I love this movie up until Zeus and Mclane reach the boat. The movie just runs of steam at that point. One of the things I like about the movie is the use of the New York locations to open up the movie, it's disappointing that the ending is so bland visually.
If you watch the 1st few minutes of DH3 and skipped to the end you would think it was from a completely different movie.
Yea it felt tacked on. They should have ended it on the boat somehow.
share[deleted]
It was indeed tacked on - was a re-shoot as Fox didn't like the original ending (which was superb)
shareDon't think original ending is "superb," not even sure it's better than the one they kept.
The movie's top notch until McClane gets shot out of the pipe in the flood, just as Zeus is driving by; at that point DHWV starts to degenerate from gritty R-rated action extravaganza to James Bond silliness. The part on the ship has its moments, but the finale in Canada is a mess -- a total anti-climax. The last half hour of the picture really sours the film overall. I'd grade them like this:
CLASSIC
Die Hard (****)
SOLID ACTIONER
Die Hard 2 (***)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (**1/2)
Live Free or Die Hard (***)
SCHLOCK
A Good Day to Die Hard (*1/2)
Die Hard has NEVER been gritty
The stupid have one thing in common.They alter the facts to fit their views not the other way
at that point DHWV starts to degenerate from gritty R-rated action extravaganza to James Bond silliness
Good point! I guess I liked the script of LFODH better, it just felt fun and the character true to the guy I knew in the first one. I watched DHWAV agency recently and liked it more. But I still like LFODH better -- even the Mac guy, I liked him in it, though they had good chemistry. The end of DHWAV remains the worst in the series, even worse than the most recent one which had that cool bit with him hanging on the jeep out the back of the helicopter.
But I appreciate your well made point. I can't defend it. Just have to chalk it up to personal taste. I really liked that 4th movie when it came out, it brought me great nostalgic pleasure and immediacy at the same time.
You know what would have been a good organic conclusion to this movie, after blowing up the ship? A good old fashioned raging Miami Vice speed boat chase through the waters of NYC.
"I said no camels, that's five camels, can't you count?"
The boat part is fine with me, but once the action moves to Canada for the last few minutes, it does feel "tacked on" as somebody else said. Maybe because the entirety of the film takes place in New York City during the daytime, and the ending takes place in Canada at night. I don't even know if it's the night of the same day or another day. It makes it kind of feel like the ending to a different movie. There was really no need to make John and Zeus chase them to Canada. It added nothing more to the plot really. I wish they'd just ended it on the boat.
"See you guys at the 10 year prison reunion" - Ben Richards
It's tacked on, but not in a bad way. I think it was well written and executed.
shareIt was tacked on, a quick and dirty wind up.
Rigs towing 30-60 tons of gold in trailers will plough through a police road block like ti was printed paper.. and the guys all had machine guns before they got into the truck..
But what happens - no fire fight, no rigs breaking through.. they all jack-knife and give up like little babies..
Maybe the proper ending would have made the film too long? Whatever the reason, it was a lame ending and spoiled a decent movie (as did the bloody censorship!)
It's action-packed, yes, but at least it keeps in tone with the rest of the movie.
McClane shoots NOT the wire to the sign, but the connection WITH the sign at the truckstop, making the electrical cables fall towards Simon's chopper, which makes him panic and that stupid dumb woman drives them into a large lamppost of some sort, killing them instantly and leaving them to burn in fiery hell.
Then Zeus laughs a bit and tells McClane he should finish the call he started with Holly. Credits roll.
It's fun, concise, and is in keeping with the rest of the film. Why hate this ending?
Have you seen the original ending?
shareI agree. Terrible ending. Def should've ended on the boat.
First of all Mclane and Zeus would be in the hospital for weeks. In no way would they (especially ZEUS) even be allowed to go onto that raid.
I also think it's cheap to keep blowing up all the bad guys in one vehicle at the climax like Die Hard 2. It's aways more satisfying when Mclane can physically fight and kill the main bad guy with his own hands. The whole movie is btwn Mclane, Zeus and Simon. It's intimate. When they show up at the end with the cavalry there's no more tension and it's no longer intimate.
Always thought the ending was rushed and cheap when I first saw it. Other than that LOVE the movie.
the alternate ending is from an alternate movie altogether, that ending would only be darker if they say that Zeus killed himself
share"I agree. Terrible ending. Def should've ended on the boat. "
Who's "Def"?
Is this a new way to try to escape 'american typos', by not writing the whole word, but just a few first characters of it? Did you mean to type "Definitely"?
As to the actual point;
I disagree. I mean, I agree that the ending is terrible.
But I disagree about the boat - boats are BORING. Too many movies have too many scenes on generic, boring-looking boats with no scenery, tight spaces, big metal pipes and whatnot. It's yawn-inducing, it's boring, and there's nothing interesting about it at all. Once you have seen one movie-boat-scene, you have pretty much seen them all.
However, if it had ended in some skyscraper (like the first movie), or even the sports stadium (not the outer, large, audience-area, but the more unique and interesting inside area with all kinds of atmospheric rooms and wall decorations and whatnot that the audiences don't usually see in movies (I saw one entertaining "hide-and-seek" type japanese video in such setting, and realized that I had no idea how interesting and varying places those stadium's insides can be), or basically any "large but interesting, varying area" (a shopping mall could be one example, because although they do look a bit generic, they are all at least slightly different in design, and have complex structures, if used right), it could have been interesting.
New York was a bit boring, because you see it so much in movies - something like Tōkyō would have been more interesting. As a big and interesting city, it's
not really featured much in movies the same way as New York so often is. It's shown a few seconds so we know a scene is in Japan, usually, and that's pretty much it. I'd like to see larger scenes that make Tōkyō an integral part of the movie in an 'actiony' way. And I don't mean some silly car movie.
In any case, the ending is pure, misleading crap that doesn't make much sense. Why would the end boss, I mean, main villain, have sex with the psychopatch hag, especially at that very moment, when he could be having sex later with much better-looking, younger, and less psychopathic girls? With all that gold, he'd definitely never run out of girls or women who want to spread their legs for him.
Instead of waiting a couple of hours / days / whatever, and doing 'it' in a luxurious hotel room with a dozen asian girls, he just HAS to pork this repulsive, bulged-eyed, never-smiling, short-haired, ugly old hag? Gimme a break! They are not yet reached the end of their mission, and already they are celebrating and just .. no. It just doesn't make any sense.
But it definitely shouldn't have ended in any BOAT. That would not have been an improvement.
Nor a factory, nor any generic place with rusty pipes, metal containers and doors and whatnot. It's just plain boring. The ending should have happened with a bang - and I don't mean the kind of bang they showed us. I mean a glorious, complex, interesting structure with visually pleasing backgrounds instead of generic, depressing places.
Just look at how 'Police Story 3' (a Jackie Chan movie) ended, with the train+helicopter+unique scenery-stuff. Very interesting, and visually exciting.
If they really wanted to end it on an ocean vessel, then perhaps some more INTERESTING boat and not always the same, exact "Lethal Weapon" type boat scenery.
How about some LUXURY CRUISE SHIP?
That would surely have unique and interesting places, and it could still all happen in a boatlike surroundings. Though Jeeves would probably note at this point, that the captain would not like if anyone called his ship a boat.
I agree. It starts going wrong when they somehow survive that wire down onto the ship. Then the whole ship part is weak, and the finale is even weaker. Shame because the first 3/4 of the film are good.
shareIt's action-packed, yes, but at least it keeps in tone with the rest of the movie.
McClane shoots NOT the wire to the sign, but the connection WITH the sign at the truckstop, making the electrical cables fall towards Simon's chopper, which makes him panic and that stupid dumb woman drives them into a large lamppost of some sort, killing them instantly and leaving them to burn in fiery hell.
Then Zeus laughs a bit and tells McClane he should finish the call he started with Holly. Credits roll.
It's fun, concise, and is in keeping with the rest of the film. Why hate this ending?
The stupid have one thing in common.They alter the facts to fit their views not the other way
To me it starts to tail off once the bad guys have the gold (round about the 4 gallons of water scene) and this is explained by the script writer in the DVD commentary.
Effectively everything is word for word to the original script planned for "Simon Says" that is tweeked for Die Hard.... this stops being the case from the scene where they are talking to the FBI in the van, everything after this is a fresh purposely made Die Hard script separate from the first part.
This is why it has a feel of two different movies, and probably did not have a good idea with how they were going to end it.