Die Hard also set the standard for tying up loose ends, with an ending that is both ridiculously unlikely, and extremely satisfying. If you've been watching for two hours, why would you care how improbable the final minute is? Enjoy it!

Die Hard 2: Die Harder
John McClane has a change of heart during the first movie, and two years later he has transferred to Los Angeles, where he is now a member of the LAPD. However, it is Christmas again, so McClane is in Washington D.C., at Dulles International Airport, waiting for his wife to arrive on an inbound plane. Unfortunately, also arriving at the airport are: a military jet carrying drug baron General Esperanza as a prisoner, a man named Colenol Stuart who is determined to help General Esperanza escape, and a really bad winter storm. Again, McClane just happens to be in the right place at the right time. As a cop, he has a suspicious enough eye to recognize things that aren't as they should be. As an out-of-town cop, he isn't so frazzled that he doesn't care, but he lacks the authority to do anything about what he has seen. One dead body apparently isn't enough to be alarmed about, at least not until the entire control tower and all runways are taken over from somewhere else and a mysterious voice informs the tower that General Esperanza will need a fully-fueled plane ready to go, and nobody else may land until the General is safe.

The action takes place in and around the airport, with one of most horrifying and memorable moments of the film - of any film - coming as McClane wrestles a bad guy in the snow outside a church before finally reaching up and grabbing a handy icicle. Ouch! This movie both closely paralleled the first movie and tweaked the formula at the same time. McClane again ends up with trouble from those in authority, despite or because of his notoriety from the first film. This time, however, when the big guys arrive from out of town, they aren't quite as useless or incompetent as the FBI agents from the first film. Whether that's better or worse is up to you to decide after watching the movie. Many of the scenes seem very odd in a post-911 world, and seeing everybody smoke on airplanes and in airports is just weird. But it hasn't been so long that I don't remember what life was like before draconian airport security restrictions, and a notable under-reaction to a dead body during the Christmas season doesn't seem out of line with how I remember 1990.