Die Hard with a Vengeance The Rewatchables
Die Hard with a Vengeance poster
Die Hard with a Vengeance

Most Rewatchable Scene

Phone riddle, Central Park cab chase and subway explosion (consensus)

In the discussion (22)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:30Read transcript
  • The opening city montage abruptly gives way to the department-store explosion and Simon’s call.
  • McClane’s racist sign and meeting Zeus remain startling to first-time viewers; the sequence is nevertheless praised for its comic exchanges.
  • The men on the stoop are criticized as a more racist depiction than the sign: shirtless, armed, drinking and tossing a basketball without a hoop.
  • Zeus recognizes that a police officer being killed in his neighborhood would bring serious consequences, helping explain his intervention.
  • Simon’s negotiation and McClane getting his badge back introduce the supporting police; his boss’s brutally candid description of his failings is especially funny.
  • Charlie’s small office explosion and the officers’ contempt for the therapist add comic energy to the negotiation scene.
  • The phone riddle, Central Park cab ride, subway boarding and train explosion form the main scene choice, about fifteen electrifying minutes.
  • Zeus voices the audience’s disbelief at the wild driving while retaining his own perspective and comic anger.
  • Diving from the supposed phone-booth bomb is especially funny.
  • The route arguments, Gray’s Papaya backdrop, ambulance trick and subway access make the chase distinctly New York.
  • The practical-looking destruction provokes amazement, and the pursuing officer losing them amid exploding café furniture supplies another visual gag.
  • Catching the opening or cab chase on television would pull viewers into the film despite other plans or sports.
  • Zeus’s confrontation with the impatient caller and nervous officer as the payphone rings is another highlight.
  • The speeding practical train wreck is admired as dangerous filmmaking that would now likely be replaced with CGI.
  • The gold-vault break-in, entrance of Simon’s accomplice and enormous drill are praised; the vault is corrected from Fort Knox.
  • The elevator ambush is compared with The Winter Soldier; fast editing disguises how McClane fires through his coat at the men behind him.
  • McClane’s elevator survival is implausibly difficult, but the not-my-blood line and clues exposing the impostors are admired.
  • More New York sports questions could have extended the impostor-detection scene.
  • A child’s observation that the absent police make it Christmas for thieves gives McClane a satisfying realization.
  • Simon effortlessly taking Zeus’s gun and shooting his leg establishes a cool, fearless villain against an inexperienced opponent.
  • The ending is ridiculous, but the greeting to Simon’s brother is enjoyed.
  • The cab ride downtown is the explicit final choice of both invited respondents, agreeing with the earlier phone-game-through-train-explosion sequence.