19 Things to Look for the Next Time You Watch “Die Hard”

Sean Hutchinson and Mental Floss present 19 Things to Look for the Next Time You Watch Die Hard.  Here are three of my favorites…

10. THERE ARE SOME REAL FALLS.
In the scene where McClane makes an epic jump into an elevator shaft, the stunt man was supposed to grab onto the first vent—but missed completely. The resulting footage shows the actor slipping further down the shaft. McTiernan and co-editor Frank Urioste kept it in the final cut because it made the scene more harrowing.  (Craig – Check out the video of the elevator fall footage at Hutchinson’s post.)

19. HOW DID MCCLANE KNOW GRUBER WAS A BAD GUY?
In the scene where McClane unwittingly stumbles on Gruber—who identifies himself as Bill Clay and puts on a convincing American accent—it’s never made 100 percent clear how McClane realizes that Clay isn’t who he says he is. Chalk it up to a NYPD-veteran hunch, or a deleted scene.

Gruber’s watch allegedly tips McClane off before he hands the terrorist an empty gun, but nothing about the watch is introduced in the actual movie. There was supposed to be a scene where Hans Gruber and his team synchronize the exact same watch they all wear, and, according to screenwriter Steven E. De Souza, “When Bruce offers the cigarette to Alan Rickman, Bruce sees the watch. You see his eyes look at the watch. That’s how he knows that he is one of the terrorists.”

The timepiece scene was cut, but the audience never really noticed the plot hole.

12. HANS GRUBER AND HIS GOONS DON’T ACTUALLY SPEAK GERMAN.
Americans might think the German language that Gruber and his goons speak to one another sounds legit, but it’s actually gibberish. The grammar, diction, and pronunciation don’t actually match up. In the German release of the movie, Gruber’s group were described as being from “Europe” instead of Germany.

Weirdly enough Willis was actually born in West Germany to an American father and a German mother.