Die Hard: With a Vengeance

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?

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: No, the car would interpret missing fuses as blown fuses and would display a light to highlight the error.

GalahadFairlight

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.

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.

Charles Austin Miller

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

BaconIsMyBFF

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.

Charles Austin Miller

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.

BaconIsMyBFF

Die Hard: With a Vengeance mistake picture

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.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

Character mistake: Why didn't Joe, Connie, and the students just run back down to the front entrance of the school? They had plenty of time instead of making the effort of going to the roof.

jbrbbt

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: No, they couldn't. They barely made it to the roof on time and that was closer than the front entrance.

Bishop73

Die Hard: With a Vengeance mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: There is a shot towards the end of the film, (just before Willis and Jackson exchange dialogue in the engine room) in which it shows the entourage of people boarding a smaller boat from the much larger ship. Look towards the bottom left corner of the screen as the boat pulls away - inside you can see the head of a female boom mike operator.

More mistakes in Die Hard: With a Vengeance
More quotes from Die Hard: With a Vengeance

Trivia: When John is asked what he has done during his suspension from the police force he says "smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." This is a line he sings from the song "Flowers on the Wall" by the Statler Bros from the radio in Pulp Fiction just before he ran over Wallace. Appropriate, since Pulp Fiction falls neatly between Die Hard 2 and 3.

More trivia for Die Hard: With a Vengeance

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.

Shibito

Answer: And Zeus mentions about brothers knowing how to shoot guns.

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."

More questions & answers from Die Hard: With a Vengeance

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.