John McTiernan changed action cinema forever with 1988’s Die Hard, arguably the genre’s all-time greatest entry, by introducing an everyman protagonist in the form of Bruce Willis’ John McClane, an average New York cop who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In 1990, McClane found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time yet again in the sequel, Die Hard 2, which sees the same exact scenario playing out, but this time in an airport. It’s hardly the best action movie sequel ever made, but it’s also a lot better than it could have been in less creative hands.
Right: John McClane’s Characterization
The most recent Die Hard sequel, A Good Day to Die Hard, was a soul-crushing disappointment because it was just a generic Bruce Willis action movie with John McClane reduced to a gun-toting maniac. What made the character so great in the original was his everyman quality.
He was always flustered, thinking on his feet, and struggling to come up with a plan. He talked to himself to keep from going insane during his unfathomable feats. Die Hard 2 maintained this beautifully.
Wrong: Copying The Original’s Premise
Just like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and The Hangover Part II would do years later, Die Hard 2 copied the premise of its predecessor. Shortly after John McClane was coincidentally caught in the terrorist takeover of an office building, he was coincidentally caught in the terrorist takeover of an airport.
It must’ve been difficult for the filmmakers hired to come up with a sequel to Die Hard, because the original is such a brilliantly told story confined to its own runtime, but surely they could’ve come up with something more original than repeating the first movie in a different setting.
Right: Meta Commentary On The Repetition
As long as Die Hard 2 was going to repeat the premise of the original, at least the filmmakers didn’t ignore it as they added a layer of meta commentary onto the movie.
At one point, McClane says, “How can the same s**t happen to the same guy twice!?” This self-aware angle made the sequel a lot of fun.
Wrong: Less Suspenseful Than The Original
The original Die Hard movie’s director John McTiernan was replaced by Renny Harlin for the second film (before returning to helm the third one, easily the franchise’s best sequel), and while both are perfectly fine filmmakers, McTiernan took the time to build suspense and Harlin didn’t.
In an attempt to top the original, Die Hard 2 has bigger, bolder, and more frequent action, but this came at the expense of tension, an essential component of narrative filmmaking.
Right: Ticking Clock
The fact that Holly’s plane is circling the runway and will eventually run out of fuel gives McClane’s attempts to thwart the bad guys a captivating ticking clock, which is something every great action movie could use.
Not only does McClane have to stop the terrorists because it’s the right thing to do; he has to do it quickly or his wife’s plane will crash.
Wrong: Implausible Plot
Implausible plots are pretty commonplace in action cinema. One of the prerequisites of the genre is suspension of disbelief; otherwise, audiences would spend the entire runtime of an action movie rolling their eyes.
But with a plot that is generally believable, Die Hard stands out as a diamond in the rough. Die Hard 2 fell right into the genre’s trappings of forcing viewers to suspend their disbelief.
Right: Plot Twist
In the second act of Die Hard 2, as McClane is working with the Special Forces to bring down the bad guys, he realizes there are color-coded magazines, and one kind contains blanks.
This leads him to the shocking realization that the Special Forces are in on the terrorists’ plot. The twist was definitely unexpected. It raises the stakes and goes a long way toward elevating Die Hard 2 above the average action movie.
Wrong: Fan Service
While Holly’s back-and-forth with Richard Thornburg on the plane provided a few laughs, the fan service in Die Hard 2 really let it down. Powell is a fan-favorite from the original, but his cameo in the sequel feels forced.
It’s just a blatant sign that the makers of Die Hard 2 were desperate to recapture the magic of the original, but felt too beholden to it to reach its heights of greatness.
Right: Memorable Villains
Although none of the antagonists in Die Hard 2 hold a candle to the legend that is Hans Gruber, there are plenty of memorable villains in the movie, from Bill & Ted’s William Sadler as Colonel Stuart to Django’s Franco Nero as General Esperanza.
Even some of the henchmen — particularly those played by Robert Patrick, John Leguizamo, and Mark Boone Junior — leave an impression.
Wrong: Christmas Setting
Ever since 1988, there’s been a long-running debate over whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie. It takes place in the holiday season, but unlike Elf or Home Alone, its plot and characters go beyond enforcing yuletide traditions. At the end of the day, Die Hard is an action movie that happens to take place around Christmas.
Unfortunately, so is Die Hard 2. If fans can suspend their disbelief enough to allow John McClane to stumble into two hostile takeovers, it won’t extend to both of those takeovers astoundingly taking place during the holiday season.