Die Hard
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This Die Hard movie trivia quiz has 137 free questions with answers and covers the 1988 original from every angle: the plot at Nakatomi Plaza, the cast, and the making-of stories, from Frank Sinatra's right of first refusal and Bruce Willis's Moonlighting schedule to Alan Rickman's early drop off the platform, the Fox Plaza location, Michael Kamen's use of Beethoven and the four Oscar nominations. About ten questions then follow John McClane through Die Hard 2, With a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard and A Good Day to Die Hard. The first questions are easy enough for anyone who has seen the film once. The rest get progressively harder and finish with production details only serious fans will know, so it works as a solo challenge or as a ready-made round for a Christmas movie night. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 137 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is John McClane's profession at the beginning of 'Die Hard'?
NYPD Detective
He is a New York City police detective, out west only to try to patch things up with his estranged wife.
Q 02In Die Hard, John McClane battles Hans Gruber's gang inside which fictional skyscraper?
Nakatomi Plaza
Nakatomi Plaza is the Nakatomi Corporation's fictional headquarters, played by a real Century City tower that was still unfinished when the film was shot in 1987–88.
Q 03On what holiday does the film 'Die Hard' primarily take place?
Christmas Eve
McClane arrives on Christmas Eve to reconcile with his estranged wife at Nakatomi's Christmas party, and the siege runs through that night.
Q 04Who portrays the main antagonist, Hans Gruber, in 'Die Hard'?
Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman, a Royal Shakespeare Company stage actor, made his feature-film debut as Hans Gruber; critics singled out his villain even when they panned the film.
Q 05What is the name of John McClane's estranged wife in 'Die Hard'?
Holly Gennaro
Holly Gennaro is a high-ranking Nakatomi executive who goes by her maiden name at work, one of the reasons the McClane marriage is strained.
Q 06In Die Hard, what $640 million haul is Hans Gruber's gang really after in the Nakatomi vault while posing as terrorists?
Bearer bonds
Bearer bonds, $640 million in untraceable paper, are the prize; the whole hostage drama is a diversion while the vault's locks are cracked.
Q 07In which U.S. city does the film's skyscraper siege take place?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles: McClane flies in from New York to see his wife, and the film was shot largely on location in Century City.
Q 08In Die Hard, Hans Gruber plans to blow the Nakatomi roof and fake his gang's deaths once he has what?
The contents of the vault
The contents of the vault are the real goal: the terrorist act is theatre for a $640 million heist, ending with the roof blown to fake the gang's deaths.
Q 09Who is the limousine driver who drops John McClane at the tower and later aids him?
Argyle
Argyle is the limo driver who waits for John in the parking garage and eventually plays a crucial role in preventing the terrorists' escape.
Q 10Die Hard was adapted from which 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp?
Nothing Lasts Forever
Nothing Lasts Forever, Thorp's 1979 sequel to The Detective, supplied the plot; its hero is an ageing retired cop, rewritten as the much younger John McClane.
Q 11Which singer-actor did the studio contractually have to offer the role of John McClane to first?
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra had starred in 1968's The Detective, the first Roderick Thorp adaptation, so Fox was contractually bound to offer him the sequel; in his seventies, he declined.
Q 12Arnold Schwarzenegger turned down Die Hard to make which 1988 comedy instead?
Twins
Twins, the 1988 comedy pairing him with Danny DeVito, is what Schwarzenegger made instead; he wanted to branch out from muscle-bound action roles.
Q 13Bruce Willis was only free to make Die Hard because production paused on which TV series he starred in?
Moonlighting
Q 21Which Run-DMC track, later embraced as a holiday standard, features in Die Hard?
Christmas in Hollis
'Christmas in Hollis' plays in Argyle's limo as he drives McClane to Nakatomi; the 1987 Run-DMC single has since become a hip-hop Christmas standard.
Q 22The music for Karl's final ambush was an unused cue McTiernan borrowed from which 1986 film?
Aliens
Aliens: McTiernan preferred James Horner's temp track from the 1986 sequel to the cue Kamen wrote for Karl's reappearance, and kept Horner's music in the finished film.
Q 23Willis's very first day of shooting, coming straight from his TV set, was which stunt?
Leaping off the roof tied to a fire hose
Moonlighting went on an eleven-week hiatus when co-star Cybill Shepherd became pregnant, and Willis used the gap to shoot Die Hard.
Q 14Bruce Willis's controversial fee for Die Hard, huge for a TV actor at the time, was how much?
$5 million
$5 million was Willis's fee, a startling sum for a TV actor; the press mocked it, and Fox's first posters showed the building rather than his face.
Q 15Which Broadway role had Joel Silver seen Alan Rickman play before casting him in Die Hard?
The Vicomte de Valmont
Rickman's Vicomte de Valmont in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1987 Broadway run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses impressed Silver, who cast him as Hans Gruber, his first film role.
Q 16Which real Century City skyscraper, still under construction during filming, stood in for the villains' target?
Fox Plaza
Fox Plaza, 20th Century Fox's new Century City headquarters, was still being finished during the 1987–88 shoot, so its bare upper floors appear on screen as construction levels.
Q 17The film's premise was famously pitched to the studio as 'Rambo in' what?
An office building
'Rambo in an office building' was the pitch; director John McTiernan took it on condition that the film would have 'some joy' rather than grim terrorism.
Q 18What surname did McClane have in Jeb Stuart's early script, rejected as disrespectful to a dead director?
Ford
John Ford was the script's original name, dropped because it belonged to the late Western director; Stuart then picked McClane as a 'good strong Scottish name'.
Q 19McClane's 'Yippee-ki-yay' catchphrase was inspired by which singing cowboy star's sign-off?
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers is the cowboy McClane tells Hans he was 'always kinda partial to' moments before the catchphrase, which riffs on the singing cowboy's sign-off.
Q 20Which classical piece did composer Michael Kamen initially object to McTiernan using in Die Hard?
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, whose 'Ode to Joy' scores the vault opening; Kamen offered to 'misuse' Wagner instead and in exchange insisted on also licensing 'Singin' in the Rain'.
He jumped 25 feet from a parking-garage ledge onto an airbag as a 60-foot wall of flame went off behind him.
Q 24To capture Hans Gruber's genuinely shocked expression as he falls, what did the crew do to the actor?
Dropped him early, before the count of three
McTiernan said 'there's no way he could fake that'; the first take was used.
Q 25Reginald VelJohnson's friendly LAPD sergeant role got him cast as Carl Winslow in which sitcom?
Family Matters
Family Matters cast VelJohnson as Chicago police officer Carl Winslow from 1989 to 1998, another cop with a big heart.
Q 26The hostages' floor of the tower contained a recreation of which famous Frank Lloyd Wright house?
Fallingwater
Fallingwater, Wright's Pennsylvania house over a waterfall, was recreated on the party floor; production designer Jackson De Govia said it stood for Japanese firms buying up American assets in the 1980s.
Q 27Which of these lines was improvised by the actor rather than scripted?
'The quarterback is toast'
'The quarterback is toast' was ad-libbed by Clarence Gilyard as Theo; Hart Bochner's 'Hans, bubby, I'm your white knight' was another improvised line.
Q 28An early design for the Japanese corporation's logo was redesigned because it looked too much like what?
A swastika
A swastika is what the first Nakatomi logo resembled, so it was scrapped; the replacement was styled after a samurai warrior's helmet.
Q 29Die Hard opened in limited release on July 15, 1988, in how many theaters?
21
21 theaters: the film took $601,851 that weekend, a $28,659 per-screen average that built must-see buzz before the wide release on July 22.
Q 30Which of these was NOT one of Die Hard's four Academy Award nominations?
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actor was never in play, as Alan Rickman was overlooked entirely; the four nominations were Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.