Trivia for
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) More at IMDbPro »

• Originally titled "Simon Says" (where Zeus was scripted as a woman) and was considered as the third sequel to Lethal Weapon (1987).
  
  
• The 2003 R1 DVD version includes the original ending showing McClane and Simon playing a game of 'chicken' with a rocket launcher. In this original version, Simon Gruber and his crew get away with the gold and months later, McClane tracks Simon down in Eastern Europe (where in Europe is debated: McClane mentions Germany, but people in the background are heard speaking Hungarian) The number on the bottom of the aspirin bottle (at the phone booth) leads McClane to Gruber. The gold was turned into small miniatures of the Empire State building and smuggled out of the country. McClane is thrown off the force, with the police thinking that he may actually be involved in the heist. The "game" that McClane and Simon play is about riddles that McClane tells Simon, and he is supposed to figure out the answer, or McClane will force him to fire a rocket launcher with its directional arrows removed, so neither will know which direction it will fire in until it is actually fired. The scene climaxes with McClane forcing Simon at gunpoint to fire the rocket launcher, which kills Simon, and McClane is revealed to be wearing a flak-jacket, which would have saved his life if the rocket launcher had fired at him instead of Simon. The studio objected to the ending, saying that it made McClane too cruel and heartless, whereas screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh stated that that was exactly the point: to show that McClane had been pushed over the edge by the events of that day, and then subsequently losing everything as a result of Simon.
  
  
• The chase scenes in the tunnel were filmed in New York City Water Tunnel Number 3, an unfinished aqueduct connecting the city to the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.
  
  
• While the highway scenes are supposed to take place on the Saw Mill Parkway in Westchester County, NY, they were actually filmed on the Merritt Parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and on the Taconic Parkway in Putnam County, NY.
  
  
• Character "Dr. Fred Schiller" is a reference to the 18th century German poet 'Friedrich Schiller (I)', who wrote the lyrics used by Ludwig van Beethoven in his 9th symphony, which is used in Die Hard (1988).
  
  
• When the bomb goes off in the Bonwit Teller department store, there is an "Atlantic Courier" truck parked in front of the store that gets flipped over. In Die Hard (1988), Hans Gruber and the other terrorists arrive at Nakatomi Plaza in a "Pacific Courier" truck.
  
  
• Director John McTiernan considered either editing out the beginning bombing of the department store, or moving the release date back as they felt that the American public might still be sensitive to bombing due to closeness of dates of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
  
  
• Simon calls a radio announcer to report that there is a bomb in a school. The name of the announcer is Elvis Duran, an actual radio announcer on the station Z100 (100.3 FM).
  
  
• The sandwich board that Bruce Willis wore while filming in Harlem said "I hate everyone" rather than the more racist version that appears in the film. The sign was changed with CGI in post-production to read "I Hate Niggers", though the "I hate everyone" version is used for some television broadcasts of the film.
  
  
• The line "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker!" is used in all of the Die Hard movies
  
  
• Early drafts for the screenplay were based on the novel "Troubleshooter" which involved terrorists seizing control of a Caribbean cruise ship.
  
  
• Director John McTiernan acknowledged the errors concerning the gold in the dump trucks and its respective weight. McTiernan and Samuel L. Jackson were permitted to lift a genuine bar of gold to get a feel of how heavy gold really was.
  
  
• The sex scene between Jeremy Irons and Sam Phillips was added in at the last minute because McTiernan knew that the film would get an R rating and he might as well put a sex scene in.
  
  
• Although he wasn't hired for the film, Alan Rickman is still credited as playing Hans Gruber (in McClane's flashback).
  
  
• During its Pay Per View run in 1996, a bonus featurette followed the presentation of the movie which included footage of some scenes with additional dialogue such as the scene in the Federal Reserve Bank where Felix Little asks "You're in the flower business, Mr. Vanderflug?" and added is Simon replying "It's Vanderfluge, it rhymes with tulip." explaining why Felix pronounces the name correctly from that point on. This featurette is not included in the Special Edition DVD.
  
  
• The park on top of the Wall Street station in the film was a vacant lot that was made into a park for the film. It was turned back into a vacant lot after filming was completed.
  
  
• When Simon, posing as the city engineer, meets Ricky Walsh, you can see a blurry but visible red sign on the building in the background. This is the Home Insurance Company building and that company purchased the red cover so that it would be seen in the movie as they felt that the original bronze signage would not be visible.
  
  
• Laurence Fishburne was the original choice to play Zeus Carver, but turned down the part. When he reconsidered the decision, Samuel L. Jackson was already cast.
  
  
• In the DVD commentary, Jonathan Hensleigh says that the first hour of the film is his original "Simon Says" script word for word. He only changed the characters from the script, so that it would actually feel a part of the "Die Hard" series.
  
  
• The film was shot under the working title "Die Hard: New York."
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson's look in the film was Jackson's idea after he'd done extensive research on his character by studying books on Malcolm X.
  
  
• Jonathan Hensleigh was actually detained by the FBI after completing the script for the film because he knew extensive information about the Federal Gold Reserve in Downtown Manhattan. Hensleigh stated that he got all the information from an article written in the New York Times.
  
  
• Sam Phillips, in real life a pop singer, was invited to test for the role based upon a photo from one of her CD covers.
  
  
• The bridge from which McClane and Zeus jump to the container ship in the harbor is the Cooper River Bridge that connects Charleston and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. A new bridge opened in July 2005, and the two pre-existing bridges that have long been a symbol of Charleston will be removed. Much of the film was shot in the Charleston area, including the subway station which was built on a stage in Mount Pleasant. The Cooper River Bridge scenes were set on an unnamed bridge near Bridgeport, CT, on Long Island Sound.
  
  
• As in the previous Die Hard (1988), the German spoken in this movie is mostly grammatically incorrect. A few lines are so wrong that they have to be considered gibberish (most notably the exchange of the fake cops, who are given the briefcase bomb by Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson)). In the German release, however, all of the lines that were German in the original movie are grammatically correct, fitting the context and some of the terrorists even have an East German accent.
  
  
• The Russian title for "Die Hard" in the first 3 movies is, "A Hard Nut to Crack".
  
  
• The R2 DVD was originally released with a TV-like edit with all swearing removed and key scenes like the elevator gunfight cut out. The DVDs were all recalled then released as the original edit.
  
  
• The producers planned to blow up the Hutchinson River Parkway tollbooth structure for a scene in the movie. The tolls were to be eliminated anyway, and then-Governor Mario Cuomo volunteered to push the switch. But opposition from local residents in close proximity and from other officials killed the idea.
  
  
• Jeremy Irons replaced David Thewlis
  
  
• There is a war reference in each of the first three Die Hard films. This film's is when the FBI agent references the Battle of the Bulge.
  
  
• Despite not being set at Christmas it still references the previous films (which were set at Christmas) with sarcastic comments regarding Santa Claus. The Shop lifting kids also states that "It is Christmas you could steal city hall."
  
  
• WILHELM SCREAM: As they are driving through the park Zeus asks McClane if he is aiming for the people, to which McClane replies, "No... maybe that mime." An abbreviated Wilhelm Scream can be heard immediately following the "No."
  
  
• The taxi (No. 2T94) that is driven by Samuel L. Jackson is the same one that Jack Nicholson hails to take Helen Hunt and her child to the hospital in As Good as It Gets (1997).
  
  
• There are two solutions to the water jug riddle in the park, at the elephant fountain. To place exactly 4 gallons of water on the scales when you only have two jugs which hold 3 and 5 gallons respectively, you must do either of the following. 1. Fill the 5 gallon jug and decant the water into the 3 gallon jug. This leaves two gallons in the big jug. 2. Empty the 3 gallon jug and pour in the two gallons from the 5 gallon jug, leaving space for one gallon in the small jug. 3. Refill the 5 gallon jug and pour water from it into the 3 gallon jug until the small jug's full. 4. That leaves exactly four gallons in the big jug; put it on the scale and the bomb is disarmed. The second method is: 1. Fill the 3 gallon jug and pour the water into the 5 gallon jug. 2. Refill the 3 gallon jug, and pour into the 5 gallon jug until the big jug is full, leaving one gallon in the small jug. 3. Empty the big jug, and transfer the one gallon from the small jug to the big jug. 4. Refill the small jug and pour all three gallons into the 5 gallon jug, resulting in four gallons in the big jug. Place the big jug on the scale and the bomb is disarmed.
  
  
• McClane (Bruce Willis) tells Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) "I was working on a nice fat suspension, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo." The second line is from the song "Flowers on the Wall" by The Statler Brothers from the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction (1994), starring both Willis and Jackson. Willis' character (Butch) sang the song in Fabienne's car when he spotted Marsellus Wallace.
  
  
• Sean Connery was John McTiernan's very first choice for the role of Simon Gruber. He turned down the role, saying that he didn't want to play such a diabolical villain.
  
  
• On the DVD commentary, screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh says the idea for the film's plot came to him when he imagined what would happen if one of his childhood friends, who was injured after Hensleigh threw a rock at him, decided to seek revenge on him as an adult.
  
  
• The studio told screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh to remove the scenes with McClane walking around Harlem wearing a sign that says, "I hate niggers." They allowed him to keep the scene when he threatened to take the script to another studio.
  
  
• An early script that was rejected was eventually used for _Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)_. On the DVD commentary director John McTiernan mentions the rejected idea of "doing it on a boat."
  
  
• In Greek mythology, Zeus was a god who summoned lightning and thunder. In this movie, Zeus Carver is an electrician.
  
  
• Each of the Gruber brothers, Simon and Hans, recruit a Karl on his team. The Karl in the first film is the terrorist shot by Sgt. Powell at the end. In this film Karl is the man stationed at the Federal Reserve bank, killed by McClane in the elevator sequence.
  
  
• In the wake of the Oklahoma bombing, 20th Century Fox took out trade press ads defending their decision to continue with the imminent release of a film about a terrorist planting bombs in public places.
  
  
• Danny Cannon was approached to direct but he was more interested in making Judge Dredd (1995) at the time.
  
  
• The final fight between McClane and Simon takes place at a truck stop in Quebec. The scenes were filmed at a truck stop off of I-95 in Jessup, Maryland.
  
  
• In the scene where Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson) is trying to get out of going with McClane (Bruce Willis) on the trip across the city, he [Zeus] gets up, exclaiming, "I'm not jumping through hoops for some psycho! That's a white man with white problems, you deal with him! Let me know when he crosses 110th street." The line "Across 110th Street" is a reference to the song of the same name that was played in the film Jackie Brown (1997), which also starred Samuel L. Jackson.
  
  

• SPOILER: When posing as a city engineer, Simon Gruber (Jeremy Irons) uses a heavy American accent to fool his adversaries. The same trick was used by his brother Hans (Alan Rickman) in Die Hard (1988).
  
  
• SPOILER: McClane only has two bullets at his disposal to kill Simon in the finale of the film. He also only had two bullets in the first Die Hard to kill Simon's brother, Hans.
  
  

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