8 Films Where Not Giving A F**k Improved Everything

4. Die Hard With A Vengeance

Die Hard 2 is terrible, we all know that. Die Hard With A Vengeance? Absolutely brilliant. The reason it works is because it was never intended to be a Die Hard film, it originally started out as a spec script called "Simon Says", but featured pretty much the same plot as what we would eventually see. This film just doesn't care about anything that goes on, and it just works. Give the best villain from the series a revenge-seeking brother? Sure. Stop McClane from being limited to one building and give him the entire run of New York City? Go for it. Returning director John McTiernan really aimed to amp up both the humour and violence compared to what we saw in Die Hard 2. The reason for this? According to the director himself he wanted to make sure nobody would make a sequel, as they'd never be able to top him. He was pretty damn successful €“ until 2007 no-one revisited the Die Hard franchise, and after A Good Day To Die Hard, we wished they hadn't. Giving McClane an unlikely partner in the guise of Samuel L Jackson was a result of McTiernan's mission to end the franchise, because he felt McClane worked best on his own, and giving him a partner might make the audience upset because they want more McClane. However, it had the opposite effect €“ what test audiences wanted was more of Bruce Willis reacting and running around with Samuel L. Jackson, which they got when Fox went back and added more scenes involving him. So, the director's mission to end the franchise actually reinvigorated it and ensured it continued into the 21st Century. It's a funny old world.