on the night that john mcclane ( bruce willis ) and an nyc cop and be visit his estranged wife holly ( bonnie bedelia ) in a 40 story skyscraper and terrorist thief seize control of the building . mcclane manage to slip away unnoticed and singlehandedly work to take out the terrorist and save 30 or so hostage . fantastic . this ought to get anybody out of their seat and make them take notice . once it get go there be non stop action and violence and and even entertaining exchange between mcclane and terrorist leader han gruber ( alan rickman ) . the picture offer some good dialog and good thrill and some impressive special effect and and some good performance . i think this movie and it equally macho sequel would be a must for any action fan video or dvd library . mcclane do sort of turn out to be a one man army and but he not exactly superhuman . he suffer wound and injury just like any normal human be and and he talk quite a bit . mcclane effort be not appreciate by either the l. a. p. d. or the f. b. i. and and his only support outside the building be from weary street cop al powell ( reginald veljohnson ) . the relationship between mcclane and powell be a well developed one and and willis and veljohnson have good dialog a powell offer mcclane word of encouragement . i would be remiss if i do not mention the superb performance by rickman and russian ballet dancer alexander godunov a the primary bad guy . these be thoroughly entertaining action movie villain and and han be actually more than one dimensional . on the one hand and he cold blood and cruel and yet he also enjoy dress well and seem very culture . the only sour note be the abundance of the f word ( although and in retrospect and i might be swear a blue streak if i be in the same frustrating situation ) and the variety of truly moronic support character in the film ( the self serving and coke snort yuppie elli ( hart bochner ) and the foolish and brain dead deputy police chief robinson ( paul gleason ) and the equally self serving and pompous tv news reporter thornburg ( william atherton ) and and the ignorant and overconfident fbi men ( robert davi and grand l. bush ) . but what a film it be . entertain for over two hour . while on the surface it seem like a real guy film and bonnie bedelia and a the estranged wife and have a decent role and although hers be the only prominent female role in the picture . positive .