# Die Hard 5 Trailer **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732 "2012-10-04T19:22:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/21 "2012-10-05T04:14:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Why do you guys like the third one? > I thought it was just bad comedy. I liked the chase scenes and Samuel L. Jackson (and Graham Greene), and I thought the premise was kind of cute. That’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/22 "2012-10-05T05:35:08Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I liked the chase scenes and Samuel L. Jackson (and Graham Greene), and I thought the premise was kind of cute. That’s about it. I also found Jeremy Irons a much more interesting villain than William Sadler. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/23 "2012-10-05T13:42:26Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > So I reject that a PG 13 shoot - which is a thoroughly compromised creation (no matter how much the actor and director swear it’s as full-on as everything else) can somehow have a 10% solution of rated R material sprinkled over it resulting in a wholly different version. If you set out to bake a vanilla cake, no amount of chocolate sprinkles on the leftovers is going to convince me you meant to make chocolate all along. I thought Die Hard 4 was not a PG-13 shoot, therefore making the PG-13 one the fake one. I guess that is my point. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/24 "2012-10-05T17:05:46Z")
I thought #2 sucked… but I actually enjoyed the others. I would like to see Justin Long back in this one; and McLain’s daughter too; but I doubt that will happen. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/25 "2012-10-05T17:24:17Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > I thought #2 sucked… but I actually enjoyed the others. I would like to see Justin Long back in this one; and McLain’s daughter too; but I doubt that will happen. His daughter is back, but I think in a minor role. Justin Long is not in this one as far as I have heard. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/26 "2012-10-05T22:11:12Z")
Die Hard is the quintessential action film. The Die Hard sequels suffered from breaking the spirit and charm of the first film: an epic bottle movie, locked down with the bad guys discovering a fly in the ointment which turned out to be a dragon. John McClane works best when cornered, sequestered, and on his own. The buddy element killed this rare sort of charm. When he was alone, sarcastically talking to himself in the ductwork of the first film, you were in his head in a candid and fun way. Pairing him up with another badass makes for weak sauce. We never got another “NOW I HAVE A MACHONE GUN. HO HO HO.” PG-13? Fuck off. This isn’t for kids. PG-13 = Punches Pulled. Find another film for the studio to pin their Happy Meals to. Die Hard isn’t toppable. Die Hard 2: Die Harder was okay. Die Hard: With a Vengence had its moments, but it didn’t feel like a Die Hard film (mostly because the screenplay “Simon Says” was shoehorned into a Die Hard movie) and it had a terrible ending. Live Free or Die Hard was meh. No real memorable moments for me, actually. Again, PG-13 neutered the storytelling anyhow. The teaser for A Good Day to Die Hard (sounds like the title for a Bond flick) makes it seem like a gritty rebirth. Make this movie going in unapologetically as a solid R-rated film, don’t pull any punches, and lock him in a locale he can’t get out of, nor anyone else can penetrate, on his own and with a strong, odd disadvantage (“make fists with your toes…”) and you’ll have me by the balls. But yeh, I’m not holding my breath. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/27 "2012-10-05T22:18:36Z")
Actually, I kinda liked _Die Hard 2_. But that’s just because I have this geeky fascination with airports and airplanes, and liked watching McClane running around behind-the-scenes - the tower, for instance, and the luggage sorting area. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/28 "2012-10-05T22:19:00Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > It’s a half measure, and I’m a die-hard (ahem) purist. The silver screen is canon. I reject the notion that a director can really shoot two movies at once. Action movies that comfortably embrace their R rating from the outset have an entirely different feel than flicks with the safety net of PG-13. It is not simply a matter of a DVD version where some of the gunshots have splatter and swearing isn’t cut out by an explosion. A film with a solid R feel is entirely capable of surprising me; I can’t guess what’s next. I never dreamed I’d see a bad guy dispatched with an icicle through the eye. I could have never anticipated it could get that dark. R can get pretty fucked up. Like Ving Rhames with a ball gag in his mouth fucked up. There’s a pervasive sterility safety-net feeling in a PG 13 shoot. I know all the avenues the narrative can’t go down. Like a child, I’m practically assured from the outset that the children will escape the gingerbread house mentally and physically whole. > > So I reject that a PG 13 shoot - which is a thoroughly compromised creation (no matter how much the actor and director swear it’s as full-on as everything else) can somehow have a 10% solution of rated R material sprinkled over it resulting in a wholly different version. If you set out to bake a vanilla cake, no amount of chocolate sprinkles on the leftovers is going to convince me you meant to make chocolate all along. If I could marry a post, I’d marry this one. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/29 "2012-10-06T02:30:35Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > If I could marry a post, I’d marry this one. But I still wonder…wasn’t it a R-rated shoot? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/30 "2012-10-06T03:33:36Z")
They claimed it was a ‘smash mouth’ shoot, they shot everything they wanted, and the rating was up in the air / not on their radar. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/31 "2012-10-06T07:30:24Z")
There were three elements of _Die Hard_ that made it a spectacular film of the action genre: [ul] [li]the clockwork plot[/li][li]the delicate balance of action, humor, pathos, and irony[/li][li]the fact that the character John McClane is a reluctant hero[/li][/ul] The plot, of course, is a marvel of clockwork efficiency. There is not a single wasted moment or scene; everything is done for a reason that becomes apparent later. I have never seen a more perfectly plotted film. (_Anatomy of a Murder_ and _Kiss Kiss Bang Bang_ are close seconds.) As with _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, the balance of elements overrides any of the potential improbabilities (such as why a Japanese company would be holding an enormous amount of negotiable bearer bonds in a Los Angeles office). The film keeps you so engaged that you are never pulled out of the reality it creates. McClane, of course, isn’t some kind of selfless, gung-ho action hero. He’d much rather be spending Christmas Eve with this family and working things out with the estranged Bonnie Bedelia. Instead, he’s trapped in a skyscraper, running around without shoes or socks (thanks to the salesman on the plane) and trying to figure out how to extract his wife without alerting the “terrorists” as to her connection to him. He’s smart enough to throw a wrench in their plans, but he is well-matched in Rickman’s Hans Gruber. _A Good Day to Die Hard_ sounds like a Mickey Spillane novel and looks like any of a number of nearly indistinguishable and completely generic action movies that Willis has starred in over the past decade. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/32 "2012-10-06T16:38:50Z")
The thing that worries me about this one is that it breaks the “accidental franchise” mold. All the previous movies were adapted from other stories or projects. Setting out to intentionally create a Die Hard film seems like it could be tricky, as **Stranger** pointed out. However, if it is nothing more than a big dumb action movie with lots of explosions, snarky Bruce Willis and some random chick in a leather suit… I’ll take it. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/33 "2012-10-06T20:01:38Z")
I liked the fourth one. I actually think that, if they’re going to do a fifth that they should do a sixth so that I can treat them as two different trilogies: The original Die Hard Trilogy, then the Sequel Trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732/34 "2012-10-06T21:15:13Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > I actually think that, if they’re going to do a fifth that they should do a sixth so that I can treat them as two different trilogies: The original Die Hard Trilogy, then the Sequel Trilogy. I believe that’s the plan. But I liked the 4th too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/die-hard-5-trailer/636732.md?page=1)