What if you had to cover "Die Hard" on a deadline...

[Fran Curci]

How about a "hometown version" for AP clients in Japan?

 

[Batman]

I could swear the principal from The Breakfast Club says something about it being Christmas Eve when they were talking about why they couldn't cut off power to the entire city.

Also, Holly says something in the sequel about, "How come this shirt always happens on Christmas Eve?"

In the sequel she just says, "Why does this keep happening to us?"
Pretty sure they do say in the sequel that it's Christmas Eve.

It's been a while since I've seen the original, but I thought the problem with the power being cut was just that they were going to cut it to such a large area. Not the timing of it.

 

[wheels89]

Thank goodness the AP hometown ledes are a thing of the past.
However, Daytona did not do a 150-word Newsnow for the broadcast clients.

 

[MisterCreosote]

In the sequel she just says, "Why does this keep happening to us?"
Pretty sure they do say in the sequel that it's Christmas Eve.

It's been a while since I've seen the original, but I thought the problem with the power being cut was just that they were going to cut it to such a large area. Not the timing of it.

Found these. Can't embed them, but here are three lines from the original:

Johnson, that's crazy. It's Christmas Eve, man.

Harry, it's Christmas Eve.

Our top stories on this Christmas Eve-

 

[Batman]

Found these. Can't embed them, but here are three lines from the original:

Johnson, that's crazy. It's Christmas Eve, man.

Harry, it's Christmas Eve.

Our top stories on this Christmas Eve-

I stand corrected.
Man, holding his company's Christmas party after hours on Christmas Eve? Takagi was a deck.

 

[Pete]

Minor quibble I've always had ... did the first Die Hard actually take place on Christmas Eve?
And, given that, wouldn't it have been a lot easier for Gruber's crew to roll in the next night when the building was completely empty? Then they wouldn't have even had to worry about hostages or the police and FBI, which is where the plan all went south. Seems like he would have preferred to avoid that whole mess if he could have, and he easily could have.

Come on, Batman! The hostage situation and resulting FBI involvement was a key element of Hans' plan. First, he knew that part of the FBI's protocol in a hostage situation is to cut the power completely to the building. That was necessary to unlock the vault. As Hans put it, "The circuits that cannot be cut are cut automatically in response to a terrorist incident. You asked for miracles, Theo, I give you the F.B.I."

Second, by telling the FBI it was a hostage situation and making the demand that they wanted a helicopter to LAX, they could then blow up the roof and presumably the FBI would initially assume that the terrorists died as well, since supposedly they were up there to board the helicopter.

Let's allow Hans to explain it: "When you steal $600, you can just disappear. When you steal $600 million, they will find you – unless they think you're already dead. When they touch down, we'll blow the roof, they'll spend a month sifting through rubble, and by the time they figure out what went wrong, we'll be sitting on a beach, earning twenty percent."

Though I do think you can quibble with:
– Was there no other way for them to cut the power themselves?
– Does Hans really think he can find a risk-free way to earn 20 percent on his money? Someone alert @Ragu!

 

[Old Time Hockey]

– Does Hans really think he can find a risk-free way to earn 20 percent on his money?

He was probably planning to invest it in Gannett.

 

[DanOregon]

Airheads - Breaking News Tonight. A local radio station is being held hostage by a renegade band seeking a record deal. The radio station is located at the site of the infamous 1988 Nakatoni Tower takeover. The Century City building complex has been flooded by police and groupies who have responded to aired communication by the band's lead singer, identified only as Chazz.
"Nobody would have thought this would happen in our neighborhood," said bystander Earnest Citizen. "Except it has. Twice."

Seriously, the next day's paper would maybe have a small box squeezed somewhere on A1 saying "Late reports last night confirmed a police incident in the Century City area. We'll have more in tomorrow's edition." Heck, don't most Christmas Eve editions have a final deadline of 3 or 4 p.m.? And that was when most papers printed on site. I can only imagine what it is when a press is doing runs for five or six different dailies.

 

[apeman33]

Yeah, I doubt you'd find out a lot of the details until much later. Among the stuff that would not be known until at least the next morning. Certainly not before McClane had been debriefed:
1) Takagi's death. That happened under the radar in the grand scheme of the plot. heck, considering he was on one of the upper floors they might not have even found his body.
2) The bit about the bearer bonds. That wasn't revealed until the very end, and IIRC only three of the people who knew about it (John, Holly and Theo) survived.

It's almost like there were live cameras and microphones throughout the building.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Yeah, I doubt you'd find out a lot of the details until much later. Among the stuff that would not be known until at least the next morning. Certainly not before McClane had been debriefed:
1) Takagi's death. That happened under the radar in the grand scheme of the plot. heck, considering he was on one of the upper floors they might not have even found his body.
2) The bit about the bearer bonds. That wasn't revealed until the very end, and IIRC only three of the people who knew about it (John, Holly and Theo) survived.

Or the members of Liberte de Quebec or the Asian Dawn.

 

[Batman]

Or the members of Liberte de Quebec or the Asian Dawn.

Time Magazine already got the scoop on Asian Dawn.