Die Hard-Ultimate Collection (Dts) (1988)

DIE HARD: FIVE STAR COLLECTION: High above the city of L.A. a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages, and declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection...an off-duty cop. He's alone...tired...and the only chance anyone has. Bruce Willis stars as New York City Detective John McClane, newly arrived in Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia). But as McClane waits for his wife's office party to break up, terrorists seize control of the building. While the terrorist leader, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his savage henchman (Alexander Godunov) round up hostages, McClane slips away unnoticed. Armed with only a service revolver and his cunning, McClane launches his own one-man war. A crackling thriller from beginning to end, Die Hard explodes with heartstopping suspense.

DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER - SPECIAL EDITION: On a snowy Christmas Eve in the nation's capital, a team of terrorists has seized a major international airport, and now holds thousands of travelers hostage. The terrorists, a renegade band of crack military commandos led by a murderous rogue officer (William Sadler), have come to rescue a drug lord from justice. They've prepared for every contingency except one: John McClane (Bruce Willis), an off-duty cop gripped by a feeling of deadly deja vu. Willis returns as the heroic cop who battles not only terrorists, but also an incompetent airport police chief (Dennis Franz), the hard-headed commander (John Amos) of the Army's terrorist squad and a deadly winter snowstorm. His wife (Bonnie Bedella) is trapped on one of the planes circling somewhere overhead, desperately low on fuel. The runways are littered with death and destruction, and McClane is in a race against time.

DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE - SPECIAL EDITION: Takes place on the streets of New York, where police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) becomes the personal target of a mysterious terrorist named Simon (Jeremy Irons). McClane, who has a penchant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a talent for overcoming incredible odds, finds himself playing a deadly game--with New York City as the stakes. With only an unwilling civilian partner, Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) as backup, McClane must find and defuse a bomb located in one of New York City's schools. It's a battle of wits between a psychopath and a heroic cop who once again finds himself having a "bad day."
 
"...rambunctiously entertaining... (Die Hard 2)"  Rita Kempley, Washington Post
"Dynamite action yarn... (Die Hard)"  Leonard Maltin
"...cleverly made and delivered with high energy... (Die Hard Vengeance)"  Roger Ebert
"[2] A sequel worth seeing."  Almar Haflidason, BBC
"[3] ...a gripping, relentless, supercharged slab of fun that knows no bounds..."  Andrew Collins, Empire
"[1] A firepowered, blood-drenched action picture that doesn't let up. "  Desson Thomson, Washington Post
"[1] ...a foot-stomping rouser."  Mike Clark, USA Today
"[3] It's a tense, terrifically funny action dazzler with a wow level in special effects that will be hard to top. "  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"[2] While it's impossible to find much reality in Die Hard 2, it is easy to find plenty of escapist excitement."  Ryan Cracknell, Apollo Movie Guide
 


Editor's Note

This boxed set features the adventures of cop John McClane in DIE HARD, DIE HARD 2, and DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE, as he battles terrorists intent on destroying office buildings, airports, and Manhattan. See individual titles for more information.


Plot Summary

"Die Hard": A New York City policeman, John McClane, visiting his estranged wife and two daughters on Christmas Eve, joins her at a holiday party in the headquarters of the Japanese-owned business she works for. But the festivities are interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the exclusive high-rise, and everyone in it. Very soon the cop realizes that there's no one to save the hostages -- but him.| "Die Hard 2: Die Harder": An action-packed sequel to the 1989 film 'Die Hard.' While former New York City cop John McClane, now a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, waits to pick up his wife in DC's Dulles Airport, gunmen suddenly commandeer the building. They're intent on rescuing a drug-dealing foreign despot who's being brought to the US to stand trial. And once again McClane finds himself enmeshed in a terrorist plot that only he can prevent...| "Die Hard with a Vengeance": The third installment of the 'Die Hard' series. Hard-luck New York cop John McClane realizes once again that trouble always has a way of finding him. This time it comes in the form of Simon, whose brother Hans Gruber was the villainous mastermind killed by McClane in the first 'Die Hard.' Simon sets out to avenge Hans's death in a rather perverse manner: periodically, he plants a bomb somewhere in New York City (a subway car or an elementary school, for example). Then he calls McClane with a difficult riddle, and a time allotment for solving it. The answer to the riddle reveals the bomb site. McClane and Zeus, a Black shopkeeper who saves McClane's life and then is forced to join him, wind up in numerous deadly situations as they continuously struggle to save the Big Apple from Simon's bombs. But Simon has other devious plans besides killing McClane: namely to rob the Federal Reserve Bank -- which houses more gold than Fort Knox...