The Only Way To Save Die Hard Is To Kill John McClane

The Die Hard franchise has been on the outs for some time now, but the series could revive its glory days by killing off Bruce Willis’ John McClane. Released in 1988 to critical and audience acclaim, Die Hard was a huge success at the box office and has since become a legendary addition to the action cinema canon.

Combining intense set-pieces with witty dialogue and charming character work from heroes, minor characters, and villains alike, the first trio of Die Hard films won over audiences by moving away from the uber-tough action hero image of the mid-80s. Alongside Shane Black’s Lethal Weapon films, the Die Hard series introduced audiences to a new breed of action hero – one who was aging, tired, and above all believably human.

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A divorced cop with thinning hair, Bruce Willis’ John McClane was the antithesis of the gigantic, forever-feuding Stallone and Schwarzenegger, oversized action men who ruled the box office at the time of the first film’s release. But the fourth and fifth installments, released in 2007 and 2013 respectively, took the character in a sillier, more over-the-top direction which soon turned McClane into the most overpowered he-man since Chuck Norris. Live Free Or Die Hard and A Good Day To Die Hard both abandoned the everyman appeal of McClane and lost the franchise its consistent critical acclaim as a result, becoming predictable and uninspired action duds. Recently, rumors of a new Die Hard installment began swirling loudly due to a commercial for batteries (how the mighty have fallen) but despite how unlikely it may seem, the only way to save the franchise is by killing off everyman antihero John McClane.

Killing off McClane may seem extreme, but the appeal of the Die Hard movie series is rooted in the fact that such a maneuver was never off the table in the early films of the franchise. The original novel Die Hard is based on ends with McClane failing to save his daughter’s life, and throughout the first film, it’s mostly a combination of dumb luck and ingenuity that saves his skin. To return the Die Hard series to its believable roots the sixth film needs to make McClane a nobody again, an underprepared and outmatched hero who is well aware the odds are impossible and is driven only by natural heroism. Only by throwing McClane back into extreme circumstances that the character is unprepared for can a final movie redeem the hero and the franchise. Despite its intense moments, Die Hard was a (relatively) realistic action movie and the idea of its beleaguered middle-aged hero becoming the unstoppable action superhero of the last two films makes no sense when his entire appeal was based on subverting that tired image.

Taking away the human vulnerability of McClane is exactly what ruined the laterDie Hard sequels, and returning him to this believable, recognizable state of fear and instinctual self-preservation is necessary to bring the series back to its glory days. Of course, sad as it is to say, the only way to really make McClane’s predicament believably dangerous is by living up to the franchise’s title. By having Willis’ protagonist heroically sacrifice himself, the series can return to its gritty, realistic roots and do justice to a character whose purpose was lost somewhere along the way. After the disastrous Last Blood, it may be way too late for Stallone’s PSTD-stricken Rambo to ever resemble his source novel inspiration again, but McClane can still live up to the franchise’s title as well as the title of his source novel, Nothing Lasts Forever.

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Cathal Gunning
(1446 Articles Published)

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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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