Would the flame trail follow up the fuel as it is flowing out of the wing? Really good action thriller, though. Dennis Franz doing a precursor to Sipowicz, and it was good to see John Amos.

Would the flame trail follow up the fuel as it is flowing out of the wing?

Most likely yes. See the real life footage of the Concorde crash.

One major nit...

They said that most of the planes "only" have enough fuel for another hour. That would give them enough fuel to land in Maine, Georgia, and Ohio. But then again, there wouldn't be much of a movie.

Also, there are hand held radios in the tower in the event of power failure. They could also use one of the planes parked on the ground to talk to the planes in the air.

This film contains the infamous phone booth nit.

At a DC area airport (can't remember if it's Dulles or Washington National), the phone booth that Bruce Willis uses says "Pacific Bell".

Serendipitous casting alert: the villain in this movie is played by Bill Sadler, who played Sloan on DS9. At one point his blows up a plane piloted by Colm "O'Brien" Meany. That's what happens when you and your best pal meddle with Section 31... ;-)

I wonder if the terrorist Sadler played was related to Sloan... perhaps the feud between the O'Briens and the Sloan family goes back a few hundred years and was all started by a cop named Jahn McClane...

Oops. The cop's name was JOHN McClane.

Not a nit, just a question. With security as it is, would an airport let a stun-gun onto a plane?

This film played on HBO recently (one night, HBO ran all three consecutively.)I could really tell the difference between that version and the syndicated version on TBS last week. Awful overdubbing. The guy did not sound like Bruce Willis. "Yippee Ki-Yay, Mr. Falcon." Gimme a break. Gotta get the DVD 3-pack.

That's such Bull...oney!
What a dumb...head.
Son of a...bird!


My personaly favorite was one they did on that HBO sketch comedy show, Mr. Show with bob and david.

"Shutup you S-tupid Mother-Father!"

During the second scene in Holly's plane, Dick Thornburgh is brought, complaining, into her section. He complains about having to be in that section, calling it a "cattle car", implying that this section is coach. If so, it's the nicest coach section I've ever seen. Look at those seats! They sure look first-class to me.

My favorite overdub is from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when Spicoli calls Mr. Hand a "fuzzy nerd."

Is there a scene missing from the DVD? I distinctly remember a reveal shot panning up from the church when you discover it's right next to the airport. Either I blinked and missed it, or it's not on the disc. It seems like it was supposed to come right after the airport control tower guy shows McClane the map of the underground power circuits undercutting a corner of the neighborhood.

Or was that shot only shown on the TV version?

Not so much a nit as a thought on a premise. We find out the commandos are actually in on the plot with the mercenaries when the Major slits the throat of the radio operator, who has replaced the original operator due to illness. When the kid notes he wishes he had been in Grenada with the unit, the Major agrees, because then he wouldn't have to kill him. But that brings up the question of how many members of his unit the Major has had to do away with. After all it seems highly unlikely that everyone who's served under his command, or the former Colonel's command, of the unit would go along with the idea of doing something like this. Must have been a few "training accidents" or similar covered up murders connected with the outfit.

Also they could have transfered people out for other reasons and I think it's John who says he must "have loaded thta unit with his own men" meaning that he brought in people who were up for it.

When McClain is brought in to see the Chief he says the guys who attacked him in the baggage area were using Glock 7s and that they are porcelain so they could get by the metal detectors. If you're gonna use a real brandname use a real model number. The lowest model number for Glocks is 17, but they were acutally using 19s. Also, porcelain is a type of ceramic, and I can't think of any guns that are made of ceramic. Glocks have polymer, or plastic, frames but there's still plenty of metal in the slide and barrel to set off a metal detector, not to mention the bullets.

One of the most memorable dub-overs for the purpose censorship that I can think of is in this movie's sequel, DH With a Vengence. The couple dozen times Sam Jackson says MF, on regular TV he says "mellon farmer." Do we really need the FCC?

Adam: Would the flame trail follow up the fuel as it is flowing out of the wing?
As ScottN already pointed out, most likely, but the way it was lit in the movie is not very likely. Jet fuel is only flammable in a mist at higher temperatures/pressures.

Ghel: With security as it is, would an airport let a stun-gun onto a plane?
At the time of this movie I'm not sure, but now definately not.

The fuses on those grenades thrown into the cockpit are longer than any handgrenade ever made to my knowledge. I've been trying to think of nits for DH: With a Vengence but I haven't come up with anything yet.

This film contains the infamous phone booth nit.

At a DC area airport (can't remember if it's Dulles or Washington National), the phone booth that Bruce Willis uses says "Pacific Bell".

I think it's Dulles. But - In this film's current run on the HBO channels, the phone booth nit is cropped out.

I love the "Yippi-ka-yay, Mr. Falcon!" overdub, which resulted in the villain having to had his name changed to Mr. Falcon.

Renny Harlin on the commentary talks a lot about the phone booth nit, but then he screws up himself by saying that it should have been a Colorado phone company booth. This is a reference to the fact that some of the movie was shot at a Colorado airport...but it would still be wrong. The movie takes place in D.C.

The second viewing allowed me to realize that the ill-fated soldier who is not part of Grant's platoon is mentioned early in the film, when one of Colonel Stuart's men informs him that one of their group "couldn't make it" and had to be replaced--I assume he's referring to the kid that Grant kills, who was never supposed to be part of the platoon during this mission.

Sadler is really good in this film, but comes off more as a top thug (which is what his character is) rather than a mastermind and thus is disappointing compared to Gruber I and II.

Jason: They said that most of the planes "only" have enough fuel for another hour. That would give them enough fuel to land in Maine, Georgia, and Ohio.
I don't know about ME but there was no mention of Regan, Baltimore, Philly, Richomond, Norfolk... or any others a state or two away.

ScottN: At a DC area airport (can't remember if it's Dulles or Washington National)
The movie states it's in Dulles but it's definately not judging by all the scenes, aside from one or two exterior shots.

Before the British plane crashes, the flight attendent, or stewardess at this time, tells one of the passengers she'll make the connection ok, or something like that. How does she know this if the plane can't communicate with the airport? If it's only the tower comms have been severed with why doesn't somebody up there use the airline computer or radio? John is unable to save O'Brien's plane from crashing because the bad guys lowered the ground level electronically. An interesting way to do that but commercial planes have their own altimeters so they would know how far to the ground they are. To meet the drug leader's plane John climbs up a ladder and squeezes through a likely couple-hundred pound grate. I sincerely doubt any airport would put a big grate in the middle of it's runway, and the grate itself would probably crush John's arm when he stuck it out there to hold it open. The runway would not have enough room for all those planes landing at the end.

Another movie that could not have been made post 9/11.

A plane with a foreign military prisoner, like that General, would have landed at Andrews Air Force Base, not Dulles.

Did Grant have to slit tat poor guy's throat. Couldn't they have just tied him up and stashed him somewhere. Grant and Co. were leaving the U.S. for good, no doubt going to some country that has no extradition agreement with the U.S. (as their crimes could get them the death penalty) What did it matter that the guy could identify them.

And what about the original guy, in Grant's unit, that got appendicitis (and was replaced by the poor schmuck who got is throat cut)? Will he be facing the death penalty, as he was probably in on the plan.