Die Hard With a Vengeance

‘Die Hard With a Vengeance’ Is Still the Best Third Film of Any Movie Franchise 25 Years Later

Yippee-ki-yay, baby. It’s been 25 years, but John McClaine’s worst hangover still stands as his best performance (and the best third movie of any movie franchise). Don’t believe us? Read on.

Let’s take a moment to sympathize with one Lieutenant John McClane. First, his wife’s Christmas party gets hijacked by a German radical (Die Hard) and then, two years later, some more radicals seize control of the airport is wife is about to arrive at (Die Hard 2, aka Die Harder). By the time Die Hard with a Vengeance comes along, McClane and his wife, Holly, are estranged. In the third film (released in May of 1995), McClane is in a state of understandable disarray up until his boss “fucks up a perfectly good hangover.”

Originally written as a Lethal Weapon sequel (among other things), Die Hard with a Vengeance reunited Bruce Willis with original Die Hard director, John McTiernan. Half twisted game of Simon Says, half bank heist, Die Hard with a Vengeance was the most relentless action film of 1995. With the help of the ever-entertaining Samuel L. Jackson’s Zeus, Willis’ McClane took on Jeremy Irons’s Simon Gruber, the brother of the original Die Hard’s Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). Twenty-five years later, the adventure that ruined McClane’s hangover is his very best, and here’s why.

Cover Photo: Twentieth Century Fox 

More 2020 anniversaries: 40 Years Later, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Still Gives Us Daddy Issues

 Long Live Gladiator: 20 Years Later, We Are Still Entertained

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