Action movie classic Die Hard was released in 1987. While it’s not the first story of its kind, ever since studios have been essentially reusing the same formula - “Die Hard on a (insert location here)".
Another classic,Lethal Weapon, was released a year later. Again, not the first story of its kind, but ever since studios have been reusing the buddy cop formula that the movie helped to redefine.
Both movies have spawned at least three more sequels (Die Hard currently stands at five title films, while LethalWeapon is at four and a TV show) and both franchises are still heralded as some of the best action movies ever. While some people claim you can’t like them both (those people are wrong), both film series are awesome and each has their merits. Here we take a look at 5 reasons Lethal Weapon is better than Die Hard and 5 reasons Die Hard is better.
Lethal Weapon - Double Your Pleasure
Watching Bruce Willis run around the Nakatomi Plaza taking down terrorists one-by-one was awesome and still is awesome to watch to this day. But the camaraderie between Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh added to the action.
Between learning more about each other, coming to respect and love one another is the very definition of what being partners was all about.
Die Hard - Alan Rickman
To think Alan Rickman almost said no to playing Hans Gruber, it would have been a shame. His entire demeanor elevated the film to an iconic status almost instantaneously. So much so that when it came time for a third film, the specter of Hans Gruber helped formulate the plot.
The role not only cemented Rickman’s career as a movie star right away, but it also made Gruber iconic too. To date, he’s still one of the great movie villains, and several others are just a mere second place.
Lethal Weapon - Detective Story
There is a ton of action in Lethal Weapon. But there is also a big detective story going on as well. Instead of just having Gibson and Glover standing back to back and firing machine guns at everyone, they have an actual case and leads to work.
A war buddy of Murtaugh’s asks him to investigate his daughter’s death. That leads him and Riggs to deal with ghosts of the past currently involved in a huge drug trafficking operation.
Die Hard - Survival Story
Part of the charm of Die Hard is the fish out of water scenario that John McClane finds himself in. Right from the start, he’s not a fan of flying and he seems completely out of place as Holly’s guest at the party.
While he’s qualified to deal with bad guys, considering he wasn’t coming to the building to do so, he’s woefully ill-equipped to handle the situation until he takes out a few bad guys. Unfortunately, he never finds a pair of shoes.
Lethal Weapon - “Diplomatic Immunity!”
Hans is the number one villain in either of these film series, but Lethal Weapon 2’s story revolves around the immediately and often quoted “diplomatic immunity!”
The line, delivered several times by Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland), helped create a lot more tension than you might think. As Riggs and Murtaugh tried to find a way to arrest the South African diplomats, we got to watch Riggs be a complete maniac trying to provoke Rudd at every turn.
Die Hard - Sgt. Al Powell
Lethal Weapon has a lot of great characters (see the next entry for one of them), but the movies don’t have “Carl Winslow” running point for Riggs and Murtaugh.
As Sgt. Al Powell, Reginald Vel Johnson is the MVP of Die Hard. Some fans love him so much that they’ve created all kinds of fan fiction connecting both Johnson’s greatest roles into one cohesive story that the kid Powell accidentally shot was actually Steve Urkel. Distraught, Al headed to live in Chicago, but the ghosts of Urkel kept haunting him.
Lethal Weapon - Leo Getz
Joe Pesci, mostly known for dramatic roles, took on the part of comic relief for the last three Lethal Weapon movies. The guy has typically been known as a tough guy actor for years. But Getz allowed people to see Pesci in a more comedic light, leading to parts in movies like Home Alone and My Cousin Vinny.
After Leo meets Riggs and Murtaugh, he explains to them how to launder money and the guys (begrudgingly) realize that he can help them. Not only does the introduction of Leo help the comic relief, but it began the trend of extending the cast of characters with every subsequent film.
Die Hard - With A Vengeance
While Die Hard might be a perfect action movie, Die Hard With A Vengeance is no slouch either. After a decent second outing, Bruce Willis returned for a third film, to date the only movie to feature the NY cop John McClane serving and protecting the city he calls home.
The entire film is one wild chase for bombs that may or may not go off while McClane and his unintentional partner, Zeus have to contend with the whim of a madman.
Lethal Weapon - Quit At 4
With all due respect to Mr. Bruce Willis, shouldn’t he be feeling a little bit like Roger Murtaugh at this point and a little too old for this stuff? The fifth film in the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day To Die Hard isn’t just the weakest in the series, it’s one of the lowest-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes. Conversely, Lethal Weapon knew when to call it quits. The fourth film worked very well.
But how many adventures can near geriatric Riggs and Murtaugh go on and how many characters can be introduced in one movie? Hopefully, we won’t see the 63-year-old Gibson and 73-year-old Glover find out about a Geritol smuggling ring at the retirement community.
Die Hard - John McClane
Hands down, John McClane is just the man! He’s the Everyman of course, that New York City hard-working, hard-edged, wisecracking personality. Even if you’re not him, plenty of people know someone like him.
Bruce Willis’ charisma and famous one-liners that helped elevated Die Hard to the greatest action movie ever made.
Next: 10 Of The Best Quotes From The Original Die Hard
