DIE HARD Screenwriter Plugs a Major Plot Hole in The Movie

There’s a pretty big plot hole in Die Hard. How did John McClane know who Hans Gruber was? Alan Rickman, who played Gruber, put on a great American accent that would’ve fooled most people, so how did Bruce Willis’ McClane know he was the leader of the terrorists? The answer comes from some deleted scenes according to the screenwriter Steven E. de Souza. De Souza explained in an interview with Esquire back in March:

“Originally, they get off the truck, the camera craned up, you saw them in a circle and Alan Rickman says, ‘Synchronize your watches.’ They all put their arms out in a circle with the camera moving down and they all had the same Tag Heuer watch. If you notice, the first guy Bruce kills almost by accident going down the steps, he searches the body, looks at the IDs.”

He further explains that as McClane offs each of the terrorists, he notices that they have the same watch. Also, de Souza points out that we’re given this clue in the final movie.

“When he talks to Dwayne Robinson, he says, ‘I think these guys are professionals. Their IDs are too good. There’s no labels on their clothes and they all have the same watch.’”

So, when McClane offers Gruber a cigarette he spots the watch and is able to figure out that Gruber is lying to him from that one clue. Such an amazing detail. The scene about synchronizing watches was cut in the end because it conflicted with escaping in the ambulance since we would’ve seen there was no ambulance in the first scene when they are getting out of the truck. According to de Souza, director John McTiernan told the editor, “Now without 'synchronize your watches,' all of these moments where Bruce looks at these guys' watches makes no sense.” Were you able to figure it out or did this just make the movie even better?