Honest Trailer - Die Hard

Honest Trailer - Die Hard
Movie/Game	Die Hard (1988)
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Die Hard is the 132nd episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 1988 American action film Die Hard. It was published on December 29, 2015, to coincide with the Christmas season. It is 4 minutes 28 seconds long. It has been viewed over 3.9 million times. With an approval rating of 98.9%, Die Hard is one of the top five highest-rated Honest Trailers of all time.

Watch Honest Trailers - Die Hard on YouTube

"Amazing action, great heroes, fantastic villains. hilarious comedy, suspense, romance, excellent stunt work, a rich supporting cast and awesome one-liners. What? You thought we were gonna crap on Die Hard? The guy's tank top is in the Smithsonian for crying out loud! This movie is frigging perfect!" ~ Honest Trailers - Die Hard

Script

This holiday season, revisit the greatest Christmas movie ever made ('Ho-ho-ho' written on a tank top). Yeah, you heard me It's A Wonderful Life.

Die Hard

Kick off your shoes and join the party for a movie filled with amazing action, great heroes, fantastic villains hilarious comedy, suspense, romance, excellent stunt work, a rich supporting cast, and awesome one-liners (John McClane: Welcome to the party, pal.). What? You thought we were gonna crap on Die Hard? The guy's tank top is in the Smithsonian for crying out loud! This movie is is frigging perfect!

In a decade where every action hero looks like an unstoppable roid monster, no one kicks more ass than the guy from Moonlighting who looks like your dad: John McClane (McClane: How you doing?). He's a New York cop out of his element in Los Angeles (Drunk Man at Party (kisses McClane's cheek): Hey! Merry Christmas!), with no one to talk to but himself (McClane (alone in an airduct): Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs). Strap in as McClane takes on a team of well-dressed, vaguely European terrorists played by actors who didn't speak German but the director had them try their best anyway (Hans Gruber: (says something in German.). Shoot the glass). Led by Hans Gruber, one of the greatest movie villains of all time man (Gruber: Ladies and gentlemen.), which is even cooler when it's his very first movie. What, seriously?! way to hit the ground running, Rickman.

But McClane's not alone mean Reginald VelJohnson - after he was the cop in Ghostbusters, but before he was the cop in Family Matters, he was the cop in Die Hard. He may not have the best diet (Sgt Al Powell with an armload of candy) or the best judgment (Sgt Al Powell: I shot a kid,) but he's the best there is when it comes to moral support (Sgt Al Powell: You just watch your ass and you'll make it out of there, you hear me. Sgt Al Powell: He is alone, tired and he hasn't seen diddly squat from anybody down here. Sgt Al Powell: Hey, look, I love you).

Climb aboard for an adrenaline-fueled thrill rush of the 80 stuff you crave like: indoor smoking (McClane: You smoke), carry on guns, Japanese businessmen (Man: [to Japanese businessman] Pearl Habor didn't work out so we got you with tape decks), cocaine, pregnant drinking (Woman: Do you think the baby can handle a little sip? Pregnant woman: That baby's ready to tend bar.), making fun of touchscreens (McClane: Cute toy), super cool limousines, and more cocaine. Wooh! Best decade ever!

Lace up for a movie full of non-stop foot stuff (Man on plane: You make fists with your toes. McClane: Fists with your toes?) that is either a foot fetishes wet dream or their worst nightmare, or a different even weirder Tarantino level foot fetishes dream. We're not here to judge.

So experience the original masterpiece that inspired countless knockoffs like Die Hard On A Bus (Speed), Die Hard In A Tunnel (Daylight), Die Hard On A Mountain (Cliffhanger), Die Hard In The White House (Olympus Has Fallen), Die Hard In The White House 2 (White House Down), Die Hard In A Mall (Mall Cop), Die Hard On A Boat (Speed 2: Cruise Control), Die Hard On This Other Boat (Under Seige), Die Hard In A Rink (Sudden Death), Die Hard On A Train (Under Seige 2), Die Hard In A Plane (Passenger 57), Die Hard On Another Plane (Executive Decision), Die Hard On The President's Plane (Air Force One), Die Hard On A Plane With Snakes (Snakes on a Plane), and Die Hard But Awful (A Good Day To Die Hard).

Starring: Bruce Willis When He Still Cared; [Alan Rickman] Hans Gruber; [Alexander Godunov] Wax Dolph Lungren; [Reginald VelJohnson] Carl of Duty; Cocaine's A Hell of a Drug; [Paul Gleason as Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson] 80's Authority Figure; [William Atherton] This Man Has No Dick; [Man Typing Awkwardly] Types Like Your Grandma; and [Limo Driver] Uber Black. What? That's the limo one. It's not racist.

Die Hard In A Building

It's nice to know this is what Europeans think we sound like. (Hans Gruber's attempt at an American accent: "Please God. no! You're one of them, aren't you?")

Trivia

Honest Action - Die Hard

Honest Action - Die Hard 2-5

• Screen Junkies have also produced two "Honest Action" videos about Die Hard, in which they asked a doctor to describe the injuries the characters would sustain if they suffered the film's violence in real life. Watch Honest Action - Die Hard on YouTube.

• This video was released during Screen Junkies' holiday break. The video was finished ahead of time and uploaded while they were on vacation.
• The writers originally considered writing this Honest Trailer as a "vault episode," meaning it would appear to have been made in 1988 and more directly mimic the style of an actual 1980s trailer more directly. However, they decided they wanted to underscore the film's cultural impact on the action movie genre. This would not have been possible from the perspective of a viewer in 1988.
• Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other holiday movies including Home Alone, The Santa Clause, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Love Actually.
• Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for several other action movies including Die Hard, Mission: Impossible, The Bourne Trilogy, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Skyfall and Spectre. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
• An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.

Reception

Honest Trailers - Die Hard has a 98.9% approval rating from YouTube viewers, putting it among the top five highest-rated Honest Trailers of all time. Many media sites commented on the overwhelmingly positive tone of the Honest Trailer. IndieWire wrote that the Honest Trailer was an "enjoyable and funny tribute" to Die Hard. Slash Film wrote that "the snarkmongers at Screen Junkies... heap praise" on the film. In the same article, SlashFilm commended the Honest Trailer for highlighting the cultural significance of Die Hard and the way it has become "a source of endless ridiculous knockoffs, including actual Die Hard sequels." Uproxx said the Honest Trailer provided "a pretty great breakdown of why Die Hard more or less defined the action movie for a solid decade."

Nerdist used this video to praise Screen Junkies more generally and underscore the significance of this Honest Trailer:

Screen Junkies’ Honest Trailers series is some of the funniest, pithiest, and most well-reasoned film criticism on the internet and it’s housed inside a skewering of the old trend of overblown, exaggerating, and often hilarious movie trailers. Armed with their Epic Voice Guy and the ability to poke fun while still appreciating what’s good, these trailers have become some of the most-watched on the web. They’ll make fun of anything! Except 1988’s Die Hard. (Kyle Anderson, The Nerdist, December 20, 2015)

Production credits

Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey

Title design by Robert Holtby

Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner

Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr, and Andy Signore

Edited by Anthony Falleroni

External links

• Honest Trailers Find No Faults With ‘Die Hard’ Because It’s Objectively The Best Christmas Film Ever - Junkee article
• LOL: ‘Die Hard’ Honest Trailer Takes On Everyone’s Favorite Christmas Movie - SlashFilm article
• HONEST TRAILERS DOESN’T MAKE FUN OF DIE HARD AT ALL - Nerdist article
• Watch: Honest Trailer For ‘Die Hard’ Revisits The Greatest Christmas Movie Ever Made - IndieWire article
• Die Hard’s Honest Trailer Confirms That It’s Pretty Perfect, as Movies Go - Slate article
• Even Honest Trailers Can’t Find Anything Wrong With ‘Die Hard’ - Uproxx article
• Honest Trailers Takes On ‘Die Hard’ - Geeks of Doom article