There are many reasons why Die Hard is my personal choice for the greatest Christmas movie of all time. The most essential, however, is the heart-stopping sequences that also make the 1988 hit an undisputed action movie classic worth watching any time of the year, such as John McClane’s (Bruce Willis) jump from the top of the Nakatomi Plaza right as a fiery blaze erupts from behind him.
Of course, that was probably not the actor himself and just a stunt performer braving that death-defying feat, right? Ehhhhh! Sorry, reader. Wrong guess. Would you like to go for Double Jeopardy where the scores can really change? Or, you could just keep reading this inside look at how the most explosive moment from the beloved Christmas action movie was filmed.
Bruce Willis Performed The Die Hard Stunt Himself
Indeed, it is not a stunt performer you see on camera when New York City detective John McClane leaps from the exploding roof of the Los Angeles high-rise, but the lead star of the Die Hard cast himself, Bruce Willis. However, in reality, he did not brave 40 stories but jumped from the top of a five story parking garage. The actor recalled just how dangerous it was to film one of the most memorable scenes from one of the best Bruce Willis movies in the following quote from a 2007 Entertainment Weekly interview:
I’m up there on the roof and they’re strapping the firehose around my waist and they’re slathering me up with this stuff and I said, ‘What’s this for?’ And they said, ‘That’s so you don’t catch on fire. See those big plastic bags of gasoline over there? We’re gonna blow them up when you jump!’
Hearing those words would be distressing enough to any actor. Yet, something to keep in mind is that, at the time, Willis was best known for the romantic dramedy series Moonlighting, the 1987 rom-com Blind Date, and starring in commercials for Seagram’s Golden Wine Coolers. So, he had never done anything like this before. In fact, this very stunt was the first of Die Hard’s action sequences he performed.
The Roof Jump Stunt Was The First Die Hard Scene Bruce Willis Shot
In the same EW interview, Willis mentions that the Nakatomi roof stunt was the first scene he shot on the first night of production for Die Hard. Apparently, that was a deliberate decision, according to this quote:
Finally, I was like, ‘Why would you shoot this scene first?’ And they were like, ‘If you were killed at the end of the movie it would cost us a lot more money because we’d have to reshoot the whole thing with another actor.’
He says this with a laugh but it reinforces just how much Willis (who was not even the bankable movie star this thriller would make him into yet) was willing to risk for the production. Not to mention, he came very close to meeting a bitter end, or at least a world of hurt, when filming the scene.
Bruce Willis Nearly Injured Himself Performing The Stunt
In Die Hard, McClane has nothing but a firehose to keep him from falling to his death as he swings from the Nakatomi rooftop and onto a lower floor through a window that he breaks with a few bullets and his bare feet. Luckily, Willis had an airbag to land on when he performed the stunt but even that was not as reliable as he hoped, as he also mentioned to EW:
When I jumped, the force of the explosion blew me out to the very edge of the air bag I was supposed to land on. And when I landed everyone came running over to me and I thought they were going to say, ‘Great job! Attaboy!’ And what they were doing is seeing if I’m alive because I almost missed the bag.
When promoting the movie, Willis told Entertainment Tonight that he probably would have been too scared to film the roof jump scene had he seen the “spectacular” sequence beforehand. Furthermore, he swore to never perform a movie stunt like that himself ever again. Who could blame him?
