A surprising psycho drama from McTiernan

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2006)

John McClane (Willis) is a New York cop making his way to LA to warm the relations to his ambitious and estranged wife. When there he is greeted by a fancy office party which leaves him feeling disconnected and alienated. As the hectic festivities progress something snaps inside our 'hero' and leads him to cause a total panic inflicted chaos by pulling out his duty gun and firing around frantically. It appears (though quite confusingly because of McTiernan's highly ambiguous editing) that deputy McClane is suffering some kind of a mental collapse and fantasizing a terrorist attack threatening his wife and her co-workers. By acting as a savior in the only way he can, (in his mind he's the super cop) Willis' character is going to fight his wife back from an imagined workplace affair. McClane's ego-tripping is registered by the outside world in the form of a lone cop who establishes a walkie talkie connection with McClane. By swallowing McClane's inane ravings whole the cop creates an intense juxtaposition with real events (which are shown through McClane's haze). McClane hunts down the horrified workers one by one and fights the intervening SWAT team as the on-lookers follow the spectacle outside,
McTiernan's genius lays in the mixing of two realities, McClane's own subjective delusions in which the building's been attacked by German terrorists and some objective flashes as seen by the LAPD and FBI. The film ends in a pleasingly grotesque way as the hero, passed out by loss of blood dreams of holding his wife as a hero and a survivor.