Film Structure Analysis #12B (Full) - Die Hard (1988)

"This IS Christmas music."

A few days ago I posted in regards to Die Hard's first act. Today I was thinking about the entire story and wanted to go deeper. To be honest, I can see myself revisiting this breakdown in two months and making some aggressive changes, then I can see myself coming back to it a year later and changing it back to this. The point is--it's opinion. The main reason I am reminding myself of this is because of the third act. I think one could dive deeper into analysis on Act 3 than I do here.

For Act 1: https://steemit.com/film/@lionsuit/film-structure-analysis-12a-act-1-die-hard-1988

At the start of Act 2 we have a huge LA office building with a New York cop, his wife, a party of business people, and a band of robbers all inside. The goal of the thieves: break into the vault, steal the money. The goal of our hero: save his wife, stop the bad guys. We start with easiest first. Pull the fire alarm. Then fight and kill Tony, take his machine gun, drop one of the best lines in the film via a sweatshirt: "Now I have a machine gun Ho - Ho - Ho," call 911, get a squad car to come by, nothing?! Throw a body out the window onto the hood. "Welcome to the party, Pal." This leads us into our midpoint or first culmination in a sense. Al is now a part of the story. John and Hans connect on the radio. The news team enters. The police chief shows up. It reminds me of Jaws in a way: the first half of the film deals a ton with trying to convince others of the danger we have on our hands. Once the midpoint hits, the truth is out and the story changes direction.

The second half of Act 2 deals with the "LAPD Truck," Ellis' death, fake demands, and the arrival of the FBI, then one of the best interactions in the movie, one of the best scenes: John and Hans meet face to face, one of the best examples of Dutch Angle in modern film. John outsmarts Hans, but they are interrupted--"Ding!"-- by Hans' team, guns, glass, glass, glass, and ultimately a turnover of the detonators back to the bad guys: an empowerment of the robbers while John reaches his most vulnerable physical point, bare feet cut apart by broken glass. Things don't look good.

Act 3 starts with Al sharing his sad past, then races us toward Hans' success: the FBI cuts the power which unlocks the final seal of the vault and the money gets packed up. Meanwhile John sits in a pool of blood, hidden in some bathroom tucked deep into the building giving Al a message to pass on to his wife, aka he thinks he's not going to make it. "I'm sorry."

In a sense, this sequence (the first half of Act 3) sets us up for a clean all around good guy loss. The news team even makes it to John and Holly's home and force their cameras into the faces of the children. Even this is set up as a possible final chance for the children to send a message to their parents.

The final sequence, though, takes us into one more push, one more cathartic dive, one last hope: the roof fight, the choppers come in and we warn off the business hostages, Holly is taken hostage as her identity is revealed, and the final showdown--two bullets, two bad guys. Tape the gun to the back. The classic "everyone laughs" moment, and POW, POW. Hans goes back out the window and pulls Holly to the edge. John must unlatch the Rolex to get Hans' hand off Holly--the watch, set up earlier as a motif symbolizing John's loss of Holly comes into play PERFECTLY--killing the bad guy and fighting for his wife become the exact same imagery and moment. John gets the Rolex off her wrist, Ellis' gift. Hans dies. Same action. So good.

As we walk out and meet our friends face to face, we have one last jolt of danger as Al resolves his trigger issues, cult fans or haters in theaters argue continuity issues, and Argyle returns to the screen. It's a go on the Christmas music as we drive off into the end.

Be well.
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(words and image are original)