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diehardearth.jpg

Die Hard On an Earth?

By Miscellaneous | | February 23, 2010 |

By Miscellaneous | | February 23, 2010 |


In a recent interview with MTV, Bruce Willis said he thinks he’s doing Die Hard 5 next year. And in addition to stating that he hopes to get Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman back for the next installment, Willis professed it’s time for the Die Hard franchise to “go worldwide.”

Okay, in the context of the ever-expanding scope of the series, that might make sense, but won’t putting John McClane in charge of saving the planet just align it more with some of the actor’s other movies, specifically The Fifth Element and Armageddon?

Or, if it’s more of a world-domination thing, doesn’t that put the originally very real, very everyday-type hero on a Bond/Bourne/Hunt/etc. level? Hell, why not just reveal that he had Unbreakable-like super strength and healing all this time? Actually, Willis also mentioned he’s still up for doing Unbreakable 2, so maybe the two sequels can just be merged into one shitty movie.

Unless Die Hard 5 has McClane saving Earth from global warming, and the film in turn also saves the planet from global warming, I really don’t see the point.

Here’s what other bloggers think should be done with the character and franchise:

  • Mark at I Watch Stuff:
    OK, worldwide. So Die Hard 5 would basically be “trapped on Earth”? How existential, John McClane.
  • Monika Bartyzel at Cinematical:
    Willis may say that the mythology continues to grow, but it’s time for McClane to get a rest. Or rather, to be put to rest for good. Give him a good send-off, one worthy of Hans Gruber and the Nakatomi Incident, and let it be done with.

    LET HIM DIE HARD.

  • Eric Eisenberg at Cinema Blend:
    The character is an everyman cop caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was bad enough that the fourth installment had McClane solving a national crisis, but saving the world is just not who he is. We’ve kind of known this for awhile, but it now can officially be said: John McClane is dead.
  • Kevin Coll at Fused Film:
    I love Willis’ idea of taking it global, I think that is a solid idea. I’d also like to see McClane get some major props and offered like a CTU job or something for all the terrorists he has killed.
  • Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk:
    I think if they want to keep this franchise alive, the only way to do it is to go the Predator route. I’d love to see John McClane vs. Corbin Dallas, or John McClane vs. Joe Hallenbeck, or John McClane vs. a Grizzly bear. Spoiler alert: they both sh-t in the woods.
  • Rob Keyes at ScreenRant:
    They’ve already broken out of the trilogy to make a fourth and they even broke out of their tradtional R-rating to make a PG-13 movie geared towards bringing the larger audience of younger folks into theaters to witness the 80s action star kick some more ass. Why wouldn’t they make a 5th? Heck, maybe it’ll be in 3D!
  • Peter Sciretta at /Film:
    If they do make a fifth Die Hard film, I’d love to seem them bring it back in a bit, contain it in a small location (Die Hard in a mall?), and bring it back to a character-driven plot.

    Could the story work with McClane stuck overseas? Maybe. It would be easy to set him as the American who the Foreign government doesn’t care to work for…

  • Jackson Bishop at Collider:
    This could be an interesting story idea, with McClain possibly finding a European trip take a turn for the worst because of some kind of terrorist plot. It would have to be terrorists, it’s always terrorists. […] placing him in another culture could play upon the fish-out-of-water nature that worked so well in the first film. The filmmakers should also remember to maintain the wrong place, wrong time aspect of series that keeps McClain so relatable as a character, even if it does make one wonder how many times something like this can happen to one man.
  • Cole Abaius at Film School Rejects (from a list of five mash-up ideas):
    Skate or Die! Hard
    The Personnel: Tony Hawk makes his directorial debut with Olympian Shaun White playing sidekick to Bruce Willis

    The Pitch: When evil terrorists led by Hans Gruber’s third cousin take over the X Games, McClane and professional skateboarder Ron White (played by professional snowboarder Shaun White) have to save the day by killing everyone…on the vert ramp! They compete in five skating events, choosing to lay down their weapons, get high together, and have a rad time that will inevitably be sequel-ed by Die Hard 6: Excite Bike. This summer…you’ll skate…or die hard.

  • Drew McWeeny at HitFix:
    Personally, I like to imagine an alternate reality where the producers of the original “Die Hard” realize that the charm of the film hinges largely on the idea of John McClane being a very average guy who finds himself in one-time-only circumstances much larger than him, and who survives just barely, and as a result, they decided to never make a sequel because they know it would just be stupid to do so. I like to imagine that reality, and when I look at my own DVD collection, that is indeed the reality it reflects.