Hans Gruber (character)

Hans Gruber
Die Hard character
HansGruber.jpeg
Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in Die Hard
First appearanceDie Hard (1988)
Last appearanceDie Hard: Nakatomi Plaza (2002)
Created by
Based onAnton Gruber
by Roderick Thorp
Portrayed byAlan Rickman
In-universe information
AliasBill Clay
GenderMale
OccupationCriminal
FamilySimon Gruber (brother; deceased)
ChildrenPiet Gruber (son; deceased)
NationalityGerman

Hans Gruber is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the 1988 action film Die Hard portrayed by Alan Rickman.

Gruber is a cunning thief and criminal mastermind from Germany who holds the Nakatomi Plaza hostage to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds. His plan is foiled by New York cop John McClane, who happened upon Gruber's plot by mistake. Since his first appearance, Gruber has been cemented as one of the most iconic villains in film history โ€“ as well as often being ranked as the greatest action movie villain of all time and one of Rickman's most iconic roles. The villain became so popular with movie fans, the producers introduced his brother, Simon (played by Jeremy Irons), as the primary antagonist of the third film in the franchise โ€“ Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Fictional character biography

Gruber was born in Germany with his brother, Simon, and claimed to have been classically educated. In his young adult life, Gruber joined the Volksfrei, a West German radical group. Gruber was eventually expelled from the organization due to his overly greedy and violent behaviour. Gruber used his past as part of the Volksfrei to be able to successfully anticipate certain attacks and defences and find ways of counteracting them. This was shown during the siege of Nakatomi Plaza, where Gruber was able to anticipate certain strategies from the LAPD and the FBI. Gruber used his reputation to amass a following of criminals in Europe, and appointed Karl Vreski to be his right-hand man. Gruber plotted the siege of Nakatomi himself and travelled to the United States to enact his plan.[citation needed]

Taking the Nakatomi Plaza

Gruber, Vreski and the rest of his group enlist the help of hacker Theo to successfully break through Nakatomi's security systems to steal the $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds that are being held at the tower in a high-security vault with seven locks. The final lock of the safe is electromagnetic, which prompts Gruber and his men to assume the guise of terrorists, to allow the FBI to intervene and cut the power to the building, allowing the vault to be opened. Gruber and the majority of his crew arrive at the Nakatomi Plaza via a Pacific Courier van. Karl and hacker Theo took out the guards in the main lobby, and Karl and his brother Tony proceeded to cut the telephone lines while Theo stopped the elevators. Hans and his henchmen arrive on the 30th floor of the building, where a Christmas party is taking place, and open fire to make their presence known. This catches the attention of off-duty New York Police Department officer John McClane, who was at Nakatomi Plaza visiting his estranged wife, Holly Gennero. McClane is able to successfully hide from the criminals while Gruber scans the party for the president of Nakatomi's trading, Joseph Takagi, taking Takagi to a boardroom to negotiate. Gruber begins questioning Takagi for the code to the vault. After repeatedly denying any knowledge of the combination, Takagi retorts with "You're just going to have to kill me!", to which Gruber responds by shooting Takagi in the head. McClane witnesses this, and accidentally draws the attention of Gruber and his men. Gruber sends Tony after McClane, but McClane accidentally kills him, causing Karl to become vengeful towards him. While Gruber is distracted by Karl's grief, McClane is able to successfully attract the attention of the authorities, who send police officer Al Powell to investigate. After Powell is unable to find anything suspicious at Nakatomi, McClane throws one of the criminal's bodies onto his car as he's about to leave, after which the remaining criminals open fire on the car, causing it to crash while Powell calls for backup. McClane acquires a two-way radio from one of the criminals he killed and is able to explain the situation to Powell as the police arrive, led by Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson. Due to Gruber's ability to hear McClane's discussions over the radio, the two share a conversation, in which Gruber begins dubbing the unknown assailant "Cowboy". One of Holly's co-workers, Harry Ellis, attempts to negotiate with Gruber, and reveals McClane's name to him, hoping to score points with Gruber by turning McClane over to the criminal. When this doesn't work, Hans kills Ellis with McClane and the police force listening on the radio, and demands the release of several terrorist organisations' members worldwide to fool the authorities. Just as Gruber had anticipated, the FBI arrives and takes control from the LAPD, shutting down the power to the building.

First confrontation with John McClane

While searching for the detonators to his explosives, Gruber finally comes face-to-face with John McClane. Presuming that McClane doesn't know who he is, Gruber uses the alias of "Bill Clay" and fakes an American accent in hopes of gaining McClane's trust. McClane appears to let his guard down and gives Gruber a gun. When Gruber reveals himself and attempts to use the gun against McClane, it is revealed that McClane had emptied the weapon. Gruber's men arrive at his location resulting in a shoot-out between McClane and Gruber. Gruber notices that McClane is barefoot, and instructs Karl to shoot at the glass panels nearby to slow him down and leave a blood trail. This causes McClane to flee, leaving the detonators behind. Gruber activates the detonators, revealing that he had set a trap for the FBI to lure them to use a helicopter to escort them to Los Angeles International Airport in exchange for the hostages being kept on the 30th floor, planning to use the explosives to make himself and his crew appear dead so they can escape with the money. Gruber witnesses a television report by Richard Thornburg, where he interrogates McClane's young daughter, Lucy, and reveals that Holly Gennero is John McClane's estranged wife. Vengeful, Gruber takes Holly as his hostage while the FBI are dispatched in the explosion. McClane was able to save the hostages by scaring them back downstairs with gunfire, which led to the FBI agents believing he was a terrorist. McClane narrowly escapes the explosion by jumping off the roof of the building with a fire hose tied around his waist.

Robbery and death

While Hans and the last remaining member of his crew, Eddie, collect the money, McClane's limousine driver Argyle dispatches of Theo in the parking garage, leaving Gruber with no getaway driver. McClane re-enters the building and discovers that Gruber has taken Holly hostage. McClane tapes his Beretta to the back of his neck and enters the vault. Gruber places his gun to Holly's head, ordering McClane to drop his machine gun and place his hands behind his head. After McClane remarks that Gruber "would have made a pretty good cowboy" himself, Gruber responds by mocking McClane's earlier quip "Yippee-ki-yea, motherfucker", and removes the gun from Holly's head, pointing it in the air. Laughing at the impression, McClane seizes this opportunity to use the gun that was taped to the back of his neck to shoot Eddie and Gruber, killing the former and wounding the latter. Gruber staggers backwards towards the window whilst still holding on to Holly, falling through it and dangling over the side. He holds on to Holly's watch out of the window, attempting to drag her to death with him. McClane rushes to save Holly, while Gruber aims his gun at McClane. Before he can open fire, McClane detaches the watch from Holly's wrist - sending a terrified Gruber falling thirty stories to his death.

Simon's revenge

Hans's estranged brother, Simon Gruber, would attempt to enact revenge on McClane seven years after the events of the Nakatomi siege. Simon would end up being defeated and killed by McClane and his friend Zeus Carver. Rickman also briefly appears as Hans Gruber in a flashback sequence through use of archival footage from the first film.

Production

Hans Gruber was the first major film role given to Alan Rickman. Rickman was cast after producer Joel Silver saw him during a Broadway run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. A green screen was used for the now infamous scene of Gruber's death. Rickman was to be dropped 70 feet, and was let go sooner than expected, causing the shocked look of fear on Gruber's face to be genuine. The first shot taken ended up being the one used in the movie. The scene where Gruber pretends to be an escaped hostage named Bill Clay was not originally included in the script, and was added once the production crew discovered that Rickman could pull off a convincing American accent. According to actor Hans Buhringer, who portrayed the criminal Fritz in the film, Rickman researched meticulously to perfect his German accent and was even able to achieve the German-English dialect throughout the film.

Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza wrote the screenplay for Die Hard with the mindset of Gruber being the protagonist of the story. De Souza stated, "If he had not planned the robbery and put it together, Bruce Willis would have just gone to the party and reconciled or not with his wife. You should sometimes think about looking at your movie through the point of view of the villain who is really driving the narrative."

Reception and legacy

Gruber has gone on to become one of the most iconic villains in cinematic history and is often considered one of the greatest. Gruber was listed by Empire magazine as the 17th Greatest Movie Character of All Time out of 100, while John McClane placed 12th on the same list. Gruber also ranked No. 4 on Empire's list of the Greatest Movie Villains of All Time, only being beaten by Darth Vader, The Joker and Loki. Gruber was also selected by the American Film Institute as #46 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains. Gruber was listed by IGN as #14 of their top 100 villains. Gruber would also go on to influence subsequent movie villains such as Howard Payne in Speed, Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom in Con Air, Eric Qualen in Cliffhanger and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One.

Due to the popularity of Gruber, actor Alan Rickman ended up being cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991, and was subsequently said to be typecast as villainous characters (despite playing other kinds of characters more frequently) until he portrayed the anti-hero Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series.

Due to the film and the character's iconic status, Gruber has been referenced multiple times in popular culture. The police-comedy show Brooklyn Nine-Nine makes references to Gruber (and Die Hard itself) quite often, as the character of Jake Peralta cites Die Hard as his favourite film of all time. One episode in particular includes the cast going to the Fox Plaza (which acted as the stand-in for Nakatomi Plaza in the film and where the majority of the film was shot) and re-enacting iconic scenes from the film, including Gruber's death. As well as a Christmas themed episode where Peralta is thrown into a "Die Hard-esque" scenario involving terrorists and hostages. Other shows such as The Office and Friends have also featured references to Gruber. Gruber's death was also briefly parodied in The Lego Batman Movie in a scene where Alfred Pennyworth seemingly falls to his death. Gruber is also the subject of a parody video done by Funny Or Die in which Gruber negotiates via walkie talkie with Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman, played by Tom Cruise. Gruber is the namesake for Texas-based punk rock band "Hans Gruber and the Die Hards", and was among the bases for the character Artemis Fowl II, the main antagonist of the book series of the same name, described by its author Eoin Colfer as "Die Hard with fairies".


This page was last updated at 2022-02-19 13:52 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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