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Die Hard review – Bruce Willis Christmas classic is still a blast

The deafening shootouts, the uproarious explosions and the killer catchphrase remain gloriously intact as the festive face-off gets a 30th anniversary rerelease

Only the hardest of hearts could fail to enjoy the great 80s action classic, rereleased for its 30th anniversary: with uproarious explosions, deafening shootouts and smart-alec tag lines following the bad guys getting shot. It’s the film that wrested the catchphrase “Yippee-ki-ay” away from Roy Rogers, with a certain vulgar addition. Every pub quizzer knows it’s a Christmas movie, but not many know of its unexpected cinematic use of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth – the terrorists whistle it as they get closer to the target.

Bruce Willis plays New York police detective John McLean, in Los Angeles for an uneasy reunion with his semi-estranged wife, having failed to support her career move out there. While at her office building, owned by a Japanese corporation, the whole place is taken over by fanatically armed German extremists, an unfortunate juxtaposition of Axis powers. The intruders are led by Hans Gruber, a renegade German terrorist with links to Northern Ireland’s “New Provo Front”. It’s a glorious scene-stealer for Alan Rickman, though it’s a credit to Willis’s cheeky charisma that his scene is not in fact stolen.

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