Die Hard 2: Die Harder

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Die Hard 2: Die Harder Trivia

Actors Dennis Franz and Robert Costanzo, who played Carmine and Vito Lorenzo, would work together again in 1993, during the first season of ABC's NYPD Blue, when Costanzo would play mobster Alphonse Giardella, with whom Franz's Sipowicz had an ongoing feud that would end in the detective's near-execution in the pilot episode.
This film was shipped to theaters as "wet prints" - an industry term meaning that it was just barely completed before its release date.
The Russian title for "Die Hard" in all of the three movies is, "A Hard Nut to Crack".
The line "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker!" is used in all four 'Die Hard' films.
All the airplane landing equipment used by the mercenaries in the church is close to the real equipment used in actual air traffic control towers, but simplified for the film's dramatic and action effects.
Black & Decker paid to have its cordless drill featured in a scene with Bruce Willis. When the scene was cut, the company sued 20th Century Fox in the first-ever product placement lawsuit for a film. The $150,000 claim was settled out of court.
Several scenes were filmed but cut from the final release of the film: 1. An extended version of the scene when McClane enters the terminal, featuring shots of a children's' choir singing Christmas carols (the audio of the choir singing still remains in the final cut, but only heard in the background), A scene of two of the terrorists killing off two painters and stealing their truck as well as their uniforms (to pose as painters later in the Skywalk SWAT team ambush scene). An extended version of the scene where McClane first meets up with Marvin the janitor, and finally an extended scene of Marvin showing McClane the best way to access the tunnels to get to the runways, which includes a scene where McClane has to walk carefully across a narrow beam over a hot boiler. All of these cut scenes can be viewed in the Deleted Scenes section of the Special Features disc.
Based on the novel "58 Minutes" by Walter Wager. Hence the French title "58 Minutes Pour Vivre" ("58 Minutes To Live").
The Spanish title for "Die Hard" in all of the three movies is, "The Glass Jungle", as a reference to the first movie located in a glass skyscraper.
Minnesota was originally picked for location filming, but there was no snow, so filming was moved to Michigan.
According to John Leguizamo in his autobiography, his role was intended to be much larger until the filmmakers realized how short he was. His part was cut down to one line which was dubbed by someone else.
The scenes with Bruce Willis running through tunnels under the airport were filmed at a water treatment facility near Los Angeles. The facility has miles of underground tunnels, and was also used in Live Free or Die Hard, doubling as the Woodlawn Social Security Administration building.
Denver was unseasonably snowless during the shooting of the snowstorm scenes and a fair amount of snow had to be created artificially.
In the original Die Hard, John McClane only had a few scripted one-liners. However, 'Bruce Willis (I)' ad-libbed so many one liners and audiences liked them so much that in this sequel (and the next one), more gags were added and Willis was told he could ad-lib as many more as he saw fit.
With its spiraling budget, at one point this film was costing 20th Century Fox over $20,000 for every minute of every day.
In Die Hard, Sgt. Al Powell is humming along with the song "Let it snow" sung by Vaughn Monroe. Same song that starts playing at the end of this movie.
The General is from "Valverde", the fictitious Latin-American country used in Commando. (The first Die Hard was originally supposed to be the sequel to that movie).
It was Renny Harlin's idea that William Sadler, the film's main villain be introduced naked doing martial arts exercises during the film's opening sequence. He would later say that it was "an effective, but unusual way to introduce a character".
This film was originally titled Die Hard 2: Die Harder.
John McTiernan had planned to direct this film, but could not because of his commitment to directing The Hunt for Red October.
In the "Making of" Featurette for Die Hard with a Vengeance, actor William Sadler (Col. Stuart) said that for this movie, his favorite part pertaining to his character was when Col. Stuart crashes the Windsor Air plane by pretending to be someone from the tower.
Most of the interior airport scenes were filmed in the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International airport.
The music heard in the film's theatrical trailer is "Ode to Joy" from Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which is heard throughout the first Die Hard film in Michael Kamen's score.
Some of the shots of the airport (interior and exterior) were filmed at the old Stapleton Airport in Denver, Colorado. Also, the external shots of the church were filmed in Highland Lake, just north of Denver.
This is Bruce Willis's least favorite film of the "Die Hard" trilogy.
The confrontation between Bruce Willis and William Sadler on the airplane's wing took several nights to shoot. Huge fans were used to blow in the fake snow in the background because of lack of real snow.
In the "Making of" Featurette for Die Hard with a Vengeance, Reginald VelJohnson said that after his appearances in the first two Die Hard films, he would be frequently teased and joked at by friends and people on the street for his character's obsession of Twinkies, with some people even going so far as to buy twinkies and throwing them into his car while he was inside, and saying things like "Oh we knew you wanted some of those".
The scene where McClane climbs the ladder from the service tunnels up onto the runway and then nearly gets run over by Esperanza's plane was filmed from eight different locations: Granada Hills, California (McClain in the tunnel and climbing up the ladder), Los Angeles (Close-ups of Esperanza inside the plane's cockpit), Mojave Desert, California (Head-on view of plane in the sky on approach), Alpena, Michigan (Exterior shot of the grating door on the runway), San Francisco (Rear shot of plane on approach with runway lights in the background), Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (Plane after just landed rushing towards the screen), Lake Tahoe, California (Plane rushing towards McClane in the foreground), and Denver, Colorado (Plane rushing towards McClane as seen from behind the front landing gear).
Renny Harlin edited this film and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane at the same time because of the relatively short post-production period for both films. The films were then released one month apart.
Was supposed to be filmed at Moses Lake, Washington but, like Minnesota, there was no snow.
The 747 plane that General Esperanza, Colonel Stuart, and the other terrorists use to try to escape in, bears the livery colors of Evergreen International Air Cargo Lines, but with the company name whited out.
DIRTRADE(Renny Harlin):[Finland]: "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius is used in some scenes.
EASTER EGG: On Disc 2 of the 2-Disc DVD (the Special Features disc), push right on the remote control from the last menu selection, and the "stair rail" will light up. Select it to display credits for the creators of the Special Features disc.
There is a war reference in each of the first three Die Hard films. This film's references include Marvin mentioning both Iwo Jima and Pearl Harbor and the Commando team reminiscing about Grenada.
The only Die Hard film that does NOT contain either a plot or a subplot pertaining to stealing money, bearer bonds, gold, or any other form of financial assets.
Although the movie was filmed using a fictitious airport and/or other airports with stood in for Dulles Int'l Airport, the movie posters along with the VHS and DVD covers for the movie show a picture of the actual Dulles Airport itself.
The Polish title for "Die Hard" in all of the three movies is, "The Glass Trap", as a reference to the first movie located in a glass skyscraper.