Frank Sinatra and Clint Eastwood could play John McClane.
Die Hard draws its story from Roderick Thorpe’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever. A notable difference from the book is that the literary version follows a protagonist who visits his grown daughter on Christmas Eve inside the towering building, rather than his wife. In early discussions for the film adaptation, the role of the heroic cop John McClane even drew the interest of Frank Sinatra, who was more than seventy at the time. He declined, not wanting to dash through the skyscraper barefoot with a prepped weapon in hand at such an advanced age.
For years, Clint Eastwood—who held the movie rights—imagined himself as the fearless officer facing down a terrorist cell. When he stepped away, the part of McClane was offered to a slate of stars known for tough, masculine leads, including Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, and Robert De Niro.
Bruce Willis, at the moment best known for a TV role as a likable detective, did not immediately register as a conventional action hero in the public memory. Yet director John McTiernan believed Willis could grow into a formidable action star, recognizing the actor’s potential beyond his familiar small-screen persona.
The film’s promotional campaign nearly faltered due to Willis’ reputation.
Selling Willis as the lead in a big-screen action saga proved challenging. Early marketing leaned heavily on the actor himself because he enjoyed a certain prime-time visibility. Yet this approach backfired in a surprising way: before the film opened, audiences treated the trailer as a joke, laughing at the notion of Willis as an action icon. The reception suggested viewers did not yet see him as the quintessential hero of high-stakes cinema.
In response, the campaign was adjusted. Promotional materials were redesigned to minimize Willis’ face, and a dramatic frame of a burning skyscraper was featured to amplify the sense of danger without overreliance on the actor’s image.
The main villain role could have been Sam Neill instead of Alan Rickman.
Had the antagonist Hans Gruber been portrayed by Sam Neill, the film might have taken a different tonal direction. Neill, who would later gain fame from Jurassic Park and Peaky Blinders, would have brought a distinct presence to the terror mastermind. For Rickman, Die Hard marked a major screen debut after a career largely spent on stage, signaling a different career trajectory for the actor.
On set, Rickman was drawn into a more expressive reaction.
The iconic moment when Gruber falls from the building was shaped through a controlled deception of the lead character. Rickman harbored a fear of heights, yet trusted the director who laid out the safety steps in painstaking detail. The director kept certain tricks under wraps, heightening Rickman’s authentic response when the moment arrived.
During filming, McTiernan persuaded the stunt coordinator to let the actor be nudged off the platform on a cue of one rather than three. The result was a reaction that felt more honest and immediate, enriching the tension of the scene.
The ballet dancer Alexander Godunov from the USSR appeared in the film.
Gruber’s chief lieutenant was brought to life by Soviet ballet star Alexander Godunov, who defected from the Soviet Union in 1979 while touring with the Bolshoi in New York. It’s worth noting that Willis and Godunov would later share the screen again in a family comedy, underscoring the film’s broader cross-genre appeal.
None of the German terrorists spoke German.
Interestingly, the Gruber squad did not consist of native German speakers. The performers frequently joked with one another through improvised German-like sounds, which were later translated into authentic German dialogue during post-production.
The ventilation shaft scene was a fortunate accident.
The dramatic moment where McClane nearly slips in the ventilation system wasn’t in the original script. During rehearsals, a stuntman almost fell, managing to cling to the rigging at the last second. The director seized on the moment, deciding to shoot it as part of the film for its raw tension and realism.
That spontaneous choice paid off, adding a sequence that became one of the film’s defining moments and demonstrating how on-the-fly decisions can elevate a scene.
Bruce Willis faced significant risk during stunts
Professional stunt performers handled the most dangerous actions, but Willis also performed some demanding sequences. He shot scenes that required running barefoot over glass, dodging blanks, and enduring large-scale explosions. The intensity took a toll; Willis later experienced temporary hearing loss due to the volume of the effects involved in these high-energy moments.
A classic oversight in the production
A famous film error surfaced during a screening for Fox executives when it became clear that an ambulance was missing from a critical moment as the terrorists retreated from the underground parking area. As the story builds toward its conclusion, the rogue hacker Theo makes his escape with help from the group. Though the mistake was spotted before the general release, correcting it would have required costly reshoots and a lengthy rebuild, so the choice was made to leave the sequence intact and carry the plot forward as scripted. The decision underscores how even big-budget productions can become defined by a single, unavoidable hiccup [Cite: production anecdotes].