Bruce Willis Doesn't Understand John McClane, Thinks DIE HARD Prequel is "A Very Good Idea"
I had hoped I was experiencing some kind of fever dream when I heard the news that Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman would be directing Die Hard 6, a prequel/sequel that features bookending segments in which Bruce Willis reprises his iconic role of John McClane and centers on events in 1979 that led him to become "a die hard kind of guy."
This is such a terrible idea on so many levels, but the most important aspect here is that the original Die Hard IS THE FREAKING ORIGIN STORY of John McClane. We don't need to see what happened to him before that! He was just a normal guy. The events that took place in Nakatomi Plaza were what caused him to become "a die hard kind of guy," not anything that happened before that. He's out of his element in the original movie, and that's what makes it great. He's not a badass cop who's dealt with situations like that before, he's an average Joe caught in a terrible spot and has to do whatever he can to save his wife, his marriage, and a bunch of hostages.
It's no surprise that 20th Century Fox would wildly misunderstand the appeal of the character, because they've made a bunch of unnecessary sequels that have essentially turned McClane into a superhero. I'm not the slightest bit surprised that they'd want a sequel. Die Hard is a recognizable property, and that's the bread and butter of the studio system right now. But I expected more from Bruce Willis, who, in a new interview, reveals he too doesn't understand the character. He told ET:
“It’s a very good idea, a really tricky idea, and I’m very happy about it,” Willis shared. “It’s a really cool idea, because it’s the origin story. It’s gonna happen at the beginning of this. We’re going to bounce back and forth.”
"A very good idea"? I mean, really? There is nothing good about this idea. Not a single thing. That quote sounds like something someone might say if he were, oh, I don't know, maybe...endorsing a project about which he knew he could make millions of dollars for a minimal amount of work. This entire franchise has become a sad joke, and at this point, I'm just morbidly curious to see if this will be worse than the steaming pile of horsesh*t that was A Good Day to Die Hard.