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Quotes

[McClane is trying to call the police for help.]

Policewoman: Sir, this line is for emergencies only.

John McClane: No fucking shit, lady! Do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza?!

See more...

Mistakes

Even though there is no light shining on John McClane during the fight with Karl, there are several shots where it's obviously not Bruce Willis, but a stunt double. See more...

Trivia

One cop says that John McClane (Bruce Willis) "could be a f***ing bartender for all we know". Prior to becoming a well-known actor, Willis was a bartender. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

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Die Hard (1988) - 60 corrections

Directed by John McTiernan, starring Bruce Willis, Paul Gleason, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson (add more)

Genres: Action, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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The elevator with Tony's body, with McClane sitting on top of the car, suddenly goes to the top floor. The terrorists are there, standing about, discussing the body and that they must now tell Karl that his brother is dead. Why would they press the button for the top floor, without getting in? That happens only so that Bruce Willis can get to the roof for the next scene. [The terrorists didn't press the elevator button, McClane did from the inside before he climbed on top of the elevator car. He sent it to open on that floor so the terrorists would see the body with his message inside.]
Edit Corrected by raywest
A few of Gruber's henchmen set up the rocket-launcher to blast the armored police vehicle. As one of them swings the legs of the launcher down, another uses a 'Hilti' gun to anchor the leg in place. A 'Hilti' gun is a construction device that uses gunpowder (usually a .22 shot) to 'blast' a nail into very hard material such as concrete. The nail has to be manually loaded into the front of the gun for each shot before it can be used, however the guy using the gun never loads a nail into the gun. As it is, the result would be worthless. [Hilti sells powder actuated fastening guns with collated fasteners and gunpowder shots lined up. Usually one can fire 10 rounds in a magazine. The gang would have probably selected such a model for this feature.]
Edit Corrected by blackbeltjeff
At the end of the film, Karl suddenly jumps up, gun in hand, from the trolley to try one last attempt to "get" John. Even though it was assumed he was dead (I guess no-one really checked that too well, either), why on earth would they have put the gun on the trolley with him? [Karl wasn't on a trolley - he's simply covered himself with a blanket or something (just as many of the hostages have in order to keep warm in the cold conditions), which allows him to conceal his gun while he attempts to get close to John.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
At the end of the movie, Richard Thornberg is trying to interview John and Holly. Holly socks him in his nose and he is grabbing it in pain. The next shot, as John and Holly enter the limo, he is talking to a camera normally as if nothing happened, then the next shot, he is suddenly holding his nose again. [If you look closely he is holding his hands up while somebody checks his nose.]
Edit
When John is first trying to get Al's attention, he hits the window several times with a chair without breaking it, but at the end, after John shoots Hans, he easily breaks a window by just staggering back into it. [The bullet went through Hans, shattering it just as his body hit it.]
Edit Corrected by Grumpy Scot
McClane is in the bathroom picking broken glass out of his feet, and the whole time he is having a conversation via radio with officer Powell. However, the radio is just sitting on the counter-top while the conversation continues. This is not possible since the key (talk) button needs to be depressed to transmit. [The radio has a switch to allow hands-free talk. We see him switch it before he sets the radio down.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
McClane uses the festive holiday tape that was used to wrap gifts to tape his pistol to his upper back before the big finale. Considering how much blood, grime and sweat McClane had on him, that tape would never have stuck to his skin, especially considering that it is only wrapping tape, not some kind of industrial tape like duct tape or anything stronger. [It would take no time at all to wipe off his back where he's taping the gun.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
McClane's undershirt is white for the beginning of the movie, but when he emerges from the air conditioning ducts, it is now a dark colored shirt (it looks very dark green) with a lot of stains on it. If this is supposed to represent the same shirt, just very dirty, it could not have come from the A/C duct work, for it was all brand new and the interior shots showed it all to be spotlessly clean. The change in appearance is far too abrupt to be possible. [While some of the floors were unfinished, the ducts were *not* new (they would have to have been finished in order to operate the A/C on the lower floors, which *were* finished). Because of the construction, the upper level ducts are likely layered with soot and dust, which may not be apparent in the *darkened* views of the ducts. McClane is still wearing a white shirt, albeit a very dirty one.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
When the psychologist on the TV-news is talking about the "Helsinki syndrome" and then later is being corrected for saying that Helsinki is in Sweden, there is no such thing as a Helsinki syndrome. However there is a thing called the "Stockholm syndrome". This refers to an actual hostage situation in 1974, when bank robbers held the staff in a bank hostage for several days. During the time in the vault, the hostage and the bank robbers developed a strange kind of friendship, and this is called "the Stockholm syndrome". Not just a character mistake, as the man talking is meant to be an expert. [It is most definitely a character mistake. The film spent a great deal mocking police, FBI and the media. It's Christmas Eve, not a day when high powered professionals line up for TV interviews, we have no idea exactly how "expert" this witness was and if they were nervous being on TV.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
The electromagnet locking down the vault could not have simply deactivated if the power was cut. The steel used in the construction of the vault would have developed into a permanent magnet (remanence) thus preventing the vault from being opened. Removing this remanent magnetism is very difficult, one of the simpler ways is to heat the material to its curie point, which around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit (816 degrees Celsius) in 9.0% carbon steel, the terrorists did not do this or any other method to remove the remanent magnetism. [If the electromagnetic lock instantly turned the steel vault into a permanent magnet, then it would render the lock and the vault useless. No one could ever enter once the lock was activated. Electromagnetic locks are used in many high security areas and that is how they work: Turn off the power to the magnet and the door opens.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
When McClane confronts Hans and Eddie in the vault, he shoots Hans and Eddie in quick succession with his 9mm handgun. One problem, a 9mm round wouldn't go straight through someone even at close range, so where did the bullet hole in the window behind Hans appear from? [This is opinion, not fact, and is highly disputable. If a 9mm round did not hit bone it could easily penetrate a human body. Since the bullet was taken from an assault rifle it could be an armour piercing round, for instance, in which case Han's body wouldn't even slow it down. There are dozens of explanations - only one of then is needed.]
Edit
All of the lights on one of the Christmas trees stay on throughout the movie, even though the power was cut, and only emergency lighting supposedly was left on. [I have had christmas tree lights that run from a battery. It is entirely possible.]
Edit Corrected by Ictoabu
During the scene where agents Johnson and Johnson are flying in the helicopters, they are obviously flying in an AH-64 apache helicopter type of gunship. However when the terrorists blow up the Nakotomi roof top and one of the helicopters explodes, the helicopter used in that scene is noticably different, more like a Bell Huey type chopper. [At no stage are they seen in anything but a Bell UH-1 Huey helicopter. There are no Apache helicopters in this film.]
Edit
John McClane opens the elevator doors and uses an axe to hold them open. Then he ties C4 explosives to a chair, uses a computer to hold it in place and pushes the makeshift bomb down the shaft. The explosion is so powerful that it takes out a good part of the torso of the building, but when the fireball gets to John the axe remains in place when it should have been blown away. [Not necessarily. It would depend on how hard John wedged the axe in place. Also, the fireball would lose strength as it climbed, so the force at John's level was not as nearly as powerful as the force of the blast at the bottom.]
Edit Corrected by Scrappy Time
German does not seem to be any of the terrorists mother tongue - they all have a terrible accent and sometimes what they are saying does not make any sense. E.g. when the terrorists hunt Bruce Willis on the Roof and he escapes into the elevator shaft, one of the terrorists uses his CB-radio and says something like: "Wir sind im Heizenhaus, unter dem Dach" . The word Heizenhaus does not exist. If you change it into "Heizhaus" it would translate into "boiler room" - a room that is not normally located right under the roof, is it? [When is it established that the terrorists are all German? We assume their leader Karl is, but that doesn't mean all of his men are. (We know some are American, for example.) The person speaking has poor spoken German. Not a mistake.]
Edit
When Hans is asking for Mr Takagi his shirt is white, yet when they go in the lift Hans' shirt is light blue. [If you look closely, you can see that the shirt is light blue all the time. The lighting just makes it look white occasionally.]
Edit Time
When Bruce Willis is fighting the first terrorist, they both crash into a stairwell door and the door breaks off it's hinges and falls on the stairs. The floor was under construction but the door is obviously attached. I find it hard to believe that two people crashing into a office building door of that type would be enough force to break it off the hinges. [This is an action movie, people crashing into a door and breaking it off its hinges is perfectly in keeping with the genre.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
Any glass in modern office buildings is tempered glass. This kind of glass breaks into tiny, rounded pieces with semi-smooth edges. If you were careful you could easily walk on it without injury. John should not have had splinters of glass in his feet. [Not all the glass on the floor is from the windows. Some is from the computer screens and copiers that Karl and Hans smash up along with the windows. Besides this, McClane did not exactly have the time to be careful, since he was trying to get to a place of safety while making sure there were no criminals still around who would shoot him.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
The black police officer keeps giving information about the police activities to McClane over the same frequency that he knows the terrorists are using. I also doubt he would be allowed to just use the police radio for chit-chat in such a situation. [The officer could argue McClane is someone 'on the inside' - i.e. someone who knows the situation well and can be trusted. As for the frequency, the radio may be designed to transmit on several frequencies - the frequency that the Police use will almost certainly be one (in case of emergencies).]
Edit Corrected by Andy Benham
After the police scanner broadcasts the shooting at Nakatomi Plaza, reporter Richard Thornburg starts begging the station producer/director for a van and cameraman.  This is as the evening news is about to go on the air.  The floor manager is counting down, "We are on the air in, four, three, two, one...." as he is giving the hand signals to the news anchors.  On a real television set, the verbal count would end at three and the mikes would go live.  In this case, the floor managers "two, one" and all other words spoken after "three" would be heard by the "at home" audience. [This is a simple character error. The person doing the countdown was in a rush and made a simple human error that anybody could do. Not a movie mistake.]
Edit Corrected by Spaceboy_007 Time

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