Never been a huge Die Hard fan but I can't deny this little series of scenes is superb. Such a great example of characters wearing different masks, from victim to hero to ally to enemy to trickster all within the span of a few minutes. I think creating mercurial characters is one of the more difficult, important, yet underrated endeavors in screenwriting. So often we strive to create a solid foundation for a personality that we forget how tumultuous we are as humans in our every-day lives. Unpredictable moodiness is as much a part of our DNA as anything!

Kalen, one of the big advantages in working with archetypes like Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, and Trickster is they not only help a writer to zero in on any given character's primary narrative function, which then becomes the foundation for how to develop that character, but also use archetypes as 'masks' which characters can use from scene to scene, relationship to relationship. So, for example, as you noted, Gruber when discovered slips on his trickster mask by faking like he is an escaped hostage. Then as he smokes cigarettes with McClane, he adopts a co-protagonist mask. Handed the gun he reverts to who he has been all along: Nemesis. Likewise McClane wears a mentor mask, telling Gruber what they need to do, then slips on his own trickster mask when giving Gruber the empty pistol, then reverts to who he has been all along: Protagonist. To me, this is one of the biggest keys in approaching scene-writing: Determine what each character's goal is -- what they want in the scene, which can become a basis for conflict -- then brainstorm what 'mask' they would adopt to try to achieve that goal. Using archetypes as 'masks' allows us to explore each character to much more depth and make them multidimensional players within the context of the story.