Die Hard is a Hollywood action film released in 1988. It was written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, stars Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson, and William Atherton, and was directed by John McTiernan. A huge critical and commercial success, Die Hard propelled Willis' film career and established Rickman as a popular portrayer of villains in American film.

The movie is based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp titled Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a sequel to the book The Detective, which was previously made into a 1968 movie starring Frank Sinatra.

When Die Hard was released, it was considered one of the best action films of its era. This is probably in part due to the fact that there are few artificial plot points in the story. It is said to have reinvented the action genre and set the 90s for action/thriller movies such as Under Siege, Passenger 57 and Speed. "Die Hard on a bus" became a common way to describe the plot of many of the action films that came in its wake. For example, for the 1990s action flick, Speed, was called "Die Hard on a bus" The movie was also responsible for creating the "action star" archetype that is a far more fallible and human hero, wearing few pieces of clothing, speaking few words (including "one-liners") and always having a rough look across their face. Die Hard grossed $80,707,729 at the U.S. Box Office.

It was highly acclaimed by critics and spawned three sequels Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), and Live Free or Die Hard, which was released on June 27, 2007 in the States.

Die Hard was listed at #39 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Thrills List of the most thrilling American movies of all time in 2001.

In 2003, Hans Gruber was listed at #46 on the AFI's 50 greatest villains list from their 100 Years, 100 Heroes and Villains special. Surprisingly, McClane was not listed among the heroes, which some fans speculate is due to his perception as more of an anti-hero.

John McClane's infamous line (imitated by Hans Gruber in the f

Die Hard 2, sometimes marketed under the title Die Hard 2: Die Harder, is a 1990 film, the second in the Die Hard series. It stars Bruce Willis, reprising his role as police detective John McClane, and co-stars Bonnie Bedelia (reprising her role as Holly McClane), William Sadler, William Atherton, Dennis Franz, Fred Dalton Thompson and John Amos.

Set once again on another Christmas Eve, McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over air controls. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash.

The movie is based on a novel by Walter Wager entitled 58 Minutes. The novel has the same premise: a cop must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead. He has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes.

Die Hard 2 was followed by Die Hard with a Vengeance in 1995, and Live Free or Die Hard in 2007.

While lacking the huge impact of the original, the movie was a box-office success and received a reasonably positive critical reception. Roger Ebert, while noting the not-insubstantial plot credibility problems with the movie, described it as "terrific entertainment."

Die Hard with a Vengeance, also simply known as Die Hard 3, is the third film in the Die Hard series starring Bruce Willis as policeman John McClane, released in 1995. Vengeance introduces Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus Carver, Willis' reluctant partner. Jeremy Irons plays the main villain, Simon Gruber. It was directed by John McTiernan and written by Jonathan Hensleigh.

John McTiernan returns to director's chair with this third Die Hard outing, and although the film is grittier and far more cinematically polished than Die Hard 2, Die Hard With a Vengeance is ultimately a far cry from the almost flawless original. That Bruce Willis' John McClane has been transformed into a grizzled alcoholic is nothing short of baffling, as the character was in a much happier place at the close of part 2 (he had transferred into the LAPD and everything). Such concerns quickly become moot, however, as the plot starts to kick in and McClane - along with Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus - is thrust into a series of increasingly precarious action sequences (some of which certainly rival anything within the series in terms of pure excitement). But McTiernan - working from Jonathan Hensleigh's screenplay - tries just a little too hard to replicate the original's emphasis on the central villain's exploits, and there's little doubt that most scenes revolving around baddie Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) fall completely flat (ie the guy just isn't that interesting, nor are his many cohorts). The uneven vibe persists throughout much of the film's admittedly overlong running time, with the shockingly anti-climactic conclusion certainly leaving the proceedings with an unusually bad aftertaste. Still, Willis remains as compelling a figure as ever and the movie is ultimately closer in spirit to the original than the first sequel.

Live Free or Die Hard: As it turns out, re-watching the first three Die Hard films in anticipation of this new one is absolutely the last thing one should do - as the movie has exceedingly little in common with its predecessors and instead comes off as a cinematic cousin to such watered-down, egregiously slick contemporary action movies as xXx and Bad Company.

Stripped of anything even resembling grittiness by filmmaker Len Wiseman (who, based solely on this movie, is undoubtedly one of the least creative directors currently working within the action genre), Live Free or Die Hard will surely confound and anger longtime fans of the series - although, admittedly, the film does benefit from the inclusion of several engaging yet all-too-short-lived moments (ie there's a fairly poignant scene in which Bruce Willis' John McClane laments his penchant for always being in the wrong place at the wrong time). And while Willis does a nice job of slipping back into McClane's shoes, screenwriter Mark Bomback has essentially turned the everyman into an invulnerable cartoon character - something that's particularly true of the sequence that finds McClane forced to battle a Harrier jet (it's a ludicrously entertaining scene, certainly, but it absolutely does not belong within the confines of a Die Hard movie). That the absurdly over-the-top storyline generally feels as though it'd be more at home in a James Bond adventure certainly doesn't help matters, and Live Free or Die Hard is ultimately a pointless and thoroughly misguided sequel that tarnishes the series' overall effectiveness.