Thousands Of Words About The Bearer Bonds In DIE HARD

You will learn things from this blog post!

I love overthinking movies. It is one of my true passions in life. I don’t do it for movies I don’t like—I don’t care if TRON is realistic or not. But my love language for films I adore is finding things to nitpick.

I’ve seen DIE HARD well over fifty times. I’ve seen DIE HARD 2 well over fifty times. I’ve seen DIE HARD 3 well over fifty times. A few days ago, I did a long thread on Twitter pointing out new plot holes in DIE HARD 2, and people said, “Shut up, it’s just a movie. You’re overthinking it.” Then other people defended me: “It’s DIE HARD 2! Everyone points out the flaws in DIE HARD 2!”

Challenge accepted. I’m now going to irritate both sides by finding the plot holes in the original DIE HARD.

But because I love DIE HARD so much, I’m going to give it special treatment. That DIE HARD 2 thread I did not require actual research. This post is the result of many many hours of research. And more importantly, I will play chess against myself and devise an off-screen explanation for the central problems in this plot.

First things first: the rules of this game are this:

1. The film itself is the canon. I read two different versions of the script for this post, but some of it wasn’t in the final film. Those details do not count.

2. Though things in the film are law, things people say in the movie might be just their opinion.

3. When asking the question “why did a character do this,” it is not acceptable to simply answer “because they’re stupid.” You will claim I am guilty of violating this rule later in the post, but you are wrong.

4. It is also not acceptable to explain things by saying “because the screenwriter needed to move the plot forward.”

Good? Great. Grand.

GO TIME.

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Screenwriter Steven de Souza once said that while John McClane is the hero of the film, Hans Gruber is the protagonist. He sets off the action and pushes the plot forward. John McClane is the unforeseen problem in his movie.

So let’s start by looking at Gruber’s plan.

Simon Gruber’s Asshole Brother’s Plan