History Film / LiveFreeOrDieHard

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: The FBI SWAT team arrives to Gabriel's hideout only after [=McClane=] has killed all of Gabriel's men [[spoiler: and Gabriel personally with his own gun]] (Gabriel's last henchman, Emerson, was killed by Farrell). It's somewhat downplayed, as they arrive soon enough that it's made clear that, even if [[spoiler: Gabriel had managed to kill [=McClane=,]] the bad guys would've still been caught.

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: The FBI SWAT team arrives to Gabriel's hideout only after [=McClane=] has killed all of Gabriel's men [[spoiler: and Gabriel personally with his own gun]] (Gabriel's last henchman, Emerson, was killed by Farrell). It's somewhat downplayed, as they arrive soon enough that it's made clear that, even if Gabriel had managed to kill [=McClane=], the bad guys would've still been caught.

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: The FBI SWAT team arrives to Gabriel's hideout only after [=McClane=] has killed all of Gabriel's men [[spoiler: and Gabriel personally with his own gun. (Gabriel's last henchman, Emerson, was killed by Farrell).]] It's somewhat downplayed, as they arrive soon enough that it's made clear that, even if Gabriel had managed to kill [=McClane=], the bad guys would've still been caught.

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: The FBI SWAT team arrives to Gabriel's hideout only after [=McClane=] has killed all of Gabriel's men [[spoiler: and Gabriel personally with his own gun. (Gabriel's last henchman, Emerson, was killed by Farrell). It's somewhat downplayed, as arrive soon enough that it's made clear that, even if Gabriel had managed to kill [=McClane=], the bad guys would've still been caught.]]

* TheCavalryArrivesLate: The FBI SWAT team arrives to Gabriel's hideout only after [=McClane=] has killed all of Gabriel's men and Gabriel personally with his own gun. (Gabriel's last henchman, Emerson, was killed by Farrell.)

** Mai Linh might be DarkActionGirl extraordinaire, but [=McClane=] has '''several''' pounds on her. After taking a barrage of blows from her, [=McClane=] knocks her out [[BoringButPractical with a bodyslam followed by two punches]].

* WaifFu: Played with. Mai is a good fighter, relying heavily on ambushing people. She dominates her fight with John for a couple of minutes. Then John declares "Enough of this kung-fu bullshit." and tackles her, then picks her up, and throws her into a bookcase, stunning her for a good moment. WeakButSkilled doesn't mean much when your opponent has 20 years, 10 inches, and 40 pounds that you don't got.

* WaifFu: Played with. Mai is a good fighter, relying heavily on ambushing people. [[spoiler: When she gets into a stand-up fight with John, and he promptly throws her into a bookcase, stunning her for a good moment.]]

-->'''[=McClane=]:''' After everything we've been through, I'd hate to have to beat you to death.

* TwerpSweating: After Lucy expresses an interest in Matt, John makes a point to let him know he appreciates it, but it will ''never'' be okay.

-->'''Farrell''': Wow, I know that tone. It's just weird hearing it come from someone with... hair.

* FreudianExcuse: It is revealed that the reason for Gabriel's actions is that he used to [[spoiler:work for the NSA, and warned the government the US was vulnerable to the very kind of cyber attacks he ends up committing. However, his concerns fell on deaf ears, and when he tried to continue pressuring them they crucified him: threatening him with life imprisonment and ruining his professional reputation]].

** John shoots one of Mai’s henchmen in the foot as they struggle.

* BaldHeadOfToughness: [=McClane=]'s lost all his hair, but that doesn’t stop him from kicking ass.

* PipePain: Farrell kills one of Mai’s men by hitting him in the back with a pipe, causing him to [[DisneyVillainDeath fall into an elevator shaft]].

* WritersCannotDoMath: Lucy tells John that there are five bad guys left, but there were actually six: [[BigBad Gabriel]], Emerson (who captured Farrell), Rand (the French acrobat), Trey (the lead hacker), Robinson the truck driver, and the {{Mook}} who gunned down the hackers Gabriel didn’t need.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure[=/=]RecognitionFailure: [=McClane=] fails spectacularly to pass himself off as a member of the nerd culture. Most notably is when he fails to recognize a cutout of Boba Fett and tries to cover it by saying he's only familiar with ''Franchise/StarWars''.[[labelnote:Note]]Coincidentally, both ''Die Hard'' and ''Star Wars'' were released by 20th Century Fox.[[/labelnote]] Though his smirk suggests he's just screwing with them.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure[=/=]RecognitionFailure: [=McClane=] fails spectacularly to pass himself off as a member of the nerd culture. Most notably is when he fails to recognize a cutout of Boba Fett and tries to cover it by saying he's only familiar with ''Franchise/StarWars''.[[labelnote:Note]]Both ''Die Hard'' and ''Star Wars'' were released by 20th Century Fox.[[/labelnote]] Though his smirk suggests he's just screwing with them.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure[=/=]RecognitionFailure: [=McClane=] fails spectacularly to pass himself off as a member of the nerd culture. Most notably is when he fails to recognize a cutout of Boba Fett and tries to cover it by saying he's only familiar with ''Franchise/StarWars''. Though his smirk suggests he's just screwing with them.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: [=McClane=], as per the series tradition. This time he takes it up a notch by describing Mai as a [[spoiler: dead]] "Asian hooker bitch".

* JustPlaneWrong: The F-35 scene. The real plane is equipped with a single cannon. Also counts as RareVehicles since the F-35 wasn't in production, let alone operational service, in 2007.

* DefiantCaptive: Although she doesn't beat up her captors, when John's daughter Lucy has a gun to her head and is told to plead into the radio to make her father surrender, she instead demonstrates nerves of steel by choosing to give him some much-needed intel: "Now there are only five of them."

* BaldHeadOfToughness: [=McClane=]‘s lost all his hair, but that doesn’t stop him from kicking ass.

** Mai Linh takes a great amount of punishment in the course of the film, particularly at the gas plant, and yet doesn't show anything worse than a few cuts as a result. Eventually, she bites it after [[spoiler:[=McClane=] rams a ''truck'' into her, which knocks her into a service elevator, then falls and [[UpToEleven explodes]].]] in order to deal with her permanently.