11. Die Hard 2 (1990)
It's Based On The Book... "58 Minutes" By Walter Wager The
Die Hard series continued its tradition of adapting novels about other characters and shoe-horning John McClane into them with the next installment,
Die Hard2, which was based on a book that wasn't even in the Joe Leland series:
Die Hard gets its plot from a 1987 novel called "58 Minutes," written by a guy named Walter Wager, who you'll know as... nah, you won't know him as anything. When searching for ideas for sequels, the
Die Hard producers presumably asked for all the novels about "divorced New York detectives in situations" and picked one at random. In this case, divorced New York detective Frank Malone is replaced with John McClane.
How Close Is It To The Book? It's pretty much the same thing, with the planes and the airport and the 58 minutes. Weird, huh?