Bruce Willis initially refused to say one of his funny lines in Die Hard 2

Christmas 2024 saw Netflix deliver the latest in an endless string of rather cool action films, which were eventually doomed to become the digital equivalent of fossils buried on the streaming giant’s servers. “Carry On” is a thriller set in Los Angeles, where Taron Egerton’s TSA officer must foil a plot to release a deadly nerve agent on board a plane. In other words, it was a Christmas action movie set entirely in an airport, so it was Inescapably indebted to “Die Hard 2”.

This action sequel has a somewhat strange legacy, one that extends far beyond the influence of your average Netflix movie. While the 1988 original falls above almost everything else Rating of “Die Hard” movies.“Die Hard 2” from the 90s is definitely a contender for second place. It excluded the same old parts from the conversation by turning Bruce Willis’ John McClane into another superhero archetype, which leaves only “Die Hard 2” and 1995’s “Die Hard With a Vengeance” trilogy. But if you go by what the critics said When “Die Hard 2” came out, you probably put it behind “Vengeance.” According to many reviewers, the sequel tried too hard to imitate its predecessor, recreating the same situation, tone, and story beats, while failing to do anything original.

Even her star seems to share this opinion. Posted on the AICN forums in 2007 (trans Rotten tomatoesWillis revealed that “Die Hard 2” was his “least favorite and least enjoyable” of all the films in the series. Why? The star seems to feel the film’s critics got it right, with Willis echoing the most common criticism of the film as being “too precious and self-referential.” He also felt that the story was “all over the place, suffering from extreme claustrophobia.”

But it looks like there may be another big reason why Willis doesn’t like Die Hard 2, and it has to do with a fundamental disagreement about how John McClane should have played him.

Die Hard 2 follows John McClane, now an LAPD lieutenant, taking on an entirely new gang of terrorists while trapped at Washington, D.C.’s Dulles Airport. In fairness to its critics, the film is considered a remake of the first film, only set in an airport setting and not a skyscraper. But “Die Hard” was great, so you have to wonder what’s wrong with more of the same? However, for Bruce Willis, that was absolutely the wrong way to approach the sequel, at least according to Renny Harlin.

In 2022 the director spoke to empire About the making of “Die Hard 2”, it was revealed at one point that Willis joined the project with ambitions to make MacLaine a more consistent character. As Harlin explained, Willis went from “TV star to movie star overnight” thanks to the success of the original “Die Hard,” and this quick transformation seems to have given the actor a sense of ownership over his character. Harlin claimed that Welles “had this idea from the beginning that he now wanted to play John McClane completely straight, and that this movie had to be serious.” Of course, no one watches “Die Hard” for its naturalism, a point Harlin seems to understand better than its star. The director continued:

“I told him, ‘This is not the John McClane that the public loves. They feel like you are their friend now, and they don’t want to lose their friend.’” We had a big disagreement about this. He said: “Those funny comments – that’s bullshit with a life on the line, you can’t say that kind of thing.” I said: Yes, not in real life, but this is a movie Die hard“.'”

The disagreement led to a meeting between Willis, Harleen, and producer Joel Silver, where the trio decided that Willis would be able to deliver lines his way as many times as he wanted. But he also had to give Harlen at least one humorous take on the material. “He did it reluctantly, not very happily,” said the director, who made every hilarious moment in the final clip. This constant clash between director and actor leads to one particular moment where Willis almost gets away with dodging one of the best lines in “Die Hard 2” entirely.

Bruce Willis wasn’t the only one who wasn’t sure about the content of the sequel to Die Hard. 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019) Originally He wanted to replace the large passenger plane crash in “Die Hard 2” with a UPS plane crashbefore test audiences talked them out of that idea. Unfortunately for Renny Harlin, nothing seemed to shake Willis from his faith in the more steadfast John Maclean. When asked to recall a particularly difficult moment from the set of “Die Hard 2,” Harlin revealed that Bruce Willis almost got away with not saying one of the film’s best lines. This comes when McLean asks an airline representative to use her fax machine, only for the woman to suggest they meet after her shift. Then John showed his wedding ring and said, “Just the fax, ma’am. Just the fax.”

According to Harlin, the shooting of this hit was “extremely painful” as Willis appears to have been particularly adamant about his more serious take on MacLean:

“Bruce hated that (line). He said, ‘That’s so cheesy and stupid.’ I refuse to say it.’ It took an hour at the table pleading with him and Joel (Silver) intervening to get him to say it one time, out of 15 takes, but he’s in the movie and people love him.

Harlen also explained how the line was about more than just maintaining MacLaine’s sense of humor from “Die Hard,” noting how it “shows that he cares about his wife. It makes him a really respectable, respectable person.” There’s no doubt that MacLaine’s charisma and everyman appeal were crucial to the success of the early “Die Hard” films, and it certainly seems odd that Willis would want to tone that down in the film. But to be fair, these are just Harleen’s recollections of the shoot, and far from diminishing the quality of “Die Hard 2,” Willis didn’t really give his side of things. Either way, Harlen won in the end. The 1990 sequel ended up recreating the tone of the original, and despite what critics say, it remains one of the series’ best, even if it inspired an endless stream of streaming imitations for decades to come.