Director Renny Harlin can be a terrible hack but he’s in his element when he’s not bothering about characters, just blowing stuff up. This is the one with the airport, and it’s just astonishing.
It’s Christmas Eve (again!), and while waiting for his wife’s plane to fly in to a snowbound Dulles International Airport in Washington DC, New York detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) becomes involved in a deadly and dangerous mission to outwit the renegade Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) and his team of ruthless special forces terrorists who have taken over the busy airport in a bid to rescue drugs baron, General Ramon Esperanza (Franco Nero).
McClane wonders aloud how this could happen to him again, but dons the white vest anyway for this second hugely entertaining slice of action hokum.
Reginald VelJohnson and William Atherton reprise their roles from the original film, and there are also welcome appearances from 1960s star Franco Nero and Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue.
John McClane
Bruce Willis
Holly McClane
Bonnie Bedelia
Dick Thornberg
William Atherton
Al Powell
Reginald VelJohnson
General Ramon Esperanza
Franco Nero
Colonel Stuart
William Sadler
Captain Grant
John Amos
Carmine Lorenzo
Dennis Franz
Barnes
Art Evans
Trudeau
Fred Dalton Thompson
Marvin
Tom Bower
Samantha Copeland
Sheila McCarthy
Garber
Don Harvey
Baker
Tony Ganios
Thompson
Peter Nelson
O’Reilly
Robert Patrick
Sheldon
Michael Cunningham
Burke
John Leguizamo
Kahn
Tom Verica
Cochrane
John Costelloe
Miller
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Shockley
Mark Boone Junior
Mulkey
Ken Baldwin
Corporal Telford
Pat O’Neal
Pilot
Colm Meaney
Director
Renny Harlin