Die Hard 2

While waiting for his wife’s plane to land, Los Angeles Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) spots trouble at Washington DC’s Dulles airport.

Die Hard 2, while nowhere near the caliber of its predecessor, is nonetheless an enjoyable sequel thanks to a tight script, good production, and a solid supporting cast.

The script by Steven E. de Souza moves from one action set piece to another, all the while ratcheting up the tension. It’s the same formula used in the original Die Hard, and de Souza uses it well. Granted, many of his sequences walk the fine line between amazing and unbelievable, but de Souza never crosses it, keeping our suspension of disbelief intact.

Director Renny Harlin does a good job keeping true to the original, all the while making the film his own. Despite the spacious airport setting, Harlin retains the first film’s claustrophobic feel by crowding his interior sets full of extras, and covering the exteriors in inches of snow.

For his part, Bruce Willis carries the film well, once again playing the everyman caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, fighting overwhelming odds simply because it’s the only thing he knows how to do. Willis’ combination of smart-aleck charm and toughness make him a natural for this role, and he doesn’t disappoint.

Supporting him is a great ensemble of character actors. There’s former Senator Fred Thompson as the gruff airport head, perennial character actor Tom Bower as a pack-rat janitor, and Dennis Franz as (what else?) the chief of airport police. William Atherton and Reginald VelJohnson even reprise their roles from the first film. This solid supporting cast goes a long way toward glossing over the film’s biggest weakness: the lack of a villain on par with Alan Rickman’s classic performance in the first film.

While not as good as the first, Die Hard 2 won’t leave you feeling burned.