John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
Denver was unseasonably snowless during the shooting of the snowstorm scenes and a fair amount of snow had to be created artificially.
Baker:
Where's Cochrane?
Miller:
He didn't make it.
Baker:
Aw, man.
Colonel Stuart:
You're late.
Miller:
We ran into trouble, Colonel. Some cop... killed Cochrane. I barely got away, sir.
Colonel Stuart:
Did you accomplish your mission?
Miller:
Yes, sir. But... Cochrane.
Colonel Stuart:
Well then the damage is minimal.
Colonel Stuart:
The *penalty* ...
In the Annex Sky-Walk shootout Mclane pushes scaffolding over killing a terrorist. In reality because the terrorist let go while it was tipping over, he would have fell lower when hitting the floor, there was a chance that he wouldn't have been crushed by "making it" into the gap between the high and low cross bars.
The top four billed actors all reprized their role from Die Hard (1988). Despite Reginald VelJohnson only appearing in one scene.
The shootout between the airport SWAT team and the terrorists was severely edited before the film received an "R" rating. Among the scenes trimmed down is the scene where O'Reilly (Robert Patrick ) shoots the first SWAT officer in the head with a Glock 17. When the officer is shot in the head in the "R" rated version, it is shown from a distance. In the work print shown to exhibitors in the summer of 1990, the man is shot in the forehead but is shown in a graphic closeup. A lot of the bloodier shots were also trimmed down in this section as were a couple of extended scenes of the people on the plane that Colonel Stuart crashes.
English, Spanish
$70,000,000 (estimated)
$21,744,661 8 July 1990
$117,540,947
$240,247,433