Question: My question is about radio chatter. Sometimes in the movie McClane talks on the radio and the bad guys hear him, and sometimes the bad guys talk and everybody hears. Now there are times that McClane is talking to the Sergeant and it appears only him and the Sergeant are listening - can everyone listen to them? Also when talking with Theo about the safe, can McClane hear their conversation?
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.
Chosen answer: The gangster/terrorists were using a set of what are called "commercial" or business walkie-talkies which have special, dedicated channels so that they only communicate with other radios within the set. These are typically used by security and event-staff personnel, and they can't be monitored by general-purpose or citizens-band radios. Even the police wouldn't be able to monitor commercial radio traffic unless they had special tuning gear and scanners. The major mistake in "Die Hard" was that John used one of those commercial radios to contact a police dispatcher and then an individual police officer. No can do.
Charles Austin Miller