Question: What about Al's driving made John question if Stevie Wonder was driving? Later on in the bathroom, he states, "The way you drove that car, I figured you for the streets." What exactly is wrong with his driving?
Die Hard (1988)
1 answered question since 2 Mar '25, 04:28
Directed by: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Gleason, Reginald VelJohnson
Other mistake: Powell says he has a desk job, but he is driving a cruiser. Cruisers are for cops on patrol. A cruiser would not be issued for a cop at a desk, especially not one who's on his way home, as Al says he is.
John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.
Trivia: The teddy bear that Bruce Willis brings to his son is the same bear Alec Baldwin brings home to his daughter at the end of "The Hunt for Red October," which is another John McTiernan film.
Question: On the some versions (TV), when Al walks in the lobby to check it out, right before he gets to the elevators and then leaves, the camera pans to the left and you see a terrorist with a machine gun waiting for him. On other versions (VHS) you don't see this terrorist. Why? NOTE: I've seen both on the same TV set.
Answer: The most likely reason is that the two versions have been "panned and scanned" differently. In the original theater version, both things are on screen at the same time at opposite sides of the screen. In one version, the person who did the TV P&S (not someone associated with the making of the film) chose to move the view from one side of the original picture to the other, showing the terrorist, while the person who did the VHS P&S stayed focused on one side of the frame, only showing Al.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: At first, John made the mocking Stevie Wonder remark because Al drove up to the Nakatomi Building very slowly and leisurely after John made that frantic emergency call to the police. He was expecting a forceful police response. Later, John is referring to how Al had suddenly flown into action and expertly drove the cop car backwards after the dead body hit the hood/windshield. John meant that Al must have been a patrol cop skilled at high-speed driving.
raywest ★