A Good Day to Die Hard
Yippee ki-yay Mother Russia.
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Production
Budget
$92 000 000
Revenue
$304 654 182
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Wyck Godfrey
Actors
Bruce Willis
John McClane
Jai Courtney
Jack McClane
Sebastian Koch
Yuri Komarov
Yuliya Snigir
Irina Komarov
Radivoje Bukvić
Alik
Cole Hauser
Mike Collins
Sergey Kolesnikov
Viktor Chagarin
Amaury Nolasco
Murphy
Short description
John McClane travels to Moscow to help his estranged son Jack, only to learn that Jack is not the troubled young man he expected. Jack works for the CIA, and the mission he is tangled up in involves a Russian informant and a plot with consequences far beyond one family's quarrel. The two men have to work together despite their very different approaches, pursued by figures from the Russian underworld.
The film is the fifth entry in the Die Hard series and was directed by John Moore, whose earlier features include Behind Enemy Lines, Flight of the Phoenix, The Omen and Max Payne. Skip Woods wrote the screenplay, and Bruce Willis returns as John McClane alongside Jai Courtney as Jack, with Sebastian Koch, Yuliya Snigir, Radivoje Bukvić and Cole Hauser among the credited cast.
Released in February 2013, it was a substantial production, with a budget reported at 92 million USD. It went on to take roughly 305 million USD worldwide, a strong commercial result by the standards of the series. Audience response was much cooler: on IMDb it holds 5.2/10 from around 223,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.3/10 from roughly 6,875 votes. Film critics were harsher still, with a rating of 4/10 drawn from 229 reviews, placing their assessment below even the mixed audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Bruce Willis has openly stated that he would like to bring Bonnie Bedelia back to the "Die Hard" franchise. She played Holly McClane, John McClane's wife, in the first two films of the series, but did not appear in the last two.
- This is the first film in the "Die Hard" series to be shown in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and also the first film in the series to be shot on Fuji film.
- Bruce Willis is the only actor to have appeared in all five films of the "Die Hard" series.
- The first film in the series to be released in IMAX format.
- This is the first film in the series shot as a direct continuation of the previous one after the release of "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007). Mary Elizabeth Winstead reprises her role as Lucy McClane from "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007). Besides Winstead and Bruce Willis, the only actors to appear in more than one film in the series are Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, and Bonnie Bedelia (all of whom appeared in the first two installments).
- Filming of the helicopter gunship scenes with the Mi-24 took place at a military training ground, where Major Peter Simon, commander of air operations at the airbase in Solnok, Hungary, fired from GS-30-2k automatic cannons (30 mm) and S-8 rockets (80 mm). Live ammunition was used to achieve maximum realism. The background and targets were added during post-production.
- The six-wheeled Force Protection Cougar HEV truck used during the chase scene was driven by a well-known Hungarian rapper and drummer named Zoli Ganksta (real name – Zolan Zana), also known for his extensive tattoos.
- Four replicas of the armored Cougar HEV truck were used in the film. Three of them were created by the Szalay team’s specialists, built on the base of military surplus six-wheeled ZIL-131 trucks, equipped with Ural engines. The fourth replica, used for jump stunts, was made in the USA and equipped with a Dodge Viper V10 engine.
- Theater actor Daniil Pevtsov auditioned for the role of McClane's son.
- Most of the filming took place not in Moscow, but in the capital of Hungary – Budapest.
- There is an error in the ranks depicted in the film. The policeman in a peaked cap opening the paddy wagon and the guard escorting Komarov, wearing camouflage, both have the rank of private. This rank does not exist in the police or, previously, in the militia. Also, the escort officer from the correctional institution has old militia insignia and a chevron of the private security service. And the collar tabs are not police issue.
- When Yuri calls his daughter, the phone is in dial mode, not call mode. This is clearly visible.
- At the 15th minute of the film, as John walks through the square with protesters, a Russian flag is waving vertically behind him.
- In Zherekhov's file, visible at the 8th minute of the film, the date of his release from custody is indicated in the American format – MM:DD:YY (month:day:year). In Russia, a different format is customary – DD:MM:YY (day:month:year).
- In the scene where McClane talks to Komarov about children, they are leaning against a car with the license plate “н781ьк”. However, Russian license plates only use 12 letters that have equivalents in the Latin alphabet (A, B, E, K, M, H, O, P, C, T, Y, X). The taxi Bruce exits also has an incorrect license plate: “РЯ 982.” And the stolen Geländewagen also has an incorrect license plate: “ч408зs”.
- Around the 8th minute of the film, when McClane is flying on a plane and looking at his son's file, where the son is registered under a false name, there is a spelling mistake in the patronymic. Instead of the correct spelling “Yurievich,” McClane’s son’s file reads “Yurievich.”
- At the 9th minute of the film, while John is reviewing Jack's personal file, it can be noticed on one of the pages that his Russian passport number is listed incorrectly—the series is missing, and the number consists of seven digits instead of six.
- At the 23rd minute of the film, a gray car crashes into the right side of a blue car. When an armored vehicle rams these cars in the next shot, they are already nose-to-nose, and the blue car's previously intact hood is now dented.
- At the 13th minute of the film, John exits a taxi that is stopped in the far left lane of the road, but in the very next shot, the taxi is in the middle lane.
- At the 15th minute of the film, Jack and Komarov are placed in protective booths with walls made entirely of glass or transparent plastic. At the 17th minute, after an explosion, Jack makes his way out by kicking through a suddenly appearing grate. Furthermore, when he later approaches Komarov's booth, the door to the booth is completely missing.
- At the 19th minute of the film, as Jack and Komarov walk down the street, it is clearly visible that their hands are handcuffed. When they get into a van in one of the following scenes, both of their hands are already free.
- At the 24th minute of the film, in one shot, it can be noticed that Jack is sitting in the driver's seat on the right side, although in previous scenes the driver's seat was on the left.
- At the 26th minute of the film, when the armored vehicle rams a blue Renault Clio, a crew member's hand can be seen on the right side of the frame, operating a camera motorcycle.
- At the 28th minute of the film, John drives an SUV onto an overpass equipped with metal guardrails along the road and prepares to jump onto the highway passing beneath the bridge. In the next scene, the guardrails disappear, and John simply drives through a glass pedestrian barrier.
- At the 30th minute of the film, when John drives under a pedestrian bridge, a roll cage can be seen installed inside his SUV in one of the shots.
- At the 31st minute of the film, John rams an armored vehicle with his SUV, causing it to fly off the bridge and crash into a yellow truck. When the truck flips over after the collision, it can be seen that there is no driver in the tractor's cab.
- At the 33rd minute of the film, Chagarin says that the election for the Minister of Defense will take place next week. In the Russian Federation, the Minister of Defense is appointed by the president.
- At the 52nd minute of the film, Jack manages to discreetly get a knife and cut the plastic zip-ties on his wrists. However, it is unclear how John freed himself from the ties, or how Jack comes to have a gun in his hands in the next shot.
- At the 65th minute of the film, John asks Jack about Chernobyl and confuses it with Grenoble, which he describes as a Swiss city. In reality, Grenoble is located in France, not Switzerland.
- Paul Walker, Liam Hemsworth, Aaron Paul, Ben Foster, Paul Dano, Shiloh Fernandez, James Badge Dale, Milo Ventimiglia, Steven R. McQueen, and D.J. Cotrona were considered for the role of Jack McClane, John McClane's son. Ultimately, the role went to Jai Courtney.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
