Die Hard: dialogues are superb

Published by Kostas Stergiou on

The dialogue is an important element of a movie scenario. It contributes to character development, advances the plot and builds the required tension for the viewer.

The dialogues of Die Hard are real diamonds. The penetration of humor makes them more entertaining and effective. Even idle chit chat allows us to learn things about the characters (i.e., expositional dialogue).

In this post I  present several examples of dialogues (or monologues) among the different characters of the movie. Elsewhere I will present those involving John McClane.

  • Gruber to Takagi: Nice suit. John Philips, London. I have two myself. (smile). Rumor has it Arafat buys his there.
  • Gruber to Takagi: And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. (Smiling). Benefits of a classical education.
  • Gruber to Takagi: Mr Takagi. I could talk about industrialization and men’s fashion all day.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Genaro to Gruber: I have a request.
  • Gruber to Genaro: What idiot put you in charge?
  • Genaro to Gruber: You did…

 

 

 

 

  • Police officer to LAPD chief Robinson: Sir, the FBI is here.
  • Robinson: The FBI is here now?
  • Police officer to Robinson: Yes, Sir, right over there.
  • Robinson: Hold this.
  • Sgt. Powell to Robinson: You want a breath mint?

 

  • FBI agent to Robinson: I am agent Johnson. This is special agent Johnson. No relation.
  • Robinson to FBI agents: I’m Dwayne Robinson, LAPD, I’m in charge here.
  • Special agent Johnson to Robinson: Not anymore.

 

 

 

 

  • Genaro to Gruber: after all your posturing, all your little speeches, you are nothing but a common thief.
  • Gruber to Genaro: I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane.

 

  • Special agent Johnson to agent Johnson: Just like fucking Saigon, eh, slick?
  • Agent Johnson to Special agent Johnson: I was in junior high, dickhead.

 

  • Chief Robinson when he sees the helicopter with the FBI agents to explode: Holly Christ. We are gonna need some more FBI guys, I guess.

 

 

 

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Kostas Stergiou

Kostas Stergiou is a Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He was the former Director of the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters of HCMR (2013-2021).He has research interests on fish and fisheries ecology, modeling and forecasting, ecosystem management, and bibliometrics. He has contributed more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and several other publications (see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k8hb4pIAAAAJ).Since 2008 and 2015 he developed the home cinema and smart home hobbies and has installed different home cinema setups in two different houses which have lately been transformed to smart ones.

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