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AGDTDH Poster 2
A Good Day to Die Hard teaser poster
Written by Skip Woods
Directed by John Moore
Produced by Alex Young
Wyck Godfrey
Executive producer:
Tom Karnowski
Jason Keller
Skip Woods
Starring Bruce Willis
Jai Courtney
Sebastian Koch
Yuliya Snigir
Rasha Bukvic
Cole Hauser
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography by Jonathan Sela
Editing by Dan Zimmerman
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release Date February 14, 2013
Budget $92,000,000
Run time 97 min.
Preceded by Live Free or Die Hard
Followed by DieHard Is Back

A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth movie in the Die Hard franchise in which John McClane (Bruce Willis) and his son John "Jack" McClane Jr. (Jai Courtney), a CIA operative, take on nuclear terrorists in Russia. It was released on February 14, 2013.

The film's rating was a point of interest for some fans. Some fans figured Fox would try to squeeze more audience members into seats by also having this film be PG-13 much like its predecessor, because the last one focused less on violence and profanity, while others demanded an R rating like the first three films because they felt like the softer PG-13 rating was distracting because it differed from the feel of the original trilogy. The film was garnered an R rating from the MPAA for violence and language but some viewers were still disappointed as the bloody bursts were in short waves and led some to claim it was a PG-13 action film that only got the R rating due to its pervasive language.

Plot[]

In Moscow, Viktor Chagarin, a high-ranking but corrupt Russian official, plans on incriminating political prisoner and government whistle-blower Yuri Komarov without a fair trial when Komarov refuses to hand over a secret file believed to have convicting evidence against Chagarin. In a separate incident, Jack McClane is arrested in the nightclub as a result of assassinating Anton, an associate for Chagarin, but agrees to testify against Komarov for a shorter sentence.

Back in New York, John McClane, who has not been in touch with his son in years, learns from his police detective friend Murphy, about Jack's whereabouts and circumstances. He decides to go to Russia to help him out. McClane's daughter Lucy drops him off at the airport and tells him to try not to mess things up. When McClane arrives and approaches the courthouse that happens to currently hold Jack and Komarov on trial, an explosion orchestrated by Chagarin occurs in the courthouse, and Jack breaks free with Komarov. Seeing his son leaving in an van, McClane confronts him, but their dispute is cut short when the henchmen, led by Chagarin's main enforcer Alik, chase them on the streets of Moscow, but John, Jack, and Komarov manage to escape.

Hiding in a safe house, McClane finds out that Jack has been a CIA Officer in an undercover operation for the past three years. Meanwhile, Mike Collins, Jack's partner, demands the file's location from Komarov, so that the CIA can bring Chagarin down. Before it can be revealed, Collins is soon shot by Chagarin's men and dies while Komarov is shot in the arm. McClane holds off Chagarin's men to himself, Jack, and Komarov to survive subsequent heavy gunfire and escape once again. The trio then makes their way to a hotel in the city to find the key to a vault containing the file. There, they meet Komarov's daughter, Irina, whom they earlier planned on joining with, but McClane grows suspicious of Irina because of the heavy traffic in Moscow and she arrived sooner than before. His suspicions are proven correct when Alik and his men crash in and tie McClane and Jack up, while Komarov is taken as a hostage, and Irina confesses to snitching on them for the "millions of dollars" to be gained. Alik started assaulting McClane and Jack. However, Jack manages to break free of his ties, and the father-son duo fights back, culminating in a gunfire exchange that results in McClane and Jack's escape from the Hind-F helicopter. But Alik makes his getaway.

Once they went into a safe place, Jack finally reveals to McClane that Komarov and Chagarin we're once partners in dealing with billions of dollars of weapon-grade uranium in Chernobyl, Ukraine, but after the nuclear incident in Chernobyl, Komarov and Chagarin fell apart and things ended badly between them. Jack says the file that Komarov claimed is evidence about the crimes orchestrated by Chagarin hidden in Chernobyl.

Later that night, the two steal a car full of firearms and drive to Chernobyl, Ukraine, which is the location of the vault that houses the file, as revealed earlier by Komarov at the safe house. When they arrive, they find that Komarov, Irina, and Alik have already gotten there. But what they don't know is that on their way there, it was revealed that there was never a file in existence, and that the vault is actually contained billions of dollars worth of weapons-grade uranium. Alik is then shot in the head by the seemingly helpless Komarov, who later called Chagarin and told him that he and Irina had manipulated the entire sequence of events since the beginning in an attempt to obtain the uranium for himself and get revenge on Chagarin for his past betrayal of Komarov. Chagarin was then killed by a subordinate of Komarov's.

At this point, McClane and Jack enter the vault, discover Komarov's true plot upon learning there never was a file that could put Chagarin behind bars, and captured him. Irina, with another henchman, comes to her father's aid, but before they can escape, Jack goes after Komarov, while John goes after Irina, who is escaping on a helicopter. Irina tries to protect her father by firing the helicopter's cannons at Jack, but John is able to bring the helicopter out of balance by driving a truck in the hangar section of the helicopter, still shackled by a chain, out of the open back door, muttering his catchphrase of "Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker." In rage, Jack hurls Komarov off the rooftop, and Komarov falls into the spinning helicopter's rotors and is killed. John jumps off the helicopter and reunites with Jack inside the building. Wanting to avenge her father, Irina rams the helicopter into the building, destroying the building and killing herself and the co-pilot Vadim in the process, but John and Jack survive by leaping off the building into a large pool of water.

Afterwards, John and Jack return to New York. At the airport, they meet Lucy and the reunited family walks off together.

Cast[]

The McClane Family[]

Terrorists[]

Law Enforcement/US Government[]

Other[]

Development[]

Bruce Willis had publicly stated that he was willing to do a fifth and sixth Die Hard movie, and originally estimated that a fifth film would be released in 2011. In early 2010, it was revealed that Skip Woods (writer of The A-Team and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) had been hired to write the script. The movie was filmed in Belgrade, Serbia and Budapest, Hungary among other locations during late Summer 2012, although it takes place in Russia. The trailer for the film premiered on October 4, 2012. The second trailer of the movie was released in October 25, 2012. The full-length theatrical trailer of the movie was released online on January 3, 2013.

Home Media[]

A Good Day to Die Hard was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 4, 2013.

Reception[]

Unlike Live Free or Die Hard, A Good Day to Die Hard was met with generally mixed to negative reviews from both fans and critics. While the action scenes were praised by even the harshest critics, many still were dissatisfied with the story set-up. Audiences generally stated that they were dissatisfied with Jai Courtney as Jack, stating that Willis and Courtney didn't have the chemistry that Willis had with supporting character actors in the previous two films (Samuel L. Jackson and Justin Long respectively).[1] Audiences and critics also cited the writing and directing to be a big issue as well, saying that it felt disjointed compared to the writing of first four in the series. One big complaint was with the running gag that McClane was on "vacation". Most said this gag was played for far too long and wasn't even funny to begin with. Richard Roeper was one of the more harsh critics towards the film, only rewarding it with one and a half stars of a possible five, stating that it felt like director John Moore was more worried about explosions than any of the characters.[2] Another main gripe with the film was in the fact that there was no 'main bad guy' for McClane to bounce quips off of in a humorous way before wiping them out. Other complaints were obvious Mercedes-Benz product placement, the climax of the film, the "whodunnit" villains and the setting of Europe.

The biggest overall criticism of A Good Day to Die Hard, however, was the films over the top and generally unrealistic and unbelievable nature in comparison to all of the previous installments in the franchise. Many critics felt that with this film, McClane had gone from being an average New York detective to some kind of international superhero. This complaint in particular has seemingly been a large part in the script for the upcoming sixth film (see: Die Hardest). Writer Ben Trebilcook has stated his intentions to bring the series back to its roots by having a more grounded and believable story than the previous two films.

A Good Day to Die Hard currently holds a 14% (rotten) rating from critics and a 48% (rotten) from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, suggesting poor reviews. Among the rare positive reviews, Chris Tookey of the Daily Mail tabloid paper described the film as "...as stupid in its way as The Expendables 1 and Taken 2, and nowhere near the quality of the first three Die Hards. But if you approach it as I did, in a mood for preposterous action and massive explosions, it does deliver escapist entertainment and it’s mercifully shorter than Die Hard 4. In a week as bad as this in the cinema, it is the only new movie I would have paid to see." Tookey then gave the final verdict as being "Entertaining, but dumb." along with a 3/5 star rating. [3]

Future[]

Bruce Willis has confirmed on several websites that he has signed on to do a sixth Die Hard film, although the plot and cast is unknown at this time.

On April 30, 2013 a sixth film was confirmed under the working title of Die Hardest. It is currently in the pre-production stage with a script written by Ben Trebilcook. Revealed locations for the story include New York and Tokyo as main settings.[1]

As of 2014, the film is still in the preproduction phase. In 2015 a prequel/sequel titled Die Hard: Year One was announced, which would show a younger John McClane and Holly in the 1970s whilst also taking place in present day. In 2018 the project was retooled under the new title McClane, which would incorporate elements of the Year One project.

In 2019 the project was taken off FOX's slate due to them being acquired by Disney. That same year Disney cancelled the sixth Die Hard film, and are making plans to reboot the series for the streaming service Hulu.

In 2020 Bruce Willis reprised the role of John McClane for a two-minute short film commercial advertising the DieHard car battery.

Videos[]

Images[]

References[]

External Links[]


Die Hard
Films Die Hard -- Die Hard 2 -- Die Hard with a Vengeance -- Live Free or Die Hard -- A Good Day to Die Hard
Games Die Hard -- Die Hard 2 -- Arcade -- Trilogy -- Trilogy 2 -- Nakatomi Plaza -- Vendetta -- Die Hard 5
Comic Die Hard: Year One
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