Spoilers for the Season 2 finale of 1923 are ahead! To stream the first two seasons in full, all you need is a Paramount+ subscription.
In the Season 2 finale of 1923, there is a ton of jaw-dropping action (the train station and ranch fights) and reveals (Alex’s baby being named John). However, I’d argue that the most badass moment of this whole episode came after Spencer Dutton killed Donald Whitfield and then walked out of his burning house next to Jacob Dutton. So, obviously, I had to ask Brandon Sklenar what it was like to film such an epic moment with Harrison Ford, and he compared it to Die Hard and John Wick.
As the finale aired on the 2025 TV schedule, and I watched this scene specifically for the first time, I couldn’t help but think about some of the best action movies and moments where characters walk away from an explosion or a burning building without looking back at it. It turns out, Sklenar couldn’t either, as he understandably likened this scene to Die Hard and John Wick, telling me:
I felt exactly how you felt watching it. It's that thing. It's that shot that you see in so many movies, action films, where it's, you know, Die Hard walking away from a blown up building. It's all in our brains. We've all seen it. It's probably in John Wick 100 times. That's what Taylor [Sheridan] was doing, his version of that, for sure.
It feels important to note that the fact that John McClane is nicknamed Mr. Cowboy by Hans Gruber in Die Hard makes this even better.
Plus, in a lot of ways, Sepncer’s absolute annihilation of everyone trying to take down his family reminded me a lot of Bruce Willis' iconic movie and his characters’ actions in it. So, the walk out of the burning building after killing Whitfield was the cherry on top, and it 100% gave big Die Hard and John Wick energy.
Sklenar also loved filming this scene because it paid homage to iconic action films and, you know, he got to do it with Harrison Ford, as he explained:
And just the little kid in me to be able to do that, I've never done that in anything. Had like the shot of me killing the guys and walking out of a burning building. But to do it next to Harrison Ford is pretty cool, and it was really cool.
While Bruce Willis and Keanu Reeves are action heroes Sklenar specifically mentioned, let’s not forget that Harrison Ford is at the center of the Indiana Jones films and Star Wars movies. So, not only did the Drop actor get to play out a classic action moment, he also got to do it with a bonafide action star.
He was very aware of that too, gushing about the Shrinking actor while he told me about filming this epic instance.
At one point while filming the scene where Spencer and Jacob walk out of the burning house, Slkenar said he and Ford just kept walking and walking toward the cameras without stopping. Then, at one point, his co-star told him to make a run for it:
Once we passed the cameras, he was like, ‘Run, kid, run.’ And then we just took off sprinting, and he just sprinted away from the cameras. And it was a really fun moment, because that guy is just the best. He's the best. He's just as cool and as friendly and as sweet as you could possibly want him to be. And it was just a really cool experience.
Well that story just makes this whole entire situation even better. While they looked totally badass in the moment, I’m maybe even more obsessed with how much fun the seemed to be having while shooting it.
There’s no denying that these action-packed and death-filled episodes of 1923 have been epic and done on a grand scale, and this scene specifically is a great example of that. So, yeah, I can see why the real Mr. Cowboy compared it to Die Hard’s Mr. Cowboy and other beloved action flicks.
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