Die Hard 2
Short description
On Christmas Eve, John McClane is waiting at Washington Dulles International Airport for his wife Holly's flight to land. His plans are disrupted when a group of former military operatives, led by a disgraced colonel, seizes control of the airport's systems. Their aim is to free a deposed South American general and drug trafficker who is being flown into the United States to face charges. With landing systems shut down, aircraft are left circling in a snowstorm, and McClane, an off-duty Los Angeles police lieutenant, becomes the main obstacle to the group's plan while also dealing with an uncooperative airport police chief and an anti-terrorist unit. The film is the second entry in the Die Hard series.
Renny Harlin directed the film, the fourth of the twenty-eight features he has directed in chronological order, following A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and preceding The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Bruce Willis returns as McClane, with Bonnie Bedelia as Holly, William Sadler as the terrorist leader Stuart, John Amos as Major Grant, Franco Nero as General Esperanza and William Atherton as Richard Thornberg. Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson wrote the screenplay, and Joel Silver, Lawrence Gordon and Charles Gordon produced.
Made for about 70 million dollars, the film took roughly 240 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a 7.2 rating from around 406,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a 7 rating from about 6,600 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 out of 10 from 68 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Walter Wageer's novel "58 Minutes".
- Valverde is a fictional Latin American country. The same country name was used in the film "Commando" (1985).
- An elderly woman on the plane is reading a book that resembles the novel "Lethal Weapon." Joel Silver was the producer of "Lethal Weapon" (1987), "Die Hard" (1988), and "Die Hard 2" (1990).
- Black & Decker paid producers to feature a cordless drill in a scene with Bruce Willis. This scene was cut from the film during editing. Black & Decker sued 20th Century Fox, marking the first lawsuit regarding product placement in cinema. The parties settled the dispute out of court.
- The phrase “Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” is used in all five films.
- Filming was originally planned to take place in Minnesota, but there was insufficient snowfall in Minnesota that year, so filming was moved to Michigan.
- During filming in Denver, there was practically no snow, so the filmmakers had to use artificial snow to create the blizzard scenes.
- Renny Harlin was simultaneously editing this film and “Ford Fairlane” (1990) because both films had an extremely short post-production period. The films were released in theaters one month apart.
- Upon the completion of its theatrical run, "Die Hard 2" became the highest-grossing sequel of all time. This record was broken a year later by "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).
- The equipment used by the mercenaries for landing planes in the church is largely similar to real equipment used in air traffic control centers. However, it was simplified for the film's more dramatic and dynamic scenes.
- The film's budget grew not by the day, but by the hour. At one point, production costs reached $20,000 per minute.
- In "Die Hard" (1988), Sergeant Powell hummed the song "Let It Snow". The same song plays at the end of this film.
- In the aerial chase scene, the airliner and helicopter were real, only the snow was made of soap flakes.
- The film was the first in history to use computer-generated backgrounds instead of traditional painting on canvas. This technology will be fully developed in the third film.
- Renny Harlin suggested that William Sadler be nude in the scene where he first appears in the film. According to Harlin, it was an effective, but unusual way to introduce the main villain to the audience.
- It took several nights to film the fight scene between Bruce Willis and William Sadler on the wing of the plane. Large fans spraying artificial snow were used for filming this scene.
- The plane that McClane's wife is flying on is an L-1011 TriStar, while the crashed Flight 114 was operated on a Douglas DC-8.
- Combat weapons cannot use blank cartridges without special attachments or a specially designed barrel: the weapon's mechanism simply won't function. Therefore, the scene of swapping magazines from live to blank and back looks completely unnatural.
- The grenades thrown at McClane on the plane are M30 grenades – a training version of the M26 grenade (they are marked on the body with RFX55). The detonation delay of the M26 is 4-5 seconds. The first grenade would have detonated before the last one was even thrown.
- Filming took place from December 14, 1989, to May 14, 1990.
- In the original script for "Die Hard" (1988), John McClane only made a few jokes throughout the film. Most of the jokes John delivers were improvised by Bruce Willis. During the filming of the sequel, Bruce Willis was allowed to improvise as much as he deemed necessary.
- John McTiernan wanted to direct the film, but was unable to because he was contractually obligated to direct "The Hunt for Red October" (1990).
- General Esperanza arrives at the airport on a Fairchild C-123 Provider military transport aircraft. For the filming, the standard piston engines were removed from the C-123 and replaced with four 'jet engines' – mock 'barrels' that were 'fitted' directly onto the wing.
- The scene of John being ejected was filmed against a blue screen using a motion control camera system, significantly improved since its use in "Star Wars". The image of McClane was separated from the background using a "traveling matte" and combined with footage of an explosion on an optical printer.
- When the terrorists land the plane by lowering the horizon line by 60 meters, they choose an aircraft with nearly empty tanks ("its tanks are dry as a martini"). Nevertheless, upon hitting the runway, the airliner explodes almost immediately, as if its fuel tanks were full.
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