History NightmareFuel / DieHard

*** Not to mention his IndyPloy of leaping off Nakatomi's roof with a fire hose tied to his waist to escape the rooftop explosion, in the hopes of swinging back in through a plate-glass window. Does he have some cool-as-a-cucumber quip ready before he tries this insanely dangerous stunt? No, he's scared utterly shitless for his life ("''God, please don't let me die!''").

** [[WhatCouldHaveBeen The glass-removal-from-foot scene could have been even worse, though]]. There was apparently supposed to be a *SQUELCH* sound effect as the glass was pulled out. Luckily, it was considered so disgusting that the producers insisted it be removed.

-->'''Hans:''' ''[he puts the walkie talkie up to the screaming crowd, then yells into the walkie talkie]'' You hear that?! [[SuddenlyShouting TALK TO ME!]] Where are my detonators? Where are they, or shall I shoot another one?! Sooner or later, I might get to someone you ''do'' care about!\\

** In a similar vein, you have him jumping from the roof in order to avoid getting blown up by the helicopter: With only a firehose tied around his waist, [[AintProudToBeg and openly begging God to not let him die]], John makes the jump... [[OhCrap and the explosion dislodges the firehose's spool]]. It's only because of the rooftop's ledge that John didn't die then and there, but he only had a ''minute'' to break through the window before it came loose. [[FromBadToWorse And even after it falls,]] he has to desperately untie himself before it drags him back ''out''.

* Karl is this through his entire pursuit of [=McClane=], DeathGlare and everything. Especially chilling is his final attempt to kill John, where he takes ''[[MadeOfIron four bullets]]'' from Powell before he finally goes down - one of which ''[[BoomHeadshot hits him dead center in the forehead and ISN'T THE KILLING SHOT]]''.

* Hans Gruber on the outside seems like a [[AffablyEvil nice evil man]], but in the inside lays an eviler man whose ultimate plan was [[spoiler:to blow the roof where the hostages were during the FBI's tradeoff and walk away in the confusion.]]
* [[spoiler:Takagi's murder]], where Hans ''blows his brains out'' when he fails to divulge the vault code. To make things worse, John sees the entire thing and was in no position to save his life.

* [[spoiler:Ellis' murder]]. We see it coming it but the fact it shows that Hans is willing to kill someone "close" to John [=McClane=] just to prove a point.
** Also the moment directly afterwards where Hans lets John hear the screaming hostages and threatens to keep killing them one by one until John gives Hans what he wants. Notable because having seemed calm and collected for most of the film, the genuine fury in Hans's voice at that point is quite unnerving.
-->'''Hans''': ''[he puts the walkie talkie up to the screaming crowd, then yells into the walkie talkie]'' You hear that?! [[SuddenlyShouting TALK TO ME!]] Where are my detonators? Where are they, or shall I shoot another one?! Sooner or later, I might get to someone you ''do'' care about!\\

* The [[https://youtu.be/gXLLs2iZ5zw?t=36 eerie looped horn music]] when [[spoiler:Hans Gruber plummets to his death]].

* The tension as Al unwittingly comes very close to being shot by the "friendly" gunman who's occupying the reception desk, that audiences are just starting to recover (or rising still further as John's last chance of alerting the authorities is about to fail unless he can get the cop's attention NOW!) from when he returns to his patrol car singing Christmas carols. Only to have a ''corpse'' crash down onto his vehicle, followed by a '''furious''' hail of high-powered bullets that he only eludes by blind-driving backwards off the edge of a parking deck.

* John escaping the shootout and then dragging himself into a restroom as his foot leaves a ''huge'' trail of blood in its wake; not helped by the image of John ''removing the glass'' from his sole. Unsurprisingly, test audiences were reportedly ''horrified'' by this bit.

-->'''Hans''': ''[he puts the walkie talkie up to the screaming crowd, then yells into the walkie talkie]'' You hear that?! [[SuddenlyShouting TALK TO ME!]] Where are my detonators? Where are they, or shall I shoot another one?! Sooner or later, I might get to someone you ''do'' care about!

* Karl is this through his entire pursuit of [=McClane=], DeathGlare and everything. Especially chilling is his final attempt to kill John, where he takes about ''[[MadeOfIron half a dozen bullets]]'' from Powell before he finally goes down.

* Karl is this through his entire pursuit of [=McClane=], DeathGlare and everything. Especially chilling is his final attempt to kill John, where he absorbs about ''[[MadeOfIron half a dozen slugs]]'' from Powell before he finally goes down.

** It gets even better later, when John leaps from the roof and slams against the glass, his bleeding foot leaving fresh smudges all over before he blasts his way back inside the exploding tower.

** This is almost certainly exposition for the audience.

* The music when [[spoiler:Hans Gruber plummets to his death]].

* The tension as Al unwittingly comes very close to being shot by the "friendly" gunman who's occupying the reception desk, that audiences are just starting to recover from when he returns to his patrol car singing Christmas carols. Only to have a ''corpse'' crash down onto his vehicle, followed by a '''furious''' hail of high-powered bullets that he only eludes by blind-driving backwards off the edge of a parking deck.

* John escaping the shootout and then dragging himself into a restroom as his foot leaves a ''huge'' trail of blood in its wake; not helped by the image of John ''removing the glass'' from his sole; Unsurprisingly, test audiences were reportedly ''horrified'' by this bit.
** It gets even better later, when John leaps from the roof and slams against the glass, his bleeding foot leaving fresh smudges all over before he blasts his way back inside the exploding tower.

* Karl is this through his entire pursuit of [=McClane=], DeathGlare and everything. Especially chilling is his final attempt to kill John, where he absorbs about ''[[MadeOfIron half a dozen slugs]]'' from Powell before he finally goes down.

* Karl is this through his entire pursuit of McClane, DeathGlare and everything. Especially chilling is his final attempt to kill John, where he absorbs about ''half a dozen slugs'' from Powell before he finally goes down.