A Rejected Script For Bruce Willis' Best Character Became One Of The Worst Sequels Ever
"Die Hard" turned Bruce Willis into an action star. The actor, previously known for his role on ABC's comedy-drama "Moonlighting," introduced audiences to the reluctant everyman action hero which has since become an archetype of the genre. NYPD detective John McClane also became Willis' best-known role and remains one of the most beloved action icons to this day. Naturally, Hollywood was eager to parlay the success of the original film into a franchise, and so a sequel was quickly produced in 1990. It wasn't quite the hit and cultural touchstone that the first movie had been, but it wasn't without its charms. Then, a third movie materialized which cemented John McClane as an enduring on-screen hero.
As "Die Hard" movies go, 1995's "Die Hard with a Vengeance" is actually one of the better ones. That's mostly due to the two legacy sequels that were churned out in 2007 and 2013 being impressively forgettable. But still, "Die Hard 3" is vintage John McClane. A lot of that is down to the fact that original director, John McTiernan, returned for the threequel, bringing with him a willingness to push the action and stunts even further than he had with the 1988 classic. But Willis and his co-star, Samuel L. Jackson also made for a great on-screen duo who balanced each other perfectly throughout their frantic race across New York.
As such, "Die Hard with a Vengeance" remains one of the best of the franchise, but it seems we almost got a different sequel, and this alternative could very easily have made the third "Die Hard" movie the worst of the bunch.
The unproduced version of Die Hard 3 would have been awful
"Die Hard with a Vengeance" sees a jobless John McClane running around New York alongside Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus Carver to diffuse bombs planted by Jeremy Irons' Simon Gruber. It makes for a high-octane action fest that has held up well over the years, despite its questionable takes on the racism of the day. But it seems the film almost could have been an even bigger dud than the other sequels in the "Die Hard" franchise.
According to John McTiernan, who spoke to MovieLine, about "Die Hard with a Vengeance," two versions of the movie were actually prepared. "One didn't happen because Fox was wrangling with Bruce over money," the director explained, adding:
"After we made 'Die Hard 3', the studio used most of the material we'd developed for the other sequel and turned it into 'Speed 2: Cruise Control.' The ocean liner going on the beach and stuff? That's what we'd written for 'Die Hard.'"
Yes, you read that right. "Die Hard with a Vengeance" was at one point going to feature the exact storyline of one of the most disastrous sequels in Hollywood history. Den of Geek expanded on this fascinating tidbit, explaining how the original screenplay for "Die Hard 3" was a spec script entitled "Troubleshooter," which had been written by James Haggin. According to the outlet, the movie would have taken place on a Caribbean cruise ship, with McClane once again taking on a group of terrorists in an enclosed space. Ultimately, the idea was reportedly scrapped due to producers not wanting the movie to hew too closely to 1992's "Under Siege," another movie being produced at the time with a similar plot. It was this script that was then repurposed for 1997's "Speed 2: Cruise Control."
It's a good thing Die Hard 3 was not Speed 2
Whereas "Speed" is a perfect action movie, its sequel has gone down as a historic blunder. Even the star of the first film, Keanu Reeves, turned down "Speed 2" after reading its script, saying:
"It was just a situation in life where I got the script and I read the script and I was like, 'Ugh,' It was about a cruise ship and I was thinking, 'A bus, a cruise ship ... "Speed," bus, but then a cruise ship is even slower than a bus' and I was like, 'I love you guys, but I just can't do it.'"
Instead, the movie revolves around Sandra Bullock's character from the first film, Annie Porter, who alongside Jason Patric's Officer Alex Shaw tries to divert their cruise liner after it's reprogrammed to crash into an oil tanker. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the movie failed critically and commercially, bringing in just $150 million on a $110 million budget and maintaining a truly abysmal 4% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
With that in mind, it's a good thing John McTiernan and 20th Century Fox decided not to produce this spec script as "Die Hard 3," even though I'm sure Bruce Willis would have helped the resulting film simply by virtue of being in the movie. That said, this likely would have been one disaster that even John McClane couldn't have survived.