10 Movies That Weren't Meant To Be Sequels
9. Die Hard With A Vengeance
Die Hard with a Vengeance has a different vibe from its predecessors, despite being helmed by the original director, John McTiernan. The first two instalments have a claustrophobic feel, since they took place in a single location - the first in Nakatomi Plaza, and the second at Dulles Airport.
The threequel, on the other hand, has John McClane tearing through the whole city, the underground, and the river to take down an enigmatic master criminal. Rather than having Bruce Willis' character go it alone like before, he partners up with Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus, creating an entertaining buddy-cop dynamic.
Although Vengeance is awesome, the plot wasn't meant for Die Hard at first. Jumanji screenwriter, Jonathan Hensleigh, wrote a spec script called Simon Says, which was originally meant to serve as a vehicle for Brandon Lee.
When Lee tragically passed away on the set of The Crow, Simon Says was rejigged into a Lethal Weapon script. When that didn't pan out, it became the blueprint for Die Hard's third outing, with McTiernan conducting rewrites to bring out more 'Die Hard-isms' in the finished product.
It must've been a nightmare to repeatedly re-arrange the script, but it worked out for the best since Die Hard with a Vengeance is easily the best sequel in the franchise.