It's all three, together. I think the problem is some people are confusing Shout Outs to Die Hard with a "Die Hard" on an X plot. It has to be the whole of the plot, not just an element of it. Just needs to make that clearer in the trope description, and do a bit of clean up. No biggie. Think of it as an old fashioned Base Under Seige story, only the stalwart defenders are the bad guys and the monster creeping through vents is the good guy (you know, for a Xenomorph audience Alien is Die Hard on a Spaceship /joke)
edited 18th Feb '11 12:11:15 PM by CrypticMirror
It's a Whole-Plot Reference to Die Hard, basically; it's listed on Whole-Plot Reference as that.
BTW, I'm a chick.
Yeah, there is some Trope Flanderization going on here. I was a bit dubious reading through the list before I got to "Hot Fuzz is Die Hard in The West Country". Wha?
The description just needs tightening up a bit I think, the basic idea is (All Your Base Are Belong to Us * Closed Circle) + (Spanner in the Works * One-Man Army). Or in English, baddies take over an area and it's down to Just One Man to Save The Day.
Gentleman Troper!
Isn't this just Recycled In Space, only more specific?
Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!
No, it's a Whole-Plot Reference and Recycled In Space points out the difference.
Zzzzzzzzzz
Adding a clock on this.
The definition definitely needs to be clarified.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
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The general plot of the movie Die Hard set in a location different from that movie. For example, a movie where bad guys hold hostages on a spaceship while a good guy on board tries to take down the bad guys can be summarized as "the plot of Die Hard set on a spaceship" or simply "Die Hard on a spaceship". Pretty straightforward stuff.
edited 10th Oct '11 12:03:24 PM by SeanMurrayI
What is this trope exactly? A facility is attacked and the protagonist is an unknown Spanner in the Works? An action movie revolved around the hostile takeover of a location? Plots which involve the good guys sneaking around in vents? Because I see examples of all three of these, and I'm not sure what the actual trope is.