Poster © 20th Century Fox. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction & Thriller
RatedNot Rated
Runtime2 hr 4 mins
ReleasedJuly 4, 1990
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorRenny Harlin
StarringBruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Atherton
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Die Hard 2 (1990)
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| Die Hard 2's Details | |
| Genre | Action & Thriller |
| Rated | Not Rated |
| Released | 07/04/1990 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 4 mins |
| Budget | $60–70M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | 58 Minutes by Walter Wager, Characters by Roderick Thorp |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Die Hard 2's Interests | |
| General | Snowstorms, baggage carousels, runway lights, airport payphones, the worst holiday travel ever filmed. |
| Music | Michael Kamen, back from the first film and turning up the brass. |
| Movies | Die Hard (1988). Same guy, same holiday, one tall building instead of one big airport. |
| Television | 24. Another guy having the longest day of his life, one crisis at a time. |
| Heroes | Marvin the janitor. Keys to everything, questions about nothing. |
| Die Hard 2's Crew | |
| Director | Renny Harlin |
| Writers | Steven E. de Souza, Doug Richardson |
| Producers | Charles Gordon, Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver |
| Cinematography | Oliver Wood |
| Music | Michael Kamen |
| Edited By | Stuart Baird, Robert A. Ferretti |
| Production | Gordon Company, Silver Pictures |
| Distributed By | 20th Century Fox |
Die Hard 2 is the first Die Hard with snow on it, and John McClane is the first to notice. He flat out asks how the same thing can happen to the same guy twice, then the movie does it again anyway: another Christmas, another takeover, another smug reporter, another man in charge who wants McClane to sit down and be quiet. This time it’s Dennis Franz as an airport police captain who treats him like a parking ticket. The bigger problem is the setup. Planes are circling Dulles with their fuel running out, and nobody remembers other airports exist. Still, Bruce Willis is having a great time being cold and cranky, the fistfight on the moving baggage belt is rough fun, and the ejection seat scene is pure popcorn. It pulled an A CinemaScore and $240 million worldwide. A 6.3 because it’s a tight cover band playing the original’s greatest hits. $659 says the next time a pilot announces a holding pattern, you look out the window for a guy on a snowmobile.
What works: Bruce Willis is still great as a tired, freezing McClane, and the baggage belt fight and the ejection seat scene are big popcorn fun.
What doesn’t: It rebuilds the first movie beat for beat, and the circling planes setup falls apart the moment you ask why nobody lands somewhere else.
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a second helping of the original with extra snow, and people who are still annoyed about their last flight delay.
Spoilers
The Army team sent to stop Stuart is secretly working with him, led by Major Grant. McClane fights them on the wing of their getaway plane, then drops a lighter on the trail of leaking fuel, and the blast lights up the runway so the circling planes, Holly’s included, can finally land.
John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back, and it's Christmas again, which never goes well for him. He's at Dulles Airport outside Washington waiting for his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) to land when a crew of ex-soldiers led by Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) cuts off the control tower and shuts down the runway lights. Their goal: free General Esperanza (Franco Nero), a foreign strongman being flown in to stand trial. Now planes are circling in a snowstorm with fuel running low, Holly's included, and airport police captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) just wants McClane out of his way. Renny Harlin directs. One hundred twenty-four minutes, one snowstorm, same bad luck.
Anyone stuck at the airport over the holidays. Could be worse. Could be Dulles in 1990.
LAPD Detective Lieutenant John McClanephoto: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Holly Gennero McClanephoto: Warner Bros. Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
LAPD Sergeant Al Powellphoto: Sidewalks Entertainment on Vimeo, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
United States Army Colonel William Stuartphoto: Carolynfulton2021, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Bruce Willis | LAPD Detective Lieutenant John McClane |
| Bonnie Bedelia | Holly Gennero McClane |
| William Atherton | Richard "Dick" Thornburg |
| Reginald VelJohnson | LAPD Sergeant Al Powell |
| Franco Nero | General Ramon Esperanza |
| William Sadler | United States Army Colonel William Stuart |
| John Amos | Major Grant |
| Dennis Franz | Airport Police Captain Carmine Lorenzo |
| Art Evans | Leslie Barnes |
| Fred Thompson | Ed Trudeau |
| Tom Bower | Marvin |
| Sheila McCarthy | Samantha "Sam" Coleman |
| Robert Costanzo | Dulles International Airport Police Sergeant Vito Lorenzo |
| Colm Meaney | Windsor Pilot |
| James Lancaster | Windsor Navigator |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.2 / 10 (410,805 votes) → 7.2 / 10 (410,829 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $240M; Domestic box office $117.5M; Opening weekend $21.7M; Profit / loss (est.) +$22.5M; Rotten Tomatoes 68%; CinemaScore A; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 68% (68 reviews); Metacritic 67 / 100; CinemaScore A; IMDb users 7.2 / 10 (410,805 votes); movie.guru score 7.1.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.