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“Die Hard 2: Die Harder” saw the return of Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedelia as John and Holly McClane. John McClane was the off-duty police officer who fought terrorists (who were in truth motivated by cash rather than politics) who were keeping his wife and her co-workers hostage. This time, John is in Washington, waiting for his wife’s plane to land on Christmas Eve. John’s suspicions are aroused by two men. When he confronts them, he is forced to kill one of them, but the second man escapes. He quickly learns that the one he killed is a mercenary and is convinced that the airport is facing a security threat. It soon arrives in the form of a former special forces unit that hijacks the air traffic control computer schemes from their base in a nearby church. They leave assorted planes circling the airport, including Holly’s flight. With her on the plane is the obnoxious reporter Richard Thornberg (played by William Atherton) who placed everyone at risk when he put John and Holly’s children on television in the primary “Die Hard.” As the landing is delayed and the remaining fuel becomes problematic, he begins attempting to find out what is happening. (He will have to have a frequent flyer credit card and deep pockets to compensate for all the calls he makes from his seat phone!) Meanwhile, the terrorists issue demands. They want a plane fueled and waiting and the release of a drug lord (Franco Nero as Ramon Esperanza) who is being flown in to stand trial. After an abortive try by the SWAT team and McClane’s killing of one of the terrorists, their leader retaliates. He uses the traffic system to send untrue info to one of the planes circling overhead, forcing it to crash. Enter Major Grant (John Amos) who orders McClane to stand down. Naturally, John does not obey. Instead, he locates the church where the terrorists are based and convinces Grant to order a raid on it. It doesn’t go well, and the terrorists flee on snowmobiles with McClane in pursuit. When the gun he had picked up from a fallen soldier fails to work, he realizes that Grant is working with the terrorists. Thornberg has managed to piece together sufficient info to broadcast a story on the circumstance at the airport, causing a panic. Holly gets the prospect to belt him again, taking him out of action for the time being.
Airport police undertake to intercept the airplane that the terrorists and Esperanza have boarded. McClane secures a lift on a news copter from a female reporter, and the pilot manages to get him onto the plane’s wing. When Grant comes out to dislodge him, McClane knocks him into the engine, which kills him. The leader of the terrorists does manage to shake McClane loose, but he removes the fuel cover before he falls. As the plane moves down the runway, it leaves a trail of jet fuel, which McClane lights. The fire reaches the fuel tank and the plane is blown up. The planes land, and a battered John meets Holly as she disembarks. One look at his face leaves her asking why these things keep happening to them.
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I will buy this when a DVD is released.