When it was released in 1988, Die Hard set a new standard for action movies. For a decade afterward, pretty much every single action movie was unable to avoid a comparison with John McTiernan’s film, which delivered such a memorable dose of pure entertainment on a number of different levels, including the use of every conceivable weapon outside of a genuine war zone. The writers of the film, Jeb Stuart and Steven de Souza (adapting Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever), contrived plot elements that enabled the film’s characters to use pistols, machine guns, a sniper rifle, a missile launcher, and enough C-4 explosives to blow up several stories of a building. It wasn’t until 1999, when The Matrix came out, that the bar for action sequences was truly set at a higher level. While The Matrix didn’t use any of Die Hard’s trademark humor, it built an intriguing universe for its characters to inhabit that served as a suitable counterpoint to the film’s unforgettable action sequences.
The Film: The Matrix
The Song: “Spybreak”
The Artist: Propellerheads
