rionaleonhart | Welcome To The Party, Pal.

On a rewatch, Die Hard remains shockingly relevant to my interests. All I want out of fiction is to watch characters physically and psychologically disintegrating, and Die Hard delivers in spades.

I didn't bother to watch Die Hard for so long because I assumed it was just a generic macho power fantasy! John McClane, shirtless and panting with pain, sweating and bleeding and apologising to his wife? That's someone's fantasy, but it's not the one I was expecting.

McClane isn't the unshakable badass I thought he would be at all; he's deeply vulnerable and deeply afraid, and it both makes him a more interesting character and makes his badass moments much more badass.

Verdict on the other Dice Hard I've seen so far: Die Hard 2 was pretty unmemorable, but Die Hard with a Vengeance was an absolute blast. McClane isn't falling apart in the same way he is in the original, which makes sense - he's more experienced, he's less isolated and he's on his home turf - but teaming him up with Zeus makes for a fun dynamic, and I like that they tried something a little different with this one.

I love how desperate and messy John McClane's fighting style is. He's got no finesse; he's terrified and he's fighting for his life. He doesn't care about honour or a good fight; he'd prefer to catch you unawares and slam a door on you repeatedly.

I went far too long without this series in my life. I could watch John McClane having a terrible time all day. He's a terrible fuckup disaster man, and it's great, and I love him.

And he lives in New York, which, come to think of it, is also home to another fictional disaster I hugely enjoy. I'm not necessarily going to write fanfiction where John McClane and Peter Parker team up, or find themselves at odds, or both. I'm just saying I could.

(I've been replaying Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4 and rewatched Into the Spider-Verse on Boxing Day, so I've been thinking a lot about how much I love Spider-Man. It's strange; I tend to bounce off most superhero media, but... okay, I didn't start this sentence with the intention of making a bad webbing pun, but I can now see it barrelling up and I'm just going to stop talking before it happens.)

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I'm so glad you found an action movie that caters so very specifically to your fetish. ;)

My housemates kept looking over at me and asking 'how is this for you?' whenever McClane was particularly in agony.

Ahaha, the mortifying ordeal of being extremely well-known

John McClane, shirtless and panting with pain, sweating and bleeding and apologising to his wife? That's someone's fantasy, but it's not the one I was expecting.

Yep! I definitely think a lot of seventies and early eighties action films would be to your taste, as that's before they looked at Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator and went "That's what we want in a protagonist!"

Verdict on the other Dice Hard I've seen so far: Die Hard 2 was pretty unmemorable, but Die Hard with a Vengeance was an absolute blast.

Inteesting! I've only seen the first one.

I'm not necessarily going to write fanfiction where John McClane and Peter Parker team up, or find themselves at odds, or both. I'm just saying I could.

It is a classic trope of the superhero genre for the two heroes to initially get into a fight before coming to realize they're on the same side and teaming up.

I actually did end up watching First Blood, after your recommendation! It didn't hit my tastes with quite the same laser focus as Die Hard, but it was a very interesting film and, much like Die Hard, really broke through my expectations of the series.

Oh good!

didn't bother to watch Die Hard for so long because I assumed it was just a generic macho power fantasy!

I guess it can always be both! I imagine the film of Fight Club is probably like this: I only ever read the book, but that definitely lends itself to "generic macho power fantasy", "shirtless and panting with pain, sweating and bleeding" and also "mentally falling apart protagonist". I notice that all of the protagonists I like in any series seem to fall under that latter umbrella.

Verdict on the other Dice Hard I've seen so far: Die Hard 2 was pretty unmemorable, but Die Hard with a Vengeance was an absolute blast.

I can't decide if "Dice Hard" is a typo or a pun or legitimately the name for the films in the multiple and I'm not sure which I think is funnier.

-timydamonkey

I remember enjoying the film of Fight Club (which I saw before reading the book); it's probably worth a watch if you get the chance!

Dice Hard was just a bad joke, but I love the idea of it being the actual name for multiple Die Hard films.

I enjoyed that bad joke hugely.

I rewatched Die Hard a few years ago for the first times since I was a teenager, and found it incredibly fun! I agree with you that I was expecting McClane to be much more of a tough, macho action hero and was very pleasantly surprised by how relatable he is, just a scared guy out of his element and struggling to do his best. (I did remember the scene where he walks across broken glass because it's hard to forget; I just had forgotten how beat up he was otherwise by that point ...)

I was expecting McClane to be much more of a tough, macho action hero and was very pleasantly surprised by how relatable he is, just a scared guy out of his element and struggling to do his best

Yes! He wasn't what I expected at all, but I was delighted by what we got instead.

Poor McClane. That guy really needed a pair of shoes.

Me, seeing the title: Die Hard????

Me, reading this post: DIE HARD!!!!!!!!

Oh my god, I love this movie so much. I watch it every year at Christmas because reasons.

And I'm so glad you enjoyed it too!

I could watch John McClane having a terrible time all day. He's a terrible fuckup disaster man, and it's great, and I love him.

AND YES. SAME. THE BEST.

It's so good! My housemates had a tradition of watching it around Christmas, but I'd usually be with my family at the time, so I didn't see it until Christmas 2020 when, for obvious reasons, nobody was visiting anyone else. Discovering Die Hard was very much the silver lining there. What a great film!

I generally enjoy superhero media and Peter Parker still rises above much of it because he has so much enduring power as a dang human being. Someone who has to make a conscious effort to be as good as he is, and who still doesn't always get it right because he's funny but he's also rude, he's protective but also controlling, he's smart and very aware of it. He's often kind; he's not always particularly nice. Ridiculously overpowered when it comes to his favourite hobby of fighting muggers, and still can't do his laundry regularly?? Mood.

The best writers also seem to be the ones that recognise that he's all about the ground level, street level, problems more than the galactically existential threats. And I dunno, I guess that resonates with a lot of folk, who also deal with rent more than star-eating monsters! I know when reading the comics I often find myself skimming the fight scenes because the human drama behind everything is the more compelling story.

Which sounds like it comes around to the same appeal of Die Hard - less the macho power fantasy, more the chaos and emotional vulnerability AMIDST moments of devastating competence.

It took me far too long to reply, but I really enjoyed this analysis of the appeal of Peter Parker! He's such a complicated, interesting disaster of a character; he's smart and skilled, but he's also absolutely incapable of keeping his life together. It's great.

Welcome To The Party, Pal.

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