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
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).
