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.

• Bruce Willis as John McClane, a streetwise New York cop who has come to Los Angeles to reconcile with his wife
• Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber, a German mastermind and the leader of the terrorists
• Alexander Godunov as Karl, Hans's savage main henchman
• Bonnie Bedelia as Holly Gennaro-McClane, John's estranged wife
• Reginald VelJohnson as Sgt. Al Powell
• Paul Gleason as Dwayne T. Robinson, the Deputy Chief of Police
• De'voreaux White as Argyle, John's limousine driver
• William Atherton as Richard Thornburg, an arrogant reporter
• Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis, a sleazy Nakatomi executive
• James Shigeta as Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi, Nakatomi's head executive

Additional cast include Hans's henchmen: Bruno Doyon as Franco, Andreas Wisniewski as Tony, Karl's brother, Clarence Gilyard as Theo, Joey Plewa as Alexander, Lorenzo Caccialanza as Marco, Gerard Bonn as Kristoff, Dennis Hayden as Eddie, Al Leong as Uli, Gary Roberts as Heinrich, Hans Buhringer as Fritz, and Wilhelm von Homburg as James. Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush appear as FBI agents Big Johnson and Little Johnson respectively, and Taylor Fry and Noah Land make cameo appearances as McClane's children Lucy McClane and John Jr.. The casting director was Jackie Burch.

Die Hard follows its source material — Roderick Thorp's novel Nothing Lasts Forever — closely; many of the film's memorable scenes, characters, and dialogue are taken directly from the novel. The Los Angeles Times called it, "A ferocious, bloody, raging book so single-mindedly brilliant in concept and execution it should be read at a single sitting."

Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to Thorp's earlier novel The Detective, was written with the intention of being adapted into a film sequel to the film adaptation of The Detective, which starred Frank Sinatra. When Sinatra turned down the offer to star in the sequel, the story was altered to be a stand-alone film with no connections to The Detective. Other changes included the older hero of the novel becoming younger, the hero's daughter becoming his wife, and the American Klaxon Oil Corporation becoming the Japanese Nakatomi Corporation. The novel's tone is darker and more serious than the film's, and the novel's politically motivated fighters became thieves pretending to be terrorists in the film. Director John McTiernan states on the DVD commentary that the change from a tale of political terrorism to a heist film was made because he wanted to bring "joy" to the story, rather than having the villains be overly ponderous; he also liked the notion of Cold War-era terrorists throwing aside their beliefs in pursuit of capitalist spoils. The newly built corporate headquarters of 20th Century Fox, Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, was used for exterior shots of the Nakatomi building.

According to commentary from the film's DVD release, Alan Rickman's surprise when Gruber is dropped from the building is genuine: the director chose to release Rickman a full second before he expected it in order to get genuine surprise, a move which angered Rickman. The text commentary track also reveals that the shooting script did not originally feature the meeting between McClane and Gruber pretending to be a hostage; it was only written in when it was discovered that Rickman could perform a rather convincing American accent. The name Hans Gruber was used by one of the villains in the 1966 film Our Man Flint.

Music

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is featured prominently in Michael Kamen's score throughout the film, in many guises and variations (mostly as a leitmotif for Gruber and the terrorists), and thematic variations on "Singin' in the Rain" are also featured as the theme for the character Theo. John McTiernan said in the Die Hard DVD commentary that he incorporated those themes into the film's soundtrack as an homage to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (which featured both pieces of music). Basing his score around thematic variations on well-known pieces is a conceit that Kamen previously used in Brazil and would repeat in Die Hard 2 (which featured Jean Sibelius's "Finlandia") and McTiernan's Die Hard with a Vengeance (which featured variations on the Civil War marching tune, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", again previously used in a Kubrick film, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is playing during the party sequence near the film's beginning.

As the film has a Christmas setting, the score also features sleigh bells in some cues, as well as the Christmas pop standard "Winter Wonderland." Two 1987 pop songs are used as source music: near the film's beginning, limousine driver Argyle plays the rap song "Christmas In Hollis", performed by Run-D.M.C., and later, while talking on the phone in the limousine, Argyle is listening to Stevie Wonder's "Skeletons." The end credits of the film begin with the Christmas song "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (performed by Vaughn Monroe) and continues/concludes with Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

The film's final four minutes were tracked with music from two other Twentieth Century Fox features – these were 'temp tracks' which the studio ultimately decided to leave in the film. The music heard when McClane and Powell see each other for the first time is from John Scott's score for the 1987 film Man on Fire. When Karl appears with his rifle, a cut from the 1986 science fiction action film Aliens composed by James Horner is heard. This music can be found on the Aliens soundtrack as the first few minutes of the cue "Resolution and Hyperspace".

Similarly to Aliens, the score by Michael Kamen was heavily edited, with music samples looped over and over and cues added to scenes. The most notable example is the "brass blast" heard when John shoots Marco from under a table and later when Hans Gruber falls to his death.

The score as heard in the film was released by Varese Sarabande in February 2002, but was limited to 3000 copies.

1. The Nakatomi Plaza (1:50)
2. Gruber's Arrival (3:40)
3. John's Escape/You Want Money? (5:52)
4. The Tower (1:49)
5. The Roof (3:57)
6. The Fight (1:07)
7. He Won't Be Joining Us (3:53)
8. And If He Alters It? (2:39)
9. Going After John Again (4:33)
10. Have A Few Laughs (3:29)
11. Welcome To The Party (1:00)
12. TV Station/His Bag Is Missing (3:52)
13. Assault On The Tower (8:16)
14. John Is Found Out (5:03)
15. Attention Police (3:38)
16. Bill Clay (2:02)
17. I Had An Accident (2:37)
18. Ode To Joy – Beethoven (3:36)
19. The Battle (10:15)
20. Gruber's Departure (1:56)
21. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Instrumental Version) – Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn (2:00)

La-La Land Records 2-CD Album

Disc One
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Main Title*"	0:38
2.	"Terrorist Entrance"	4:05
3.	"The Phone Goes Dead/Party Crashers"	1:51
4.	"John’s Escape/You Want Money"	6:00
5.	"Wiring the Roof"	1:51
6.	"Fire Alarm"	2:04
7.	"Tony Approaches"	1:41
8.	"Tony and John Fight"	1:11
9.	"Santa"	0:55
10.	"He Won't Be Joining Us"	3:01
11.	"And If He Alters It"	2:39
12.	"Going After John"	4:29
13.	"Have A Few Laughs/ Al Powell Approaches"	3:31
14.	"Under the Table"	1:55
15.	"Welcome to the Party"	1:09
16.	"TV Station"	2:47
17.	"Holly Meets Hans"	1:19
18.	"Assault On the Tower"	8:35

Disc Two
No.	Title	Length
1.	"John Is Found Out"	5:03
2.	"Attention Police"	3:54
3.	"Bill Clay"	4:09
4.	"Shooting the Glass"	1:05
5.	"I Had an Accident"	2:37
6.	"The Vault"	3:07
7.	"Message for Holly"	1:07
8.	"The Battle/Freeing the Hostages"	6:53
9.	"Helicopter Explosion and Showdown"	4:00
10.	"Happy Trails"	1:12
11.	"We've Got Each Other"	1:56
12.	"Let It Snow"	1:43
13.	"Beethoven's 9th"	3:54
14.	"The Nakatomi Plaza"	1:45
15.	"Message for Holly (Film Version)*"	2:46
16.	"Gun in Cheek*"	1:01
17.	"Fire Hose*"	1:00
18.	"Ode to Joy (Alternate)"	2:10
19.	"Let It Snow"	1:58
20.	"Winter Wonderland"	1:25
21.	"Christmas in Hollis"	4:49

(*) Mono source

Critical reception

Based on 50 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of critics gave Die Hard a positive review, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The film's title and its story of a lone hero battling a multitude of single-minded opponents in an isolated setting also became a common descriptor for later action films: "Die Hard on a _____" became a simple and easy way to define the plot of many action films that came in its wake. For example, the 1994 film Speed was called "Die Hard on a bus", and the 1996 film The Rock was dubbed "Die Hard on an island". However, Roger Ebert gave it a less than flattering review, giving it a mere two stars and criticizing the stupidity of the deputy police chief character, claiming that "all by himself he successfully undermines the last half of the movie."

Die Hard had a budget of $28 million. Released in 21 theaters on July 15, 1988 it widened to 1,276 theaters the following weekend, grossing $7.1 million. The film earned $83 million domestically and $140.7 million worldwide. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing (Don J. Bassman, Kevin F. Cleary, Richard Overton and Al Overton, Jr.) and Best Visual Effects.

The film 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). In 2001, Die Hard was listed at #39 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, a list America's most heart-pounding films. In the June 22, 2007 issue of Entertainment Weekly, it was named the best action film of all time. In 2003, Hans Gruber was listed at #46 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list. He was also listed as the 17th greatest film character by Empire magazine. John McClane was placed at number 12 on the same list. McClane's catchphrase "Yippee kai yay, motherfucker" was voted as #96 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere magazine in 2007. In 2010, Die Hard was voted by Empire magazine as "The Greatest Christmas Film of All Time".

In July 2007, Bruce Willis donated the undershirt worn in the film to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.

Accolades

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - #39
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
  • Hans Gruber - #46 Villain
  • Detective John McClane - Nominated Hero
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker!" - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated

German version

In the German dub, the names and backgrounds of the German-born terrorists were changed into English forms (mostly into their British equivalents, with the exception of Marco and Franco, who retained their Italian and French nationalities respectively): Hans became Jack, Karl became Charlie, Heinrich turned into Henry. In the scene where John is writing down the names of the terrorists, a voiceover in the German version says "I'm gonna call you Hans and Karl, just like the two evil giants in the fairy tale" while referring to them as Jack and Charlie later. The new background depicts them as some internationally organized terrorists having gone freelance and for profit rather than ideals.

• Die Hard film series
• Films considered the greatest ever – Action