Die Hard With a Vengeance: Revisiting a Bruce Willis Classic

Last Updated on October 10, 2022

Bruce Willis has been in the news lately, with his tragic Aphasia diagnosis and then the ghoulish news that he sold his likeness to a Deepfake company (which has since been debunked). In this episode of Revisited, we look back at one of his greatest action movies, the third Die Hard film, Die Hard With a Vengeance. While John McTiernan’s Die Hard is an unassailable classic (and Die Hard 2: Die Harder is pretty nifty, too), the third film, Die Hard With a Vengeance, is pretty damn close to being as good as the original. It helps that McTiernan returned to direct this kick-ass installment, which takes action to the streets of NYC and pairs Willis’ John McClane up with Samuel L. Jackson’s Zeus Carver.

While the choice to make the bad guy (played by Jeremy Irons) the brother of Hans Gruber was a little silly, this is pretty much a perfect action movie. In this episode of Revisited (written, narrated, and edited by E.J. Tangonan), we dig into what makes it so good while also exploring a darker, alternative ending that would have potentially ended the series (for a time) on a dark note.

This would be the last Die Hard movie for over a decade, and when the series would return with Live Free or Die Hard, it would be a watered-down PG-13 and somewhat cartoonish. While in 1995, we may not have appreciated this third film in the series as much as we should have, it stands the test of time as one of the last great “analog” action flicks and a highlight in Willis’ action movie resume.

Where do you place Die Hard With a Vengeance in the pantheon of Die Hard flicks? Let us know in the comments!