Die Hard Die Hard Die Hard is a 1988 American action thriller film. It was directed by John McTiernan, and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart. It was produced by the Gordon Company and Silver Pictures, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film follows off-duty New York City Police Department officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) who is caught in a Los Angeles skyscraper during a heist led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). It is based on Roderick Thorp's 1979 novel "Nothing Lasts Forever". Made for $28 million, "Die Hard" grossed over $140 million theatrically worldwide, with the film
Alan Rickman Jamie in "Truly, Madly, Deeply" (1991); numerous villains in Hollywood big-budget films, including German criminal Hans Gruber in "Die Hard" (1988), Australian Elliot Marston opposite Tom Selleck in "Quigley Down Under" (1990) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in "" (1991); and the occasional television role such as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's "Something the Lord Made" (2004) and the "mad monk" Rasputin in the HBO biopic "" (1996), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. Rickman's role as Hans Gruber in "Die Hard" earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains