Question: How in the world did McClane manage to track Simon Gruber through an aspirin bottle? I know the North of the Border name was on it, but how would anyone know that was Gruber's CORRECT future meeting place?
Corrected entry: The gold storage in the Federal Reserve Bank is actually below the subway tunnels. So the bad guys wouldn't be able to steal the gold the way they do in the movie.
Correction: Yes we do see that the level of the gold storage is below the subway level. But the 'bad guys' came with a huge ramp to gain access from the ground level to the train platform level below. It is not beyond belief that they have another smaller ramps for other split level transfers. Obviously the operation was planned carefully and they came fully prepared. Just because we don't see how they transfer the gold from the storage to the trucks, it doesn't mean it is impossible.
Also, the FBI said the plan was actually feasible (see trivia).
Question: What is that gun thing that is pushed into the guy's neck after he says "I thought this was a currency exchange?" Is the guy dead or just knocked out?
Answer: Knocked out. It was a hand held tranquilizer gun like most vets use on animals to put them to sleep.
Answer: I've always wondered this and I don't think you're going to find a good answer. I know everyone is saying it was a tranquilizer. But tranquilizers wear off and if one of those people they gave an injection to regained consciousness it could be a big problem for them. eg. The cops in the subway. That's why I think it was probably a fatal injection of something.
It's not a fatal injection. Remember, Simon says, "I'm a soldier, not a monster." And earlier, one of the henchmen yelled at Otto, "No shooting." Simon doesn't intend to kill anyone (though later he changes his mind when he's ready to blow up the ship). The only people who killed anyone were Otto, Katya, and McClane.
I'm pretty sure the bombing at the beginning of the movie killed people. Plus, the bomb in the subway would have killed a whole bunch of people. Saying Simon doesn't intend to kill anyone is quite naive.
My opinion is it was not a fatal injection. They seem to be strangling and killing the guards in that scene; they could have easily done the same to the manager as well. My thinking is Simon deemed there was no need to kill the manager, so he simply knocked him out and likely tied him up.
Visible crew/equipment: When Zeus and John get the cab after being attacked by the group of dudes in Harlem, as they are riding to the police station you can see the camera truck out the back window of the cab.
Suggested correction: How do you know that's a camera truck? Could be just any regular truck passing by.
There is a camera held out of the passenger side window of the van.
Question: I always wondered about this. As a cop, McClane knew about weapons. While handing over the machine gun to Zeus, he explained how it worked. But he did not tell Zeus to switch the safety catch off. How on earth could McClane forget to tell something crucial like that? Zeus isn't even pissed about it later on, while it could have cost him his life.
Answer: And Zeus mentions about brothers knowing how to shoot guns.
He said it was racist to assume that brothers know how to shoot guns. He admitted he didn't know how to use that model.
Chosen answer: A simple omission, in the heat of the moment he forgot to mention it. He may have thought, since he just took the gun off an enemy, that the safety was already off.
McClane probably did that intentionally as Zeus didn't know much about guns. In fact, you hear McClane say "Don't be a hero, you find him, you come get me."
Of all the possible answers, this is definitely not the one. There's no way he handed him the gun and then purposely did not tell him that the safety was engaged. There would be no point in that.
Question: Why does the helicopter explode at the end? Did the high-tension electrical wire set it off? I never see it hit the chopper, no matter how many times I see the scene. Or does he fact that the helicopter blades hit the pole have something to do with it?
Answer: Willis' character shot the power lines, which fell from the pole and got tangled up in the helicopter blades. Since the blades couldn't spin, the helicopter fell from the air and exploded as it hit the ground.
That's not what happened. John shot the power lines and in an effort to avoid them the helicopter pilot clipped a pole which took them down.
Answer: The sparks seen above the helicopter is meant to be the live wire wrapping around the blades. The helicopter does try to avoid the wire, but it's too late. If you look closely, it doesn't seem like the helicopter hit the pylon, maybe the blades knick it. But the helicopter explodes while in the air before it hit the ground.
Corrected entry: At the very end of the film beside the Nord des Lignes truckstop, John McLane makes a phone call on the Canadian payphone. However he has only collected American quarters from the German drivers and hence wouldn't have any Canadian Currency.
Correction: Canadian quarters and American ones both work in the same machines.
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie at the Canadian border, is revealed the sign of the location of the terrorists: "Nord des lignes" "la grande stop du Québec". The translated sign reads: "North of the Border" "Quebec's largest truckstop". "Nord des lignes" does not mean "North of the Border" in French. It means almost nothing but can be translated as "North of the lines". The grammar in "la grande stop du Québec" is also wrong. It should be "Le grand stop du Québec". This is also not a correct translation for the English equivalent.
Correction: In Quebec, 'Nord des lignes' makes sense and means north of the border.
North of the line, north of the border. Same meaning.
Nord des lignes means north of the lines. A border is only one line not multiple. Even if you use the English idiom of "line" to indicate a border, then it still does not make sense. The proper French phrase is "nord de la frontiere".
Correction: It exists a "montage des lignes", so it's totally accurate from a Quebec point of view.
Correction: Canadian French differs from French in many ways.
Question: Why did Zeus go to the empty baseball stadium? This scene didn't really move the plot along, have I missed something?
Chosen answer: He was directed there as part of Simon's plan. The original idea was that both Zeus and McClane were supposed to show up there, where Simon's men would take them out. As McClane disobeyed orders, leaving just Zeus to go there, Simon told his men not to shoot, as eliminating Zeus alone would simply tip McClane off that something wasn't right.
Plus also without that scene we wouldn't have the car chase and McClane discovering the quarters.
Stupidity: In the scene with the water-jug puzzle, both Zeus Carver and John McClane initially suspect that the small carrying case contains a bomb. McClane goes ahead and opens the case, which confirms that it is a bomb (the electronic readout in the case even says: "I AM A BOMB. YOU HAVE JUST ARMED ME"). If they suspected it was a bomb in the first place, why didn't Carver and McClane immediately try to warn the dozens of pedestrians all around them to evacuate the area before McClane opened it? That would be a seasoned police officer's first instinct. Instead, McClane and Carver banter and bicker and never attempt to warn the public, even as the timer is ticking down.
Suggested correction: This carries over from the very first time McClane and Zeus talk to Simon on the phone (the "As I was going to St. Ives" scene). Simon tells the two not to run and McClane assures him they won't but that there are at least 100 people on the street, to which Simon responds "That's the point." McClane takes this to mean he can't just warn everyone or Simon will set the bomb off. They open the case because they don't know that doing so will arm the bomb. They wanted to know if there was a riddle or more instructions. Having the bomb be armed by being opened, complete with the pithy text "you have just armed me" was just a way for Simon to torment McClane. The bantering and bickering is of course, still pretty stupid but is consistent with how the characters behave for the entire movie.
Still, McClane's whole motivation in this movie is to save innocent people from death, which goes above and beyond his motivation in the first movie (which was to save his wife). What is the whole point of disarming the briefcase-bomb in the park if not to save the public? As stated in the original post, no seasoned and dedicated officer of the law would proceed without warning the public.
Except he was told specifically earlier not to do that. If he warned people of the bomb, it was implied that Simon would remotely detonate it. It can't be "stupid" of McClane to not warn people if he thinks doing so will get them killed. I agree that it is a trite movie cliche that a cop doesn't act like a cop would in the real world, but in the context of this film McClane's actions are consistent with the instructions Simon gives him.
Other mistake: When John and Zeus are being chased by the German guys in the car, John asks Zeus to pull out all the fuses in the fuse-box. The next shot is a quick shot of the speedometer etc. and it is lit up. Surely if all the fuses were out it wouldn't be lit?
Suggested correction: No, the car would interpret missing fuses as blown fuses and would display a light to highlight the error.
In German cars, the lid of the fuse box shows a table listing the purpose of each fuse. The engine control unit, fuel pump and the dashboard also have fuses that you should avoid to pull.
If he really pulled out all the fuses, the dashboard would be out of power and therefore dark. But maybe he didn't.
Question: In the scene where Simon and his men overpower Felix Little of the Federal Reserve and continue to the elevator, what are the German lines being spoken by Simon Gruber? It sounds like "Danke well" when he pushes the drugged Mr. Little to the floor, and when he is in the elevator removing his tie his line sounds like "Ich biete". If someone knows the German words being spoken in these lines, your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Answer: Danke well means "Well, thank you." Ich biete means "I offer."
Answer: The first one is Dutch: "dank you wel" - "Thank you very much". The second one "ich bin fertig" is German and means "I'm done".
No, Dutch is "Dank je wel" or "Dank you wel" and he didn't say that. He says "Danke Well" which is supposed to be "Danke woll" With means thank you in German, as said. In the elevator he says "Ich bitte" which means "I ask", which is kinda weird, just like "Ich biete." Maybe he meant "bitte", as in "you're welcome." to one of the others.
Oh I see, the letter is corrected to "you" automatically. Funny. "Dank uw wel" then.
Chosen answer: Simon and his crew had to get in/out the country somehow. He knew about the FBI was watching out for him. Flying was out of the question. The bottle from the pharmacy there gave him a clue on how they came in. THEN he needed to move a load of 13 (McClane drowned one) great big dump-trucks. He knows there is a large port there. John put 2 and 2 together. If they came in that way, probably was a good bet that they'd leave that way.
XIII
Even if they didn't come in that way, Simon would have checked out the planned exit route.