Live Free or Die Hard

by Aaron Helfferich · Published June 27, 2007

It’s been nearly 12 years since one of cinema’s greatest action heroes graced the big screen with a trail of blood, bodies, mayhem, and destruction. Bruce Willis’s character, John McClane, of the prestigious “Die Hard” series has emerged once again to teach Hollywood a lesson. His newest film, “Live Free or Die Hard,” shows us how summer blockbusters shouldn’t rely on computers to do the job for them. Instead, they show how computers are taking over the world much like they are taking over Hollywood.

“Live Free or Die Hard” takes us back to a time when movies were made to display the biggest action spectacles without the cop-out use of computers and digital technology. The fourth and newest “Die Hard” film looks to be five percent digital and 95 percent old-school stunt-work. It’s a respectable quality that’s hard to find in movies these days.

Insistent on making his film with as little computer graphics as possible, director Len Wiseman (Underworld) instinctively pays homage to the “Die Hard” series that further defined the use of action stunt-work some 20 years ago. It doesn’t end there. Mark Bomback has written a script that is designed around placing computers as our enemy.

“Live Free or Die Hard” jumps immediately into a story from its opening credit sequence involving a terrorist group led by Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). Brilliantly, he is able to hack into nearly every computer controlled operation of our nation, including traffic lights, television circuits, and the stock market. It is far fetched, but if the federal agents of America are as dumb as the ones depicted in this movie we might as well all move to Canada. Still, the idea of an attack like this is drastically more intelligent and more fun to watch than the usual, “steal some high tech weapons and hold the world hostage” storyline. What makes it even better is that, John McClane is called to the scene to protect whiz kid computer hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long). It’s a pairing that’s entertaining from start to finish.

As existent as the action movie cliches are in this movie, Willis is able to make sure that they are still grounded by his impenetrable sense of humor. So, when the action ensues and the threats heighten, Willis keeps the jokes coming as he humorously, explosively, or emotionally reacts to each threat. Because of this we can also overlook the plot inconsistencies which tend to appear a number of times throughout the film.

Regardless of some minor flaws, “Live Free or Die Hard” goes on to do what a “Die Hard” movie does best. It successfully escalates every action sequence from the previous one to keep the audience on the edge of their seat from start to finish. Even when the story reaches a gap between the action sequences, the audience is either entertained by the rampant humor between Willis and Long, or the special appearance by Kevin Smith as the ultimate slacker computer hacker aptly named the Warlock. When it reaches its finale, though, the computer graphics kick in during a scene involving a head to head battle between McClane in a tanker truck and a hovering F-33 fighter jet. Its design is ridiculous, but the sequence still hits hard on the intensity scale without being too cheesy.

Much like its world class main character, “Live Free or Die Hard” is the analog movie thriving in the digital world. That’s a nostalgic cinematic feat in and of itself.