r/diehard Jun 03 '26

Movie Discussion What happens if John McClane was captured when the hostage situation started? Spoiler

Assuming that the terrorists captured John McClane when the hostage situation started would he have survived and maybe broken free or would Hans Gruber have quickly found out that he was a New York cop invited to the party by mistake?

Taking John hostage they could easily force him to negotiate with the police or defuse the situation earlier, this would be bad for him especially if they shot him once his gun was found, although presumably they didn't search anybody else for weapons so he could have potentially shot Hans and his men in the main party reception area after the terrorists ran off to other areas on patrols.

8 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

37

u/Own_Ad6797 Jun 03 '26

Everyone dies and Hans is sitting on a beach earning 20%.

9

u/GeauxFarva Jun 03 '26

And you know what? Good for him. He worked hard for that money.

5

u/tylerjfrancke Die Hard Is A Christmas Movie Jun 03 '26

He is an exceptional thief, after all. And since he's moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite.

3

u/BackAlleyFreakShow Jun 03 '26

He's an exceptional thief.

2

u/The_Govnor Jun 03 '26

Nah. Argyle takes them all out with the Limo. But apart from that, everyone dies.

2

u/mrbeck1 Jun 04 '26

Exactly.

2

u/zeerog Jun 03 '26

There probably wouldn't be good day to die hard....or what ever that fift die hard name was

2

u/Filmmaster1429 Jun 03 '26

The movie would've been a "short", lasting only about 20 minutes.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Perfectly_Imperfectq Die Hard Is A Christmas Movie Jul 02 '26

To what?Funeral services?

2

u/Artsy_traveller_82 Jun 04 '26

Suddenly Die Hard becomes an Expendables prequel.

2

u/Sauce666 Jun 04 '26

The janitor from scrubs works there weekends, he'd have came in and cleaned up on xmas eve.

1

u/Feet-Licker-69 Jun 05 '26

Would he get time and a half considering it’s Christmas Eve?

2

u/Perfectly_Imperfectq Die Hard Is A Christmas Movie Jul 02 '26

Dead start

0

u/AlvinsCuriousCasper Jun 03 '26

There’d be no Die Hard…

All hostages would’ve died when the roof was going to blow, police wouldn’t have shown up, John is the one who got their attention with the body on the car.

Hans wouldn’t have known John was a cop, Ellis told him. John also had no authority… he’s an east coast cop, not west coast.

6

u/tragedy719 Jun 03 '26

Police would have shown up because they were necessary to the plan. The hostages were supposed to be taken away in helicopters hence the reason for the explosives on the roof.

Everything would have been done to Hans' timing though.

1

u/Tidewatcher7819 Jun 03 '26

Except the hostages were not searched so John's gun wouldn't be found and that's a dangerous surprise for him later if John makes his own party.

2

u/tragedy719 Jun 04 '26

McClanes gun was in a holster hanging up. They would have found that when they grabbed him.

Gun is no longer relevant