Die Hard

Action

William Atherton	Richard Thornburg
Bruce Willis	John McClane
Bonnie Bedelia	Holly Gennero McClane
Hart Bochner	Harry Ellis
Paul Gleason	Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson
Alexander Godunov	Karl
Alan Rickman	Hans Gruber
James Shigeta	Joseph Takagi
Reginald VelJohnson	Sgt. Al Powell
De'Voreaux White	Argyle

Director	John McTiernan; Renny Harlin
Producer	Lawrence Gordon; Joel Silver; John McTiernan
Writer	Roderick Thorp; Jeb Stuart; Steven E. deSouza
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Musician	Michael Kamen; Ludwig van Beethoven; James Horner; John Scott

This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank), and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet, and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan. --Tom Keogh