Sunday, November 18, 2007

Die Hard with a Vengeance



The antagonist in this movie is Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons), brother of Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman, who, like Irons, was an English actor playing a German). Hans was a German criminal who was killed by NYPD cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) at the climax of Die Hard, the first film in the series. It first appears as though Simon is out to avenge his brother's death, but it is later revealed that other motives are at work.

He begins by blowing up a bomb in a department store and telling Inspector Walter Cobb, calling himself "Simon", that McClane must walk through Harlem displaying a sandwich board reading "I hate niggers", or expect 'another big bang at a public place'. When some offended African Americans threaten him, they are held back at gunpoint by shopkeeper and African American activist Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson). Carver gets McClane away, not out of concern for a white man, but that the colleagues of a white cop might go gunning for every black person in the area if one of their own is killed; "One white cop dies in Harlem, tomorrow we got a thousand white cops, all of 'em with itchy trigger fingers." Back at the police station, Simon calls and insists that this "Good Samaritan" has become part of the game whether he likes it or not.

Simon has planted real as well as phony bombs throughout the city, and forces McClane and Carver to participate in a game of "Simon says", which usually consists of giving them information about a bomb and giving them a chance to defuse them.

The first game happens at a public telephone. Simon calls and reads them the As I Was Going to St Ives riddle. To answer the riddle, McClane needs to dial 555 followed by the answer within 30 seconds. They make the call, but are 10 seconds late. Simon laughs and says there is no bomb, since he "didn't say 'Simon Says'."

Zeus and John listening to Simon on the pay phone
Zeus and John listening to Simon on the pay phone

McClane is told they have half an hour to go to a phone at a subway station near Wall Street from where they are on the upper west side. To do this, McClane commandeers a taxi and drives through Central Park, and makes a radio call for an ambulance which they follow through heavy traffic. McClane later manages to climb into the subway train from a grating and finds the bomb, quickly chucking it out the train window. Only Zeus makes it to the station to pick up the call. Simon says that McClane's absence is a breach of the rules and the bomb is detonated, however he had intended for the bomb to detonate regardless, since an activation switch was placed on the subway tracks to detonate the bomb once the subway car hit the switch. Only the audience is aware of the fact at this time.

After the bomb is detonated, they must go to another park to answer another riddle. This time, Simon says "What has four legs and is always ready to travel?" Zeus figures out that it is an elephant, and they find a briefcase bomb in an elephant fountain in the park. After a short argument on whether or not to open the briefcase, John decides to open it. When he does, an LCD screen reads "I am a bomb. You have just armed me." Simon then calls them again, telling them that they must use a 5 gallon and a 3 gallon jug to put exactly 4 gallons of water on the bomb's scale to disarm it, which they do in the nick of time.

When Simon next calls, he states that there is a bomb within one of the schools in New York. They must not evacuate schools, but the police start a massive search for the bomb. Simon's next riddle is "What is 21 out of 42?", and Zeus figures out that there have been 42 Presidents of the United States but is unable to remember who the 21st was. Later, a truck driver tells McClane he was Chester A. Arthur, and it identifies a school in which Simon claims to have placed a bomb — it is later found to be Chester A. Arthur Elementary School, the very school where Zeus' two nephews happen to be attending.

As Zeus and McClane are traveling between destinations, McClane catches and reprimands a boy for stealing a candy bar in plain sight. The boy comments that every cop in the city is searching the schools and one could, as the boy puts it, "steal City Hall". McClane abruptly realizes the nature of Simon's plan.

So far the police have been led to believe that all this is an overblown act of revenge. However, it is really a diversion from Simon's real goal: to rob the high-security vault in the basement of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which holds the gold reserves of many nations, even more than Fort Knox. The need to search the thousands of schools in New York, none of which are located in the financial district, means that the police, emergency and Federal agencies are all occupied elsewhere. This enables Simon and his army of East European mercenaries to break into the vault and make their escape with a dozen dump trucks filled to the brim with gold bars.

McClane and Carver see through the plan and catch up with the gang as they embark their trucks on board a ship. They are captured and left on the ship with a huge bomb. When McClane first sees this bomb, he realizes that there is no bomb in a school - the bomb that police found in the school is an elaborate dummy filled with pancake syrup. Simon advises McClane that "some gentlemen in the Middle East seem to think they'll make a lot of money" when a substantial portion of the world's gold reserves are destroyed. Carver asks what this has to do with killing McClane to which Simon replies, "Life has its little bonuses". The two men are left handcuffed to each other sitting astride the bomb.

At this point they hold a heart-to-heart, with McClane admitting that he and his wife are yet again estranged, and Carver trying to convince him to try to at least call her. They both manage to get off the ship just as the bomb explodes, destroying the ship.

Simon has (via a taped message transmitted over the ship's radio) led the authorities to believe that the gold was still aboard the ship and that the whole affair was a plot to upset the world economy. However, McClane surmises that it is yet another diversion and that the gold is safe elsewhere, based on experience with Simon's brother, Hans. After suffering a horrible headache all day, McClane had finally managed to obtain a bottle of aspirin from Simon himself. Based on Carver's prompting, McClane then calls his estranged wife. As the call is connecting, McClane goes to take one of the pills, and a label on the bottom of the bottle shows that they were purchased from a pharmacy in Quebec, Canada. McClane is forced to leave the phone to pursue Simon, and leaves his wife hanging on the line. This leads the action to a warehouse in Canada where Simon and his gang have indeed taken the gold. There they witness Simon's gang being caught by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police before being attacked by Simon in a helicopter. The final battle ensues and as the helicopter hovers underneath some power lines, McClane cleverly shoots out the power lines with two shots, destroying the helicopter, and sending Simon to join his late brother.

As the film ends, McClane calls his wife on a nearby pay phone, despite worrying about the fact that he left her on hold. The credits roll as the call is connecting.

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