Die Hard - Plot

Plot

On Christmas Eve, New York City Police Department detective John McClane arrives in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly. Limo driver Argyle drives McClane to the Nakatomi Plaza building to meet Holly at a company Christmas party. While McClane changes clothes, the party is disrupted by the arrival of Hans Gruber and his heavily armed group: Karl, Franco, Tony, Theo, Alexander, Marco, Kristoff, Eddie, Uli, Heinrich, Fritz, and James. The group seize the tower and secure those inside as hostages, except for McClane, who manages to slip away.

Gruber singles out Nakatomi executive Joseph Takagi claiming he intends to teach the Nakatomi Corporation a lesson for its greed. Away from the hostages, Gruber interrogates Takagi for the Nakatomi computer code to access the building's vault. Gruber admits that they are using terrorism as a decoy while they attempt to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from the vault. Takagi refuses to cooperate and is executed by Hans as McClane secretly observes. McClane manages to kill Karl's brother Tony, taking his weapon and using his radio to contact the LAPD, who send Sgt. Al Powell to investigate, while Hans sends his men to stop McClane. McClane kills Heinrich and Marco, and escapes with a bag containing C-4 explosives and detonators. Meanwhile, Powell finds nothing strange about the building and attempts to leave, but McClane drops Marco's corpse onto Powell's car, alerting the LAPD who surround the building.

A SWAT team assaults the building, but they are massacred with rockets by James and Alexander. McClane uses the C-4 to kill the pair, allowing SWAT to retreat. Holly's coworker Harry Ellis attempts to mediate between Hans and McClane for the return of the detonators. McClane refuses to return them causing Gruber to execute Ellis. While inspecting the explosives attached to the roof, Gruber is confronted by McClane, but Karl, Franco, and Fritz arrive before McClane can act. McClane kills Fritz and Franco, but is forced to flee without the detonators.

FBI agents arrive and take command of the situation, ordering the building's power be shut off. The power loss disables the vault's final lock, as Gruber had anticipated, granting them access to the bonds. Gruber demands that a helicopter arrive on the roof for transport—his intention is to detonate the explosives on the roof to kill the hostages and to fake the deaths of his men and himself. Karl finds McClane and the two fight. Meanwhile, Gruber views a news report by Richard Thornburg that features McClane's children, causing Gruber to realize that McClane is Holly's husband. The terrorists order the hostages to the roof, but Gruber takes Holly with him to use against McClane. McClane defeats Karl and heads to the roof. He kills Uli and sends the hostages back downstairs before the explosives detonate, destroying the FBI helicopter.

Theo goes to the parking garage to retrieve their getaway vehicle but is knocked unconscious by Argyle, who has been trapped in the garage during the siege. McClane confronts Gruber and knocks Kristoff unconscious. McClane surrenders his machine gun and then distracts Gruber and Eddie by laughing, allowing him to grab a concealed pistol taped to his back. McClane kills Eddie and shoots Gruber in the shoulder, sending him crashing through a window. Gruber grabs Holly to save himself, but McClane manages to free her and Gruber falls to his death on the street below.

McClane and Holly are escorted from the building and meet Powell in person. Karl emerges from the building disguised as a hostage and attempts to shoot McClane, but he is gunned down by Powell. Argyle crashes through the parking garage door in the limo and Holly and McClane are then driven away.