Live Free or Die Hard
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Live Free or Die Hard (called Die Hard 4.0 outside North America or just Die Hard 4) is a 2007 American action thriller film and the fourth installment in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman and starred Bruce Willis as John McClane.
Plot
Twelve years after the events of Die Hard with a Vengeance, The country United States in Washington D.C. prepares to celebrate Independence Day, veteran cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) carries out another routine assignment: bringing in a computer hacker (Justin Long) for questioning. Meanwhile, a tech-savvy villain named Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) launches an attack on America's computer infrastructure. As chaos descends around him, McClane must use old-fashioned methods to fight the high-tech threat.
Why It Lives Free
- It's the big improvement over its predecessor, while the third movie was decent. It's an excellent follow up to the first three Die Hard films.
- An epic conclusion to the Die Hard franchise, with an even darker tone than the first three movies. For instance, the movie involves John McClane needs to stop all the huge cybercriminals before they wipe out all of the networks on the entire planet.
- Even though the movie is rated PG-13, the movie still holds up the thrills and action scenes from the first three movies and arguably even more than the last three movies.
- Thomas Gabriel is a decent villain that he uses his team of expert computer hackers in order to shut down the US infrastructure system that he had built by himself and steal billions of dollars from the Social Security through the Woodlawn Facility and even kill John McClane, his daughter, and Matt Farrell, which he is the very strongest villain to date in the Die Hard franchise.
- In addition, the movie has major great action-thriller scenes, such as McClane stealing the semi-truck near the end of the movie, which is a very cool reference to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- The Star Wars references.
- Bruce Willis is giving an improvised performance as John McClane, from the first three movies and he is still very likable character and arguably even more tough than what he was in the first three movies.
- The acting in the movie is new and improved, especially for our beloved fan-favorite character John McClane.
- The film permanently ended the Die Hard franchise with the highest note to the franchise as the movie has no sequel bait ending to the franchise.
The Only Bad Quality
- The scene at the beginning of the movie showing a kissing scene between McClane's daughter and her "boyfriend" has some breast-groping which is quickly stopped, which it's inappropriate for the PG-13 rated standards.
Reception
The movie was well-received by critics and fans of the first three movies upon its release, earning an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a "Certified Fresh" and an 86% audience score rating on the same site The critic consensus reads "Live Free or Die Hard may be preposterous, but it's an efficient, action-packed summer popcorn flick with thrilling stunts and a commanding performance by Bruce Willis. Fans of the previous Die Hard films will not be disappointed." On Metacritic, it has a 69/100 indicating "Generally favorable reviews" and IMDb gives the film a 7.1/10 rating.
Trivia
- The movie's title is a reference to New Hampshire's state motto "Live Free or Die" on the U.S. coin.
- This is the only Die Hard movie to have several days, and nights, instead of one day, or one night.
- It's the first (and only) Die Hard film to be given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA.