12 Die Hard Easter Eggs You Probably Missed
8. There Are Multiple Pearl Harbour References Throughout The Series
The Die Hard films are uncommonly obsessed with military history. There's certainly parallels between John McClane's struggle and the young men who fought in World War II, thrust into incredibly violent situations they weren't prepared for, it being a miracle that some people made it out alive. Seriously, the franchise just keeps banging on about it.
The first movie makes two references to Pearl Harbour: the obvious one, where Takagi tells John McClane the Japanese are “flexible; Pearl Harbour didn't work out, so we got you with tapedecks”. Meanwhile “Akagi”, one of the passwords that open Nakatomi Plaza's bank vault, is the name of one of the aircraft carries that kamikaze planes took off from.
In the second film, Marvin references both Pearl Harbour and Iwo Jima. Die Hard With A Vengeance mucks up this running Easter Egg a little, since an FBI Agent talks about the Battle Of The Bulge in refrence to Simon Gruber. The fourth and fifth Die Hard films drop that thread entirely, as they did most things that were great about the franchise.