Die Hard with a Vengeance

''Die Hard with a Vengeance'' is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by John McTiernan (who directed the first installment). It was written by Jonathan Hensleigh, based on the screenplay ''Simon Says'' by Hensleigh and on the characters created by Roderick Thorp for his 1979 novel '' Nothing Lasts Forever''. ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'' is the third film in the ''Die Hard'' film series, after ''Die Hard 2'' (1990). It is followed by '' Live Free or Die Hard'' (2007) and ''A Good Day to Die Hard'' (2013).

The film stars Bruce Willis as NYPD Lieutenant John McClane and Samuel L. Jackson as McClane's reluctant partner Zeus Carver, who team up to stop bomb threats across New York City carried out by "Simon" (Jeremy Irons). It was released on May 19, 1995 to mixed reviews and became the highest-grossing film of the year. The film later gained a cult following and has been considered by many critics and fans as the best sequel of the franchise.

Plot

The Bonwit Teller department store in New York City is blown up by a bomb during the morning commute. A man identifying himself as "Simon" telephones the New York City Police Department (NYPD), claiming responsibility and threatens to detonate another bomb unless policeman, John McClane, is sent to Harlem wearing a sandwich board with a racist slur on it. The NYPD comply and send McClane to Harlem, where he is confronted by an electrician and shop owner named Zeus Carver. McClane explains his situation before a nearby crowd also confronts McClane over his sign. Carver intervenes and saves McClane, and they escape in a car. They arrive at 1 Police Plaza, where Simon demands that the pair follow a timed challenge or he will set off more bombs. They agree and McClane eventually boards the 3 train heading towards the Wall Street station in order to defuse a bomb that Simon planted on it. Carver arrives at the station before McClane finds the bomb and throws it on the tracks just as it explodes.

McClane and Carver regroup with the NYPD and meet some FBI and CIA agents, who initially inform the pair that Simon is "Peter Krieg", a mercenary and former colonel in the National People's Army before revealing to them that Krieg is Simon Peter Gruber, the brother of Hans Gruber, who McClane killed years earlier in Los Angeles. Simon then places another call to the NYPD, informing them that he has planted an explosive in one of the city's elementary schools which is set to explode once class ends and can be triggered by the same radio frequencies utilised by law enforcement. Simon offers to give the authorities the school's location if McClane and Carver follow another timed challenge, warning that he will detonate the explosive if any evacuation attempts are carried out. While the pair solve Simon's next challenge, the NYPD begin to search all elementary schools in the city.

McClane realizes that Simon is attempting to distract the NYPD away from Wall Street, which has no schools, and travels to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building and discovers that Simon's men have stolen $140 billion of gold bullion from there using dump trucks. He follows the trucks into a water tunnel while Carver continues Simon's challenges. Simon blows up a cofferdam and floods the tunnel, but McClane escapes and reunites with Carver. Surviving a car chase with Simon's men, the pair find that they were carrying enough money to pay for a bridge toll. The pair sneak aboard a tanker docked in the Long Island Sound, but Simon's associates capture them and tie them up next to a bomb. Simon explains that his school threat was fake and broadcasts a message claiming that he is planning on destroying the tanker to destabilize the Western world's economy. After he leaves, Carver and McClane free themselves and escape the tanker just before the bomb detonates.

As McClane and Carver are debriefed by the NYPD, McClane informs them that none of the bullion Simon's men stole was on the tanker's cargo hold, having deduced that Simon had intended to keep all of it for himself using his knowledge of the Gruber family's ''modus operandi''. While attempting to place a call to his estranged wife Holly, McClane glances at a bottle of aspirin given to him by Simon onboard the tanker and notices that it was purchased at a truck stop in the Canadian province of Quebec on the Canada–United States border. McClane informs the NYPD of his discovery, and joins them and Carver as they rush towards a warehouse near the truck stop where Simon and his men are redistributing the bullion and planning their escape. The rest of Simon's men are quickly apprehended by law enforcement personnel, though Simon and his girlfriend Katya attempt to escape via a helicopter. McClane catches up to them and shoots at an overhead power line, which falls onto the helicopter, causing it to crash into the ground and explode. While they are celebrating their triumph, Carver persuades McClane to place another call to Holly again.

Cast

Production

Development and writing

As with most of the films in the series, the premise of this film was repurposed from a stand-alone project. Producer Joel Silver and 20th Century Fox wanted the third ''Die Hard'' film to take place on a ship; to that effect, between 1991 and 1992 they hired screenwriter W. Peter Iliff to write a script for ''Die Hard 3'' which would take place on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, where John McClane and his wife are when it gets taken over by terrorists who threaten the passengers' lives with a bomb. Iliff had recently written ''Point Break'' (1991), which turned into a huge hit and was a principal factor in his hiring. The initial version of ''Die Hard 3'' would have been based on a spec script titled ''Troubleshooter'' by James Haggin, who wrote it in late 1989 and sold it to Largo Entertainment in March 1990, before Fox bought it from them in 1991, as they considered it ideal for the next ''Die Hard'' sequel. The original script required a number of rewrites to bring it in line with the series; however, the addition of several action sequences inflated the expected budget considerably.

Iliff's second re-write of the script was in progress when a similar film, titled ''Dreadnought'' and starring Steven Seagal, went into production at Warner Bros. By the time Iliff completed his third re-write to remove or reduce similarities, the Seagal film was re-titled, first to ''Last To Surrender'' (because producers wanted three word title like Seagal's previous films had), and then to '' Under Siege'' (1992). Fox then decided it was pointless to keep trying to make this version of the third Die Hard film due to the perceived similarities. Ironically enough, before it was bought by Warner Bros for $1 million, J.F. Lawton's original 1990 spec script for ''Under Siege'' (titled ''Dreadnought'') had been offered to Joel Silver to be possibly re-written into ''Die Hard 3'', but Silver had refused. During script development, Warner Bros. offered Iliff a job of re-writing ''Dreadnought'', not knowing he was already working on ''Die Hard 3''. Silver and Fox even bought another similar spec titled ''Supertanker'' in order to prevent it from being produced before ''Die Hard 3''."Confessions of a Hollywood Nobody" by Dan Bronson, Chapters 85 and 86

After the Iliff script was nixed, Largo Entertainment returned to the ''Troubleshooter'' script and tried to produce it as a feature film around 1994, without success. It was rumored that the script was later adapted and used for '' Speed 2: Cruise Control''. Jan De Bont, the director of ''Speed'' and '' Twister'' conceived the story for ''Speed 2'' independently from what was developed for the "cruise ship" version of ''Die Hard 3'', though certain elements were re-used in a minor capacity. Following all the issues during early development and previous problems he and Bruce Willis had with one another following the very troubled production of ''The Last Boy Scout'' (1991), Silver left the ''Die Hard 3'' production and never worked on any other ''Die Hard'' film or with Willis again, and John McTiernan, who was going to return to direct this version of the third film, also quit the project. McTiernan disliked the concept of the entire film taking place on a ship. Director Danny Cannon was then involved to direct the film for some time, possibly when later different scripts were in development.

Between 1993 and 1994 at least three more versions of ''Die Hard 3'' were written, each one very different from the others. The first was written by John Milius and it took place in a jungle, and after his version was rejected, two more were written at the same time by two different writers. One by Doug Richardson which took place in Los Angeles subways taken over by terrorists who are actually planning to rob the federal reserve of the city, and second by John Fasano which took place across an entire city (New York or L.A.) as McClane chases kidnappers who took his teenage daughter, thinking she was the daughter of some rich industrialist. Both scripts were rejected by Willis, who felt they were more like ''Die Hard'' rip-offs, although the ending of Richardson's script was used for the ending of ''Speed'', which Richardson confirmed in interviews. Interestingly, the "Die Hard in the jungle" storyline was also at one point going to be used for the fourth ''Die Hard'' film which was in development around 1997, based on the original script by Alan B. McElroy titled ''Tears of the Sun'', about a group of people who go to the Amazon to set up a radio relay station only to end up encountering drug dealers and then having to escape through the jungle from them. Bruce Willis really liked McElroy's script, which was also considered to be re-written into a new modern ''Tarzan'' film before Willis had it changed into ''Die Hard 4'', and when the version of ''Die Hard 4'' based on it wasn't made, he requested for the title of his 2002 action war film ''Man of War'' to be renamed to '' Tears of the Sun'', which is why the film is occasionally erroneously cited as being based on the same script as the unproduced ''Die Hard 4''.

Finally, after Brandon Lee's death on set of '' The Crow'', Fox took another spec script titled ''Simon Says'' by Jonathan Hensleigh, which was offered as Lee's next film and considered as a sequel to Lee's '' Rapid Fire'', and decided to adapt it into what eventually became ''Die Hard With a Vengeance''. Hensleigh's original script was about a mad bomber who wants revenge against a police detective who is forced by the bomber to find and stop his bombs from exploding, and the only help he has is a shop owner who becomes involved by accident. Originally in early 1993 Joel Silver and Warner Bros. tried to buy ''Simon Says'' to have it re-written into ''Lethal Weapon 4'', but 20th Century Fox bought it instead. The script then went through dozens of different re-writes by writers such as Hensleigh, Dan Bronson, Lorenzo Semple Jr, David Shaber, and others. At some point during re-writes Zeus was changed into a female character which Angela Bassett was in talks to play. Even after the movie was completed, a new ending had to be written and filmed to replace the darker original ending, in which McClane is blamed for everything that's happened and loses his job, but still manages to track down Simon months later and makes Simon kill himself by accident after playing a game called "McClane Says".

Andy Vajna replaced Joel Silver and Larry Gordon as the producer on the film due to a fall-out with Willis. As a result, Vajna's company, Cinergi, acquired foreign rights to the film. Through their international distribution subsidiary - Cinergi Productions N.V. Inc., they pre-sold the movie to Disney and Summit Entertainment, while Fox retained North American and Japanese rights. In July 1997, Cinergi sold its 50% stake in the film to Fox for $11.25 million.

Casting

Laurence Fishburne was originally offered the co-starring role of Zeus Carver, a part also written for him, but wanted a higher fee. Producer Andy Vajna held out on the deal. Fishburne had earlier turned down the role of Jules Winnfield in ''Pulp Fiction'', which was eventually played by Samuel L. Jackson. Fishburne was talked out of playing Jules by his representatives who wanted him to only accept leading parts, otherwise he would be stuck career-wise as a supporting actor. Subsequently, ''Pulp Fiction'' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the same time as Fishburne's pay negotiations. Vajna also attended the event to support Willis who was appearing in the Quentin Tarantino film. Tarantino recalled that Vajna was so impressed by Jackson's performance that he offered him the part of Carver instead. Fishburne later filed a lawsuit against Vajna's company Cinergi for reneging on a verbal agreement. The lawsuit took two years and Fishburne received a settlement.

Music

Soundtrack

RCA Victor album

Michael Kamen returned to score the third film, again incorporating other material into his score (most notably " When Johnny Comes Marching Home", not included on the soundtrack album). Excerpts from his scores for ''Die Hard'' and ''Die Hard 2'' were also included in the new film. The soundtrack was released by RCA Victor.

# Summer in the City – The Lovin' Spoonful (2:44)
# Goodbye Bonwits (6:28)
# Got It Covered – Fu-Schnickens (4:13)
# John and Zeus (3:19)
# In Front of Kids – Extra Prolific (2:44)
# Papaya King (5:20)
# Take A-nother Train (2:55)
# The Iron Foundry – Alexander Mosolov (3:08)
# Waltz of the Bankers (4:13)
# Gold Vault (3:45)
# Surfing in the Aqueduct (2:30)
# Symphony No. 1 – Johannes Brahms (15:00)
# Symphony No. 9 – Ludwig van Beethoven (9:46)

La-La Land album

In 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition two-disc soundtrack containing the Kamen score.

All tracks composed by Michael Kamen except where noted.

# Summer in the City – The Lovin' Spoonful (2:45) (by John Sebastian

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