching sounds in movie history. Bruce Willis sounds like his fists are made of guns.

For all it’s assets, the scene’s stunt doubling sometimes falls short. You can pretty much tell when it’s not Bruce. That having been said, they use him for a good portion of the explosion, padding his back and gelling the rest of him to absorb as much heat as possible when things go bang.

See also: The entire Die Hard Quadrilogy

Next: The inspirational power of gantry cranes.