If there was one thing that made the original Die Hard great, it was the character of John McClane. A normal workaday cop trapped in an extraordinary situation, emotionally devastated by the dissolution of his marriage and getting weepy about it when he wasn’t fighting heavily armed thieves in the midst of a hostage situation, John McClane was the closest thing to an “everyman” audiences had seen in a big action movie since Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. More than anything else, John McClane made Die Hard special.
But more than anything else, John McClane has also ruined the most recent films in the Die Hard series. Because it’s hard to be an “everyman” when you’ve singlehandedly stopped terrorists so often that you can jump a car into a helicopter and also act nonchalant about it. The sad fact is, Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) were the same kind of mindless uber-hero action movie pap that the original Die Hard subverted in the first place, so the idea of watching a sixth film about John McClane seemed to hold absolutely no potential… until now.
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Deadline reports that Die Hard 6 has been retooled to act as a prequel, with the adventures of a young John McClane bookended by another appearance by Bruce Willis as the beloved character. The script is allegedly being referred to as Die Hard Year One by the studio, and it’s a title that should be familiar to die hard fans of the series. Die Hard: Year One was also the title of a comic book prequel published by Boom! Studios, and it was also about the early adventures of John McClane as a police officer with the NYPD.
Boom! Studios
It’s an encouraging concept, although somewhat less exciting is the revelation that Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman is planning to return to the series that he essentially helped ruin six years ago. That’s probably bad news for audiences but probably a great career move for Wiseman, who has only directed a single motion picture since Live Free or Die Hard (and that was the abysmal Total Recall remake). Then again, perhaps Wiseman has redeemed himself to genre audiences with his small screen work, producing and directing episodes of the hit series Sleepy Hollow and the anticipated comic book adaptation Lucifer.
The other question on everyone’s mind, of course, would be who the studio should cast as a young John McClane, circa 1979. And no, they can’t just cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt again. A) That would be cheating, and B) that makeup in Looper convinced NOBODY.
Top Photo: 20th Century Fox
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
