Sad day, 3.5 readers.
As you know, I’m a big Die Hard fan. Every Christmas, I put it on while everyone else is watching It’s a Wonderful Life or some such nonsense.
Hans Gruber. It was Rickman’s first role. If you ask me, he could have stopped there and been on top had he wanted to.
The 1980’s gave us amazing action films. Schwarzenegger. Stallone. Big ass bad ass muscle dudes who could eviscerate 20 bad guys with a pinky finger.
Then late in the decade, Die Hard changed the game. Bruce Willis as a New York cop who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Sure, he’s a cop. He’s collared some bad guys. But your average cop isn’t prepared to take on a group of highly trained terrorists on his own, thus providing the Average Joes in the audience what it would be like to be stuck in a situation where everything is riding on them.
Arnie and Sly? Awesome but not relatable. Bruce? Awesome AND relatable.
To top it all off, the villain. Hans Gruber. Rickman provided us with a memorable character. A charming German gent, intelligent, sophisticated, you’d probably enjoy getting a beer with him and talking about world affairs if he hadn’t been a cunning murderer/criminal mastermind.
Gruber wasn’t the typical muscle bound martial arts trained baddie from the 1980’s. His main weapon was his brain.
The part where he pretends to be an American, “Bill Clay.” The part where he very calmly shoots Takagi in the head for a perceived lack of cooperation. Gruber was in control of his emotions. He didn’t do things out of rage or anger but rather, out of a carefully thought out plan. There was money to be had. He wanted it. He went through whoever he needed to to get it. You never got the sense that he enjoyed killing anyone but rather, that any resulting deaths were just losses in an overall business plan.
Maybe that’s why he was so scary. Take emotion out of the picture and a bad guy is capable of anything and worse, there’s never a warning sign as to what’s about to come or what’s on his mind.
Yes, he was also Professor Snape. Yes, he was also that funny vulcan caricature in that Star Trek parody movie whose name escapes me now.
But before all that, he was Gruber. Hans Gruber.
Bookshelf Battle 
I somehow never saw Die Hard until about 2 years ago. It’s now one of my favorite Christmas movies!
And Alan Rickman is simply wonderful in it.
Cool. The third one, Die Hard With a Vengeance is the second best one, in my opinion, so check that out. Gruber’s brother Simon goes on a heist of his own and seeks revenge for Hans. Really, the two best movie of the series involve the Grubers.
“Galaxy Quest.”
Rickman as the actor tethered to his role who is just so, so over it, and then finds himself taken deadly seriously by high-functioning autistic space aliens who revere his fictional culture, and who says in that amazing voice “By Grabthar’s Hammer, you shall be avenged,” such that I weep and go fuzzy blind every time I watch it.
Yes. Galaxy Quest. That movie was ok. I’m surprised people keep bringing it up like it was his best role. Like Snape from Harry Potter, then Galaxy Quest, then Hans Gruber seemed to be the order all the news shows talked about. Personally, I think his best was Gruber all the way.
No one talks about “Bottle Shock”?
“You think I’m a bit of an arse, but really, I’m just British. And you’re not.”
[As an American who was engaged for about five minutes to an Englishman, I can say with conviction — this is a real thing. Which Rickman expressed to perfection.]
Sad day indeed 😦 Alan Rickman was a fantastic actor and he is just one of many reasons why Die Hard is a fantastic action film 🙂 Me, you and your 3.5 readers are totally going to miss him 😦 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂 Nevertheless, I shall conclude this reply with a sad face due to this terrible loss 😦
Yes the 3.5 readers were sad. They usually are sad. They waste so much time on this blog.
Alan Rickman was one of my faves. Nice post.
Yes. There should have been a sequel where Gruber survived. Alas it will never be now.