"This IS Christmas music."
Die Hard is one of the best ever action films, Christmas films, love films... or just one of the best ever films.
Directed by John McTiernan, with Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart adapting Roderick Thorp's novel.
I was watching it again recently and was thinking about the structure. I wanted to look first at Act 1 (the first thirty-three minutes or so) because it is so so so sharp.
You could look at it in three sequences (or any way you want, I suppose), but my brain likes to see it as two.
First the airplane. We introduce our main character. He gets advice to take off his shoes upon getting to his hotel, he discusses being a cop, he sees a pretty lady, he gets surprised by California because he's a New York guy. He also has a big stuffed animal and it's Christmas, so there's someone he cares about out there. Also another HUGE thing happens on the plane. So smooth. We set up one of our key motifs: "ding" for danger. Throughout the film the sound of the elevator dings will continually indicate danger. But when do we first hear the ding? When the airplane seatbelt light changes. Golden.
IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/
From here we meet Holly, hear about her and John's history as we ride in the limo with Argyle, and get to the plaza. The sun sets as we enter into the dark of the single night that will contain the entire story. You could say this ends Sequence 1, but I would include/end it with John and Holly meeting and talking. They connect, then they fight, then John bangs his head on the wall, showing us he doesn't want to fight, to mess up, to be a jerk. He cares.
Then we see Hans and the bad guys head toward the Plaza. John takes off his shoes and socks to calm himself down at the suggestion of our opening airplane friend. The bad guys arrive. The murdering begins. John has to take cover with a handgun, no shoes. Hans asks Takagi for "the code," but he doesn't give it. John witnesses Takagi get shot, killed. This is key, because John now knows they are killers. It is also important for later that John does not see Hans during this scene, only his hand and the gun.
We then go back to the vault, Hans' key goal. They have to crack it. There's money inside. The theft has already begun. End of Sequence 2. We have our hero and his family, we have our villain and his crew. We have a contained location and time frame, and we have a goal--save our wife, stay alive, stop Hans. Here we go. From almost exactly twenty-five percent through the film, Act 1 concludes and our story questions start their answering.
We start with potentially the easiest way to solve the issue; pull the fire alarm. Then fight and kill Tony, take his machine gun, drop one of the best lines in the film via a sweatshirt: "Now I have a machine gun Ho - Ho - Ho," call 911, and get a squad car to come by, nothing?! Throw a body out the window onto the hood. "Welcome to the party, Pal." This leads us into our midpoint or first culmination in a sense. Al is now a part of the story. John and Hans connect on the radio. The news team enters. The police chief shows up. It reminds me of Jaws in a way: the first half of the film deals a ton with trying to convince others of the danger we have on our hands. Once the midpoint hits, the truth is out and the story changes direction.
The second half of Act 2 deals with the "LAPD Truck," Ellis' death, fake demands, and the arrival of the FBI, then one of the best interactions in the movie, one of the best scenes: John and Hans meet face to face, one of the best examples of Dutch Angle in modern film. John outsmarts Hans, but they are interrupted--"Ding!"-- by Hans' team, guns, glass, glass, glass, and ultimately a turnover of the detonators back to the bad guys: an empowerment of the robbers while John reaches his most vulnerable physical point, bare feet cut apart by broken glass. Things don't look good.
Act 3 starts with Al sharing his sad past, then races us toward Hans' success: the FBI cuts the power which unlocks the final seal of the vault and the money gets packed up. Meanwhile John sits in a pool of blood, hidden in some bathroom tucked deep into the building giving Al a message to pass on to his wife, aka he thinks he's not going to make it. "I'm sorry."
Trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jaJuwKCmJbY
In a sense, this sequence (the first half of Act 3) sets us up for a clean all around good guy loss. The news team even makes it to John and Holly's home and force their cameras into the faces of the children. Even this is set up as a possible final chance for the children to send a message to their parents.
The final sequence, though, takes us into one more push, one more cathartic dive, one last hope: the roof fight, the choppers come in and we warn off the business hostages, Holly is taken hostage as her identity is revealed, and the final showdown--two bullets, two bad guys. Tape the gun to the back. The classic "everyone laughs" moment, and POW, POW. Hans goes back out the window and pulls Holly to the edge. John must unlatch the Rolex to get Hans' hand off Holly--the watch, set up earlier as a motif symbolizing John's loss of Holly comes into play PERFECTLY--killing the bad guy and fighting for his wife become the exact same imagery and moment. John gets the Rolex off her wrist, Ellis' gift. Hans dies. Same action. So good.
As we walk out and meet our friends face to face, we have one last jolt of danger as Al resolves his trigger issues, cult fans or haters in theaters argue continuity issues, and Argyle returns to the screen. It's a go on the Christmas music as we drive off into the end.
Be well.
LionSuit.com
(words and image are original. posts may also be shown on my hive.blog page.)
