Throwback Thursday: Today seemed like a good time to finally Die Hard

Is there a movie that when you tell people you’ve never seen it, they all stop and stare at you like you’ve just revealed something taboo? Do you hide your head in shame or make excuses for why you’ve never bothered with it? Self-admitted ’80s fan girl that I am, it pains me to say I’d never seen Die Hard until yesterday. Yes, I know it came out in 1988 and this is 2014.

It’s not that I didn’t want to. Why do I suddenly feel like John Belushi in the tunnel scene in The Blues Brothers fumbling through a string of excuses? My parents weren’t into action movies. I didn’t have any older brothers. I’ve only had one boyfriend in my entire life, and he didn’t own a copy. It wasn’t required viewing material in high school or college. It was locusts. It wasn’t my fault … I swear to God!

It feels like every guy around my age meets this news with a shocked reaction like something is seriously wrong with me. I was made to feel like the “fly in the ointment, the monkey in the wrench, the pain in the ass” who had missed out on something too awesome to put into words. Was there some sort of bro code written in stone that proclaimed every male child of the ’80s/’90s was going to grow up idolizing Bruce Willis as John McClane? It always bothered me that I hadn’t seen it, but I took it with a grain of salt. (I mean how good could it be?) That is until I met a certain someone recently. He has the best taste in movies, TV shows and music and suddenly I was a little sheepish to admit I had somehow missed that one. So when he suggested I go buy a copy at Disc Replay, that’s what I finally did. It was probably the best $2.22 I ever spent there, and it inspired this Throwback Thursday feature.

Die Hard kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. There were explosives left and right, Bruce Willis delivering one memorable one-liner after the other to make me laugh and a ton of ’80s celebrities, including the one and only Alan Rickman, Principal Vernon from The Breakfast Club (Paul Gleason), Carl Winslow from Family Matters (Reginald VelJohnson) and James Trivette from Walker, Texas Ranger (Clarence Gilyard Jr.). It was the perfect mix of action and comedy, and I finally understand why everyone has been raving about it all these years, especially around Christmas. I definitely think that was one of the best action movies I’ve ever seen and I can appreciate that it helped define the genre.

John McClane was the ultimate badass – I mean he was taking people out left and right despite being barefoot? Which brings me to a major question: why didn’t he steal the shoes off one of the fallen bad guys? It can’t have been fun to traipse around in the shafts, the roof, etc. without any shoes. But maybe that’s a girl’s perspective. Please don’t revoke my membership in the John McClane fan club now. I thought he was brilliant when he strapped the gun to his back with the packing tape, and I just about cried when he told Al to tell his wife, “she was the best thing that could have happened to a bum like me.”

And Alan Rickman, what can I say? He was the ultimate villain! Hans Gruber has to be just about the best villain’s name I’ve ever heard. The concept of pulling off a six-million-dollar heist while confusing the feds into thinking it was a terrorist conspiracy and you’ve perished in the flames of the burning building: priceless. The look on Alan Rickman’s face as he fell through the sky made me laugh, much as I laughed at the over-the-top moment when Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader and shouted out, “Nooooooo!”

Now that I’ve had a taste of the Die Hard franchise, I want to see the rest (although I’ve heard the latest one wasn’t very good in comparison). Who knows what I’ll watch next. Maybe I’ll go crazy and finally put in The Matrix. Don’t judge me. I’m sure there are plenty of movies you haven’t seen yet either.