Die Hard, Lost in Adaptation ~ The Dom 

Saw the movie: 24 Read the book: 0 Had to be convinced there *was* a book: 19 I'm dying XD

In Poland we called this film series "The Glass Trap" because "Die Hard" is basically impossible to translate for Polish. With first film it made sense. With second kind of, if you squint, same with fourth.

Great video, as ever. Really makes me want to grab the book. Speaking of classic action movies, I reckon First Blood would make a great episode.

Thanks for this episode, I have been begging for this since April!

Ah, Die Hard. The objectively BEST Christmas movie.

Fun Fact: The script that eventually became Die Hard was originally pitched as a sequel to the 85 film Commando

I'd love to see you do Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Christmas halted WW1. Nuff said.

By any chance does anyone know if the music that starts around 2:00 and 9:20 is from the movie?

My brother got me the Nothing Lasts Forever for Christmas a few years back. He had this really expectant look, and I just said "Uhhh, Cheers?" He refused to tell me why he got it for me, and it wasn't until I was about a quarter of the way through that I finally twigged "Holy shit! This is Die Hard!!"

Talking to yourself is not a sign of insanity. Expecting an answer is.

Well, the joke about him originally being near 70 certainly validates my mother's theory that the next 'Die Hard' movie will be titled 'Die Hard with a Walker.'

I love when there's a surprise fourth category in your poll, I loled hard as "had to be convinced there was a book"

Thumbs up for 70-year old John McClain.

To be fair, Dom: I talk to myself like John McClane does. Of all my mental issues, that habit is not one of them.

I wanna see Carl from UP in DieHard now

2:01 $0.74 for gas? What kind of fantasy world is this?

Ha! "Die Hard" is my GF's favorite Christmas movie (she decorates her apartment with stills from the film every December) so I got her the book and the Sinatra film as a surprise gift. She had no idea it was based on a book either! Also, to be fair, the profit margin would NOT have been the "only" victim. The guy did plan to murder the executive in cold blood.

It's rare to get a film adaptation of any book that doesn't reduce moral ambiguity, or even flat-out reduce grey morality to black-and-white morality. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a single film adaptation that makes the story/characters more morally ambiguous.

The Dom hates Christmas? Nobody tell the Nostalgia Critic! God help you if he finds out.

Book spoilers there are a couple of more things that underscores how much darker the book is. When Ellis tries to make a deal with the terrorists McClain tires to warn him to save his life. In the book this is completley opposite. Leland actually manipulates the situation to make sure the terrorist shoots him since he's afraid he might give up Lelenads identity and put his daughter in danger. Also, after the daughter dies Leland quite brutaly murders a female unarmed terrorist as a form of revenge. Overall Die Hard is imo a better movie than Nothing Last Forever is a book. But the book has many interesting themses that I appriciated. Even though I understand and agree with most of the changes the movie made I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing another adaptaion that is more faithful to the book.

R.I.P. Alan Rickman. :(

Who want to come with me to sing christmas Carols at the dom door?

Easily one of your best and funniest episodes of all. The fact that that Die Hard is a classic and most people don't know it's an adaptation makes for a fun and enlightening video.

Technically Die Hard 2 is another adaptation but not of Thorpe's books. Its of Walter Wager's novel 58 Minutes. So...considering Die Hard 2 is another Christmas film...when's that happening? Also was I the only one who KNEW Die Hard was a book before this? I knew since I was a kid but I never had the inkling to read the book before. 4:07 certainly changed that.

I hope the Dom will make a video about one of the Hannibal Lecter stories in a video soon. Or maybe several. Like a double video to talk about Red Dragon and Manhunter like the Charlie and the Chocolate factory episode. There's a ton of great material to make an episode in those books/films, I just know it.

“Had to be convinced there was a book.” 🤣🤣 I don’t blame them though 😄.

Of course he didn't get to his daughter in time. There was a theme back then of punishing women for being too much like men, either sexually or professionally.

That final thought about Bruce playing the lead in the reboot was great.

Yes Dom, i will bring the holyday spirit to you...after wearing my bullet proof armor :P.

Now the funny bit is Frank Sinatra who was offered the role for contractual reasons was 70 at the time which means he'd have actually fit the age of the book character.

Great Review as usual. Makes me wonder what other films stared as completely different adaptations. Fun Fact: Die Hard was originally written to be a straight up sequel to The Detective but Frank Sinatra wasn't interested. Then it re-written as a sequel to Commando before being rewritten as a stand alone movie. You should have mentioned that Die Hard 2 was adapted from a novel called '58 Minutes' Die Hard 3 was based off of an early script for Lethal Weapon 4 Die Hard 4 was based on a 1997 Wired Article and a screenplay called 'WW3.com' Die Hard 5 was based on a rejected Screenplay for Die Hard 4 (it shows)

The hero doesn't manage to save his daughter in the book and even worse has to hear her screaming as she falls to her death. Damn that's pretty fucking dark.

In the german dub the robbers are "european" and Hans is called Tony

I just watched Die Hard. And I am now seeing why everyone loves it.

"guess his age in the book... go on... you'll never get it." 70? "if you do the mathematics he is pushing 70"

Wouldn't it been funnier if the Nostalgia Critic was the one at the beginning who told Dom that Christmas is wonderful and all?

0:58 Wait, you actually found six whole people who have not yet seen this movie? I like to meet these six and ask them what they are waiting for.

0:19 I sneezed so loud that I didn't hear the gunshot, despite wearing one headphone (the other one doesn't work)

R.I.P. Allan Rickman you will be missed.

Dom? I just want you to know you inspired to read more books. Because of you I bought Dune, The Shining, I, Robot and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?!

THERE WAS A BOOK!?!

Suddenly, I remember why I declared Die Hard my favorite Christmas Movie ever. Well, the german, censored version (which changed the first names for the terrorists to make them non-german). Now if you'll excuse me, I got to watch a Christmas movie.

RIP Alan Rickman

Coming from the future, that bit about Bruce Willis playing the lead again is kinda sad.

When you refer to Leland as "an overzealous Guy of Gisborne" did you remember that Alan Rickman played Guy of Gisborne opposite Kevin Costner's Robin Hood?

I read the book when it was called Die Hard, I thought "Ah well that will pass the time a nice adaptation of a great movie" Holy crap! The ending blew me away and left me all sad :( I recommend the book if you like tough, cynical, action adventure.

Glad I'm not the only one who was unaware that this was based on a book, but it doesn't surprise me.

Where to start re. guns? - "Hi-Power/High Power" refers to the magazine capacity of the gun. 13 rounds in the mag was a lot of firepower when the gun first came out in the 1930s. - H&K 94s were indeed used in the film, but they were meant to represent MP5s. In the 80s, the use of chopped and converted H&K94s in movies to stand in for the MP5 was quite common. - That's a German MP40 in the Goldfinger-clip... not a Tommy-Gun.

The browning high power and the Berreta both fire 9mm bullets. The browning high power is just a much older gun.

Dom i seriously think you should do a crossover with the Nostalgia critic at some point! Especially if you hate Christmas cos he LOVES it!! It would be so cool to see you two face each other off! Btw Do you ever plan to do a Peter Pan episode? I loved the 2003 film but you could go for the disney version instead. I've also read the book of Peter Pan and i think the 2003 film is quite a faithful adaptation, but i would like to see you analyse it. Also with the exception of who framed Roger Rabbit which is half-cartoon half-liveaction, are you going to do any other animated films? Like Cinderella maybe? Or maybe even go further and compare big hero six to its original comic book?

Just FYI Dom, the Browning Hi-Power & Beretta 92F fire the same 9mm cartridge. They even have very similar barrel lengths, so they would have near-as-makes-no-difference the same power (the Beretta does hold a couple more rounds, though). This website is an awesome resource for movie guns: www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wow Gruber was the hero the whole time

I just wanna put it out there that the most ripped man ive personally met was a 70yo Cheif Master Sergeant who ran several miles with a 50lb rucksack everyday. He basically was rl old man saitama.

Had no idea it was a book myself. To the bookstore!

They should have mentioned the book in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, seeing Jake's reaction to discovering his favourite movie was based on a book where the protagonist was a pensioner would have been hilarious, especially when he found out about the Frank Sinatra film before it

The Polish title of Die Hard translates to "The Glass Trap". Pretty obvious which scene that refers to.

I see you have the 80s mentality about 70 year olds, Dom. Whereas now, 70 year olds are more believable and readily acceptable as action stars (and the younger generations just aren't filling the void): Jonathan Banks is a bad ass as Mike Erhmantraut, Helen Mirren is wicked deadly (RED/2), and Stallone and Schwarzenegger are still going strong.

"I need my pills" and "this is what a TV dinner feels like" Enough said. That was hilarious.

1:50 funny enough when they were pitching the movie, they considered asking Frank Sinatra to reprise his role but he couldn't due to being too old. Frank sinatra was also considered to play Dirty Harry back in the day but due to a injury he sustained, he couldn't do the shoot. So Frank Sinatra was almost 2 iconic action movie characters.

Man, that book sounds AWESOME!

and I loved that bit about Willis reprising the character in a reboot. that could totally work - but I think they'd have to trade out wars... Korea or Vietnam. wwii would still be out of range.

I'm surprised you didn't get the Nostalgia Critic to cameo as the "Cheerful Christmas Guy" who gets shot.

He used a Browning Hi-Power in the book, and a Beretta 92fs in the movie. You got the two mixed around. Just saying...

I don't blame you for being a grinch, Dom. I can get annoyed by Christmas too, although it's more due to people being overly obnoxious about it than the holiday itself. Also, I'm Jewish and my big holiday is Hanukkah. Oh, and don't get me started on people who think there's a "War on Christmas" because they don't wanna say "Happy Holidays"--Christmas isn't the only holiday being celebrated in December, you know! The only thing I look forward to on Christmas Day is the Doctor Who christmas special.

I now want to see a crossover between the Dom and Nostalgia Critic on christmas. Hehehe

Do you really hate christmas or is that just a joke as your persona when you make your videos.

The Browning Hi Power and the Beretta fire the same 9mm round.

If I could make a suggestion mr the Dom. Blood and Chocolate. A teen romance werewolf book that did things a lil differently than you'd expect with that description and its adaption a teen romance werewolf movie that didn't do anything differently except the details to the book.

This was absolutely brilliant Dom!

Considering Bruce Willis is pushing 70, and was until a few months ago still making action movies, the beginning of this tickles me. Young people have no concept of age or aging, especially during the current day when food, healthcare, etc... are so much better. Samuel L Jackson- 73, Denzel -66, Bryan Cranston - 65, Liam Neeson -69. I'd believe any of those guys could survive Nakatomi. ETA: I'd put the changes more in an effort to modernize it a little than to separate it from the book. We did love big business in the 80s - The Japanese company also fit in with the times--ah I remember the days when we were warned that Japan was going to take over America through corporate dominance.

Speaking of adaptation displacement, go ahead and add 1 to "asked" and 1 to "seen" for a Jaws episode

I think that the most shocking part is that there are at least 6 people out there who haven't seen Die Hard...

when is the actual "of course!" joke gonna show up?

In the book, the helicopters sent to the roof were police and fire ones.

you should do true grit. it would make you happy and it has guns.

Nice review and I who thought that John McClane from A Good Day to Die Hard was freaking kill happy and also I really hope that you can do a review of the Walter Wager novel 58 Minutes that Die Hard 2 was based on at some point in the future

I actually read the book...

Huh, interesting to hear how the morality is a little more complicated in the book, I might like to check that out sometime. I do quite enjoy the movie even if it is symptomatic of the Regan-era "culture wars" nonsense in some aspects.

Why is old John McClain slightly Geordie?

The Dom, please see this. Die Harder is also based off a book, not by the same author but it is based on a book. Walter Wagner's 58 Minutes. The differences between adopting two separate books from two different authors should make for an interesting video, seeing how adapting one story into an already not perfect adaptation only due to similarity. Plus it's also a Christmas movie.

This is the best Christmas film

Oh joy. More skits involving shooting someone. Haven't seen that a million times

I’m surprised the NC didn’t fire you for not liking x-mas

Ah. Good to see one of the only Christmas movies I watch in the season. I love Christmas but I understand why others wouldn't. My husband works in retail and that's ruined his Christmas spirit.

That last idea of a more accurate reboot with an older Bruce Willis sounds really cool actually. But I assume you'll have a hard time getting Willis to warm up to that idea. At least until he's really too old to play action heroes.

My dad is 73 and picturing him doing any of this...wouldn't surprise me one bit, old guys can be surprisingly badass

Your Old American Man accent is Really good youtuber formerly know as The Dom Dominic Noble!!

Finally The Dom does a Christmas Movie. Yes I count the first two Die Hard Movies as Christmas movies.

I'd love if they rebooted it almost exactly but worked the grey and gray morality in there, as well as the motivation of Gruber and his terrorists.

I think the word you were looking for was cojones. Not kahunas. That ruined it for me. Totally unwatchable. Just kidding. Nice work.

7:29 Dom's firearms ignorance is on display. The Beretta 92F (not "9F2") and the Browning Hi-Power are both typically 9x19mm Parabellum hand guns and therefore make similar bangs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beretta_92#92F_(92SB-F) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning_Hi-Power

I recently found out that the Sinatra film was the reason for a lot of the changes. The studio were contractually required to offer the role initially to Sinatra, but due to Sinatra’s age at the time, he turned it down (Ironic). Since they couldn’t risk injuring an elderly actor in the role, they went with someone younger (With Bruce being about the 20th choice but everyone else turned down the role). With the younger actor, the studio made more changes to distance the film from Sinatra’s role in The Detective

A 9th of a second is longer than a 10th of a second lol

I was surprised how dark the book was when I read it and the ending does not bring LET IT SNOW to mind.

"Whelp, now I know what a TV Dinner feels like" XD

Brilliant. Utterly freakin' brilliant. Yippie kaye aye, indeed.

My family refuse to accept this was an adaptation

The real difference for the change of the company's name and nationality is actually a political one. During the 70s there was the oil shortage and American oil companies were suspect due to thier dealings with Egypt and Iraq. In the 80s, there was a lot of great as Japanese industry began to outpace Americans, this the company having suspect motives for that time periods mindset. This was more of a "modernization" then a change.

A 70 year old Bruce Willis.......yeah, I'd pay the price of admission for that.