JOHN MCCLANE

'John McClane' is a detective and protagonist of the ''Die Hard'' series of films. He is portrayed by Bruce Willis. ''Premiere'' ranked him as number 46 of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time list.

Contents

Development and description

Depiction

Family

Holly Gennero

Lucy McClane

John McClane, Jr.

References

Development and description

McClane was originally based on the fictional character Detective Joe Leland from Roderick Thorp's novel, ''Nothing Lasts Forever'', along with another character, Frank Malone from Walter H. Wager's novel 58 Minutes (later turned to Die Hard 2) and is somewhat based on and inspired by Dirty Harry. He is depicted as the "American Cowboy", a running gag throughout the films, which in addition to McClane's catch phrase "yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker," often has the villain comparing McClane to John Wayne, although McClane always was partial to Roy Rogers.
McClane often has an African-American supportive person whether be it giving advice, or providing physical back-up. Starting with Al Powell (played by Reginald VelJohnson) during ''Die Hard'' and ''Die Hard 2''; Argyle, the limo driver (played by De'voreaux White) in ''Die Hard''; Leslie Barnes (Art Evans) and temporarily Major Grant (John Amos) during ''Die Hard 2''; and lastly, Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) in ''Die Hard with a Vengeance''. This pattern is broken in the fourth installment ''Live Free or Die Hard'', with Caucasian hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) as his ally.
McClane's marriage is in a constant state of crisis, his vigilantism and disregard for authority have put him in danger of losing his job more than once, and he is a chain-smoker who is described as "two steps away from becoming a full blown alcoholic,"^[1] which McClane jokingly insists is only one step.
As a combatant, McClane survives and thrives due to a number of factors – outside-the-box thinking, tenacity, a bizarre form of grace under pressure, and occasionally sheer luck. Paramount to his success, however, is his refusal to let a threat intimidate him into inaction. Whether bungee jumping with a firehose to escape a bomb, emptying a magazine full of blanks at an uncooperative airport security chief, or blowing apart handcuffs with binary explosives, he refuses to let his opponents control an encounter. Recently he's outdone himself - his battle with Thomas Gabriel forced him to engage martial-artists several orders of magnitude more skilled than the terrorists he fought in Nakatomi Tower and Dulles International Airport. Mai Lihn, a high-degree black belt, effortlessly disabled him in hand-to-hand combat. McClane decided against another beating and instead drove a Ford Expedition though the building and knocked her down an elevator shaft. Rand, a master traceur, however, proved resistant to even this approach. McClane instead dealt with him with the suicidal tactic of blasting him with liquid nitrogen. Gabriel himself had him at gunpoint – McClane then shot himself in the shoulder to eliminate his own captor holding him from behind. Where most people would hesitate – and die – McClane simply acts, with spectacular results.
However, despite his impressive abilities, McClane could be considered a reluctant hero. Citing the state of his life, he says he gets involved in dangerous situations, "because there is nobody else to do it". This philosophy is central to his character.^[2]

Depiction

John McClane is an Irish-American detective lieutenant with the New York City Police Department. In ''Die Hard'', he has been an officer for 11 years. At the beginning of the first film, he is separated from his wife, Holly Gennero McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), who is using her maiden name. Holly moved to Los Angeles several months earlier to pursue a career that John ultimately thought would fail, leading to their separation. They have two children, Lucy and John, Jr.
On Christmas Eve, 1988, John visits his wife at her workplace at the Nakatomi Plaza. Simultaneously, Hans Gruber initiates his plan to steal $640 million in bearer bonds and takes the Nakatomi employees, including Holly, hostage. McClane escapes and eventually defeats the criminals.
With husband and wife reconciled in that trying night, John moves to Los Angeles with a transfer to that city's police force. However, two years later on Christmas Eve, 1990, in ''Die Hard 2'', McClane discovers that mercenaries have seized control of Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.. The terrorist group takes control of the airport's communications and threatens to cause deadly plane crashes, including the plane that is carrying his wife, unless their demands are met. McClane foils the scheme.
However, by the time of their depiction in the third film ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'', set in the fall of 1995, the McClanes have separated and John has moved back to New York City. McClane mentions this strife as he and Zeus Carver foil the explosive revenge plot of Hans Gruber's brother and his scheme to steal the Federal Reserve's gold bullion.
In ''Live Free or Die Hard'', McClane, with the aid of hacker Matt Farrell, takes on a network-based terrorist organization that is conducting acts of cyber-terrorism on the United States by systematically attacking financial institutions, public safety targets, and the nation's power grid. By this time John and Holly are divorced and their daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), is not speaking to her father. During the course of this film Lucy is captured by the terrorists as leverage against McClane.

Family

Holly Gennero

'Holly Gennero' (formerly 'Holly Gennero McClane') is the wife of John McClane. Over the course of the series their relationship becomes more and more strained and by the fourth film, they are divorced. They have two children together, John Jr. and Lucy. Holly is portrayed in the first two films by actress Bonnie Bedelia.
When Holly is first introduced in ''Die Hard'', she works at Nakatomi Plaza, a skyscraper in Los Angeles, which is home to a Japanese corporation. Her marriage to John has been estranged ever since she took up her new job and he refused to relocate with her from New York. Holly lives in L.A. with their children, who Holly is keen for John to spend more time with. They quickly get into an argument over why Holly chooses to use her maiden name (Gennero) at work, and are separated for most of the film while John fights the terrorists. At the end of the film, as in ''Die Hard 2'', they appear to reconcile, although this is more likely a temporary result of the ordeal they have been through rather than any long lasting understanding.
Holly is a strong willed woman, and a match for John's own domineering personality, as she doesn't back down from confrontation. However, she is also loyal and when necessary, can be violent, twice assaulting the opportunist news anchor, Richard Thornburg. Realising the gravity of the situation she asserts herself as spokesperson of the remaining hostages in the Nakatomi Plaza, while at the same time avoiding revealing herself as McClane's wife, aware that she may be used as a pawn.
Holly does not return for the third film in the series, ''Die Hard with a Vengeance'', although she is mentioned in conversation and John makes an attempt to telephone her. Through this, we learn that she still resides in LA, and is still married to John, although it appears their marriage is in dire straits, partly due to John's drinking habits. In the latest installment of the story, she has divorced John.
While Holly does not physically appear in ''Live Free or Die Hard'', cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel does pull up a picture of her driver's license in one scene.

Lucy McClane

Lucy McClane is John's daughter. She is played by Taylor Fry in ''Die Hard'' and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in ''Live Free or Die Hard''. Her first appearance is in ''Die Hard'' talking to her mother on the phone. She plays a much greater role in the film ''Live Free or Die Hard'' - she is estranged from her father; she tells her boyfriend (fiancee in the original script) that he is dead, and goes by her mother's maiden name, styling herself as Lucy Gennaro.
Villain Thomas Gabriel kidnaps her and uses her as leverage against John McClane as he closes in on Gabriel. During the climatic scene, she grabs a gun and shoots the person who is holding her and attempts to slide a gun to her father, but is foiled. At the end of Live Free or Die Hard she shows some feelings for the Matt Farrell, McClane's sidekick in the film.

John McClane, Jr.

John McClane's son only appeared briefly in the first film so far as a young child. Willis stated in a interview that if John Jr. ever appeared in another Die hard film he wanted Justin Timberlake to be given the role.

References

1. In ''Die Hard: With a Vengeance'': Inspector Walter Cobb: "I can appreciate your feelings for McClane. But believe me, the jerk isn't worth it. He's stepped on so many toes in this department, by next month he's going to be a security guard. His own wife wants nothing to do with him, and he's about two steps shy of becoming a full-blown alcoholic."
2. In ''Live Free or Die Hard'': "Do you know what you get for being a hero? Nothing! You get shot at. Pat on the back, blah blah blah. That a boy! You get divorced... Your wife can't remember your last name, kids don't want to talk to you... You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me kid, nobody wants to be that guy. [I do this] because there is nobody else to do it right now. Believe me if there was somebody else to do it, I would let them do it. There's not, so [I'm] doing it. That's what makes you that guy."