My crazy Die Hard 5 idea...

Die Hard is the best action film ever made.

Hands down. Accept no substitutes. The only film I think that can even come close to it is Aliens. But that's also a science-fiction flick. Die Hard lives and breathes in our world. It's strictly an action movie.

And let's face it, John McClane is an absolute badass. Or is he?

Throughout most of the first film, John (we're on a first name basis) spends a lot of time hiding from the bad guys and actually running away from them. He's just a normal guy. A family man. A regular New York cop who is put in an extraordinary situation. He seemingly doesn't want to fight and/or kill anybody. Towards the end he's sort of embraced the whole shoot first and ask questions later tactic, but it takes most of the movie to push him to this.

I've actually spent long hours trying to convince several different females that Die Hard is a romantic movie at heart...which it truly is. Everything John does in the first film (and the second) is done for his wife. He's trying to save his wife. He get's his feet cut to Hell and jumps off a building all for love. If that's not romantic, I don't know what is?

Just trying to save her!

 

Let's flash forward to now.

Hollywood is somewhere around middle-production on Die Hard 5 with some director attached who is so lackluster, I can't even remember his name or what he's done, nor do I care to take the extra couple minutes to find out. Needless to say the film is supposed to take place in a foreign country and have John dealing with international terrorists.

Ugh...

The problem with the Die Hard franchise is that everyone seems to have lost sight of who John really is. He's become this superhero capable of anything and able to withstand everything. With each installment John get's further from the man he was. We've lost sight of the normal guy that he is. The average Joe just trying to make it in a world that keeps on kicking him.

There's a theory that's been tossed around for a while that I actually subscribe to. It's that Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a sequel to Die Hard. Die Hard with a Vengeance is almost it's own movie and it's own thing with Live Free or Die Hard being a direct sequel to it. If you've seen these movies a few times, you'll know what I mean. But even if you haven't, it's not important because at the end of the day if you've seen Live Free or Die Hard you'll understand how far John has gone from being a normal guy to the all-powerful badass that he is now.

All this leads me to my batshit crazy idea for Die Hard 5. As I was watching the original I kept thinking three things:

1. The isolation of the building plays a HUGE part in why Die Hard is awesome. We need to return to this.

2. Hans Gruber is the fucking MAN, there has to be a way to have Alan Rickman come back (stay with me here).

3. John is scared throughout the entire movie, we are afraid for him. This is definitely something we must return to. Ground him. Bring him back to humanity.

There were other thoughts, like a sidekick isn't really necessary but Al Powell or John's son should also make a return.

Anywho, an idea started forming. And here's the batshit crazy premise for Die Hard 5:

The film would not directly acknowledge events of the previous three movies, nor would it retcon them. Leaving it up to the fans to decide which Die Hard movies are canon. 

In Die Hardly (AKA Die Hard 5) John McClane is back in New York living with his son (who is in the hiring process of the NYPD) in an apartment building. He's still estranged from his wife, Holly, but they are at least talking again and on good terms. Things might actually be looking good for McClane as his family is more or less attached and he's starting to look forward to retirement. Not to mention, Sgt. Al Powell is visiting today and it's been a couple years since the two had a chance to have a beer together. However, Powell isn't the only one coming to dinner...for years, he's kept his presence unknown and waited patiently, quietly. Secretly planning and preparing for this day. The Gruber family has endured too many losses at the hand of this dumb, Irish flat foot and now is the time for revenge. Almost no one was aware that Hans Gruber was a twin and that Victor Gruber (as played by Alan Rickman), his brother has longed for nothing else but the death of John McClane and everyone he holds dear. That's why Victor and a group of freelance mercenaries are deploying upon John's Brooklyn apartment building, locking it down and holding everyone inside hostage, aiming to not only make money off of the attack, but send a message of terror and hate. For while Hans Gruber may have just been a sensational heist man, Victor Gruber is a BELIEVER. He's spent years in prison abroad for various vicious terrorist attacks upon London and Paris. To him the Western Allies are the Enemy and nothing personifies this more than John, his family, friends and anyone stupid enough to try and hide him or protect him in the building.

For John, older now, and maybe not in the best shape he's ever been in, outgunned and outmatched, this will be the fight of his life. With the lives of all his neighbors, his best friend, and precious son hanging in the balance. He will have to be cunning and careful. Elude and terrorize the terrorists, using his knowledge of the building against them and striving to save as many lives as possible. From the rooftop to fire escapes, 10th floor to 30th floor, apartment 110 to apartment 3119, John will have to outwit his adversaries, all the while thinking that this is all his fault and understanding that Gruber is only truly here for him. What cost will he have to pay to end this?


I know what you're thinking: Victor Gruber!? Han's evil twin!?

Yep, I went there...but seriously, it could work.

Obviously, my plot synopsis is almost entirely dependent on making the Victor Gruber twin thing work. Which I honestly believe if treated seriously and properly, developing a clear back story for the character and why no one ever really heard of him (not that anyone would care if they had - I mean let's say you're the head FBI guy dealing with the fallout over the Nakatomi incident, you probably make a note that in Hans Gruber's record there is a mention of a twin brother, but why would it ever matter or come up?) this really could work and be something special. The power of it would be amazing. John having to face this very familiar but very different foe, meanwhile Rickman being allowed to play someone similar to Gruber but more vicious and dead set on nothing more than killing John McClane. No secret heist, no greed, just pure hatred, lust for violence, and anger (which the original Hans Gruber totally had going on, but at a very sedate mode most of the times).

And then of course, there's the idea of locking up John in one location and keeping everything isolated. But we raise the stakes. Not only are there more people in the apartment building than there were in the Nakatomi building, but John's son is there as well as Al Powell. People that John would die to protect. And Victor Gruber would of course know this and use it against John. I see John almost taking it upon himself to lure the bad guys away from the innocents, putting his son in charge of keeping them hidden, out of the line of fire.

ARGH, it could be so good, I can almost taste it. And it tastes like all that is man. A return to form, a return to taut, suspenseful action with characters we actually care about.

Oh, and of course Powell would die and have a wicked sad death scene.

Love ya buddy, but someone important has to go and it ain't gonna be John Jr.

Regardless, you have to admit that it would probably be better than what they eventually come up with.