Wen/Tianzhao said
The 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of Hollywood tough guys.
Rambo in the "First Blood" series, the cold and terrifying T800 in the "Terminator" series, the undead detective McLean in the "Die Hard" series... All kinds of tough guys compete on the screen, filling the audience's eyes.
Among the bunch of tough guys, McLean in "Die Hard" is really an "outlier". Compared with the previous Hollywood action film "can not kill the big hero" model, McLean in "Die Hard" is more like a tenacious "little strong", often exhausted in the face of villains, and even he is also a bad disease, family and marriage have been on the verge of crisis.
It is precisely these "anti-hero" settings that make the story of the film more grounded, and John McLean can also be named in the history of the film.
However, with the development of "Die Hard", the bottleneck of the series of movies has become more prominent, and the reputation has deteriorated. Stallone's "First Blood" series and Schwarzenegger's "Terminator" series both ended, while "Die Hard 6" has been difficult to produce to this day, and even the lead actor Bruce Willis has changed from a former Hollywood superstar to today's "bad film professional".
How did the Die Hard series go from peak to decay and eventually be forgotten by Hollywood? In this issue, we will review this classic action film series - "Die Hard":
<h1>"Die Hard" turned out</h1>
In 1988, the film "Die Hard" came out.
The film tells the story of Detective John McLean who travels to Los Angeles to visit his wife and is invited to a Christmas party in a mansion. However, that night, a gang of bandits began to think of more than 600 million yuan of public bonds stored in the building's vault. They cordoned off the building and held hostage those attending the party. McLean, on the other hand, escaped and fought the bandits alone.
From today's point of view, the story of "Die Hard" is not complicated, and even feels familiar. It is no wonder, after all, it was the film that created a new mode of action movie in which "thugs occupy a confined space, and civilian heroes fight against the enemy alone", that is, "hidden dragon action movies".
To this day, the "Dragon-like" civilian hero mode in "Die Hard" still influences Hollywood action movies. "The Fall of Olympus" and "Skyscraper Rescue" have been used as "XX version of "Die Hard" as a selling point during the publicity period, which shows the far-reaching influence of "Die Hard". (In December 2017, "Die Hard" was included in the Library of Congress's list of protected films.)
Although the story of "Die Hard" is simple, it is very well filmed. Navigating a closed mansion with cunning bandits is inherently suspenseful and fraught with uncertainty. Moreover, the protagonist is still a greasy man who does not look good.
John McLean was arguably the least heroic hero on the big screen of his time. He often spits out fragrant aromas, often complains in the face of trouble, and his family relationship is not handled well. Such an "anti-hero" figure everywhere does not look like a protagonist who can become a big hero.
However, as the plot progresses, McLean's good side gradually shows: he spits out fragrant, but he scolds all the adulterous people; he often complains, but he goes all out in times of crisis to save the entire building; he has a bad relationship with his wife, still sacrificing his life to protect his wife in a crisis, showing the true nature of a big husband.
The vivid, three-dimensional character and undead attributes suddenly made John McLean a big-screen tough guy character comparable to Rocky, Rambo, and terminator. Bruce Willis also became one of the hottest action actors in the role of McLean, who also successfully became one of the hottest action actors.
"Die Hard" eventually grossed $140 million worldwide, and IMDB scored a whopping 8.2 points. Under such a considerable box office and word of mouth, the sequel of the film followed. "Die Hard 2" and "Die Hard 3" were released in 1990 and 1995 respectively.
"Die Hard 2" basically copied the model of "Die Hard 1", but replaced the building with an airport. Although it is not as suspenseful as the first story rebirth, due to the increase in production costs, the action scenes of "Die Hard 2" are more explosive and exciting than the previous explosion, and it is still an excellent sequel.
"Die Hard 3" completely liberates McLean from the "Chamber of Secrets", the story does not take place in a single building, and McLean also has a side-by-side partner. The villain's plot of pretending to take revenge on McLean, in fact, is to rob the Federal Reserve Bank vault also makes the audience shine. In Nolan's "The Dark Knight", we can also see a lot of shadows of "Die Hard 3".
The third film series is often overwhelmed by the third film, but the "Die Hard" trilogy is an exception. Even if the reputation of the two sequels launched later did not reach the height of the first one, the overall quality is obvious to all, and the rising box office shows the exuberant vitality of the series.
<h1>McLean's Sunset Song</h1>
At the end of 2007, Hollywood tough guy movies ushered in a wave of return. "Die Hard 4", "First Blood 4", "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4" and other famous action IPs of the last century have launched sequels more than a decade later.
The return of the new century of "Die Hard 4" has completely upgraded from a police film to a commercial visual effects blockbuster under the packaging of capital, and John McLean has also added a little superhero style. In order to make the IP of the last century better adapt to the trend of the new century, the screenwriter added thoughts on the high-tech era in "Die Hard 4":
The film tells the story of a well-planned terrorist who plans to use hacking techniques to paralyze computer systems throughout the United States on Independence Day.
With the fresh elements of "computer", "Internet" and "hacker", the pattern of "Die Hard 4" is obviously much larger than the first three. The setting of the hacker laid the "theoretical foundation" for the big scenes in the film, and the action scenes can be said to have reached the peak of the action film field at that time.
McLean had less and less hair, and the enemies he faced were getting more and more outrageous. This time, the villain uses hacking technology, as small as controlling traffic lights at intersections, to cracking military codes to order fighters (even McLean's pension can be erased), which makes McLean suffer a lot.
Facing a new opponent, McLean, the old hero, still chooses the traditional way to compete with it:
You intercept me with a helicopter, and I knock it down with a police car; you beat me downstairs, and I drive the car upstairs and hit you; you hit me with a fighter F35, and I drive a heavy truck and break the net with you.
The old heroes in the new era not only did not lose their style due to the years, but they became more and more fierce.
Although "Die Hard 4" made McLean "superhero" approach dissatisfied some fans, from the film's IMDB score of 7.1, Rotten Tomatoes freshness of 82%, and the global box office of $388 million, McLean's return is still a success.
"Die Hard 4" proves that the 52-year-old Bruce Willis is still majestic, and he is still up to the jackhammer John McLean who is full of spit and can't beat him.
As is customary in Hollywood, Die Hard 5 is imperative.
In 2013, after making a cameo appearance in Stallone's two "Daredevils", the 58-year-old Bruce Willis finally presented his masterpiece , "Die Hard 5".
It is worth mentioning that the screenplays of the first few parts of the series are adapted from novels, and there is no mcLean's role in the original book, and the screenwriter adapted it before incorporating McLean into the story. "Die Hard 5" is the first film in the series to use an original script.
But judging from the performance of "Die Hard 5", the original script has become "original sin". Because of the whole film, there is basically no plot.
The film tells the story of McLean's son Jack, who was arrested in Moscow and threatened with the death penalty, and McLean immediately went to Russia alone after hearing the news. On the day of the trial, a group of militants attacked the courtroom, and Jack's true identity of the CIA was revealed. In order to avoid the leakage of nuclear materials, father and son must release their former suspicions and face each other together.
The entire film is 98 minutes long, the shortest in the entire series. Of those 98 minutes, two-thirds were action scenes. After all, father and son join forces, and the action scenes must be fully upgraded.
The supporting characters of the "Die Hard" series are actually set for the characteristics of the villain, such as the big villain in "Die Hard 1" is a cunning and elegant robber, and the screenwriter arranges McLean's intellectual and intelligent wife as the internal response; and for example, the villain in "Die Hard 4" is an omnipotent programmer, and the screenwriter arranges a hacker to assist McLean. It is thanks to the assistance of these supporting characters that McLean is able to be comfortable in the battle against the villain.
"Die Hard 5" broke the previous "one article and one weapon" model of the series, and his son Jack served as McLean's right-hand man this time. Inexplicably, "Die Hard 5" clearly has the most violent combination in the series, but the villain is the weakest one ever.
Compared to McLean of the "mouth cannon", the villain is actually a big selling point of the series. The villain played by Alan Rickman in "Die Hard 1" is not even as popular as the protagonist, after all, there is a powerful villain who can better set off the protagonist's style.
In "Die Hard 5", the presence of the villain is almost negligible, there is no conspiracy, there is no trick, and the infernal affairs at the end are also strange, and the three times five divided by two are picked up by the McLean father and son.
The setting that the villain's strength does not match the protagonist makes the film's action scenes appear large but superficial, and even sacrifices objective common sense for the sake of large scenes:
You drive an armored car, I drive a big run to hit you, anyway I don't die; you shoot me with a fighter jet, I jump from the top of the building, anyway I don't die; you hit me with a helicopter, I jump directly off the building, anyway I can't die... In short, McLean is no longer the undead "little strong", but more like the superhero next door Marvel came out.
In order to create a big scene in the film, the crew can spend a lot of effort, especially the scene of a car chase in the downtown area of Moscow, and 132 cars were scrapped just for filming.
It is right to pursue big scenes, but it is the next strategy to use one explosion after another, jumping off buildings, and overturning cars to show the heroic image of McLean's father and son.
McLean in "Die Hard 2" was hit by the villain from the plane to the runway, and he was embarrassed; McLean in "Die Hard 3", in the villain's scheme, almost drowned in the sea; even in the exaggerated action scene of "Die Hard 4", McLean was almost defeated by the villain at the last moment.
The audience wants to see how McLean can survive with "ingenuity", rather than doing whatever he wants with the steel body given by the screenwriter.
The action scenes of "Die Hard 5" seem to be hot and dense, but in fact, the richness is far less than that of "Die Hard 4", which is basically the configuration of "gun battle, car chase" plus in traditional action films, far less amazing than the "tunnel crash" and "elevator shaft war" in the previous game.
The most puzzling thing is that the scene of the fighter sweeping the building appears twice in the film, and the fighters in the previous game were all taken down by McLean, how many meanings does your little helicopter appear twice?
McLean who fell to the death
The already weak villain, the undead McLean father and son, coupled with the simple and brainless script, caused the dramatic conflict in "Die Hard 5" to be completely less intense than the series had in the past. Two-thirds of the time of the 98-minute film is McLean's father and son brushing the double copy, or the kind that hangs, without any brains.
The audience's eyes are always shining, and "Die Hard 5" received a bad review: IMDB 5.3, Rotten Tomatoes freshness of only 15%. No matter how you look at it, "Die Hard 5" is the existence of a ruined IP. The only thing that may have pleased the producers was the global box office of exactly $300 million.
The veteran movie IP that has returned from the new century is actually facing the problem of action being greater than the story, such as "First Blood 4" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4" in the same period as "Die Hard 4", the former replacing the series of critical ideas with extreme bloody scenes; the latter special effects scenes are noisy, making the story itself dwarfed by the previous game.
But in general, the audience can at least feel the style of the tough guy in the film.
The success of "Die Hard 4" made Fox make the wrong judgment that "the action is greater than the story". As everyone knows, the "Die Hard" series has always been praised by the audience for its exquisite story and brilliant characters. Even if the action scenes of "Die Hard 4" have the momentum of playing too much, at least the story and characters of the film have kept the "bottom line". And "Die Hard 5", only playing the action of the head, but there is no sincerity of the story, and even McLean has no style of the year. For an action IP known for its plot and characters, the consequences are undoubtedly disastrous.
<h1>Sad and dismal acting career</h1>
2013 can be described as the peak of Bruce Willis, "Die Hard 5", "Red Flame Battlefield 2", "Special Forces 2" three action movies for a while to make the old cloth unlimited scenery.
Embarrassingly, the two films starring "Die Hard 5" and "Red Flame Battlefield 2" all suffered Waterloo, and Bruce Willis's acting career has since fallen into a trough. After this year, Bruce Willis is basically far away from the mainstream film market.
Without the favor of Hollywood blockbusters, Bruce Willis, like Nicholas Cage, took over a number of low-cost disc works. These works have the same characteristics: one is that no matter how much Bruce Willis plays, the C position of the poster must be old cloth; second, these works, without exception, are particularly bad.
These films are just the tip of the iceberg in Lao Bu's bad films in recent years
After 5 years of muddling in a bad movie, Bruce Willis finally won the opportunity to star in the mainstream film company MGM's film "Tiger's Hunt" (the new version of "Raptors"), which is also regarded as Bruce Willis's "blood return work".
However, the budget of 30 million US dollars "Tiger Hunt" finally grossed only 50 million US dollars, and was even nominated for the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards prequel, remake, spoof and sequel film, and Bruce Willis was also nominated for the worst actor at the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards.
Even if the film did not win the award in the end, it is obvious that Bruce Willis's "blood return" was unsuccessful. In the future, Bruce Willis still has a considerable number of bad films waiting to be released.
Perhaps by fate, the success of "Die Hard 1" established Bruce Willis as a Hollywood tough guy, while the defeat of "Die Hard 5" made Bruce Willis's acting career miserable.
Bruce Willis's only chance to turn around may be pinned on "Die Hard 6: McLean". However, whether this movie can be released as scheduled is still not optimistic. In 2018, there was news of "Die Hard 6", but it was only to determine the title of the film, confirm the screenwriter and other preliminary preparations for the film, and the film shooting plan is still far away.
On the one hand, Bruce Willis's bad films in recent years have really exhausted their reputation, and no production company dares to ask a "bad film professional" to star in a costly action movie. On the other hand, the failure of "Die Hard 5" has shown that the story of this series has reached the creative bottleneck, and McLean's story has become difficult to tell new ideas.
At the same time, the acquisition of Fox by Disney in 2019 has even cast a layer of gloom over "Die Hard 6":
Why would Disney make an action movie with an old man, a difficult script, a lot of investment, and a violent scene?
Obviously, "Die Hard 6" did not impress Disney's strength.
However, words cannot be so absolute.
In this era of action superstars, emotions are priceless after all. As long as the tough guys are there, there is still a glimmer of hope.
There may be little hope, but I am still willing to wait, bruce Willis' nirvana returns.
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