The Big Picture
- John McClane's lack of shoes in Die Hard is one of the most frustrating plot holes in the film.
- McClane does have opportunities to try on other pairs of shoes, but he never takes advantage of them.
- Despite its flaws, Die Hard remains a beloved action film with memorable characters and thrilling action sequences.
With Christmas just over two weeks away, what better time to look at the beloved holiday classic Die Hard? Even if you don't buy the film as festive Christmas fare - hey, no judgment (there's total judgment, by the way) - one has to admit that it is among the great action films of all time. But it doesn't mean that every moment in the film makes sense. In fact, there's one in particular that is enough to make a guy wanna lose his shit. Is it dropping the dead terrorist down the elevator shaft with "Now I've got a machine gun ho ho ho" written on his chest? Nope. How Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his dishonest host could have cut the power to the building themselves rather than wait for "standard hostage negotiation procedures"? Nada. It's the shoes, dammit. And in a film that isn't short of plot holes, John McClane (Bruce Willis) not having shoes is by far the most maddening. With Die Hard's theatrical rerelease bringing John McClane back to our theaters, let's take a look back at this plot hole.
Die Hard
New York City policeman John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) and two daughters on Christmas Eve. He joins her at a holiday party in the headquarters of the Japanese-owned business she works for. But the festivities are interrupted by a group of terrorists who take over the exclusive high-rise, and everyone in it. Very soon McClane realizes that there's no one to save the hostages -- but him.
- Release Date
- July 20, 1988
- Director
- John McTiernan
- Cast
- Bruce Willis , Bonnie Bedelia , Reginald VelJohnson , Paul Gleason , William Atherton , Hart Bochner
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
Why Doesn't John McClane Wear Shoes in 'Die Hard'?
The opening scene of Die Hard sees a plane come in for a landing at LAX. Passenger John McClane is visibly anxious, prompting the passenger beside him (Robert Lesser) to offer a suggestion to ease the tension: take off the shoes, walk around on the rug barefoot, and make fists with your toes. It's a piece of advice that, in retrospect, goes horribly, horribly wrong, but at the time certainly well-intended. McClane, an NYPD detective, has come to Los Angeles hoping to reconcile with Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), his wife, who works for the Nakatomi Corporation. He's met by Argyle (De'voreaux White), a limo driver there to bring McClane to Nakatomi Plaza, where the company is holding a Christmas party. McClane meets Holly up on the 30th floor, where the party is being held, and takes a moment to refresh himself in Holly's corporate bathroom.
Any hope for an easy reconciliation goes out the window when the pair then argue about Holly using her maiden name, Gennaro, before Holly is called away. McClane stays behind, frustrated with himself for inciting yet another argument with Holly. Stressed and tensed over the argument, McClane opts to give his fellow passenger's suggestion a go and is pleasantly surprised when it works like a hot darn. Meanwhile, Hans and company have arrived at Nakatomi Plaza. As his accomplices go about their work, Hans and a few of his team make their way to the 30th floor, making their presence known with gunfire. A startled McClane grabs his service revolver and peeks out the door to see what's going on, only to see one of the terrorists make their way toward Holly's office. Luckily, a distraction offers an opportunity for McClane to escape to the stairwell unnoticed... and shoeless.
Alan Rickman Almost Turned Down His Role in ‘Die Hard’
A world where Alan Rickman didn't play Hans Gruber is a world I don't want to live in.John McClane Didn't Have to Remain Shoeless in 'Die Hard'
Okay, escaping from a hostile situation takes precedence over remembering footwear, so Die Hard gets a pass there. Getting offed while tying one's shoes doesn't sound especially heroic. Pulling the fire alarm to try and get emergency responders to the building swiftly? Great idea, and certainly not McClane's fault that it didn't work. Taking out the bad guy that found you? What choice does he have? Then, after successfully killing said bad guy, taking the dead man's gun and radio is, again, brilliant. And looky here - dude is rockin' kicks, so checking to see if the shoes fit on your own feet? Well, he certainly isn't using them anytime soon, and McClane's need for footwear is a little more pressing than a corpse's, so another excellent idea. They don't fit, unfortunately, but c'est la vie.
Here's the issue: it's the only time McClane even tries another pair of shoes. Only. Time. Was there another opportunity? Of course there was. You don't become the most irritating plot hole in a film by having only one chance to find other shoes. He takes out two more of Hans' henchmen shortly after, in fact. By doing so, McClane has afforded himself the time to light a cigarette, rummage through a dead man's pockets and bag, find detonators and C4 explosives, and throw the other dead body through the window to get Sgt. Powell's (Reginald VelJohnson) attention. See the problem? Two bodies, two pairs of shoes, and the time to try them on, yet he doesn't. It's not like he's forgotten he has no shoes. Maybe the NYPD has a strict "only one attempt at wearing a dead man's shoes" policy, or subscribes to the belief that all bad guys have the same size of shoe. Actually, that would have been a fantastic tagline for the movie: Evil wears one shoe size.
John McClane's Feet Pay the Price in 'Die Hard'
So McClane remains shoeless in Die Hard, and his feet pay the price. And it's maddeningly stupid. The two pairs of shoes he let get away would be the last easy availability for footwear, but not the last option for a creative fella like McClane. The building is still under construction, of course, so there may have been boots lying around, drop cloths McClane could have wrapped around his feet, or even glue he could have used to paste a couple of wood blocks on the bottom of his feet. Ludicrous? Have you seen the movie? It still wouldn't have been the most unrealistic element of the film.
Then there's "shoot the glass," the command that Hans gives to Karl (Alexander Godunov) in English, which of course the German-speaking Igor would know. The glass shatters around McClane, forcing him to run across the floor with glass shards ripping his feet to shreds. First problem: unless the construction areas are the cleanest construction areas of all time, McClane's feet would already have suffered multiple cuts and abrasions from staples, nails, wood chips, and maybe chainsaws. Socks. Why didn't he at least grab socks?
Okay, so let's assume the building workers went all Martha Stewart on the work site, and shooting the glass is the first real danger to McClane and his ten little piggies. The odds are good that the glass being shattered is safety glass, which shatters into small, rounded, safe-to-walk-on-without-turning-your-feet-into-the-Hellmouth pieces. McClane would be more likely to slip than shred, which means that there wouldn't be this easily followed trail of blood to the men's room he makes his way to. Yet, with his feet bloodied and torn, that's exactly what happened. How hard would it have been to follow the bloody brick road to where McClane was taking refuge? "Hey, Karl, I know we've got things to do, but if you just follow McClane's Type AB trail, you can kill him first." Was it too obvious, or is it like one of those James Bond moments where the supervillain doesn't check to make sure Bond is actually dead? We'll call that the second most irritating plot hole of the film.
Die Hard has its faults and tremendous leaps of logic that require parking the part of your brain that weeps tears seeing McClane swing from a fire hose, granted. But these are the things you don't think of at the moment you're watching it. Die Hard suspends your belief from start to end with endless action, has a hero you can't help but get behind, and a villainous tour de force from Rickman. And it doesn't matter how many times you've seen it before, once it's on, it stays on. Even the stupid, infuriating, shoe nonsense can't take away from it. You might say it even frees your sole.
Die Hard has now been re-released in theaters in the U.S.
