Jesse Hawken

194: Die Harder (with Brian Abrams)

Added 2024-12-24 16:01:01 +0000 UTC

In part two of our discussion of the Die Hard series, Brian Abrams, the author of Die Hard: An Oral History and I go over the sequels to John McTiernan’s 1988 masterpiece.

We make a case for Renny Harlin’s Die Hard 2 (1990) as the platonic ideal of a blockbuster sequel - a bigger, dumber version of the original with a great supporting cast which delivers on the formula and also serves as a better “Christmas movie” than the first one to boot.

We itemize our issues with McTiernan’s return to the franchise with Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), and trash the final two films in the series, Len Wiseman’s Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and John Moore’s rock-bottom final entry, 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard, inexplicably set in Russia.

Follow Brian Abrams on Letterboxd and check out his website.

“Die Hard: An Oral History” by Brian Abrams is available to download as a Kindle Single

"Robert Costanzo, the Essential Worker", by Brian Abrams, for Lowbrow Reader, 2022

Teaser trailer for Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin, 1990)

Trailer for Die Hard with a Vengeance (John McTiernan, 1995)

Trailer for Passenger 57 (Kevin Hooks, 1992)

Trailer for High Risk (Wong Jing, 1995)

“Die Hard is Back”: Bruce Willis’ final performance as John McClane in a 2020 battery commercial

Music video for “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun”, The Beastie Boys