Welcome to Commentary Commentary, the place we sit and take heed to filmmakers discuss their work, then share probably the most fascinating elements. In this version, Rob Hunter revisits Renny Harlin’s massive motion sequel, Die Hard 2.
John McTiernan’s Die Hard (1988) stays an all-timer within the motion style and in my very own inside rating of favourite movies, however my first watch of Renny Harlin‘s follow-up didn’t land so properly with me. The tone all the time felt a bit off for me as mere minutes after a totally loaded passenger aircraft has crashed, killing everybody on board, characters are again to cracking sensible and smiling. Just felt off! Rewatches through the years have softened my response significantly, and whereas I nonetheless really feel the disconnect it bothers me far, far much less.
But you didn’t come right here for my ideas on Die Hard 2 (1990), you got here for Mr. Harlin’s, so let’s get began. Keep studying to see what I heard on the commentary monitor for Die Hard 2!
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Commentator: Renny Harlin (director)
1. Harlin was first employed by twentieth Century Fox to make Alien 3, however when that fell aside he was as an alternative supplied The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. The studio appreciated the dailies from that movie a lot that they supplied him Die Hard 2. The schedule was so tight that he was nonetheless ending photographs on Ford Fairlane whereas leaping into Die Hard 2, and he deliberate on doing post-production on each concurrently. “I was thirty years old, I had lots of energy, I loved movies, I loved working with Joel Silver.”
2. It was a very mild yr for snow throughout the U.S. that yr, so faux snow was trucked in from Canada for filming. They additionally secured snow blankets to the bottom, masking acres of land, however the 747’s engines blew the blankets into the air stripping the airfield of “snow.” Luckily these vehicles arrived from Canada — besides the snow had melted then froze once more through the journey and was now within the type of large ice cubes.
3. They shot airport exteriors on the Denver airport the place this takes place and interiors at LAX.
4. The pay telephones within the “Denver” airport say Pacific Bell on them, and “that was purely my inexperience” as he was unaware about U.S. telephone corporations being regional. “Of course, I would have hoped somebody would have pointed that little detail out to me, but they didn’t.”
5. Harlin needed to “be faithful to the original” and respect audiences who need the identical type of expertise, “but at the same time it was my responsibility to try to come up with something new, something more surprising, something bigger.”
6. The airport worker who opens the safety door for John McClane (Bruce Willis) at 12:03 is performed by Dwayne Hargray. He had no prior appearing expertise and was really homeless when the movie’s casting director noticed him and supplied him the gig. “He did a great job.”
7. They supposed to movie the bags space sequence in an actual location, however it rapidly grew to become obvious that it will be extremely harmful for the actors so that they as an alternative constructed the set on a soundstage.
8. Sometimes it’s a must to take a leap in logic when the ends justify the means. McClane calls his spouse from the airport to the aircraft’s telephone, one thing that wasn’t doable again then — the aircraft telephones might name down, however they didn’t obtain calls — and whereas it appears unlikely, bringing collectively Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) and Thornberg (William Atherton) on the identical aircraft simply makes for an entertaining time.
9. The movie used the largest soundstage on the Fox lot for a few of their units together with the air visitors management tower surrounded by forced-miniature runways and lights. Harlin says it grew to become one thing of a vacationer attraction for filmmakers and executives, and he remembers Martin Scorsese stopping by “and shaking his head looking at the size of our set.”
10. The movie had a good turnaround — they completed filming in early April 1989, and the movie was launched on July 2nd.
11. Harlin chuckles on the modifications in viewers local weather “these days” (circa 2001 when this monitor was recorded). “While I’m watching the movie I’m realizing there’s quite a lot of cursing in it, and also Bruce Willis is smoking.” He thinks that, in right now’s world, there needs to be a particular purpose as to why the character is smoking. “And the same thing with cursing.”
12. One of the sequences within the movie garnered lots of debate and chatter throughout preproduction, and it was, unsurprisingly, the downing of a passenger jet stuffed with civilians. Harlin felt the terrorists has to do one thing “extremely evil and horrendous,” however Fox executives frightened it was one thing the viewers wouldn’t get better from earlier than the movie ended. The studio insisted or not it’s an empty aircraft, a cargo aircraft, however they lastly relented on the final second after a check screening confirmed the viewers having no lasting situation with the scene. They did, nevertheless, make Harlin minimize further footage of the aircraft’s inside with passengers being tossed violently across the cabin as fireplace blasts all through. “And I agree, it was pretty gruesome to see these people literally flying through the plane on fire.”
13. The aircraft they blow up was a miniature, roughly twenty-feet lengthy, and the explosion was shot within the Mojave desert. The aftermath was filmed in Denver with aircraft elements they purchased for the filming. The doll was beforehand established in an earlier minimize scene exhibiting a bit lady enjoying with it on the doomed flight. They determined that might be an excessive amount of.
14. The aircraft that Esperanza (Franco Nero) lands and virtually rolls over McClane is definitely product of plywood.
15. The cockpit door is shot at 1:16:40, however moderately than penetrate they as an alternative go away dimples on the opposite aspect. This was completed by folks hitting a lead door with hammers.
16. Harlin’s favourite scene within the movie is the place McClane is trapped within the cockpit, surrounded by unhealthy guys taking pictures and lobbing grenades his means. He likes seeing protagonists positioned in extraordinarily tough conditions. “Obviously planes like this don’t really have ejection seats, but we decided they would.”
17. He compares crafting an motion scene to telling a joke. “You set it up, you set the stakes, you tell the story, and you take it to the climax and give the punchline.” He provides that if the joke works you get fun, if the motion sequence works you get immense satisfaction.
18. There was some minor controversy over the icicle kill, however “we tried to do it somewhat tastefully.”
19. They needed to be further cautious to not trigger precise panic whereas filming at LAX. Filming at 3am restricted the variety of actual folks readily available, however officers have been very clear with the manufacturing as to what might and couldn’t be stated by the megaphone. Stunt performers are combined in with the extras, and so they’re those who fall and journey through the panic.
20. He tries to incorporate Finnish music in his films to a point, and right here it’s “Finlandia” that finds a house in an enormous American motion movies. It’s from Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and Harlin recollects audiences in Finland standing up with delight whereas the music performs throughout screenings.
21. The shot of Holly’s aircraft touchdown by the fiery smoke is actual, however the FAA wouldn’t allow them to deliver a aircraft to a cease in snow, so they’d to make use of a mannequin constructed by ILM. “It became quite an expensive shot, actually.”
22. The closing vast shot that pulls again as the top credit begin showing is a composite together with small teams of individuals in numerous spots and planes painted in as a part of the matte.
Best in Context-Free Commentary
“My idea was to have this really unusual opening scene with the bad guy where you see him in nothing but his own skin.”
“Here I am in the middle of this gigantic operation, and I’m supposed to know what to do.”
“In those days it was fashionable to have lots of fans and lots of smoke.”
“This was not a very particularly popular movie among air traffic controllers or airlines.”
“I think I was in my bloody period at this point in my filmmaking career.”
“The more powerful your villain is, the more powerful your hero is.”
“This movie was a real frequency spaghetti.”
“I come from Finland, and we always fought with icicles.”
“What is an action movie without a timer and a bomb?”
“Once you establish somebody as truly evil, it is just not enough to shoot them or have a car hit them.”
“The entire set smelled like some kind of mashed potato factory.”
Final Thoughts
Harlin offers fairly nice commentary tracks partially as a result of he’s so keen about filmmaking. He credit forged and crew, however he’s additionally fast to share anecdotes and recollections of the place he made calls each proper and mistaken. The Die Hard 2 commentary is an effective hear for followers as its perception into the manufacturing’s efforts, troubles, and successes makes for a compelling time.
Read extra Commentary Commentary from the archives.
Related Topics: Commentary Commentary, Die Hard, Renny Harlin
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