Bruce Willis’ Die Hard has evolved from an ‘80s action film to one of the best holiday season titles. No one saw the success of the movie given that the actor was only a television star, and his involvement in the project was marred by a lot of bad publicity.
Still, it was able to beat the odds, literally defeating other movies of that year after it ended as the biggest action film of 1988. Willis even became an instant superstar along with the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
John McTiernan Shares Why Die Hard Is Unlike Other Action Movies
In a 2002 audio commentary for Die Hard’s DVD release via MTV News, John McTiernan explained how the Bruce Willis movie stands out among the rest of its kind. He cited William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as his inspiration:
“My own notion was that it was ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ — it’s the story that happens on a festival night, and it’s something that changes all the princes to asses and all the asses to princes. And everybody goes home feeling better for what happened that night.”
The famous Shakespearean play became the bible of the movie throughout its production. McTiernan revealed he also made modifications to the script:
“I sort of used that as the guide to the plot. I think in the original script it happened over three days, and I physically moved it to one day. And it dictated things like ‘Don’t make the cops too serious here.’ ”
The director had to change the movie’s tone and alter the overly gloomy and serious concept of the story which was based on the novel. He said about John McClane:
“…basic American guy instead of being the strong-jawed, latter-day Dirty Harry and turning the terrorist story into a robbery. People can have fun with a robbery. A terrorist story is by definition dark and unhappy. But with a good caper, you can appreciate the bad guys, too.”
Willis’ portrayal of McClane was very relatable because of his human imperfections. The actor had no prior stint as an action star, which means the audience could not expect anything from the role.
Bruce Willis Became A Global Action Star Because Of Die Hard
The ’80s was also the peak of Sylvester Stallone’s and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s careers. In the same year Die Hard premiered in theaters, the two legendary action stars also released their own movies, Rambo III and Red Heat.
No one believed in Bruce Willis’ project. In Nick de Semlyen’s The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage, screenwriter Steven E. de Souza shared:
“The newspaper ads didn’t even say his name. His fans had turned on him because of the feud he was having with his co-star on Moonlighting. And then, at the same time, somebody who worked for Bruce, scraping barnacles off his boat, drowned. There was just a lot of bad press. All over the country, when the trailer played, as it said ‘Bruce Willis,’ the audience would either laugh or boo.”
Die Hard managed to turn the tide, with people going wild at the crazy stunts in the film. Since then, Willis rewrote his destiny and ended up becoming one of the greatest action heroes in Hollywood.
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