Over the years, Die Hard has become synonymous with a Christmas movie, although there has been debate about its categorization earlier. The 1988 action thriller featured Bruce Willis as John McClane fighting against terrorists on Christmas Eve, held up in an LA skyscraper during a party.
But as it happens with many great movies, Die Hard‘s journey to production and becoming a classic was not smooth. The movie that gave Willis A-list stardom and provided late Alan Rickman with the memorable Hans Gruber character could well have been canceled due to one creative decision.
John McTiernan had one condition for making Die Hard
Initially, Die Hard, produced from Roderick Thorp’s Nothing Lasts Forever novel, had many obstacles throughout the production phase. Some of the most famous movie action heroes of that period, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, snubbed the part of John McClane.
Originally, the casting of Bruce Willis, then recognized as a television actor, was considered highly questionable by the team and the studio. Moreover, it was not very easy to search for a director as well. When Paul Verhoeven turned down the invitation to direct the film, producer Joel Silver asked John McTiernan, who had just released Predator.
McTiernan at first turned down the opportunity to direct the movie and declined the offer several times. One major reason behind McTiernan not agreeing to shoot is because of one detail in the story– he was against making what he considered a typical terrorist movie.
As per All the Right Movies, McTiernan said, “If you let me figure out how to make this fun, I’ll do it.” In the Netflix documentary The Movies That Made Us, the director explained his vision saying, “Nobody likes terrorists. Everybody likes robbers, they’re fun. You can enjoy it.”
This change in vision regarding the movie’s antagonists became important in reinventing the movie and giving it a particular personality. This change was drastic enough to see Jeb Stuart, responsible for the first draft, leave the project. But the creative decision successfully turned Die Hard from a deadly serious terrorist movie into an entertaining action flick.
How Shakespeare influenced Die Hard
In a 2002 DVD commentary (via DVD Vault), John McTiernan credited William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for being an inspiration behind Die Hard. The director explained that there is much similarity between Shakespeare’s evening in which everything is turned upside down and the night in Nakatomi Plaza. McTiernan said,
My own notion was that it was ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’— it’s the story that happens on a festival night, and it’s something that changes all the princes to asses and all the asses to princes. And everybody goes home feeling better for what happened that night.
The director also picked notes from Shakespeare’s novel to shape the appearance of Bruce Willis’ character as well. He said,
Basic American guy instead of being the strong-jawed, latter-day Dirty Harry and turning the terrorist story into a robbery. People can have fun with a robbery. A terrorist story is by definition dark and unhappy. But with a good caper, you can appreciate the bad guys, too.
This sort of literary influence affected the structure and rhythm of the movie. The Shakespearean approach made McTiernan bring changes to the script, unlike the typical action movies at the time. He cut down the running time of the plot from three days to one night, which made it more tense.
Die Hard is available to buy or rent on Prime Video.
Frequently asked questions
What condition did John McTiernan set before agreeing to direct Die Hard?
According to the article, McTiernan was reluctant to make a straightforward terrorist movie and agreed only on the condition that he could make the film fun, reportedly telling producers, “If you let me figure out how to make this fun, I’ll do it.” His key idea was reframing the antagonists as robbers rather than terrorists, on the logic that audiences root against terrorists but find robbers entertaining.
Who starred in and directed Die Hard, and what is it based on?
Die Hard (1988) starred Bruce Willis as John McClane and Alan Rickman as villain Hans Gruber, with John McTiernan directing after his hit Predator. The action thriller was produced by Joel Silver and adapted from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever. The article notes that Willis, then best known as a TV actor, was initially seen as an unconventional choice for the lead.
How did Shakespeare influence the making of Die Hard?
In a home-video commentary cited by the article, McTiernan said he drew on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, likening its festival night where everything is turned upside down to the single chaotic night at Nakatomi Plaza. That idea is widely credited with prompting him to compress the story from the script’s original three-day span into one continuous night, heightening the tension.
