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When he read Hensleigh's script for "Simon Says," John McTiernan saw that the story's New York cop could easily become John McClane of "Die Hard." After rejecting several earlier scripts which would have brought John McClane back, Willis and McTiernan discovered that Hensleigh's story seemed to have all the necessary elements to entice them to return to the "Die Hard" arena. Willis and McTiernan were particularly intrigued by the script's clever solution to the challenge of creating a new and different "Die Hard" adventure. Hensleigh, a great admirer of the original "Die Hard," agreed. "We immediately shipped the script to (Cinergi head) Andy Vajna," Hensleigh explains.. "Within 48 hours we had all decided to make 'Simon Says' into 'Die Hard With A Vengeance.'"
At the same time, key changes were made to "Simon Says" -- and to some familiar "Die Hard" situations -- in its evolution into "Die Hard With A Vengeance." For example, McClane's wife is not put into peril as she had in the previous "Die Hard" films, but is instead an offscreen presence; McClane is feeling the pains of their divorce. "We tried to raise the emotional stakes between two very disparate characters -- McClane and Zeus -- and make that more the emotional core of the movie," says Hensleigh. Samuel L. Jackson, who stars in "Pulp Fiction" with Willis (but did not share screen time with him), was then cast as Zeus Carver, the man who unwillingly yet brilliantly helps McClane in his battle against a psychopath terrorizing New York. Zeus and McClane, each with his own brand of street-smarts, are forced to play Simon's ingeniously deadly games. In the role of McClane's tormenter, terrorist Simon, Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons makes his debut as an action film villain. While in the past, McClane's battles were fought in a skyscraper and in an airport, this time Simon virtually holds hostage the entire city of New York. In addition to his impressive cast, McTiernan has put together a top-notch production team for "Die Hard With A Vengeance." Producer Michael Tadross ("Indecent Proposal," School Ties") was brought onto the project for his extensive experience with filming in New York City, while Robert H. Lemer, who worked with McTiernan on "The Last Action Hero," serves as associate producer. The director of photography is Peter Menzies, Jr. ("Posse,""The Getaway"), the production designer is Jackson De Govia ("Speed," "Die Hard"), and the editor is John Wright ("Speed," "The Hunt for Red October") The costume designer is Joseph Aulisi ("On Deadly Ground," "Nobody's Fool").
Not only was this probably the largest "lock-up" ever attempted in New York, but filming also involved stunt drivers in a racing ambulance followed close behind by a taxi commandeered by McClane, all the while, a helicopter carrying a camera and crew flew low over the street, capturing the action.
During the filming of these and other scenes, the painstaking task of making certain that the actor's clothes matched the action that was being filmed was taken on by costume designer Joseph G. Aulisi. Since the film takes place on one day, Aulisi had about twenty-five identical shirts and pants for Bruce Willis to wear throughout filming. "They get ragged, torn, and sooty from explosions," says Aulisi. "It was all documented, where the clothing damage was and why it was there."
Production designer Jackson DeGovia faced an entirely different set of challenges when he took on the task of finding a park near the Federal Reserve Building for a key explosion sequence. DeGovia created a park in an empty lot that was catty-corner to the Federal Reserve. He covered an unsightly exposed brick wall with a mural of Georges Seurat's study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte," which hangs in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Five cameras captured the blast that destroyed the Wall Street Park, yet DeGovia's mural, much praised in the New York press, remains. Actually, the real Federal Reserve houses more gold than Fort Knox in a fortress-like building five levels below the street.
Spared of bomb blasts, but still a major location for the film's extraordinary stunt work, was Central Park. "I've shot a lot in Central Park," says producer Tadross, "but I've never done a big car chase running through the Park before." Terry Leonard's stunt crew portrayed the many joggers, bicyclists, and in-line skaters who dodge McClane's taxi as it careens through the grassy meadows, onto the bridal paths, and all over the park's hilly terrain. The taxi was rebuilt to withstand all the stunt work that was required of it, while many shots were created with a special "blind drive" taxi. Placing the camera inside the car, right next to Bruce Willis, was done "so the audience felt they were more a part of the ride," says cinematographer Peter Menzies. McTiernan and Menzies used a lot of hand-held and Steadicam shots throughout the film in order to keep the viewer closely involved with the action.
Among the most challenging and death-defying stunts ever filmed is the subway crash in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Not wanting to settle for optics or models, the filmmakers searched in vain for a New York stage large enough to accommodate the stunt. They moved to Charleston, South Carolina to an empty General Dynamics plant that is still the largest building in the state. The crew built a true-to-life New York City subway station, complete with real subway cars purchased from the New York City Transit Authority and a quarter-mile of train track.
Special effects coordinator Phil Cory's most complicated task was to create an unprecedented stunt in which a detonated bomb causes the last car of a train entering a subway station to derail and speed onto a platform full of waiting commuters. The production had every detail of the stunt worked out prior to filming, and McTiernan had five cameras rolling.
Stunt personnel were warned that the train would be traveling at 40 mph and that if they fell, very little could be done to help them. "We had it controlled with a computer," explains Cory. "When the train was flying around the station, we knew exactly where it was going. We had programmed in the speed, and a set time when it was going to swing around and where it was going to end."
The end result is a white-knuckle experience like no other.
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