Die Hard: The Frank Sinatra connection behind McClane
Before Bruce Willis became John McClane, the lead role in Die Hard had to be offered to Frank Sinatra. The obligation came from an earlier film and the novels connecting the two productions. Sinatra had starred in The Detective, adapted from Roderick Thorp's book, and his contract required an offer for the follow-up. He declined; he was in his early seventies. The 1988 action film eventually placed Willis in the Los Angeles skyscraper, but its path to the screen began with a detective story and a contractual link reaching back to a different leading man.
Thorp published The Detective in 1966 and followed it with Nothing Lasts Forever in 1979. The later novel became the basis for Die Hard, carrying forward the relationship to the earlier book and its screen adaptation. Sinatra's refusal left the filmmakers free to move toward another performer. Willis initially had a scheduling obstacle of his own: he was committed to the television series Moonlighting. Production on that show stopped for eleven weeks during co-star Cybill Shepherd's maternity leave, opening time for the movie. His television and film work still overlapped on at least one day, when he worked on both productions.
The screen story followed McClane, a New York police officer visiting his estranged wife in Los Angeles. Bonnie Bedelia played Holly, whose company's Christmas party gave the couple a difficult reunion before the building was taken hostage. Alan Rickman played Hans Gruber, the sophisticated leader seeking the money in the company's vault. It was Rickman's first credited feature-film role. Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza wrote the screenplay, and John McTiernan directed, with Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver producing. The adaptation turned the office visit into a struggle through a tower filled with adversaries and hostages.
Die Hard was filmed entirely in Los Angeles, using the newly built Fox Plaza as Nakatomi Plaza. The building was still under construction, allowing McTiernan to place action on unfinished floors. Other floors were occupied, so some work had to take place at night. Its thirty-third and thirty-fourth floors stood in for the corporation's offices. In the boardroom, a model bridge designed by Frank Lloyd Wright became a centerpiece. The production used the tower's real spaces while adding selected details to the fictional company's surroundings, making a still-developing office building part of a film about an office party interrupted by danger.
Additional space was constructed on Stage 15 at the Twentieth Century Fox lot. The set represented another floor of the company and rose three stories high, with a waterfall inspired by Wright's architecture. Around it stood a painted city backdrop 350 feet long and 30 feet high, reproducing the view from Fox Plaza's thirty-fourth floor. The set cost $1.5 million. Production designer Jackson DeGovia worked on the film, with Jan de Bont as cinematographer and Frank J. Urioste and John F. Link as editors. Real tower interiors and studio construction together provided the locations through which McClane's escape and counterattacks could unfold.
Both Willis and Rickman performed some of their own stunts, while other dangerous moments depended on doubles and specialized arrangements. During the scene in which McClane slips down an elevator shaft, a stunt performer missed the intended vent and fell farther before catching a lower one. The filmmakers kept the shot because the unplanned fall added excitement. Rickman's final plunge involved a forty-foot stunt. He expected a countdown before being pushed, but the crew released him early to capture surprise on his face. The finished action incorporated both a planned attempt to elicit a reaction and an unexpected movement during a separate stunt.
Principal photography had been completed by early March, and the movie opened on July 15, 1988, in twenty-one theaters. It later expanded to 1,750 screens. The production budget was reported as $28 million, including Willis's $5 million salary. Early reactions varied: some critics praised its suspense, while others objected to the characterizations and human drama. One Los Angeles review nevertheless predicted that it would bring Willis movie stardom. The release brought the television performer into a feature built around sustained physical action, a large office location, and a villain played by an actor making his credited feature debut.
The technical work on Die Hard received four Academy Award nominations: sound, film editing, sound effects editing, and visual effects. The theatrical prints included a 70mm presentation with six-track Dolby Stereo. Its end credits also acknowledged the neighborhoods and businesses around the filming, including residents of nearby condominium developments, staff at the Century Plaza Hotel, and local property managers. The named companies included JMB Property Management and Marriott Corporation.
- AFI Movie Club: Die Hard — www.afi.com
- Die Hard: AFI Silver program — silver.afi.com
- Die Hard: AFI Catalog — catalog.afi.com