A Good Day To Die Hard: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Die Hard

4. The Death Of Alan Rickman's Gruber

HansGruber Everyone remembers the final scenes in Die Hard, when the villainous Hans Gruber is defenestrated by McClane before falling from the ledge of a Nakatomi Plaza window and plummeting to his sticky death on the streets below. But of course the actor who portrayed Gruber, Alan Rickman, who coincidentally was making his film debut, didn't meet such a gruesome fate. He was however in for a bit of a shock when filming the death scene, though. Rickman was actually falling from a 21-foot high model while holding on to a stuntman before crashing onto a conveniently placed airbag rather than a cold, hard pavement, and was told he'd be dropped on the count of three. To get a realistic reaction, though, he was dropped on the count of two, which is why you see the look of sheer surprise in Rickman's eyes as he falls in the film.
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Contributor

Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.