JoBlo celebrates Die Hard’s 30th anniversary at “Nakatomi Plaza!”

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

There is nothing like celebrating Christmas in July! And this past weekend, 20th Century Fox brought the holiday to life for a vey special event held at the legendary Nakatomi Plaza (aka Fox Plaza). There were decorations, a gorgeous tree glowing with lights, bloody footprints and shattered glass, a mysterious moving truck parked in the loading zone… wait… what? Did I happen to mention that this was a DIE HARD 30th Anniversary celebration? With the classic film’s 4K Blu Ray release available now, Fox Home Entertainment wanted to kick off the festivities in a  very special way. Last Saturday night, they offered a few fans and journalists the opportunity to view this incredible film at the very place they shot it.

Hours before the screening, a small crew of writers were invited to get a behind the scenes look at Nakatomi. Once we checked in, we made our way to nearly every single location where they filmed what is one of the greatest action movies of all time. In addition to seeing the filming locations, the tour added a little something extra. It took us to the loading dock where we discovered a moving truck that wasn’t supposed to be there. Thankfully, limo driver extraordinaire “Argyle" was around to make sure things were okay. However, it was especially troubling when we discovered a ton of broken glass and bloody footprints as we continued deep inside this magnificent building.

While it was clear something was up, it became increasingly more so as we waited for the service elevator to take us to the helicopter pad. When the doors opened, somebody was sending a gruesome message, written in blood on a “dead” man’s sweat shirt, somebody made sure to let us know that they had a machine gun too. HO HO HO they added! 

For this guy, nothing was more terrifying than when we made it to the very top. I mean, looking down from the 34-story, 493-foot skyscraper was absolutely insane and frightening for a dude with a slight fear of heights. Forget that somebody seemingly used the nearest firehose for something supremely crazy… looking down I can't even imagine trying what our hero John McClane had to do to escape an explosion on the roof. This was an incredible view of Los Angeles. In fact, it was unforgettable. Keep scrolling and you'll get a look at the world below while standing on top of this towering structure.

That night, the tour and the festivities all lead to one thing… a very special screening of DIE HARD! With a short but spirited introduction from Bonnie Bedelia (“Holly Gennaro McClane”) and Reginald VelJohnson (Sgt. Al Powell), we all gathered to revisit this amazing film under the stars – if we actually had stars in Los Angeles on a smoggy day. Of course, before we began, we all gave a shout out to one of the most iconic movies of all time… the entire audience was instructed to give a proper greeting to the neighboring building. That of course was Yippee ki-yay m*ther f*cker! Now it was time to watch Willis as one of the coolest cinematic heroes ever.

The beauty of the John McTiernan directed classic, is that the new 4K version will look supreme in the comfort of your own home. Look, I have a couple of copies of Bruce Willis as John McClane battling Alan Rickman as the legendary Hans Gruber, but frankly I’d be remiss to not get a copy of this for myself. So in honor of DIE HARD’s 30th Anniversary, we present to you the very place where all the movie magic happened. Welcome to the party, pal!

I'd like to send a huge thank you to Fox Home Entertainment and Think Jam for putting on such an amazing event. If you would like to pick up the brand new release of DIE HARD 4K on Blu Ray, just click on the cover art below!