Hans Gruber

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## Guile Villain

### Alias

Bubbi (by Ellis)
Bill Clay

### Allies

Karl
Tony
Theo

### Powers/Skills

High intelligence
Leadership
Manipulation
Vast resources
Mastery of tactics and strategy
Charisma
Firearms

### Goals

Steal $640 million from the Nakatomi Plaza.
Kill John McClane  (both failed).

### "Evil is Cool" Zone

Planning an attack on the Nakatomi Plaza in a sophisticated way.
Faking an American accent when getting caught by John.
Lacking any sadism in his crimes.

### MEH or Most Evil Actions

Trying to kill over 30 people in the Nakatomi Plaza.
Executing Mr. Takagi for not knowing the vault's code key.
Attempting to blow up the hostages on the roof as a destruction.

### Kill Count

8 (directly)
Many (indirectly)
Over 30 (attempted)

### Crimes

Attempted robbery
Attempted mass murder (including child murder)
Terrorism
Impersonation (including identity theft)
Theft
Murder
Destruction of property
Vandalism
Kidnapping
Blackmail
Conspiracy
Treason

### Type of Villain

Sophisticated Mastermind

**Hans Gruber** is the main antagonist of the 1988 action movie *Die Hard* and the posthumous overarching antagonist of the 1995 third film *Die Hard With a Vengeance*.

He is a former German terrorist leader who organizes the takeover of the Los Angeles skyscraper, Nakatomi Plaza, in an attempt to steal millions of dollars in bonds. He disguised himself as a terrorist in order to distract the police. Gruber was a calculating mastermind, as well as a highly intelligent yet callous man to the core. He is John McClane's arch-nemesis and Simon Gruber's younger brother.

He was portrayed by the late Alan Rickman.

## His Cool and Evil Rankings

### What Makes Him a Guile Villain?

* He orchestrated the near-perfect heist of the Nakatomi Plaza; even the FBI responding to a terrorist attack was a deliberate Plan B in case Mr. Takagi didn't give him the code key. If only John wasn't there, Hans and his crew would've gotten away with everything.
* Despite being Pure Evil, he only really counts as such due to his greed and high body count, and he's not sadistic at all.
* He's very charismatic, showing impeccable politeness and a modicum of education. He even has a few funny lines here and there (e.g. "Just so you know Mr. Takagi won't be joining us for the rest of his life"). Being played by Alan Rickman certainly helps too.
* Some of his victims (i.e. Harry Ellis and the Johnsons) are hard to mourn due to the former's cowardice in selling out John and the latter's willingness to shoot civilians.
* He fakes an American accent when caught unarmed by John, pretending to be an escaped hostage in an attempt to kill him and retrieve the detonators himself, during which he calls for backup in case something goes wrong. Then, once that plan fails due to John giving him an empty gun, Hans and Karl shoot the glass panes near where a barefoot John is taking cover during their gunfight and *then* gets back the detonators, showing that he knows how to use the environment to his advantage.

### What Makes Him Evil?

* He personally executes Mr. Takagi in cold blood and is perfectly okay with blowing the rest of them up on the roof as a distraction.
	+ Even worse, one of the latter groups is a pregnant woman. Worse still, he doesn't even care when he's told that Karl is still on the roof before he finally detonates the explosives, making him somewhat of a Bad Boss.
* When John defeated him, Hans planned to drag Holly down with him to their death after holding her hostage and preparing to kill her.
* He tried to blow up the roof to distract the hostages, which would result in many deaths.
* He was indirectly responsible for his men shooting down several helicopters and killing a few FBI agents.
* He planned to destroy the Nakatomi Plaza and kill over 30 people.
* He didn't even care about his own brother, Simon, as there is not implication that Hans cares for Simon at all.

## Trivia

* Even though he is Pure Evil, Hans Gruber was shown to be more heinous in the second draft for *Die Hard*, as two scenes had him doing things that were not present in the final film. One scene shows him directly ordering his men to shoot down the helicopters and kill the FBI agents and another scene shows him shooting an old lady dead after she panicked after realising his plans to blow up the place. If any of these scenes were used, Hans would have been much more evil.

## External Links

* Hans Gruber on the Villains Wiki
* Hans Gruber on the Pure Evil Wiki