20 Things You Didn't Know About Die Hard 2

20. John McTiernan Originally Planned To Direct

Director John McTiernan did an incredible job helming the original Die Hard, and so it was little surprise that Fox pursued him to direct the sequel just two years later.

And though the filmmaker did originally plan to return for the follow-up, he ultimately had to turn the gig down due to already being committed to the Sean Connery-starring submarine thriller The Hunt for Red October.

Given that that movie went on to score enormous acclaim and receive three Oscar nominations (including a win for Best Sound Editing), McTiernan probably made the right choice.

Die Hard 2, then, saw Fox defer to up-and-coming Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin after being impressed by the raw footage of his action-comedy The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.

Harlin's no McTiernan, though, so it's a shame that we'll never know what could've been with his involvement. Mercifully, McTiernan did return in glorious fashion for the effortlessly superior 1995 threequel, Die Hard with a Vengeance.