10 Alternative Movie Endings Way Better Than What We Got
3. Die Hard With A Vengeance: Gruber Escapes
Every Die Hard movie ends in more or less the same way: with a yippee-ki-yay, motherf****r and the villain's death, but 1995's Die Hard With a Vengeance almost put a unique spin on this template.
In the theatrical version, Simon Gruber's revenge mission comes to a fiery end when a power line Bruce Willis's John McClane has shot out tangles around his helicopter and sends it crashing to the ground in explosive fashion.
But in an alternate conclusion, With a Vengeance explored what might happen if a Die Hard villain actually won. Gruber escapes in the chopper with all of the gold he double crossed his partners out of and pins his past crimes on McClane. This ruins the lieutenant and costs him his job, though he does turn the tables on Jeremy Irons's villain eventually, tracking him down and tricking him into turning a rocket launcher on himself in a game of Russian roulette.
Die Hard always serves justice and the villain's never escape, but seeing what would happen if one did (albeit briefly) is an interesting twist on Hollywood action movie conventions.