John McTiernan
163 connections found
View:
Connections, in both directions
The Predator (2018)
Directed by Shane Black
influenced by Predator (1987), Last Action Hero (1993), Die Hard (1988)
Dialogue
Director Shane Black is no stranger to the Predator franchise having starred as Rick Hawkins in 1987’s Predator.
This is the quintessential question that the latest and sixth, blockbusting Predator instalment (including the Aliens vs Predator franchise) repeatedly provokes from the viewer as it hurls everything including the sci-fi sink at the screen.
There is a running inside joke perpetuated by Olivia Munn and Sterling K. Brown’s characters in The Predator that calls into question the titular nickname as an incorrect moniker for the dexterously deadly alien life-form bouncing around their Georgia landscape.
Sporting the taxonomically useless title “The Predator,” the latest movie in the “Predator” franchise comes courtesy of Shane Black ( “The Nice Guys” ), who appeared as comic relief in the 1987 original and seems to have taken that experience to heart.
You walk into each new Predator movie with a very specific, and very rigid, set of questions.
Far be it for me to engage in spoilers right off the bat, so let’s keep this vague and just state that a particular character in The Predator, the latest in the stop-start series that began back in 1987, dies.
It's the sequel to 2013's Olympus Has Fallen, which was itself a spiritual sequel to Die Hard: one building, one terrorist group, too many hostages, and one walkie-talkie-taunting badass who can save the day.
Well maybe not YOU specifically — but because moviegoers around the world contributed to the 2013 “Die Hard” ripoff “Olympus Has Fallen” earning more than $160 million at the box office, we now get a sequel, which as you might have surmised from the title is set mostly in London.
“ Olympus Has Fallen ” was a pornographically violent crapfest that took the standard “ Die Hard ” template, located it within the confines of a White House being attacked by Korean terrorists and tried to use such sights as the White House in flames, hundreds of corpses on the front lawn and the female Secretary of Defense being brutally beaten as the inspiration for the ensuing orgy of shootings, stabbings, neck-breakings and quips delivered by star Gerard Butler.
London Has Fallen is essentially a siege movie, modeled after the greatest siege movie ever made: Die Hard .
London Has Fallen, the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen is simply the latest in the tradition of "Die Hard in a..." films.
It was enough to keep the movie from clicking when it tried to shift into quippy “Die Hard” mode.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
influenced by Die Hard (1988), Predator (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Plot
But Fuqua is no match for McTiernan in the latter's prime (when he also directed "Predator" and "The Hunt For Red October" over just a several year span) and thus we end up with lots of visceral mayhem but without the heart or much any semblance of decent comic relief.
But Fuqua is no match for McTiernan in the latter's prime (when he also directed "Predator" and "The Hunt For Red October" over just a several year span) and thus we end up with lots of visceral mayhem but without the heart or much any semblance of decent comic relief.
The obvious reference point here is Die Hard , with Gerard Butler stepping awkwardly into Bruce Willis' shoes as Mike Banning, the man trying to single-handedly thwart a hostage situation from the inside.
And not since the original Die Hard (1988) have we seen a film that plays so much like, well, the original Die Hard, with so many plot points lifted and transcribed into the new setting that one could play a potentially lethal drinking game putting away shots every time you spot one (“I spy Robert Forster in the Paul Gleason role!,” “I spy the scene where overconfident military commandos try and fail to take back the building with badly misguided force!”).
Olympus Has Fallen follows the Die Hard formula right down to the letter, but with little of the style of that 1988 Bruce Willis classic.
There's irony to be found in the recognition that the best Die Hard to be released in 2013 isn't the franchise's official entry, A Good Day to Die Hard , but the White House-based copycat, Olympus Has Fallen.
Unlike so many '90s films, though, the form that WHD takes is not exactly " Die Hard in an X", with X referring in this case to the White House; it was this exact tack taken by this spring's Olympus Has Fallen , a cheaply-made rushed knock-off of WHD that, as it turns out, is almost precisely at the same quality level as the movie it was copying, though for different reasons.
Director Roland Emmerich takes a break from blowing up the entire world (and completely blowing Anonymous ) to direct this Die Hard knock-off without shame, and he’s perfectly suited to the material, transforming a concept that Olympus Has Fallen made gruff and violent into an over the top crowd-pleaser.
While there’s more than a little of a “Die Hard” vibe here (more than in “Die Hard 5,” actually), Emmerich and screenwriter James Vanderbilt wisely don’t try to turn Tatum into a junior Bruce Willis.
White House Down is yet another take on the old Die Hard formula, with more than a few nods to the fun Air Force One (1997) and to Emmerich's own Independence Day (1996).
With its Die Hard -in-the-White-House premise already taken out in a pre-emptive strike by Olympus Has Fallen earlier this year, White House Down suddenly had to do more than just rely on its high concept.
You see, the bad guys have also brought along a computer hacker (Jimmi Simpson)—one of the evil kind who, in an apparent nod to Die Hard , enjoys blasting Beethoven symphonies as he cracks the NORAD missile launch codes, one by one.
It’s also here that the action-movie hero vibe that Wingard attempted to bring to Kong’s character really comes out in full force — there’s a direct quote to Bruce Willis in Die Hard in here, which the director has acknowledged as an influence on his behavior in the Ape’s behavior in these slugfests — and it’s genuinely a lot of fun to watch this unmoveable object meet up with this unstoppable force.
Amusingly, the ape has been written to be something of everyman here, like Die Hard ’s John McClane, to the point he even gets his own leaping-out-of-the-way-of-an-explosion moment.
There are scenes and images that recall everything from Flash Gordon (1980) to Die Hard (1988).
Between introducing all of these characters—and I see that I have neglected to mention both Apex’s shadowy tech genius (Shun Oguri) and Madison’s worried dad (Kyle Chandler)—it takes about 40 minutes or so for the first confrontation between the titular creatures (who have some ancient rivalry that is often whispered about but never exactly explained), a punch-up at sea that finds Kong busting out a couple of “Die Hard”-style moves before essentially ending in a draw.
Wingard also throws in references to the likes of Die Hard and the Lethal Weapon series, as well as countless Showa-era Godzilla efforts, most specifically those from the 1960s and ’70s.
(I’m told the creature’s movements were modeled on Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” and there’s even a “Lethal Weapon 2” reference for us elderly folks in the audience.)
The Prey: Legend of Karnoctus (2022)
Directed by Eric Hensman
influenced by Predator (1987)
Visuals Plot Characters
The action thriller often assumes the furry mongrel’s POV – the X-ray shots bring to mind Predator ‘s heat vision.
Instead, directors Cire and Matthew Hensman craft a fairly basic feature with a central heist plot that is plucked straight from David O. Russell’s Three Kings , which borrows its subterranean-soldiers-versus-killing-machine elements wholesale from Alien , Aliens and Predator .
From the Hensman brothers, Cire and Matthew, is The Prey just your average Predator rip-off (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), or is it something else entirely?
But if you come in wanting a homage to Predator , good news.
It’s odd they didn’t go the full on Predator homage by having Trejo, Paul, and the other members of the Tagger mercenary team be the sole focus of the movie, but then the production likely couldn’t afford to have them for more than a day or two anyway.
For example, it’s structured a lot like Predator, starting out as an action film and then morphing into a horror flick once the soldiers find out they’re being hunted by a monster.
Hot Fuzz (2007)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by Die Hard (1988), Last Action Hero (1993)
Visuals Plot Themes
The homages to hugely popular pictures are crystal clear, but the genre-spoofing moviemakers have done their homework – scenes derived from “First Blood,” “Die Hard,” “Lethal Weapon,” Sergio Leone’s “The Man With No Name” trilogy, “Straw Dogs,” “Chinatown,” “Brannigan,” and countless others are lampooned with varying degrees of subtlety, each being every bit as amusing, especially for eagle-eyed action connoisseurs.
Aside from the obvious nepotism Danny's name might imply, he's also got a rather casual relationship with reality, having informed his police sensibilities with every American Cop Movie from Dirty Harry to Lethal Weapon to Die Hard... but his favorites (and the ones both laughingly paid tribute to and viciously skewered by Hot Fuzz) are Bad Boys II and Point Break.
With pages, not to mention exploding fireballs, taken from such seminal shoot-'em-up classics as Bad Boys, Die Hard and Point Break, Hot Fuzz turns the quaint, cobblestone streets of staid Olde England into a madcap mess of mayhem and murder.
The Matrix series, the Die Hard Series, the Lethal Weapon series, and John Woo’s films are only the tip of the iceberg.
Sure, everyone is fawning over Superbad, which was OK, but if you’re an action movie fan, especially of stuff along the lines of Die Hard or Lethal Weapon you really need to see this movie.
Wright and Pegg love the Bad Boys and Die Hards of the cinematic world as much as any fanboy, and it shows in every stunt and gag -- from the genre's omnipresent homoeroticism to scenes of cops filling out paperwork edited frantically enough to give Tony Scott a seizure.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
influenced by The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Dialogue Visuals
Director Christopher McQuarrie also borrows a linguistic device from The Hunt for Red October – starting with Russian speech then quickly moving to all characters speaking English.
That scene gives me the claustrophobic vibes of The Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide-like moment.
Commencée en pré-générique dans une longue séquence à l’intérieur d’un sous-marin évoquant The Hunt for Red October ( À la poursuite d’Octobre rouge) de John McTiernan, ce septième épisode de la série cinéma des Mission : Impossible nous transporte très rapidement dans le désert de la péninsule arabique puis dans un aéroport ultra-moderne.
But if Carry-On works, it's because Ethan is an everyday person in the same way John McClane was an everyday guy in the first three Die Hard movies.
Taron Egerton would no doubt very much appreciate it if you would take the bait and compare his new, holiday-adjacent Netflix action thriller Carry-On to Die Hard … or perhaps Die Hard 2, actually.
When Nora further urges him to give his dream another shot, Ethan decides to try putting more effort into his life by petitioning his boss, Phil (Dean Norris), for a more important shift working baggage inspection on Christmas Eve.
Carry-On does not, in other words, find Ethan at the same point in his life that Die Hard finds John McClane.
Plus, prosthetic penises, Predator-like decapitations, Ralph Fiennes’ boney art installation and addressing the Jimmy Savile of it all.
With nods to Predator, Mad Max, the zombie plagues of Romero, and, of course, The Odyssey…
But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of blood to go around (though the biggest kills are blatant references to Predator, which is surprisingly lazy).
…something more akin to an apex Predator.
Their conception owed quite a bit to comic books and to serialized television like "24" (James Bond by way of " Die Hard ").
Some of the bigger plot elements feel reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and early scenes between Bond and the cantankerous M would not be out of place in Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, or any of a million other Rogue Cop flicks of the 1980s.
But the actors always cohere within strict limits to a template: a white British male (although rumors persist that he won’t always be white), taciturn but prone to the odd wisecrack, unstoppably athletic but unflappable, self-contained enough to go through hell without ever breaking a sweat, and always ready to slip back into a fresh tux (can you imagine Bond smeared with grit in a singlet, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard ?).
This goes far beyond the lengths he’ll go for sex and alcohol, but even to seeing Daniel Craig perform stunts including an Aston Martin sponsored parachute escape, or a plane crashing on a mountaintop that could easily be pulled from a new Die Hard or Transporter film.
The Raid (2012)
Directed by Gareth Evans
influenced by Die Hard (1988)
Plot Characters Themes Visuals
Think "Die Hard" crossed with one of those old karate movies they used to show on Sunday afternoon on WGNO-TV back in the '80s -- and then add an obscene level of violent bloodshed -- and you've got a good idea of what's in store.
But a vertical environment has different rules, and cities have been the setting for game-changing flicks such as "Die Hard" and "Oldboy."
The plot setup is in the vein of "Assault on Precinct 13" and " Die Hard " (among many others), but plot is hardly the point.
Have you ever wondered what "Die Hard" would be like if John McClane knew how to roundhouse-kick people in the face and disarm bloodthirsty, machete-wielding henchmen?
—Mad Dog, Take the closed-set claustrophobia of Die Hard, add the gritty cops versus gangsters nihilism of Assault on Precinct 13, and blend in some Indonesian machete-fu and — voila!
Writer-editor-director Gareth Huw Evans stages "The Raid's" 15 floors of mayhem as if he tossed "Hard Boiled," "Supercop" and "Die Hard" into a blender and hit purée.
Writer-director Scott Cooper ("Black Mass") based the concept on a manuscript by the late Donald Stewart, who wrote movies like "The Hunt For Red October" before his death in 1999.
He’s a man of few words, as per Bale’s masterful underplaying and Cooper’s lean adaptation of an unpublished manuscript by Donald Stewart, the screenwriter behind Missing and The Hunt for Red October.
Cooper’s screenplay, based on a manuscript given him by the widow of the late Donald Stewart ( Missing , The Hunt for Red October ), strives to make a statement about the American way of life, the genocide of the Native American people, the inescapable savagery of war, and the tenaciousness of trauma.
(Director Cooper based his screenplay on a “manuscript” by Donald E. Stewart, writer of such films as 1982’s Missing and The Hunt for Red October .
He can't manage the same with his attempt at a western, mostly because the script, based on a manuscript by deceased screenwriter Donald E. Stewart (Missing, The Hunt for Red October), is too awful to salvage.
The manuscript was originally written by the late Academy Award-winning screenwriter Donald E. Stewart, who wrote Missing and The Hunt for Red October , who died almost twenty years ago.
Speed (1994)
Directed by Jan de Bont
influenced by Die Hard (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Plot Characters
A cinematographer for more than 30 years, De Bont has worked frequently with fellow Dutchman Paul Verhoeven and has been behind the camera on such big-time action pictures as "Die Hard," "The Hunt for Red October," "Black Rain" and "Lethal Weapon 3."
"Speed," directed by Jan De Bont (cinematographer on "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon 3"), isn't a movie so much as a driver's-seat video game.
First-time director De Bont (cameraman of Die Hard and Basic Instinct) makes good use of a hand-held camera and conveys a real sense of volition: you'll believe a bus can fly!
Yes, it's "Die Hard" on a bus, but that's a pretty good bloodline.
He conspicuously lacks charm -- he has none of the bemused irony that made Alan Rickman's terrorist so deliciously attractive in "Die Hard."
The directorial debut of acclaimed cinematographer Jan De Bont, Speed--made for the paltry (considering the complexity of the shoot: real elevator shafts; real freeway lanes; real subway cars) sum of $28 million--is nothing less than a thing of alchemy: De Bont would go on to helm the abominations Twister, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and The Haunting ; screenwriter Graham Yost (son of TVOntario's "Saturday Night at the Movies" host Elwy Yost) subsequently scripted Broken Arrow (John Woo's worst film) and Hard Rain (a steaming turd); Reeves and Bullock last gave us Sweet November and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood , respectively; and if the sub-genre of Die Hard rip-offs had run its course by the time Speed came around, consider that Speed is, after all, Die Hard on a bus, a claustrophobic one-man-against-one-terrorist-in-a-limited-location thriller.
Black Sea (2014)
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
influenced by The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Plot Themes Music
The film will not appear on favorite submarine film lists in the company of greats including “The Hunt for Red October,” “Crimson Tide,” “U-571,” “K-19: The Widow Maker,” “The Abyss” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.
What plays out is a fast-moving deep-sea caper that blends the intricacy of "Ocean's 11" with the intensity of "The Hunt for Red October" and the cautionary notes of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre."
With a film legacy that includes Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 German epic Das Boot, John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October (1990) and Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide (1995), the submarine has been the perfect setting for films that emphasize themes of mutiny, claustrophobia or conflict against nature.
From "The Enemy Below" and "Run Silent, Run Deep" to "The Hunt For Red October" and "Crimson Tide" by way of "Das Boot," the submarine thriller sub-genre has been a popular one for decades.
Perhaps Macdonald and Kelly sought to honor The Hunt for Red October by evoking aural memories of Sean Connery — dangerous to evoke memories of such illustrious precedents.
That's it: just one long chase up a skyscraper, an idea simple enough to have served as the basis for one of the greatest of all action films, Die Hard , as well as the Indonesian The Raid: Redemption , which was in U.S. theaters earlier this year; it's also the central idea behind most of the brawler arcade games of the 1990s, which Dredd practically is already - it even has two playable characters.
“Die Hard” and last year’s Indo-Australian thriller “The Raid” are versions of this set-up that work.
It's the Die Hard formula transferred into the future.
Setting an action film within a contained space is an excellent way to keep it tight and thrilling, but it's also a risk, since the formula has been done well so many times-- Die Hard set the standard, and films as recent as this year's The Raid have improved upon it.
Set almost entirely within a single high rise building, it invokes memories of Die Hard.
It and Dredd follow frighteningly similar plot lines, and both shoot-'em-ups owe Die Hard for their lock-down, knock-down conceit.
His mettle is tested, however, when thieves take over the centre and take hostages, Die Hard-style.
In particular, Die Hard .
The film finally springs to life as Blart does when criminal types take over the mall and hold various employees hostage in a blatantly Die Hard scenario; at last James has something to work with and room to take command.
The plot makes no sense, although it makes more sense than the last "Die Hard" movie.
The film turns into Die Hard-in-a-mall when computer whiz Veck Sims (Keir O'Donnell) and his team of—get this—young BMX, skateboard and parkour punks empty the place save for six hostages, then barricade themselves and go about gathering codes from credit-card machines.
A high-concept mash-up of "Die Hard" and "Kung Fu Panda," "Blart" gives sitcom star Kevin James a showcase for broad-comedy pratfalls, providing him 87 minutes to plop, flop and crash into things, highlights of which have been playing nonstop on Nickelodeon for the last two weeks.
Clearly made by fans of the original film, this sequel treats its source material, core concept and fan base with utmost respect as it replicates the vibe of “Predator” while upping the special effects and, to a degree, character development.
It looks like a "Predator" movie.
The 1987 Schwarzenegger semi-classic "Predator" spawned a sequel, called "Predator 2," plus crossover films "Alien vs Predator" and "Aliens vs Predator: Requiem," not to mention a comic book.
This new version tries to restore some of the straight-ahead intensity of the original 1987 Predator, while also pushing it deeper into the realm of old-fashioned horror.
The Running Man (2025)
Directed by Edgar Wright
influenced by Die Hard (1988), Predator (1987)
Themes Characters
In a similar way to Die Hard he rallies against the system for the noblest of reasons; love and family.
While he sounds and looks like the everyman protagonists of the Die Hard (1988) era…
He plays Richards as an everyday working-class man (think John McClane in Die Hard)…
…even as a kid, I found the picture to be a lesser 1980s actioner compared to the likes of Commando and Predator.
…with a screenplay by Steven E. de Souza (“Die Hard,” 1988 and “Die Hard 2,” 1990)…
Arnold Schwarzenegger had a busy 1987, going from PREDATOR to this week’s new remake’s “inspiration”.
Top Gun: Maverick , though it may draw on memories of unrivalled American hegemony, is really harking back to the era of star-led genre filmmaking that started in the mid-1980s, with Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun , gathered pace with Die Hard and ended around 2000, the last time the year’s biggest film wasn’t animated, computer-generated or fantastical.
Nobody supposes the belated fourth installments in the Indiana Jones or Die Hard franchises will live up to the standards set by their predecessors.