Title: Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard)
Release date: 27 June 2007
Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant
Director: Len Wiseman
Synopsis: John McClane returns to face a new kind of terrorist — a cyber-attack that threatens to shut down America’s entire infrastructure — with a reluctant hacker sidekick by his side.
Reviewed by: Sarah
A Surprisingly Smart, Explosively Fun Upgrade for McClane’s Old-School Action Hero
By the time Die Hard 4.0 rolled around, you’d be forgiven for thinking John McClane’s glory days were behind him. The vest was older, the one-liners a little more gravelly, and the threat — a cyber-terrorist hellbent on collapsing the digital age — felt like a big swing for a franchise rooted in elevator shafts and machine guns. And yet, against all odds, it works. Not just as a serviceable sequel, but as a late-stage reinvention that still knows how to blow stuff up with style.
Bruce Willis returns as McClane, now balder, grumpier, and as allergic to protocol as ever. He’s the analog cop in a digital world, and the film leans hard into that dynamic. This time, instead of facing off against slick European thieves, he’s up against a group of cyber-mercenaries led by the quietly menacing Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant), a disgruntled ex-government analyst who’s decided to teach the system a lesson — by dismantling the entire thing, piece by piece.
To stop the unraveling of the American infrastructure, McClane teams up with Matt Farrell (Justin Long), a jittery hacker who’s the polar opposite of McClane’s brawn-over-bytes approach. Their odd-couple chemistry turns out to be one of the film’s biggest surprises. Long brings just enough wit and exasperation to match Willis’s eye rolls and expletives, and together they become a functional — if dysfunctional — duo.
Director Len Wiseman (of Underworld fame) brings a slick, glossy finish to the film. The action is big — planes, trucks, collapsing highways, and yes, that infamous scene where McClane takes out a fighter jet with a semi truck — but it’s choreographed with clarity and purpose. It’s ludicrous, sure, but Die Hard has always danced at the edge of plausibility. This just kicks it into the stratosphere.
Thematically, the film actually has something on its mind. While it never gets too preachy, there’s an undercurrent of unease about how dependent society has become on technology. McClane may not understand firewalls or encryption, but he understands people — and sometimes, a fist to the face solves problems faster than a keyboard. It’s a bit of a throwback, but that’s exactly what makes him feel fresh in this context.
Olyphant’s villain is a bit undercooked compared to Alan Rickman’s iconic Hans Gruber, but he plays the part with cold detachment and a few sharp monologues. Maggie Q stands out in the henchwoman role — sleek, silent, and surprisingly dangerous. Her fight scene with McClane in an elevator shaft is one of the film’s best, combining brutality with spatial tension in a way that’s both ridiculous and deeply entertaining.
The real strength of Die Hard 4.0 is that it doesn’t try to make McClane something he’s not. He’s older, sure. Maybe slower. But he’s still the guy who walks into chaos, shrugs, and figures it out with whatever tools are nearby. The script gives him room to groan about his knees and complain about “these kids and their gadgets,” but it never makes him the butt of the joke. He’s still the one who gets the job done — and everyone around him knows it.
Live Free or Die Hard doesn’t reinvent the franchise — it just wires it into the 21st century with explosive results.
Is it over-the-top? Absolutely. But it’s also tight, clever, and far more fun than it has any right to be. By embracing a new kind of threat while doubling down on its everyman action roots, Die Hard 4.0 proves that you can still teach an old cop new tricks — or at least, new ways to crash cars into helicopters.
Yippee-ki-yay indeed.
