Die Hard Series

[Ivy]

Die Hard
New York cop John McClane, who has been a cop for 11 years, has just arrived in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. For the past six months, John's wife Holly and their two kids Lucy McClane and John McClane Jr have been living in Los Angeles without John. In New York, Holly had a good job that turned into a career, and Holly was promoted to a powerful position in the Nakatomi Corporation. The promotion called for Holly to move to Los Angeles to work in the Nakatomi Plaza, a 40 story building. John stayed in New York because he didn't think Holly would make it out in Los Angeles, and that she would come crawling back to him in New York, so John figured that there was no reason to pack his things for the move to Los Angeles. A limo driver named Argyle drives John to the Nakatomi Plaza, and John heads to the 30th floor, where a Christmas party is going on. John gets into an argument with Holly in the office of her drug-snorting co-worker Harry Ellis because Holly uses her maiden name Gennero instead of the name McClane on her nameplate in her office. Holly leaves the room to give a speech. While John is by himself in the office, John is wishing that the argument hadn't happened. A few minutes later, a group of German terrorists led by Hans Gruber and his right hand man Karl enter the building and take everyone hostage on the 30th floor. John is able to avoid being taken hostage because Hans and his men don't even know that John is in the building. John heads to the upper floors, which are still under construction. Hans takes Holly's boss Joseph Yashinobo Takagi to an office, where Hans demands that Takagi give him the computer code key that will allow Hans and his men to start opening the building's safe so they can steal the $640,000,000 in negotiable bearer bonds that are in the safe. Takagi refuses to cooperate with Hans, so Hans kills Takagi, and John witnesses it. Hans tells his technology expert Theo to start working on getting the safe opened, and Theo thinks it'll take a couple of hours to do it. John frantically tries to find a way to alert the LAPD, realizing that the main phone lines in the building have been cut. Once the police do arrive, they prove to be incompetent under the command of arrogant deputy chief Dwayne T. Robinson, so it's up to John to rescue the hostages.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder
At Dulles International Airport, John McClane is waiting for his wife Holly to land. A while after he arrives at the airport, he feels that something's wrong. He follows two men into the luggage room. They both try to kill him, but he kills one and the other gets away. He gets the dead guy's fingerprints and faxes them to his friend Al Powell over in L.A. The man's name was Oswald Cochrane, and he had been officially dead for two years. John then realizes that someone is about to screw around with the airport, and he's correct. Colonel Stuart, a man who got "canned by congress", as McClane says it, and his team of ex-commandos have taken control of the airport, shutting down the Instrument Landing System and the runways. He then threatens to cause plane crashes unless the plane carrying Ramon Esperanza from Valverde (the fictitious country used in Commando (1985)) lands at a runway of his designation. The Chief Engineer and the airport's S.W.A.T. team unsuccessfully try to restore communications with the planes above. Because of this, Stuart crashes a plane. McClane must now try to defeat the terrorists and save his wife before her plane, and all the other planes, run out of fuel.

Die Hard: With A Vengeance
John McClane is now almost a full-blown alcoholic and is suspended from the NYPD. But when a bomb goes off in the Bonwit Teller Department Store the police go insane trying to figure out what's going on. Soon, a man named Simon calls and asks for McClane. Simon tells Inspector Walter Cobb that McClane is going to play a game called "Simon Says". He says that McClane is going to do the tasks he assigns him. If not, he'll blow off another bomb. With the help of a Harlem electrician, John McClane must race all over New York trying to figure out the frustrating puzzles that the crafty terrorist gives him. But when a bomb goes off in a subway station right by the Federal Reserve (the biggest gold storage in the world) things start to get heated up.

Live Free or Die Hard
When someone hacks into the computers at the FBI's Cyber Crime Division; the Director decides to round up all the hackers who could have done this. When he's told that because it's the 4th of July most of their agents are not around so they might have trouble getting people to get the hackers. So he instructs them to get local PD'S to take care of it. And one of the cops they ask is John McClane who is tasked with bringing a hacker named Farrell to the FBI. But as soon as he gets there someone starts shooting at them. McClane manages to get them out but they're still being pursued. And it's just when McClane arrives in Washington that the whole system breaks down and chaos ensues.

[Ivy]

My favorite was the second, no questions asked. I've been stuck plenty of times in an Airport due to weather conditions, which can cause hour long delays. And when you're just sitting there trapped, your mind begins to wonder. I love the concept that there's limited amount of time because the planes will run out of fuel, and that McClanes wife is on one of those planes just lights a fire under his ass. This movie is action packed, and just makes you think twice about going to the Airport, especially one in DC...