there have be a barrage of action film over the last two decade . stallone and segal stuff come to mind . all of these movie have plenty of action and violence and profanity . but the two thing these movie be lack be sustainable plot and character development . in 1988 and die hard come out . bruce willis and who before hand have only blind date and moonlighting to his credit and be cast a the main character and john mcclane . richard gere and arnold schwarzenegger and sylvester stallone and and burt reynolds be all up for the role . the thing that separate mcclane from all other action hero before this movie be that mcclane be an average character . he isn not a robot while he isn not some big muscley guy and or an expert and karate . he vulnerable and bitter about his failing marriage and he a funny guy . schwarzenegger or stallone would have never be able to achieve this . gere and reynolds have have too much confidence . neither be particularly good at be sarcastic either . and the main thing that separate bruce willis from all the others be that willis ad libbed most of his funny one liner . no one else could have bring the same charisma to john . the opening scene have john mcclane grip his seat a his plane be land . this opening scene show you how mcclane can be vulnerable and that he do have fear . the passenger next to him notice john fear of fly and give him this advice represent after you get where youre go and take off your shoe and sock and make fist with your toe . once at the christmas party and he learn that his wife and holly and still use her maiden name and and meet ellis and the womanizing and cocaine snorting and co worker of holly . elli evidently have his eye on holly . he also pretty arrogant a he point out the rolex that he and the company give to holly for all her hard work . john and holly get away to a private washroom to talk by themselves and a talk that escalate into an argument over their marriage . in the middle of their argument and holly be bring out to give a speech to the rest of the worker . john be leave there to think about his stupidity of pick an argument with his wife the minute he arrive . still tense from the flight and he take off his shoe and sock and make fist with his toe . meanwhile and a man name hans gruber and his group of terrorist pull into the in door parking lot of nakatomi plaza . after cut off the phone line and exit and they seize control of the christmas party by gather them all into one room . john mcclane and arm with only his police issue berretta and manages to escape out the emergency exit while the terrorist be gather up the others . shoeless and sickle and he manage to make it to an empty floor where he panic and alone and and scar . han gruber be methodical and precise and and be patient . he charm and intelligent and he doesn not seem like the type of person to kill another human in cold blood . he take the head of the company and takagi and up to the next floor where they work him for the access code to the main computer . when takagi make it apparent that he doesn not know the code and han doesn not hesitate . he shoot him through the head and point blank . meanwhile and a shocked john be hide behind a table and where he witness the killing of takagi . this be a summary of the first 30 minute of the film and and i be not go to give anything else away . already and we have get a sense of what our two main character be like . unlike most action movie and the bad guy isn not a maniacal psycho who enjoy violence and kill people without an ounce of mercy . he still an evil man who will kill anyone if it serve his purpose . but we understand han motivation . john mcclane be a much chatty protagonist than most action hero and and even talk to himself on numerous occasion before he start talk han or the cop . it easy to identify with him . even if you be not a fan of action movie and die hard be a movie that everyone should see at least once . it will definitely help you appreciate action movie much more and even if it doesn not convert you into a total fan of the genre .