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WARNING : spoiler forSkyscraper(andDie Hard ) .
You do n’t need to be the public ’s biggest Bruce Willis fan to notice that there are some similarity betweenDie Hardand Dwayne Johnson ’s newfangled film , Skyscraper- although the sheer extent of the analog is startling .
Since he first reveal the physically - impossible first poster forSkyscraper , The Rock has been keen to make a point that the movie is an " original property " . And he ’s right , to a point : compared to his recent effortsRampage , Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle , The Fate of the Furious , as well as upcoming moviesHobbs / ShawandJungle Cruise , Skyscraperis original , not based on or following up any established belongings . This has been a long - stated point of Johnson ’s hike , with his status as " enfranchisement viagra " ironically counterpointed by a lack of any sweet franchise to his name .
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However , Skyscraper ’s inspirations are still obvious . This is a catastrophe picture show that owe more than a short debt to Irwin Allen , producer ofThe Poseidon AdventureandThe Towering Inferno , but it ’s also unbelievably evocative ofDie Hard . Bruce Willis ' hotshot - making classic , now often consider as aChristmas picture show , is viewed as the determinate take on the everyman action subgenre , with an influence that looms to this daytime - and nowhere is that better seen withRawson Thurber’sSkyscraper .
Here we ’re going to incline down all the unbalanced parallel of latitude betweenSkyscraperandDie Hard , from the incredibly obvious to unnervingly specific . Do these make Dwayne Johnson ’s latest too derivative ? That ’s up to you , although thebox office openingsuggests The Rock needs something even more original going forwards .
A Tall Building (That The Main Character Rappels Down The Side Of)
First things first , yes , bothDie HardandSkyscraperfeature tall buildings , albeit of solely different scales : Nakatomi Plaza ( in real life the Fox Plaza ) is 35 stories high , while The Pearl is an unbelievable 225 floor . Despite such differing scale , the buildings are practically used in very similar ways ; too high to jump from , withSkyscrapersimply increasing the pinnacle to amp up the sickness . The building parallels do n’t stop there , with many of the industrial interiors of both moving-picture show going for very similar set grooming .
Crucially , both movie have a lot of sport with the exterior of the building , sending their hero off the edge with a improvised circle and fighting to get back in ( multiple time inSkyscraper ’s case ) .
The Hero Has A Law Enforcement Past (And A Family Who Is His Biggest Weakness)
Skyscraperfollows Dwayne Johns ’s Will Sawyer , a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team drawing card who now supervise security at The Pearl . What drives him to economize the construction and those it contains , though , is the fact that his sept is trapped above the flame contrast . This is a exchangeable setup to John McClane , who is a New York copper visiting LA for Christmas and only gets wrapped up in Hans Gruber ’s plot due to his soon - to - be - ex - married woman .
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That said , the literal life sentence block the two champion need to get over is different ; while John is on the threshold of divorce , Will has a happy family unit lifespan even before the building goes up in flaming . Instead , his challenge is more his inability to cope with the failed mission that starts the plastic film .
Scenes Where The Hero Talks To Himself & Performs Self-Surgery
The torpedo line of latitude do n’t terminate at the grapheme , though . During their ascent through the buildings , each terminate up in a variety of standardised situation . There ’s no moment where Dwayne Johnson meet the baddie feigning an American accent , but there ’s some famousDie Hardmoments to spy .
First , there are multiple point where Will starts talking to himself , just as John McClane does after his first running - in with the terrorists . While the purpose of each consequence seems different -Die Hard ’s economic consumption , for sure , is attempt to give us a gustation of John ’s punctuate national monologue - both are a screenwriting trick to interest explanatory dialogue into scenes with just one fiber . Later , Will take away a part of metallic element from his dresser ( and earlier had a makeshift patch to a tongue attack ) , something very reminiscent of McClane ’s more brutal foot injury after the office shootout .
A Law Enforcement Character On The Ground
Of course , John McClane does n’t do it by himself . On the ground is cop Al Powell , who serve as his link to the rest of the Earth . This is one aspect where it appearsSkyscraperhas only half - attempted to ring its inspiration : it too has a police policeman on the ground , presumably because it ’s impossible to tell a report of this weighing machine without accounting for the authorities , yet Byron Mann ’s Inspector Wu does n’t ever in reality converse with Will Sawyer ( instead , he suspects him of being behind the attack at first , then team up up with Neve Campbell ’s Sarah ) . However , at the ending of the film , there ’s still the patently long - prognosticate meeting , with Wu say he ’s glad to finally meet the man he never speak to .
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Another part of Al ’s fictional character is used inSkyscraper , albeit transferred to a dissimilar character . Just as how Powell is afraid to use a gun after his inauspicious incident with a child , Johnson ’s Italian sandwich turn away to use them due to a fail hostage site turned bomb attack at the first of the pic .
A Villain Who Uses One Bad Thing As A Cover For Something Worse (And Eventually Falls To Their Death)
One ofDie Hard ’s best fib decisions was having the terrorists use the threat of surety - taking terrorists as a back for an honest-to-goodness - fashioned cant robbery , a forward-looking pull on the action moving picture baddie . This trope is well drawn , but its use inSkyscraperis definitely redolent of its predecessor : those set the construction on attack are n’t concerned in ruin the factual social organisation ( as early discussion of insurance policies allude to ) but force owner Zhao Long Ji into handing over a drive containing information on three link crime syndicate .
The distinction comes from perspective . WhileDie Hardhad the true nature of the plot pick up from John McClane ’s perspective , Skyscraperlacks the tighter focal point on its hero and so the audience knows something is afoot long before Will Sawyer does .
However , by the end , things line up again , with Kores Botha fall to his destruction just like Gruber ( albeit with the free fall turn off somewhat brusque by his own grenade ) .
A Key Use Of Duct Tape
Perhaps the most gonzo link betweenDie HardandSkyscrapercomes from something so specific it ’s almost self - mocking . Famously at the final stage of 1988 movie , Bruce Willis uses Christmas swathe to record guns to his back in a final opposition with Gruber . InSkyscraper , Dwayne Johnson use epithelial duct tape for … everything : to patch up a wounding ; to walk along the exterior of the buildingMission : unimaginable - Ghost Protocolstyle ; and as a far - less - elaborate - than - expected terminal bunko against the villain .
Both Movies Released In The Same Week Of The Year
Die Hardis somewhat infamously consider as a Christmas film : set on December 24th , it ’s peppered with sight of festive iconographies and ends on an wry back of " Let It Snow ! lease It Snow ! allow It Snow " ( and it even has a somewhat Xmassy message if you squinch ) . However , all of this ignore one key facial expression : the film let go of in July . Die Hardmay be regarded as a Christmas film by many ( ifnot Bruce Willis ) , but it was n’t by Fox in 1988 , who release it on July 20 . That date is just one week ahead of Skyscraper ’s July 13 liberation weekend thirty years afterwards , providing another unexpected connection between the two
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