DIE HARD - story breakdown
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays—and getting in some intentional movie watching!
I’ve had another request for a breakdown of Die Hard. And how can I refuse? It’s one of the greatest action films ever made. A thriller so iconic that it spawned its own subgenre of action films: “Die Hard on/in a bus, plane, ship, mountain, etc.” It cannily doubled its potential audience by giving its hero a witty and roughly charming vulnerability — and giving women and men inclined toward men not just one steamy male lead, but three: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, and ballet star Alexander Gudenov.
I always urge writers to study classic films both in and out of their own genres, because the story elements are the same across all genres, and you may just learn more from something outside your genre.
The first Act of Die Hard is a textbook of compression —it’s worth studying just that much to learn how to set up a genre book or a film. And it’s consistently listed as one of the Top Ten on favorite Christmas movie lists, so why not add it to our holiday movie repertoire? To those who dispute its Christmas qualifications, I say that Alan Rickman’s Cary Grant-level elegance alone makes it a satisfying Christmas movie for me. But it’s also set on Christmas Eve, works the practical complications of the holiday into the plot, and features tons of Christmas music, from the Nutcracker Suite to Run DMC.
If you’re new to the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence structure of film and how to use it to write novels, I suggest reading these posts on the history of the structure and about the Story Elements found in very much the same places of every book and film:
There is much more, and ten full breakdowns of classic and popular movies, in each of the workbooks
Let’s look at the amazingly packed SET UP of Sequence 1. (The breakdown of just one sequence far exceeds my email length limit, so click through to Substack to read the full post:
Die Hard Sequence One breakdown
Happy almost New Year!!
- Alex
Die Hard - 1988
Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza
Based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, by Roderick Thorp
Directed by John McTiernan
Running time: 132 minutes
OPENING IMAGE: Good filmmakers use the first frames of a movie to set theme, tone, genre and/or whatever they want to plant in the audience’s head to put them inside the film.
In Die Hard, the first thing we experience is a jarring shriek of aircraft engine over a black screen to create an ominous genre TONE, then we FADE IN to a passenger plane landing at LAX in a hazy red sunset — more genre! Not the most gripping Opening Image but it works in its way.
On the plane is protagonist JOHN McLANE (Bruce Willis) – first seen gripping his armrest so hard his businessman seatmate notices John doesn’t like flying and bizarrely recommends making barefoot fists with his toes on carpet to lose the stress and prevent jet lag. (This is a big PLANT, or SET UP, that will PAY OFF later.) The dialogue between the men is wry and funny – establishing John’s wit and an easy way with other people, and also relaxing the audience right away with its self-assurance and tone – this is going to be fun. As passengers gather their carry-ons, we learn several other things about John very quickly: when he stands, the businessman notices the service weapon at his hip and John assures him it’s okay, he’s a cop. (SPECIAL SKILLS/POWERS). John then removes a giant stuffed bear from the overhead, setting up a soft heart and family focus. The hot flight attendant gives him a very steamy once-over as she passes, establishing his attraction to women. Or maybe she’s just into bears.
Now, let me point out one structural thing right up front. In the majority of books and films, we first see the HEROINE in their ORDINARY WORLD, and once their ordinary life is set up and the INCITING INCIDENT triggers their OUTER DESIRE, they begin the journey INTO THE SPECIAL WORLD. In Die Hard, the story beginswith INTO THE SPECIAL WORLD, which as in many stories is a multi-leveled entry consisting of several scenes.
John’s ORDINARY WORLD is established within these scenes, through dialogue, photos, and an upcoming scene with his wife, Holly. Die Hard is a very good example of how to bypass a long set up and get straight into the action. But it accomplishes this not by cutting out the elements of setup— rather it layers those elements into a complex INTO THE SPECIAL WORLD sequence.
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Get the workbooks:
Stealing Hollywood ebook, $4.99, also available as print workbook
Writing Love ebook, $2.99