Die Hard 2

Watched the second Die Hard movie a few weeks ago again after a long time. I really liked it when I watched it originally in 1990 or so. It is really Die Hard 2 in the sense that is again taking place on Christmas Eve and more or less confined to 1 one building. In this case it is Washington Dulles Airport. So less confined than in Die Hard 1 where all the action really takes place in one skyscraper. McClane is picking up his wife at the airport so this is also very similar to the first movie. And of course there are lots of bad guys to kill, this time ex military types that plan to rescue General Esperanza who has been extradited to the US and is on a plane that will land at Dulles Airport soon. Besides a lot of shooting and McClane killing a lot of criminals the movie has a strategic military mission element added to it. The mission is well planned with counter moves from police and army anticipated but of course they didn’t count on McClane messing up the works. There are some unexpected plot turns that make the action and story line less linear and the fact that planes are held hostage and unable to land until the demands are met adds a realistic element of fear to the story. Because of this I find the movie more engaging but the first Die Hard had Alan Rickman as the villain making that movie quite unforgettable. The villains in Die Hard 2 don’t meet those high standards, they are on the contrary a bit 2 dimensional. But this movie is not about villains, it is about John McClane.