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Sunday, July 8, 2007

Live Free or Die Hard: The Implausibilities

Warning! Spoilers Follow! I don't want to ruin anybody's fun, but I just can't let some of the implausibilities of Live Free or Die Hard go without comment. Here's a list of just some of the implausibilities in the movie.

  • A raging gun battle goes on in a city for 15 minutes and not even one police car is seen or heard.
  • McClane seeks cover behind plaster and lathe walls that are shot to pieces but he's not even nicked.
  • Farrell's computer blows apart while McClane and he are in an adjoining room. We see similar explosions level homes earlier, but Farrell and McClane aren't scratched or even bleeding from their ears.
  • The bad guys crash the entire country from a moving truck, but never grab for a handhold or sway.
  • McClane brings down a helicopter with a police car. (Hint: If you're being shot at from a helicopter at very close range, shoot back at the rotors or motor.)
  • Standard cell phones are used to hack computer systems and tap into satellite communications.
  • An F35 Lightning hovers under an overpass. (Yes, an F35 can hover, but under a highway?)
  • McClane survives having missiles and cannons from the F35 shot at him.
  • Enough bullets are shot at McClane to keep the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq supplied for an entire month, but he is never hit. He, of course, dispatches the bad guys with a pistol.
  • The hackers tap away on keyboards at hyperspeed and the computers react instantly.
  • The bad guys fly over D.C. in an unmarked helicopter while brandishing assault rifles.
  • McClane flies a helicopter and finds the Warlocks house miles away without any trouble even though all utilities are out so he's flying through total darkness.
Now for the glaring errors --- McClane walks past an overturned Crown Victoria cab and you can clearly see there's no exhaust, transmission, drive shaft, or rear axle. Next to it is another car completely stripped of its interior.C'mon folks! You're making a mega budget Hollywood blockbuster! Is it too much to ask that you not completely strip the cars before burning them?

Still the pace, special effects, and fun of the action carries the movie through all the eye rolling implausibilities. In the end, isn't it all about the spectacle?

1 comment:

  1. Just saw this movie today and I agree with your implausibilities but there are some errors in your implausibilities/errors.

    gun battle no cops show up- correct

    plaster wall- yep, but then again I've seen video's of gun battles at point blank range with neither getting hit (course these are crooks and store owners not a professional)

    blow up house- obsiously all the holes blown into the walls as well as the open front door allowed the explosive force a path of escape versus a closed room.

    moving truck- agree but I also thought how the heck is that huge semi getting around in traffic gridlock that they created.

    helicopter with car- pretty far fecthed indeed.

    Cell phone hack- You could...if it was a IPhone...

    F35- can they really hover? I didn't know that.

    Survives missiles- He had armor...oh yeah he didn't.

    never hit- actually he does get hit...twice. What I don't understand is why that guy only shot him once in the arm since he was holding a machine gun.

    keyboard hyperspeed- yep you can only do that on a IPhone.

    bad guys over DC with assault rifles- That happens all the time- They are called Law Enforcement Officers.

    Warlock-well he did have a generator.

    Actually I only notice the missing transmission and drive shart- figured it just got blown away since it was upside down.

    Nice blog!

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