Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
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- Before Bruce Willis was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- During the filming of Live Free or Die Hard, Bruce Willis improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- The incredible score for Live Free or Die Hard was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
Live Free or Die Hard is a 2007 American action thriller directed by Len Wiseman, the fourth Die Hard installment. Bruce Willis returns as John McClane, who must stop a cyber-terrorist named Thomas Gabriel, played by Timothy Olyphant, who has launched a systematic attack on America's computer infrastructure โ shutting down transportation, financial systems, and power grids in a plan he calls a "fire sale" designed to bring the nation to its knees. McClane is accompanied by a young hacker named Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long, who unknowingly helped create the code Gabriel is using.
Live Free or Die Hard modernized the franchise by pitting the analog, old-school McClane against digital-age terrorism, and the generational contrast between Willis's brute-force approach and Long's tech-savvy anxiety provided reliable comedy. The fighter jet versus semi-truck sequence on a collapsing freeway was the franchise's most spectacular set piece since the original. The film earned $383 million worldwide on a $110 million budget.
