They had C4 attached to the tower and connected to it so that when they uploaded a virus to the computer it activated a program that made their computer go all wonky and soon as they hit DEL…
KABOOM.
So if your screen starts to wiggle and go all wonky… don’t hit DEL.
I still don’t see the point in wacking the computer geeks (except that it was a plot device to get the wizz kid in the hands of Johny boy, so he could do what he does best…keep people in strange and unusual ways and then laugh about it. 
).
BTW, did anyone else laugh their asses off and think ‘he’s monologuing!’ at the end when the bad guy starts his Evil Guy™ rap and John grabs the gun and shoots him THROUGH his own shoulder? I about fell out of the seat. That is going to make this movie a classic in my own mind at least!
-XT
What part of “to cover their tracks/keep from being traced” don’t you get?
(Ok, that sounds much more smart-assed than I intend it to be: I’m genuinely wondering why the “standard bad guy CYA” reason seems so implausible to you, because it seemed so obvious to me.)
Eeeeeek!!! :eek:
Just saw it; kickass. Still wish it were rated R, with a lot more cursing and blood. But the way they edited it (to avoid showing a lot of blood) worked well; nice crisp editing that conveyed all the action without lingering on gore.
I love McClane’s gift for pissing people off, and actually liked the interplay between him and Hacker Lad. Obviously, one implausible thing after another (in modern movies, computer networks are essentially magical). But McClane remains a great character, with a way of simplifying things: regardless of how many bad guys there are, or how sophisticated their plot, his plans tend to boil down to just killing every single one of them, individually or in groups. And I liked how Lucy wasn’t just a terrified victim.
It made my head hurt. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. It was hard to dislike Willis; hey, its hard to dislike anyone that shoots themselves when they run out of bad guys.
I was disapointed and perplexed about the rating; it came across as being very A-Team in places. Funny, I saw Die Hard for the first time when I was nine or so, completly uncut with all the motherfuckers and headshots you could want. Now, in my twenties, I have to sit through Yippee Kie Ay Mother (gunshot). Something seriously wrong there.
The jet? Yeah, I think we could all do without the jet. Seriously, there was NO NEED for that sequence other than the director wanted a scene where a jet (piloted seemingly by a graduate of the Stormtrooper school of marksmanship) destroyed a bridge.
Also; I can picture studio executives watching daily rushes, and saying amongst themselves; This Free-running, thats quite popular now, isnt it? Looks quite well in that new Bond movie. Can we get some free running in here?"
I’d sit through Die Hard 5, though… it would have to have Gemans as the main protagonists again. Specifically, German Nihilists.
“You think we are kidding McClane? You think we are messing with the funny stuff?”
It had actually seemed to have quite a bit of cussing: “oh, shit” this and “asshole” that. Just not “Yippie-ky-yay, motherfucker”. I guess “fuck” and variations thereof are considered much worse than “shit” and “asshole” by the Movie Ratings People.
(I confess, I don’t really understand the thought processes of the Movie Ratings People.)
Short answer: They don’t have any. Long answer: "Fuck is okay, but you can only say it once, and it can’t have a sexual meaning. Unless, of course, the MPAA just doesn’t like you. Rent This Film is Not Yet Rated for an eye opening look at just how fucked up they are. If Casablanca were to be re-released today with a rating, it’d get an “R” because Bogey smokes! :rolleyes:
I loved the movie.
However, I had one beef with it, the same one I have with 24 and nearly every other action movie featuring computers:
ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING NOISES!
In the world of action movies, accessing data on a computer means that said computer will have to make all kinds of beeps, whirrs, clicks, and other futuro sounds with every bit of text or code that comes up, or every window that opens up on the GUI (which is always green or blue characters on a black background.) Fuck it. Computers in real life don’t have techno DJs inside them composing a symphony of beeps and bloops every time someone uses them. Stop insulting my intelligence!
, of all the computer inaccuracies that this fun movie had, I find it funny it was the beeps and whirrs that set you off. I did not even notice them. My problems were with backup speeds, camera access, gas pipe usage, strange looking computer rooms that were seemingly empty, etc. Beeps, I did not notice.
It just shows that we all see and here different things in a movie.
As I said earlier, the Computer stuff was silly, but I did not let that detract from the fun ride that this movie was.
Jim
I read an interview that Bruce Willis did for Playboy, in which he commented that they had to limit the number of “fucks” in the movie to get the PG-13 rating. He said you can have all the explosions and shooting guys to hell you wanted, but only a limited amount of “fuck” can be said.
And no boobies! Shooting someone good! Boobies bad!
This specifically annoys me because it’s one of those things I notice in every movie. Every action movie, anyway. I was just talking to one of my friends about it yesterday. He says that they use the unrealistic beeps and bloops and whirrs to accompany new windows or text coming up on the screen as a way of not losing the continuity of the movie’s energy flow - in other words, the fast pacing of an action movie with quick cuts and exciting sequences would lose steam if it was just silent every time someone got onto a computer, so they add the noises to keep up the “energy.”
Kind of an interesting theory, but it still pisses me off. It’s like the people who make these movies (and shows - 24 is a particularly egregious sinner in the computer noises department) don’t know that their audience uses computers all the time and is familiar with the noises that they do and do not make.
Or maybe it’s like the people who make these movies have faith that their audience is capable of suspending disbelief. 
I don’t think suspension of disbelief is an issue because the computer noises are so unnecessary. (Unless you’re subscribing to the theory that my friend put forth - are you?)
I can suspend my disbelief when Bruce Willis takes a fall that would kill an ordinary person, because the scene of him leaping off the bridge looks cool. I can suspend my disbelief that he could destroy a helicopter with a car, or that a jet could maneuver around a bunch of rubble to take potshots at McClane, or that the hot Asian chick could keep fighting even after being hit by a truck going 60 miles an hour through a plate glass window, because all of these scenes are visually awesome to watch.
But the computer noises are just annoying. They’re not cool or fantastical or exciting or anything, they’re just annoying and make me think, “what’s the point?”
Just saw it last night. Not a computer geek so that stuff didn’t bother me. A couple of other things made me squirm. OK McClare is still a NYC cop (won’t mention how it doesn’t make sense that he insists on having people call him detective instead of his rank, lieutenant). So presumably he is on duty when his boss calls him. He is at Rutgers spying on his daughter (thats in New Jersey if you didn’t know. For some reason the FBI asks the NYPD to go to Camden NJ and bring someone to DC. Camden does have it’s own police. And it’s much closer to Philadelphia. That is also one of the things movies do a lot. Cops supposedly work 24 hours a day. No one asks for overtime. During the beginning I was struck with the biggest error in the movie There is a white guy living in Camden?
I started to squirm when McClane jumped in the helicopter and could fly it to Baltimore. Someone with a couple of flight leasons would not know how to start a helicopter. No way he could take off or land (straight and level flight is not that difficult especially if you have flown a fixed wing aircraft).
Overall I enjoyed the movie.
Saw it on the 4th–the action and explosions more than made up for the lack of good fireworks displays in my area. Huge fun!
I agree with everyone about the fighter jet sequence. Even at the zenith of my “suspension of disbelief”, I still found myself saying “Oh, come ON!”
The computer stuff was lotsa fun, and Kevin Smith was a pleasant surprise. Justin Long was great (BTW, was he using a Mac or a PC? ) and Bruce Willis was as good as ever.
The best thing? The head FBI guy actually saw MacLane as an ally, not the usual threat or interloper most boss types see that type of character as, like Paul Gleason in the first film, or any management wonk in 24 . I hate that, and was especially gratified when he told the NSA guys to go sit in a corner and stay out of the way.
All in all, a helluva good time!
Not to mention the fact that the server access point that is able to bring down power on the entire Eastern seaboard was just on the other side of a glass wall from the parking garage!
The movie was a blast, though, I loved it.
Oh that is freakin’ brilliant. However, we can all rest easy- apparently the bomb can only work if you are using a 1989-circa 486-DX IBM PC. 
Just came back from it a few moments ago. Oh hell, I want to see a film with accurate technology, I’ll watch Nova. It was mindless fun. That jet stuff though, oh please. :rolleyes: I do have one question though, and no doubt a Doper will know. Does an F-35 exist, and if so does it have VERTOL technology? Just curious. I know some jets do indeed have it besides the Harrier Jet.
Funny how few Macintosh machines were shown. Considering who the geek is in his other career, it’d have been really brilliant to do a little inside joke with Mac and Windows.
I haven’t seen them all. I only saw Die Hard 1, and now this. Is it worth renting the others?
Cartooniverse
