Die Hard 2
Die Hard 2 mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Obvious stunt double for the black terrorist during the fight with McClane in the baggage area. He looks younger than him and has a different hairstyle. (00:14:10)

Die Hard 2 mistake picture

Revealing mistake: On one of the first shots of inside Holly's plane, you can see the blue screens through the windows. No, it's not blue sky, in all the following shots the sky outside is orange. (00:16:30)

Revealing mistake: When the soldier is lighting General Esperanza's cigar while Esperanza is still a prisoner in transport, the cigar is visibly already lit before the soldier's lighter brushes over the cigar. (00:24:30)

Revealing mistake: Right after they realise they have to get the planes in a holding pattern to clear the runways of snow, you can see a shot of Holly's plane. This is a model (Look at the clouds; they don't change shape that fast) and the fact that the lights on the wings are flipped. The right wing always has a green light, the left wing always has a red light. In this shot, the lights are reversed but not the logo. So it's not a mirrored image; it is a model. Also the lights on the top are LEDs in a strip. (00:27:38)

RogierMaas

Die Hard 2 mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the skywalk scene, when McClane pushes the paint stand on the terrorist, it is quite obvious that they use a dummy when the paint stand falls on the terrorist and crushes him. (00:45:05)

Die Hard 2 mistake picture

Revealing mistake: Throughout the whole movie, bits of 'snow' stuck to various things in close up view (i.e. guns, hair, faces, clothing). Look closely at the snow, its quite obvious that they are actually little thin scraps of white plastic. Most evident is in McClane's hair when the platoon is about to move in on the church, the shot of him saying "You're not such an asshole, after all." (01:27:55)

BillyBlake

Revealing mistake: When the army guy opens the door on the 747 to climb out onto the wing, the outside door handle does not move and looks painted on. When the second guy re-enters the plane and shuts the same door, there is no locking mechanism shown on the sides of the door; it simply pushes open.

Revealing mistake: When the terrorists cut the pipes with wires behind the church, one guy uses a chainsaw, and the pipes he cuts are all empty.

manthabeat

Die Hard 2 mistake picture

Revealing mistake: McClane jumps out of the helicopter at the end and lands on the wing of the larger airplane. The stunt man who does this then proceeds to move up to a long wire on the side of the wing. Any normal airplane would not have a long wire on the wing.

manthabeat

Factual error: In circling over Washington Dulles, a plane would fly over several airports that they could land at with perfect communication, including Richmond, Baltimore, Andrews AFB, etc. Also, there is no communication from the airport to the plane but the plane would be in range of no fewer than 15 transmitting stations that could have relayed messages.

More mistakes in Die Hard 2

John McClane: Hey Carmine, let me ask you a question. When you go through the airport metal detector, what sets it off first? The lead in your ass or the shit in your brains?

More quotes from Die Hard 2

Trivia: The film is based on a book called "58 Minutes" by Walter Wager. In the book, it is the hero's young daughter, not his wife, that is on one of the planes.

Mark Bernhard

More trivia for Die Hard 2

Question: How could McClane tell that the ammo in the blue labeled magazine were blanks?

Answer: If you listen, he says something to the effect of "I know I had that guy in my sights", meaning he is amazed he missed. So he checks the bullets in the magazine to see if that's the problems. Blanks are simply shells with no bullet that are crimped shut to hold the powder in. The difference between blanks and live rounds is very obvious even at a glance.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: Just before the attack on the church, Grant and his team switch the red taped clips from their weapons with blue taped clips. The blue clips carried blanks and the red clips carried real ammo. After firing on a guy but not hitting him, McClane checked the clip and realised that the gun he used had blanks and that Grant and his team were involved with freeing Esperanza.

Quite apart from the fact that anyone who has spent his whole professional life with guns would know instantly that he had just shot off a magazine of blanks – no recoil.

More questions & answers from Die Hard 2

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.