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Excellent review. Good points about how the villain is an interesting, intelligent and worthy foe to McClane. And spot on about well-positioned and well-timed setups and callbacks. My only problem with the movie was the character of the Deputy Police Chief. I thought he was too incompetent, too obviously a foil character designed to make McClane shine all the brighter in contrast as a brave, resourceful and street-smart hero.

Well done, John. This has been my favorite guest post so far.

Larry Gordon, who produced K-9, shared a lot of stories about the making of Die Hard. Here's something you may not know: He convinced 20th Century Fox to make a pay or play deal worth $5M to Bruce Willis, a huge deal back then. We may think of Willis as an icon of action movies nowadays, but in 1987, he was the star of the TV series "Moonlighting" and was just coming off the light rom-com Blind Date. Nothing there to suggest he could anchor a big action movie. Gordon was sure he would be a star and his instincts proved 100% accurate. But that $5M was a BIG gamble.