- "Simon, kill him. Stop toying with him and kill him now!"
- ―Targo growing frustrated with Simon's revenge plan for McClane [src]
Targo's final moments.
Mathias Targo was a former Hungarian Army bomb expert turned contract-terrorist. He and his group of terrorists help and assist whoever pays them. He often worked for the Iranians. He joins forces with Simon Gruber in order to heist gold bullion in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. He is the tertiary antagonist in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Backstory[]
Targo was the lover of Katya who was rendered mute when a bomb planted in their room by the Israeli Mossad intelligence service caused her serious injuries. Targo, who was also a target for the bomb, was not present when it blew up.
Targo was hired by some men in the Middle East to break into the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City, steal the gold lingots stored there and then sink them in a tanker off the Long Island Sound in an area of water so deep that recovering the gold would be almost impossible. The lingots belong to various nations and stealing them would seriously cripple their economies. Targo's employers would then presumably bet on the collapse of the various economies on the stock market and thus earn a fortune. (Simon Gruber explains as such to John McClane and Zeus Carver when they are strapped to the bomb intended to sink the tanker.)
Die Hard with a Vengeance[]
Federal Reserve Heist[]
Targo was seen jumping onto the side of one of the fourteen dump trucks as Simon was distracting NYPD detective Ricky Walsh. Then, he was directing all of the vehicles to the damaged subway station. He directed the drilling vehicle into the station and began drilling the wall to gain access to the vault containing $140 billion worth of gold bullion. Once they got access, Targo calls in the loader, which rams through the one of the security gates and pulled the other ones open. After loading much, Targo complains that they are behind schedule and they should abandon the rest of the gold, but Simon tells him that there is isn't a cop within twenty blocks.
He drives one of the trucks with Simon and Katya. After hearing from Rolf that John McClane is heading for the bank and that Zeus Carver is heading for him, Targo convinces Simon to stop toying with McClane and kill him. He becomes more and more frustrated with Simon for toying with McClane and not killing him immediately. As Mischa and his partner, who are at Yankee Stadium checked in whatever they needed to stay, Targo tells them to wait for the moment. After being unable to get through to Karl and the rest of the men at the bank and Simon tells Mischa and his partner to stay in the stadium, Targo was angered that McClane might be alive.
Targo at the New York Federal Reserve.
As they were heading for New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, most of the dump trucks arrives through the cofferdam and Targo tells Simon to get Nils and Klaus to come up, only to find that McClane killed them as well as the men at the bank and he's on his way to get them. Targo warns that McClane will jeopardize the mission and the contract and was on his way back to the tunnel with many men to end McClane. But Simon has a plan in mind, bomb the cofferdam to try to drown McClane. After destroying the cofferdam, he, Simon and their men went to the freighter.
Then one of his henchmen, loyal to Targo, shows Targo that he found scrap metal inside the container and Targo sees that the containers are filled with scrap metal rather than gold bullion. Then McClane arrives in the cargo hold and kills his henchman. Targo then fights him and beats him down while taunting him. Then McClane takes the ship's chain and trips Targo down with it. McClane hits him several times with the chain and incapacitates him with it.
Death[]
Later on the motor boat docked to the freighter, Targo, bloodied and injured, chastised Simon that the containers are filled with scrap metal instead of gold. Targo tells Katya that Simon has betrayed them since he really intended on keeping the gold for himself. Katya pulls her Walther PPK/S but instead of killing Simon, she shows her loyalty to him by unloading the pistol into Targo, killing him. This makes him the 12th member of Simon's gang to die, but at Katya's hands.
Trivia[]
- In the limo, Ricky Walsh calls him "MaTHias Targo". This is incorrect. The actual English pronunciation for his name is like saying "Matt".
Gallery[]
