Unmatched Wit, Classy Ruthlessness in Die Hard Made Alan Rickman the Best Bad Guy Ever

The obituaries on network and cable news this morning concerning the passing of Alan Rickman are largely focusing on his work as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies. For many Moms watching, that’s what the 69-year-old British actor was best known for.

But to almost anyone male born before 1980 (and many after), Rickman is Hans Gruber in the original Die Hard. Period. There isn’t a more quotable movie villain — a villain you couldn’t help rooting for despite good guy John McClane’s (Bruce Willis‘s) grit and wit — ever.

Hans: [addressing the hostages] I wanted this to be professional, efficient, adult, cooperative. Not a lot to ask. Alas, your Mr. Takagi did not see it that way… so he won’t be joining us for the rest of his life.

Hans: The following people are to be released from their captors: In Northern Ireland, the seven members of the New Provo Front. In Canada, the five imprisoned leaders of Liberte de Quebec. In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement…

John McClane: [listening on the radio] What the f***?

Karl: [mouthing silently] Asian Dawn?

Hans: [covers the radio] I read about them in Time magazine.

Gruber: When they touch down, we’ll blow the roof, they’ll spend a month sifting through rubble, and by the time they figure out what went wrong, we’ll be sitting on a beach, earning twenty percent.

Ellis (starting negotiations with Hans): Well, I’ve watched 60 Minutes, and I’m saying to myself, they’re motivated, they’re happening, I.E. they want something. Maybe it’s because you’re pissed off or maybe it’s the jockies, it’s none of my business.

Hans: Very good, you’ve figured it out already.

Ellis: Hey, business is business. You use a gun, I use a fountain pen what’s the difference? Let’s put it in my terms: you’re in a hostile takeover, you snatch us up for some green mail, but you’re not expecting some poison pill to be running around the building, am I right? Hans, *bubby*, I’m your white knight.

Hans: [Looking puzzled] I must have missed 60 Minutes. What are you saying?

Hans (without looking at any notes): Now, where is Mr. Takagi? Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi, born in Kyoto, Japan, 1937. Family immigrated to San Pedro , California, 1939. Interned Manzanar, 1942 to 43. Scholarship student University of California, 1955. Law degree, Stanford, 1962. MBA , Harvard, 1970. President, Nakatomi Corporation. Chairman, Nakatomi Investment Group…

Joseph Takagi: [interrupting] Enough!

Hans Gruber: [concluding] and father of five.

Joseph Takagi: I am Takagi!

Hans Gruber: I‘m going to count to three, there won’t be a four… Give me the code.

Bad guys in movies these days have big guns both in bicep and automatic weapon form. They drop F-bombs left and right in an effort to be the toughest guy in the room. That’s not how Hans rolled. He bought his suits from the same guy rumored to have made them for Arafat. He fervently read Time Magazine to keep up on other terror groups around the world (this was pre-Internet remember). He thought ahead about his ROI on the $600 million he planned to steal from Nakatomi. Mrs. McClane insults him, he comes back twice as hard:

Holly McClane: After all your posturing, all your little speeches, you’re nothing but a common thief.

Hans Gruber: I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane. And since I’m moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite.

Amazingly, Rickman almost turned down the role of Hans. From an 2015 interview with The Guardian:

“I didn’t know anything about LA. I didn’t know anything about the film business… I’d never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap,” he said. After reading the script, he thought: “What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie.”

For everyone’s benefit, he had a change of heart and nailed the role like no one else could. In the end, we didn’t have a predictable fight scene between Willis and Rickman, but an appropriate battle of wit and strategy instead (with McClane convincing Hans he had given up and was unarmed before taking him by surprise via a handgun and Christmas wrapping tape). Die Hard is now considered the best action film of the past 30 years, at least in this space. Not only is the action CGI-less and still tremendous. Not only is the suspense and unpredictability edge-of-your-seat stuff. The script and acting — the comedic exchanges between Hans and McClane — make the movie a stop-and-watch-flick to this day.

Alan Rickman was taken by cancer. 69 sounds too young these days because it is (82 for males in Britain).

He almost didn’t take the role. Thank God he did. Hans wouldn’t be Hans. Die Hard wouldn’t be Die Hard. R.I.P. Alan Rickman… the greatest — and classiest — bad guy ever.

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[image via Die Hard, Twentieth Century Fox]