Die Hard

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Die Hard is a 1988 American Christmas action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Steve de Souza and Jeb Stuart. It is an adaptation of the 1979 bestselling novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp following off-duty New York City Police Department officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) as he takes on a group of highly organized criminals in a Los Angeles skyscraper led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), who perform a heist under the guise of a terrorist attack using hostages, including McClane's wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), to keep the police at bay.

The film's success spawned four sequels: Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

New York City Police Department detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly. Limo driver Argyle drives McClane to the Nakatomi Plaza building to meet Holly at a company Christmas party. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of German terrorist Hans Gruber and his heavily armed group: Karl, Franco, Tony, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz and James. The group seizes the skyscraper and secure those inside as hostages, except for McClane, who manages to slip away, armed with only his service sidearm, a Beretta 92F pistol.

Gruber singles out Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi, claiming he intends to teach the Nakatomi Corporation a lesson for its greed. Away from the hostages, Gruber interrogates Takagi for the Nakatomi computer code to access the building's vault. Gruber admits that they are using terrorism as a decoy while they attempt to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from the vault. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is executed by Hans as McClane secretly observes. McClane manages to kill Karl's brother Tony, taking his weapon and use his radio to contact the Los Angeles Police Department, who send Sgt. Al Powell to investigate while Hans sends his men to stop McClane. McClane kills Heinrich and Marco, and he escapes with a bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators. Meanwhile, Powell finds nothing strange about the building as he is met by one of Gruber's men dressed as a building security guard. He attempts to leave, but McClane drops Marco's corpse onto Powell's car. This alerts the group, who proceed to fire on Powell's car as he drives away in reverse. Powell alerts the LAPD, who quickly arrive and surround the building.

A SWAT team assaults the building, but they are massacred with rockets by James and Alexander. McClane uses the C-4 to kill the pair, allowing SWAT to retreat. Holly's coworker Harry Ellis attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators. McClane refuses to return them, causing Gruber to execute Ellis. While inspecting the explosives attached to the roof, Gruber is confronted by McClane, but Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive before McClane can act. McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but he is forced to flee without the detonators.

FBI agents arrive and take command of the situation, ordering the building's power to be shut off. The power loss disables the vault's final lock, as Gruber had anticipated, granting them access to the bonds. Gruber demands that a helicopter arrive on the roof for transport. His intention is to detonate the explosives on the roof to kill the hostages and to fake the deaths of his men and himself. Karl finds McClane, and the two fight. Meanwhile, Gruber views a news report by Richard Thornburg that features McClane's children, causing Gruber to realize that McClane is Holly's husband. The terrorists order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane. McClane defeats Karl and heads to the roof. He kills Uli and sends the hostages back downstairs before the explosives detonate, destroying the FBI helicopter.

Theo goes to the parking garage to retrieve their getaway vehicle, but he is knocked unconscious by Argyle, who has been trapped in the garage during the siege. McClane confronts Gruber and knocks Kristoff unconscious. McClane alerts Hans and Eddie of his presence, but Gruber holds his pistol to Holly's head and forces him to surrender his machine gun. McClane does so and puts his hands behind his head. After distracting the two remaining terrorists by laughing, McClane pulls his concealed pistol, which he had earlier taped to his upper back, using the weapon to kill Eddie and shoot Gruber in the shoulder, sending him crashing through a window. Gruber grabs Holly to save himself, attempting to drag her down with him, but McClane manages to free her and Gruber falls to his death on the street, 30 stories below.

McClane and Holly are escorted from the building and meet Powell in person. Karl emerges from the building disguised as a hostage and attempts to shoot McClane, but he is shot by Powell. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo, and Holly and McClane are then driven away.