Richard Donner's final movie was the intense thriller 16 Blocks starring Bruce Willis, which feels like a better version of Die Hard 4 than the eventual sequel. Richard Donner is best known for his classic 1978 Superman movie or the Lethal Weapon franchise, but he had a rich career that spanned just about every genre from comedy to drama and horror. Other notable credits include The Omen, classic episodes of The Twilight Zone and the cult Christmas movie Scrooged starring Bill Murray.
Richard Donner passed away in July 2021 at the age of 91 and was planning to make a fifth entry in the Lethal Weapon series as his final movie. Sadly, that didn't come to pass, and his last movie ended up being 2006's 16 Blocks. This New York set thriller cast Bruce Willis as a burned-out, alcoholic cop named Jack Mosley who is forced to transport Yasiin Bey's convict Eddie to a court hearing. Jack soon realizes Eddie is the target of corrupt officers who want to silence him before he gives evidence, and the two have to dodge bullets while trying to get to court on time.
16 Blocks is a stripped-down action movie that favors character over action and is a solid chase thriller. It also features one of Bruce Willis' most humane action movie performances. His character Jack is balding, slightly overweight and often escapes death through sheer luck instead of skill. Strangely, Jack feels like the natural progression of the John McClane seen in 1995's Die Hard With A Vengeance. That entry opened with McClane back in New York having essentially become an alcoholic, and who is split from his wife and family. This is one of many reasons 16 Blocks feels more like Die Hard 4 than the eventual Live Free Or Die Hard ever did.
Live Free Or Die Hard was released the year after 16 Blocks and saw McClane and Justin Long's geeky hacker trying to stop terrorists attacking Washington D.C. While it was a reasonably entertaining action movie, it also saw the once vulnerable John McClane of previous movies surviving inhuman amounts of physical punishment and even surfing on an out-of-control fighter jet. This John felt more like a stock Bruce Willis action hero than the character found in the original films, a problem that would only get worse with 2013's A Good Day To Die Hard.
This is in contrast to 16 Blocks' Jack, who never performs any superhuman feats and, in fact, is often out of breath when he has to run for extended periods. The appeal of the early Die Hard films was that John McClane felt more like a human being than his contemporaries like Rambo, which got lost in the latter-day sequels. In 16 Blocks, Bruce Willis plays the character McClane should have evolved into a decade on from the third movie, and Richard Donner's lean direction and sympathy for his characters only serve to underline this. For those disappointed with the actual Die Hard 4, 16 Blocks might just be the movie they're looking for.