10 Movies Weirdly Changed In Foreign Countries
3. Hans Gruber Became An IRA Mercenary In Germany - Die Hard
The history of Die Hard's journey from page to screen begins with Roderick Thorpe's 1974 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, in which cop Joe Leland (formerly played by Frank Sinatra in The Detective) battles a group of terrorists that have overtaken his daughter's (not wife's) office Christmas party. The script for Die Hard is nearly a scene-for-scene adaptation of the novel, replacing Leland with a younger, less racist and sexist John McClane and letting his wife (not daughter) live rather than plummet to her death with the lead terrorist.
The lead terrorist in the novel is Anton Gruber, a German Autumn-era terrorist who wants to expose the corporation's dealings with Chile's Junta. The film simplified this to Hans, made it entirely about the money and wisely allowed the great Alan Rickman to sell the threat in his Hollywood debut.
Naturally, the studio didn't want to insult German distributors with its film about crazed German terrorists, particularly when the county was still under threat from militants such as the Red Army Faction, so the names were changed in dubbing to their English counterparts, making them radical IRA mercenaries.