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crack_van2009-05-18 07:17 pm
perclexed.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2009-05-18 07:17 pm
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John McClane would've dumped me down an elevator shaft by now
But you all should definitely thank ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blairprovence for poking me in the ass, and thankfully NOT with a wad of C4, because I completely forgot that I was driving the Live Free or Die Hard van this month! ACK!
So, let me make it up to you. I noticed that there isn't a summary of the fandom, though there are some awesome recs here in the comm memories, so this initial post should help those who are new or new again. Note that this post gets a big picture heavy. But let me start a wee smidge of history.
This? This is John McClane. He's a New York City cop, most of the time. This man is one of those unlucky bastards who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but has too much of a sense of duty to do what any sane person might and say, "Fuck this shit and I'm outta here!" No, he's really damn stubborn, has an iron clad sense of right and wrong, can apparently take a ridiculous amount of physical abuse, and this role? This role launched Bruce Willis into superstardom.
For reference, here's John throughout all four Die Hard movies.
Die Hard (decent amount of hair)
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (trying harder to keep the hairline he has)
Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengeance (here with the other main character Zeus, who has more hair than he does)
Live Free or Die Hard (he's just given up that fight and shaved it all off, so there)
You can see how John's a little, well, beaten up, down and kicked in the ass throughout these movies, but also by the time we get to LFDH.
Some other folks that may be of interest:
Holly McClane nee Gennaro, here with Hans Gruber, the terrorist in Movie the First:
Now, one of the big threads to the first three movies is how much McClane loves Holly, and that's part of why he puts himself through hell. In the first two, it's all about saving HER. By the time the third one rolls around, she's dumped him for good and his broken heart has led him straight into the bottom of a bottle. He's bitter, he's burned out, and he's back in New York.
By the time we get to the fourth movie, Holly's divorced John for good, and his relationship with his now grown kids is on the rocks too. He's hardened and been tempered to the point of total bitterness, and it's only that will to keep the streets safe from the Big Bad Uglies that really keeps him at his job. He's seen and done nearly all, and very few things surprise him anymore.
He's a man who's lost his heart, in my opinion.
Now, getting to those pesky folks who actually happen to be in DH4 but aren't McClane himself?
Meet Matt Farrell.
Matt's a hacker. He's a VERY good hacker, and he's been contracted by a mystery woman to do some work on a theoretical thing that Matt thought was really kinda cool. Matt didn't realize that this put a bullseye squarely in the middle of his forehead, and his payment for the coding was going to be a bullet through his skull, and lo and behold, McClane just happens to be there to save his ass. Because that's what he does. Matt's anti-government, anti-mainstream media, anti-law enforcement...he's really anti-many things. But at heart, Matt's a good guy. And he's the one who figures out exactly what's going on, and reluctantly works with McClane to fix everything over the 4th of July weekend.
But the fireworks aren't really over the mall. They're more between these two characters. Matt and John, well. Most of my recs are going to be about Matt and John. And the buttsecks.
Lucy McClane
Lucy is definitely her father's daughter, though she would really like to deny that most of the time. She goes by the last name Gennaro when she's annoyed with her father, or McClane when she's proud to be known as his daughter.
The other guy you see there is Gabriel Thomas, and he's the baddie in this round. He's terribly intelligent, and has a grudge the size of the Washington Monument against the government.
The plot to LFDH? Now in handy bullet points!
- Thomas and his lover Mai decide to teach the US government a lesson and make bizillions in the process.
- They have a few elite hackers write some code
- They kill off all the hackers once the code is complete
- Matt is one of those hackers, and since he happened to be with McClane at the time, he survives.
- McClane and Matt head to DC to turn Matt over to the Feds, who want to question him. Thomas Gabriel makes another attempt on Matt's life, McClane thinks there's something fishy going on and takes out a helicopter with a car.
- Matt realizes Gabriel's running a "fire sale", which will take down the transportation grid, stock markets and power grid simultaneously, plunging the entire country into chaos.
- Lots of action scenes, lots of challenges to be overcome by our heroes, blah blah explosioncakes blah.
- Gabriel kidnaps Lucy, McClane's daughter because Matt and McClane are foiling his dastardly plot.
- McClane and Matt go to rescue her.
- Matt gets captured as well.
- John does impossible things to get to histwo loves daughter and new friend, and in the end saves the day by shooting himself in the shoulder to kill Gabriel, who like a total moron is standing right behind him. Matt also shoots the guy who's about to blow Lucy away, thus earning him some serious points in John's books.
- There's a sweet scene between McClane and Matt at the end. Country all safe. McClane's insurers groan and rend their garments. Slashers go YAY!
I'm not going to lie to you. None of these movies are really huge on plot. It's WAY more the popcorn-shoot 'em up-big explosions kind of genre. The thing that made these stand out in the era of Rambo and The Terminator, though, was John's self-deprecating sense of humor. You see it a lot in the first two. It's mostly been buried by the fourth, but it's still there, lurking.
And lots of fan writers remembered, and well, Matt is so delicious and the snark and the fact that they're polar opposites and it's a recipe for fannish squee. There's even a comm right here on LJ for this pairing! Go and take a look at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hard4brains! I mean, the entire movie these two aren't much farther from one another than this:
See what I mean?
So without further ado, let me get started on the recs!
blairprovence for poking me in the ass, and thankfully NOT with a wad of C4, because I completely forgot that I was driving the Live Free or Die Hard van this month! ACK!So, let me make it up to you. I noticed that there isn't a summary of the fandom, though there are some awesome recs here in the comm memories, so this initial post should help those who are new or new again. Note that this post gets a big picture heavy. But let me start a wee smidge of history.
This? This is John McClane. He's a New York City cop, most of the time. This man is one of those unlucky bastards who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but has too much of a sense of duty to do what any sane person might and say, "Fuck this shit and I'm outta here!" No, he's really damn stubborn, has an iron clad sense of right and wrong, can apparently take a ridiculous amount of physical abuse, and this role? This role launched Bruce Willis into superstardom.
For reference, here's John throughout all four Die Hard movies.
Die Hard (decent amount of hair)
Die Hard 2: Die Harder (trying harder to keep the hairline he has)
Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengeance (here with the other main character Zeus, who has more hair than he does)
Live Free or Die Hard (he's just given up that fight and shaved it all off, so there)
You can see how John's a little, well, beaten up, down and kicked in the ass throughout these movies, but also by the time we get to LFDH.
Some other folks that may be of interest:
Holly McClane nee Gennaro, here with Hans Gruber, the terrorist in Movie the First:
Now, one of the big threads to the first three movies is how much McClane loves Holly, and that's part of why he puts himself through hell. In the first two, it's all about saving HER. By the time the third one rolls around, she's dumped him for good and his broken heart has led him straight into the bottom of a bottle. He's bitter, he's burned out, and he's back in New York.
By the time we get to the fourth movie, Holly's divorced John for good, and his relationship with his now grown kids is on the rocks too. He's hardened and been tempered to the point of total bitterness, and it's only that will to keep the streets safe from the Big Bad Uglies that really keeps him at his job. He's seen and done nearly all, and very few things surprise him anymore.
He's a man who's lost his heart, in my opinion.
Now, getting to those pesky folks who actually happen to be in DH4 but aren't McClane himself?
Meet Matt Farrell.
Matt's a hacker. He's a VERY good hacker, and he's been contracted by a mystery woman to do some work on a theoretical thing that Matt thought was really kinda cool. Matt didn't realize that this put a bullseye squarely in the middle of his forehead, and his payment for the coding was going to be a bullet through his skull, and lo and behold, McClane just happens to be there to save his ass. Because that's what he does. Matt's anti-government, anti-mainstream media, anti-law enforcement...he's really anti-many things. But at heart, Matt's a good guy. And he's the one who figures out exactly what's going on, and reluctantly works with McClane to fix everything over the 4th of July weekend.
But the fireworks aren't really over the mall. They're more between these two characters. Matt and John, well. Most of my recs are going to be about Matt and John. And the buttsecks.
Lucy McClane
Lucy is definitely her father's daughter, though she would really like to deny that most of the time. She goes by the last name Gennaro when she's annoyed with her father, or McClane when she's proud to be known as his daughter.
The other guy you see there is Gabriel Thomas, and he's the baddie in this round. He's terribly intelligent, and has a grudge the size of the Washington Monument against the government.
The plot to LFDH? Now in handy bullet points!
- Thomas and his lover Mai decide to teach the US government a lesson and make bizillions in the process.
- They have a few elite hackers write some code
- They kill off all the hackers once the code is complete
- Matt is one of those hackers, and since he happened to be with McClane at the time, he survives.
- McClane and Matt head to DC to turn Matt over to the Feds, who want to question him. Thomas Gabriel makes another attempt on Matt's life, McClane thinks there's something fishy going on and takes out a helicopter with a car.
- Matt realizes Gabriel's running a "fire sale", which will take down the transportation grid, stock markets and power grid simultaneously, plunging the entire country into chaos.
- Lots of action scenes, lots of challenges to be overcome by our heroes, blah blah explosioncakes blah.
- Gabriel kidnaps Lucy, McClane's daughter because Matt and McClane are foiling his dastardly plot.
- McClane and Matt go to rescue her.
- Matt gets captured as well.
- John does impossible things to get to his
- There's a sweet scene between McClane and Matt at the end. Country all safe. McClane's insurers groan and rend their garments. Slashers go YAY!
I'm not going to lie to you. None of these movies are really huge on plot. It's WAY more the popcorn-shoot 'em up-big explosions kind of genre. The thing that made these stand out in the era of Rambo and The Terminator, though, was John's self-deprecating sense of humor. You see it a lot in the first two. It's mostly been buried by the fourth, but it's still there, lurking.
And lots of fan writers remembered, and well, Matt is so delicious and the snark and the fact that they're polar opposites and it's a recipe for fannish squee. There's even a comm right here on LJ for this pairing! Go and take a look at
hard4brains! I mean, the entire movie these two aren't much farther from one another than this:
See what I mean?
So without further ado, let me get started on the recs!
no subject
I think you need to recode the picture of Holly and Hans Gruber, because I can't see it.
no subject
And thanks! I meant to use the signature phrase for the two or three people who may never have seen any of these movies, but eh. I'll definitely use it in the recs at some point.
Mmmm Hot Fuzz icon. :9
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(Anonymous) 2009-05-21 12:54 pm (UTC)(link)(Should I rent the other ones first? Do I need to see them to understand this one?)
Thanks for the overview.
no subject
And the first sentence was meant to read: "Justin Long is in this?" but lj had logged me out, so I couldn't fix it...
Sorry.
no subject
I don't think you need to rent the others first, but they're just damn good fun. The first one especially is awesome, and it shows McClane's fairly warped sense of humor. Plus, it has Alan Rickman in it as the bad guy, and this is the movie that really helped launch HIS career too.
The plots start thinning out by this movie, and it's really more explosions and the interaction between Matt and John that captured my attention here, but yeah, rent them if you can. :D
no subject
I am pretty sure that I have a friend in one of them (first or second one, don't remember anymore, he was just an extra). So, yeah, I really should aee them.
You've sold me. I will find them (yay Netflix). And then I'll come back and read your recs...