Die Hard 2 (sometimes referred to as Die Hard
2: Die Harder) is a 1990 American action film and the second entry in
the Die Hard film series. It was released on July 4, 1990. The film was
directed by Renny Harlin, written by Steven E. deSouza and Doug
Richardson, and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane. The film co-stars
Bonnie Bedelia (reprising her role as Holly McClane), William Sadler,
Art Evans, William Atherton (reprising his role as Richard "Dick"
Thornburg), Franco Nero, Dennis Franz, Fred Thompson, John Amos, and
Reginald VelJohnson, returning briefly in his role as Sgt. Al Powell
from the first film.
The screenplay was written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson,
adapted from Walter Wager's novel 58 Minutes. The novel has the same
premise but differs slightly: A cop must stop terrorists who take an
airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead. He has 58
minutes to do so before the plane crashes. Roderick Thorp, who wrote the
novel Nothing Lasts Forever, upon which Die Hard was based, receives
credit for creating "certain original characters", although his name is
misspelled onscreen as "Roderick Thorpe".
As with the first film, the action in Die Hard 2 takes place on
Christmas Eve. McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington
Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over the air traffic
control system. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and
several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of
fuel and crash. During the night, McClane must also contend with airport
police, maintenance workers, and a military commander who does not want
his assistance.
The film was preceded by Die Hard and followed by Die Hard with a
Vengeance in 1995, Live Free or Die Hard in 2007 and A Good Day to Die
Hard in 2013.
Plot
On Christmas Eve, two years
after the Nakatomi Tower Incident, John McClane is waiting at
Washington Dulles International Airport for his wife Holly to arrive
from Los Angeles. Reporter Richard Thornburg, who exposed Holly's
identity to Hans Gruber in the Nakatomi Tower, is assigned a seat across
the aisle from her. In the airport bar McClane spots two men in army
fatigues carrying a package, one of whom has a gun. He follows them into
the baggage area. After a shootout, he kills one of the men while the
other escapes. Learning the dead man is a mercenary believed to be
killed in action while originally serving with the US military, McClane
relates the situation to airport police Captain Carmine Lorenzo, but
Lorenzo has McClane ejected from his office.
Former U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel William Stuart and other members
of his unit establish a base in a church near Dulles. They take over
the air traffic control systems, cut off all communication to the planes
and seize control of the airport. Their goal is to rescue General Ramon
Esperanza, a drug lord and dictator of Val Verde, who is being
extradited to the United States to stand trial on drug trafficking
charges. They demand a Boeing 747 cargo plane so they can escape to
another country with Esperanza in tow, and warn the airport controllers
not to try to restore control. McClane realizes his wife is on one of
the planes circling above Washington, D.C. with too little fuel to be
redirected. He prepares to fight the terrorists, allying himself with a
janitor, Marvin, to gain larger access to the airport.
Dulles communications director Leslie Barnes heads to the unfinished
Annex Skywalk with a SWAT team to re-establish communications with the
planes. Just before reaching the Skywalk, the entire group and Barnes
are ambushed by Stuart's henchmen at a checkpoint, and the SWAT team is
killed in the ensuing firefight. With Marvin's help, McClane reaches the
massacre scene, rescuing Barnes and killing Stuart's men. Stuart
retaliates by recalibrating the instrument landing system and then
impersonating air traffic controllers to crash a British jet, killing
all 230 passengers and crew on board. A U.S. Army Special Forces team
led by Major Grant is called in. By listening in on a two-way radio that
was dropped by one of Stuart's henchmen, McClane finds out that
Esperanza, who's killed his captors and is now flying, is landing.
With Marvin's aid, McClane reaches the aircraft before Stuart's
henchmen, but Esperanza traps him and the antagonists throw grenades
into the cockpit. McClane escapes via the ejection seat mere seconds
before the grenades detonate and the aircraft explodes. Barnes helps
McClane locate the mercenaries's hideout and they tell Grant and his
team to raid the location, but the mercenaries escape on snowmobiles.
McClane pursues them, but the gun he picked up does not kill anyone when
fired. He discovers that the gun is loaded with blanks, and he is
horrified to discover that the mercenaries and most members of the
Special Forces team have been in cahoots all along (One of the Special
Forces is later killed by Major Grant when it transpires he was never
part of the team and was merely a last minute replacement).
McClane contacts Lorenzo to intercept the Boeing 747 in which the
mercenaries will escape, proving his story by firing at Lorenzo with the
blank gun. A suspicious Thornburg is monitoring airport radio traffic,
and learns about the situation from a secret transmission to the
circling planes from Barnes. He phones in a sensational and exaggerated
take on what is happening, leading to panic and preventing the officers
from reaching the escape plane. Holly subdues Thornburg with a Stun gun.
McClane hitches a ride on a news helicopter that drops him off on the
wing of the mercenary plane. He jams the left inboard aileron with his
jacket, preventing the plane from taking off. Esperanza, who is flying
the jet, is shocked when he sees McClane on the wing. Grant emerges and
fights McClane, but the former is knocked off the wing and into an
engine, which sucks him in, vaporizing him. Stuart then comes out and
succeeds in knocking McClane off the plane. He removes McClane's jumper
and re-enters the plane. However, he fails to realize McClane opened the
fuel hatch before he fell off. McClane uses his cigarette lighter to
ignite the trail of fuel, which destroys the jet, killing Esperanza,
Stuart and all on board. The pilots of Holly's plane uses the fire trail
to help them land, which the other passenger jets do as well. The
passengers are safely evacuated and McClane and his wife are happily
reunited. Lorenzo appears and thanks John.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Hard_2