John McTiernan's return to the franchise opens with a bomb going off in a Manhattan department store and McClane being dragged out of a bar to deal with it, hungover, suspended, and wearing a sandwich board he'd rather not discuss. It is an entrance that immediately re-establishes the character's essential quality: capable, reluctant, and deeply put-upon. Die Hard with a Vengeance takes the series out of its contained-location template and into the streets of New York, and the gamble pays off.
At a Glance
Director: John McTiernan
Runtime: 128 minutes
Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp
Release: 1995
Critics Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, a strong return to form)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, a beloved sequel)
Plot
A bomber calling himself Simon forces McClane, suspended from the NYPD and nursing a considerable hangover, to play a series of increasingly dangerous games across New York City, partnered with a Harlem shopkeeper named Zeus Carver. Simon is eventually revealed to be Simon Gruber, the brother of Hans, seeking revenge for his brother's death while simultaneously executing an elaborate gold heist. The plot is the series' most energetically constructed, a series of puzzle-solving challenges that use New York City as a dramatic canvas of considerable scale and variety. The Simon Says game mechanic is the film's most inspired structural device, a series of escalating challenges that give the picture a momentum and wit that Die Hard 2 entirely lacked. The decision to open the film with McClane already at his lowest point, suspended and drinking, gives the narrative a personal urgency the airport sequel never achieved. By the time the gold heist is revealed as Simon's real objective, the film has built enough momentum and goodwill that the shift in register feels earned rather than arbitrary.
Characters
McClane is given the series' most psychologically complex starting point since the original, a man whose personal and professional life has deteriorated significantly and who is drawn back into action by circumstances entirely beyond his control. Willis plays the character's exhaustion and gradual recovery with a conviction and depth that makes this the strongest series performance of his career since the original. Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus Carver is the film's standout new character, a man of considerable intelligence and moral conviction whose partnership with McClane is the picture's greatest creative achievement. Jackson plays Zeus with a physical energy and comic precision that makes him the film's most enjoyable presence. The dynamic between the two men, initially hostile and gradually respectful, is handled with enough specificity to feel like a genuine relationship rather than a buddy-movie formula. Jeremy Irons's Simon Gruber is a man of sharp intelligence and theatrical authority whose pursuit of McClane gives the film its most dangerous antagonist since Hans Gruber himself.
Meaning / Themes
At its core, the film is about prejudice and partnership, about Zeus's initial hostility toward McClane and the mutual respect that develops through their shared experience of danger. This is handled with enough intelligence and specificity to give the picture a human dimension the more purely spectacular action sequences depend on. The revenge premise, and the suggestion that Simon's elaborate plan is motivated by grief for his brother, connects the film back to the original's more emotionally complex register. New York City itself functions as a thematic element: a city of competing interests, institutional complexity, and street-level ingenuity that suits McClane's improvisational approach far better than the controlled environment of an airport.
Direction
McTiernan's direction is the most assured in the series since the original, with a command of the New York setting and a feel for the film's driving pace that makes Die Hard with a Vengeance the series' most satisfying sequel. The subway sequence is the film's directorial highlight, a set piece of considerable visual invention and real tension that uses the city's geography with the same precision McTiernan brought to the Nakatomi Plaza. The Harlem sequence, in which McClane is forced to stand in a hostile neighbourhood wearing a racist sandwich board, is the film's most uncomfortable passage and its most dramatically honest, establishing Zeus's perspective and the stakes of their partnership with an economy the script handles well. Michael Kamen's score builds on the established themes with a richness and propulsive energy that gives the film a sonic identity as distinctive as its visual one. Die Hard with a Vengeance was a major critical and commercial success on its release, widely regarded as a return to form after the more generic Die Hard 2. Its reputation has remained strong since, consistently ranked among the best action films of the 1990s.
Final Verdict: A sequel that earns its place in the franchise rather than simply occupying it. Irons's Simon Gruber is the series' most credible villain after Rickman's Hans, Jackson's Zeus is its most inspired new character, and McTiernan's direction gives the material a tonal intelligence and driving energy that Die Hard 2 entirely lacked. The Willis-Jackson partnership is one of the great action pairings of the decade.