8 Times Movie Censorship Backfired

1988's Die Hard blessed us all with John McClane's immortal one-liner of "Yippee ki yay, motherf**ker", but it was Die Hard 2 that cemented it as a series staple - a pre-kill quip for Bruce Willis' character to utter before he rains all over the bad guys' parade.

And the finale for Die Hard 2 arguably has the best use of the quip, with McClane using his lighter to ignite the trail of aviation fuel and explode the mercenaries that have been terrorising the skies over Washington D.C. It's a great finale, underlined by the return of a beloved bit of dialogue from John McTiernan's original.

But it wasn't presented like this for television. Understandably (or not - the watershed is there for a reason), Die Hard 2 received a TV edit that toned down the violence and profanity. However, this TV edit is arguably one of the most infamous, due mainly to how it changed McClane's catchphrase. Instead of the traditional expletive, for Die Hard 2's TV edit, McClane says "Yippee ki yay, Mr. Falcon", in a tragic case of overdubbing.

The line itself makes about as much sense in context as it does out of it. While there is a Mr. Falcon in Die Hard 2 (Esperanza's call sign), that name is mentioned only very briefly and isn't likely to leave as big an impression as the actual named villains did. Throw in the terrible dub from a guy who sounds nothing like Bruce Willis, and you're left with an all-timer piece of bad television.