(More reasons to take the train… or the bus… or anything that avoids an airport by at least fifty miles…)
CAST: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Sadler, Franco Nero, Dennis Franz, William Atherton, John Amos, Fred Dalton Thompson, Sheila McCarthy, John Leguizamo, Art Evans.
DIRECTOR: Renny Harlin
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and freaky airport experiences straight ahead…
There is a place more terrifying than any other on Earth. Especially during certain times of the year. Millions of people march like lambs to the slaughter to this place, willingly exposing themselves to such dangers as horrifying crowds, endless lines, criminally-overpriced gift shops, mediocre food, and farting individuals who have the gall to turn around and look at you like you were the one who cut the cheese.
I’m talking about that hellhole called… The Airport. And during those certain times of the year I referred to earlier, like Christmas and Thanksgiving, the experience is about as appealing as having Double Chalazion Removal Surgery. How fitting, then, that the creators would use an airport as a setting for DIE HARD 2, the sequel to the immensely successful and genre-changing 1988 action/thriller, DIE HARD.
Both DIE HARD and DIE HARD 2 deal with criminals terrorizing an innocent populace during Christmas. But while DIE HARD’s action is confined mainly to a Los Angeles office tower and its immediate surroundings, DIE HARD 2’s thrills cover a more expansive area: (1) Washington’s Dulles International Airport; (2) some buildings around it, and (3) various airliners circling above as their fuel dwindles down to fumes. Needless to say, the canvas has grown considerably.
Our hero is still Detective John McClane. If you’ll recall from DIE HARD, John saved wife Holly and her colleagues from the evil Hans Gruber and his Euro-boy comrades who’d seized control of her office building. Since then, John has apparently moved from New York City to sunny L.A., and has resigned himself to a life of being an LAPD, uh, dick instead of an NYPD one.
However, setting DIE HARD 2 in L.A. after the events of the first one pretty much leveled several blocks of Century City, would be pushing the goodwill of Los Angelenos just a little too much. And that particular pool isn’t that deep to begin with, let’s face it. So, it’s to the East Coast we go for more Christmas terrorist action. Washington D.C., to be exact. Dulles International Airport to be even more exact.
Turns out that a bunch of mercenaries led by Colonel Slater (William Sadler) are planning to seize control of Dulles’ command-and-control capabilities to prevent any aircraft from landing. As you can imagine, commercial airliners can only circle so many times before they run out of fuel and, well, you know…
Why are our villains pulling this heinous shit? Well, turns out uber-hot South American drug dealer Gen. Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero) is being transported to the U.S. for his spanking, and Slater plans to spring him. Hmmmmmm… kind of extreme, huh? Wouldn’t it have been easier to, I don’t know, storm Esperanza’s transport vehicle when he lands? Just wondering.
At any rate, who should also just happen to be at Dulles waiting for wife Holly to arrive from L.A. on a separate flight? If you said John McClane, then color me unimpressed. Who the fuck did you think would be at the airport? Bruce Willis? Please. At any rate, it appears that John McClane is to terrorism, as Jessica Fletcher from MURDER SHE WROTE is to homicide. In other words: you see them coming, you better run - because people are going to start dropping like flies.
Being the keen-witted, super-intuitive cop that he is, John quickly deduces that something hinky is about to go down at Dulles. He tails a couple of suspicious looking chaps into the off-limits baggage processing area, where they proceed to not get along famously. More accurately, they beat the living shit out of each other. John manages to kill one dude, but the other escapes.
When airport police shows up, the asshole head of the division (Dennis Franz) writes it all of as “baggage theft.” To which John basically responds, “When you were a baby, did your parents toss you into the air to lull you to sleep despite the fact that you lived in a house with extremely low ceilings?” In other words: “WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?”
Needless to say, the incident is not “baggage theft” and is merely the tip of a very sinister iceberg that John begins to uncover. Sure enough, Dulles loses its command-and-control capability and all arriving airplanes are forced to circle above continuously. This includes Holly’s plane, where she is stuck (oh, why not) with Richard Thornburg (William Atherton), the same asshole reporter she pretty much castrated in front of the world in DIE HARD. It soon becomes clear that if their plane doesn’t run out of fuel and drop out of the sky first, Holly just might remind Richard of what her right hook feels like.
So what the hell is going on? How the fuck does Slater think he can pull this shit off? Wouldn’t something a little more, I don’t know, low-key be preferrable? Who can John count on to help him nab the mercenaries? The asshole Airport Police chief? The surly Air Traffic Control chief (Fred Dalton Thompson? The pretty reporter Samantha Coleman (Sheila McCarthy) who looks ready to bear John’s babies? What about John’s soul brother Al (Reginald Veljohnson) back in L.A.? Who will be John’s guardian angel? What about Holly? Will he circling plane finally run out of fuel? Will John trader her in fro Samantha if it does? And if this ordeal ever ends, will anyone finally realize that John McClane is a lightning rod for this kind of crap?
Maybe he and Jessica Fletcher can do a mash-up movie where they travel the world and trigger murder mysteries and overbaked terrorism plots? Just remember to run like hell when you see their Mustang convertible coming down the road. It‘s a bad sign.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Sequels are tricky. On one hand, you have to try to retain the spirit of the original that made it such a hit. On the other, however, a sequel also needs to strike out into new territory and expand the scope so that it doesn’t feel like a retread. But you also have to be careful not to strike out too far or you lose the core audience and alienate any new ones. Happily, DIE HARD 2 manages this juggling act - and comes out a winner.
Be warned, though, that there are some serious suspensions-of-disbeliefs required here. While DIE HARD contained a lot of fantastic action, it was still just within this side of what might conceivably happen in such a situation, and John McClane’s actions and reactions were refreshingly human and relatable. In DIE HARD 2, he’s a bit more of a superman, and some of the situations he encounters are a little incredible, to put it mildly. Fortunately, McClane is such an appealing character, and Bruce Willis is such the perfect actor to play him, that we willingly surrender for the ride.
Since the story unfolds on a much broader canvas than the first one (entire airport vs. single office tower), it’s understandable that the story would ricochet so much between John and the extended network of supporting characters. Character actors Dennis Franz, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Art Evans are all solid as the airport bureaucrats who gradually comes to realize that John is really on to something. As Holly Gennaro-McClane and Richard Thornburgh, two of the returning characters from the original (and two of the imperiled passengers in the circling planes above Dulles), Bonnie Bedelia and William Atherton make a deliciously acidic couple. Whether trading silent glares or pointed barbs, Bedelia and Atherton provide added comic relief to the proceedings.
As the other major female character, reporter Samantha Coleman, Sheila McCarthy has a nice spunky presence and easy rapport with Bruce Willis. Sam provides John with vital info and support when the chips are down. I wish the script would have fleshed their partnership out a little more. Then again, it might have detracted from Bonnie Bedelia’s showcase and the John-Holly connection. In the end, though, McCarthy makes Samantha one of the brighter spots on the tapestry that is DIE HARD 2. Samantha Coleman is also a nice, noble representative of the journalistic trade - the diametric opposite of the sleazy opportunist Richard Thornburgh.
Regarding the baddies, William Sadler is adequate - but he is no Alan Rickman, and Slater is no Hans Gruber. Rickman’s portrayal of Gruber in the original set the standard that future cinematic villains would be judged by. Whether by virtue of the writing or Rickman’s performance - or, perhaps, both - we got the sense of Hans Gruber as a three-dimensional character. By contrast, Slater feels like a generic, slightly bland villain. Still, he gets the job done - which is to be a credible threat.
A much more interesting presence is Franco Nero as Gen. Ramon Esperanza, the guy for whom the entire dastardly plot is hatched. Nero is Italian, but he plays this South American character flawlessly. He has the ability to catch and sustain audience interest without saying a word, and his magnetic charisma (and stunningly handsome looks) is the very same quality that classic villains like Hans Gruber possess. As good as DIE HARD 2 is, I have to wonder how much better it would have been if Nero had played Slater instead. That would’ve been a dynamite choice. But I’d rather have a little Franco Nero than none at all.
All in all, DIE HARD 2 is a sequel that succeeds in reminding us about what we loved about the original - but also boldly going into new territory. Bruce Willis leads a game cast, and director Rennie Harlin captures (and amplifies) the same kinetic energy that DIE HARD’s director John McTiernan did.
In short, this is a sequel that can stand proudly next to its predecessor. That’s rarer than you think…
