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Quotes

Gen. Esperanza: Freedom.

[John McClane appears and punches him in the face.]

John McClane: Not yet.

See more...

Trivia

In March 1993, the Boeing 747-100 cargo aeroplane featured in this film (registration N473EV) was involved in an incident at Anchorage International Airport, Alaska, USA. Shortly after take-off the plane experienced troubles due to severe weather and the number two engine separated from the plane. Strangely enough, the number two engine is what "ingested" Major Grant after the encounter with McClane on the wing. The plane managed to land safely after this incident with no injuries. See more...

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Die Hard 2 (1990) - 59 mistakes

Directed by Renny Harlin, starring Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Willis, John Amos, William Sadler (add more)

Genres: Action, Thriller

A few people have said that if the plane was running on fumes it couldn't explode into a huge fireball - yes it could, because fumes are just as explosive, if not more so.

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Factual error: The payphone McClane uses in Dulles airport has the "Pacific Bell" logo. Pacific Bell is a West Coast phone company.

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Factual error: Prior to the 747 take off, a bad guy is sucked by one of the engines and all we see is blood being spit from its exhaust. Turbofans are very sensitive and may collapse by sucking a heavy bird (like a vulture), but this one stayed undamaged after sucking a 200 lb man.

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Continuity: Bruce Willis is emerging from an underground air-vent when the plane with General Esperanza is landing. Initially the plane is coming on a direct course for him and he struggles to get out. In fact the front wheel is on course with and knocks the vent cover. But in the very next scene, the tire marks clearly show the front wheel passed to the right of the vent and so completely missed it.

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Plot hole: The terrorists some how raise the elevation of the airport in relation to the ILS (instrument landing system). This causes one of the jets to crash. The ILS glide slope is broadcast from a fixed antenna beside the runway, 1000 feet from the approach end. The glide slope is fixed at (usually) 3 degrees. Even if someone changed the slope (ie, degrees of slant), it would still terminate on the runway at the touchdown zone. Besides, the pilots have charts that give all pertinent information about the ILS and also have altimeters, radar altimeters, ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), and brains (duh). All of those systems listed are on board the aircraft, independent of the ground based systems. They would not have descended into the ground even if the terrorists had tampered with the ILS.

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Factual error: There is no airport anywhere in the world with a manhole cover in the middle of a runway.

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Continuity: When Richard Thornburg is in the aeroplane bathroom giving his live report, in a number of the shots he is holding the phone upside down.

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Factual error: When Holly's plane finally lands, the cockpit shot shows the pilot with his hands on four engine throttles. But Holly's plane is an L-1011 TriStar, which only has three engines.

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Continuity: In the beginning of the movie when John is sitting at a table in the airport smoking a cigarette, you see him notice the table with the 3 (2 white and 1 black) guys that are acting suspicious. When the black guy gets up to leave, he leans down and you see a hand grab a package. If you notice, the hand that grabs the package is white. Later when the two white guys leave, one of them leans down to grab the package and it's the same shot that was used when the black guy grabbed his package.

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Factual error: Near the beginning of the film when John McClane goes to the pay phone and calls his wife Holly on the airplane, that is impossible. Those phones you see on the seats on the plane can only be used from the air to the ground not the other way around. Holly does answer on the plane phone and not on any cell phone she had in her purse.

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Revealing: At the end of the film when John and Holly get driven away on the back of what resembles a golf cart, the long shot of them clearly shows two dummies that nearly fall off when the cart sets off.

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Revealing: In the skywalk scene, when McClane pushes the paint stand on the terrorist, you can clearly see that they use a dummy when the paint stand falls on the terrorist.

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Revealing: When McClanes wife is thinking about using the phone to call, there is a shot of the phone. Behind the phone, you can see a circular staircase. The aircraft she is on, an L1011 TriStar, has only one passenger deck.

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Factual error: Firing a full clip of blank cartridges from an automatic weapon in the police station office as McClane does would deafen everyone in the room. Not one person shows the slightest effect.

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Factual error: When McClane (Bruce Willis) is brought into Capt. Lorenzo's (Dennis Franz) office at Dulles Airport for the first time, Lorenzo mentions that McClane was in violation of several District of Columbia laws. Dulles Airport is in Virginia, not DC, therefore any DC laws would not apply to Dulles. (Although VA may very well have similar laws about airport misconduct.)

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Continuity: When Col. Stuart is talking to Gen. Esperanza on the walkie-talkie about what runway to land on, behind Stuart you can see one of his men walk up to the map of the runways. Stuart turns around and starts walking to the map and the guy isn't there anymore. When Stuart gets in front of the map, the guy comes up and tells him which runway Esperanza should land on.

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Revealing: Obvious stunt double for the black terrorist during the fight with McClane in the baggage area.

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Factual error: After the fight with Colonel Stewart on the wing of the plane, Bruce Willis falls down from the wing. As he falls, watch the tyre-tracks near him. Those are definitely NOT the tyre-tracks of a plane. A jeep or a truck, maybe, but not a plane.

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Factual error: When the 747 explodes, fire is rushing up through the cargo hold. Esperanza - in the cockpit - looks back over his shoulder as if seeing the fire coming. Clearly he can't see the fire - since the view we are seeing is inside the cargo hold and cabin. But why is he then turning his head and looking back against the cockpit wall? And the flash we see on his face - from the explosion - that would not be there until the fire was inside the cockpit. And that would go so fast that he wouldn't have time to scream.

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Continuity: The dead bodies of the SWAT team move around on the escalator between shots. The best example of this is after the last SWAT guy dies, there is a body or two near the end of the escalator. They disappear or at least move much further away after McClane drops his gun on the escalator. And all this happens while the escalator is not moving.

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Continuity: When McClane is desperately trying to get out of the manhole cover to avoid the plane, he props it open with a steel bar. Moments later, just before the plane runs over it, the bar is gone, so there should be nothing holding it open. The size of the gap between cover and runway also decreases between these shots.

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