Die Hard 2

Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2

For his Die Hard review, Scott wrote that it was influential, "The following summer after its release, several movies were described as 'Die Hard on a Boat' or 'Die Hard on a Train' and 'Die Hard on a [insert location here]'. Of course none of them lived up to the original." The same can be said of Die Hard 2. It may as well be described as Die Hard at the Airport and it likewise does not live up to the original.

As the film starts, John McClane arrives at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC to meet his wife's plane. We are then shown some military types that are clearly up to no good. While waiting in a very crowded airport, John notices a couple of the military types in civilian clothing at a table. One of the men puts a box on the floor under the table, and while looking around the room, uses his foot to push the box over to the other man. Had he just handed the other man the package none of the many onlookers, including John, would have cared or suspected anything. Because they tried to make it clandestine, they seemed very suspect.

John then follows the men and gets into a gun fight with them. The scene seems forced and rushed. The airport police do not believe anything John says, leaving John to take care of business on his own. The military types soon take control of the airport and force all the approaching planes, including the one John's wife is on, to stay in the air so a particular plane carrying a foreign prisoner may land at their discretion.

Some characters from the first film make an appearance. At one point John sends a fax to Sgt. Al Powell, the cop whose car was turned into Swiss cheese in the first film. John's wife Holly is stuck on a plane with Richard Thornburg, the extremely annoying newscaster. It makes for a nice piece of recognition but does not actually add to the plot.

Not only does this second installment also take place at Christmas time, but the script tries to make winks at how this is all old hat. Willis has such lines as, "How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?" "Oh, we are just up to our ass in terrorists again, John?" John Amos says to him at one point, "You're the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time." Willis comes back with, "Story of my life." Even Bonnie Bedelia says to Willis at the end, "Why does this keep happening to us?"

The action scenes are all well done and do a decent job of distracting from the plot holes. They range from Willis being blown into the air from an exploding airplane to a snowmobile chase. The best moment being of course when he delivers his signature line, "Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker." Unfortunately, a plot twist later in the film contradicts several things that have come before and will leave you thinking, "But then why did they do such and such and ...."

The character of John McClane, as played by Bruce Willis, is very old school. He is like John Wayne riding to the rescue. He wears his white hat for all to see. He does not exactly look for trouble, but when it crosses his path, he stops at nothing to set things right, and usually at the cost of some bruises and loss of blood. John McClane is a simple man and It was too bad the script was not as straight forward as him and the first film.