Producers of decent action pictures know how to fulfill the desires of an audience. It's not fair to tease - if they show you a chainsaw or a bazooka, they know you want to see it put to use. You won't find many critics with Die Hard on their list of all-time favorite films, but I find it fascinating. Every detail of technology, every nuance of character, every shotgun blast is woven and interwoven into the film's cloth. A wide variety of characters in different locations around a modern office building all react and interact.
Every action is a reaction to another action, which was spawned by another event before it.
There are few, if any, cheap shots in the picture - no baby buggies rolling down staircases as an excuse for a stunt. Aside from the tight, well written webwork script and outstanding stunts, the main asset that made Die Hard a success is the presence of Bruce Willis. On television, Willis had already established a certain kind of charisma at this point, but the only starring role he'd had in a feature was in the Blake Edwards romantic comedy Blind Date . Hiring him to star in such an expensive action feature was thought of as quite a gamble - while he's in decent shape, Willis has never been in the athletic class of a Stallone or Schwarzenegger. This factor was cleverly turned into an asset.