Jai Courtney Bruce Willis Die Hard 5

It seems like the more obvious route to go with A Good Day to Die Hard - the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise - would've been to either reunite Bruce Willis as the aging maverick John McClane with his new son-in-law from Live Free or Die Hard (Justin Long), or maybe even team him with his daughter, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who showed that she can be badass onscreen in the prequel to The Thing).

However, screenwriter Skip Woods (The A-Team, Hitman) and director John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, Max Payne) are instead introducing viewers to McClane's grown son, as portrayed by Jai Courtney (pictured above, opposite Willis on the Die Hard 5 set). Courtney is a rising star who appeared on Spartacus and costars in Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher this winter.

A Good Day to Die Hard pits McCane and Son on a wild adventure in Russia, setting them on a crash-course with some mysterious terrorists. Courtney described the dynamic between the two in an interview with EW, saying:

"The relationship isn’t always functional. These are two guys who have been estranged for some time. John likes to wing it, see what happens. Jack’s more of a strategist."

So, by the sound of it, what we'll be getting here is an inversion on the father-son relationship from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - or, rather, a traditional mismatched buddy duo, similar to that of Willis and Samuel L. Jackson from Die Hard With a Vengeance. There are also some standard parental issues inherent to the dynamic between McClane and son, as well as a generation gap that recalls that between Willis and Long in Live Freed or Die Hard.

Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney in Die Hard 5

A Good Way to Die Hard, in other words, is shaping up to be a formulaic addition to the series (big shock, we know). That does not mean that Willis making wisecracks and killing international baddies won't be enough for hardcore action cinephiles, but there's little so far to suggest that the addition of Courtney will take this franchise in an interesting direction (like Fast Five did for the Fast and the Furious series).

A trailer is sure to drop soon for A Good Day to Die Hard, since the film opens in U.S. theaters on February 14th, 2013 - so, we will just have to wait and see if the first footage confirms or defies these doubts.

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Source: Entertainment Weekly