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What We NEED to See In 'Die Hard: Year One'

Yippee-ki-yay. One last time.

By Jonathan SimPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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First things first. They're calling it Die Hard: Year One?! They had every chance in the world to call it Old Habits Die Hard, and this was the title they came up with? Shame. Hope they change it.

In the 1980s and '90s, we got three fantastic Die Hard films: Die Hard, Die Hard 2, and Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Then, in the 2000s, they decided to reboot Die Hard and make two films: Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard.

The first four were all really good and the fifth one was a disappointment. Bruce Willis was pretty much sharing the spotlight with Jai Courtney, and although the action was undeniably great, the story was confusing as s**t and it didn't have John McClane fighting terrorists hand-to-hand, gun-to-gun like he usually does.

Willis is now 62 years old, and though I'm really excited to see him in Death Wish this March, he's not gonna really want to do the John McClane action hero role that he's been doing since 1988.

So, Die Hard 6 would most likely be the last one in the series. And since it'll be the last series in the iconic franchise, it needs to be absolutely amazing. As in, almost as good as the original Die Hard.

To help any directors or writers out with it, here are some proposals for how to make Die Hard 6 as good as it can be. So, if you know anyone working on the film, send them this article.

Change the Title

Let me put it this way: these are the title of the original three films:

  • Die Hard
  • Die Hard 2
  • Die Hard with a Vengeance

And these are the titles of the films after the reboot, including the sixth one if they're naming it their working title.

  • Live Free or Die Hard
  • A Good Day to Die Hard
  • Die Hard: Year One

See the problem? After the reboot, the words, "Die Hard" moved to the end of the title instead of the beginning. Why change the pattern?

I get that Die Hard: Year One was the name of a graphic novel that the film might be based on.

But if you read the speculated plot, Old Habits Die Hard would be the perfect title for it.

Did you see the little artwork I put together up there? How awesome would that be for the final installment of the franchise? Look again.

So, you're gonna need a good title. I'm not THAT against naming it Die Hard: Year One, but you got a perfectly good title right here that works great for this series.

No More Sidekicks

I know this is from "Death Wish", but I'm gonna think of it as "Die Hard 5"

In Die Hard and Die Hard 2, it was basically John McClane on his own, fighting the terrorists with information given to him by a supporting cast. In Die Hard with a Vengeance, he was paired with Samuel L. Jackson's character, Zeus Carver, to fight Simon Gruber.

And this was fine. It was made clear that John was the leader between the two, in charge of most of the action, and Zeus was there to help John think of solutions that John didn't necessarily always listen to.

In Live Free or Die Hard, Willis was paired with Justin Long's character, Matt Farrell. Matt helped John with the hacking, but never helped in the action until the end.

And it was made clear that Matt was incompetent when it came to fighting, so that was fine. John McClane was still up-and-front, dealing damage to bad guys.

But SO MUCH went wrong with A Good Day to Die Hard. John and his son, Jack, were pretty much equal partners. And JACK killed the main villain. John McClane doesn't kill the main villain in the fifth Die Hard. That was what went wrong.

And with this final installment, I want to see John doing all of the action on his own again, with no one following him. He gets some help from time-to-time, but HE does all the damage. I mean, John McClane singlehandedly took down an entire team of terrorists. And one of them was the T-1000.

I'd like to see Zeus and Matt make a return, Jack can go shoot himself in the foot, and they can both give John a little help from time to time. But most action should be done by Bruce Willis and his gun.

Get a Good Cast

It's the last Die Hard, people. Here's a list of people you need to get back.

  • Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus Carver
  • Justin Long as Matthew Farrell
  • Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Gennaro (unlikely she'll return, though)
  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy McClane
  • Reginald VelJohnson as Al Powell
  • William Atherton as Richard "Dick" Thornberg
  • Dennis Franz as Carmine Lorenzo (HE REFORMED HIMSELF)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger as...ANYBODY!!

Schwarzenegger already appeared with Willis in The Expendables. And to put it short, he needs to be in Die Hard 6. I mean, Willis and Schwarzenegger switched catchphrases at one point in The Expendables 2.

According to some sources, this movie will have an actor portraying a younger John McClane. And let me put it this way: I just watched Looper, where Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays a younger version of Bruce Willis's character.

With all due respect to Gordon-Levitt, he will NOT be playing young John McClane.

I don't think we need a famous name to play a young, 22-year old John McClane. We need a new, up-and-coming actor that realistically looks like John did a few years before Die Hard.

Make it an R-rated movie

This last movie needs to capture the spirit of the first three Die Hards. That means we need three of a lot of things: blood, language, and smoking.

Back in the first three Die Hards, the violence was AWESOME. There were some crazy hard hits, and some real blood squibs that made it realistically look like the terrorists were getting shot up.

But when they wanted to make Die Hard 4 a PG-13 movie, there was almost no real blood. When a villain was shot, you only saw smoke coming out of the wound. Blood was only seen afterwards.

Die Hard 5 was rated R, but that was just because of the occasional R language, and the violence was all PG-13. John didn't really fight terrorists in the movie, and there were no good blood squibs in there.

To keep up with the spirit, John needs to fight terrorists, curse, and smoke.

You smoke?

Not encouraging smoking, by the way. Just want this fictional character to do it.

No more Jai Courtney!

Listen, Jai. You're a good actor. But they made you kill the villain in Die Hard 5 instead of John McClane. And they made you Kyle Reese in Terminator: Genisys, so I think there's just no one left to forgive you for accepting these roles.

I don't want Jack McClane as the equal partner of John. If Jai needs to be in the sixth film, he should have a small cameo appearance, but not get into the action. Because I can't watch him in that kind of role anymore.

So, anyways, that's how you make Die Hard 6 as good as it can be.

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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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