posty

22nd Mar 2004

Die Hard (1988)

Question: Can someone please explain the scene where McClane and Hans are alone near the roof. Hans says his name is "Bill Clay" and the camera zooms in on a board with the name Clay on it. What is the significance of this? Does this give Hans away? And if so how?

Answer: No, this doesn't give Hans away - the zoom represents McClane checking the board out - getting proof that there is indeed a person in the building with that name (listed as W. Clay, for William). Hans has obviously done his homework, but McClane doesn't trust him anyway, hence the trick with the empty gun.

Tailkinker

Actually, it said "Wm. Clay", which is for William. W. Clay could have been for Wanda or Walter or Wesley or Waldo, etc.

posty

It's most likely "WM" for William Mark Clay or similar - no reason William would have an extra letter tacked on but others wouldn't.

Wm is commonly the initials for "William", as opposed to W for "Will." On the board, it shows WM simply because they don't have/use any lower-case letters; they're all block letters.

Bishop73

Answer: John already knew what Hans looked like. He saw him through the vent on the top of the elevator (after sending Karl's brother down wearing the sweater) - He also saw Hans shoot Takagi (which is why he says "Just like you did with Takagi" after Hans says he's gonna count to three).

He never sees Hans' face in either scene. In fact, once the scene where they meet on the roof was added (midway through filming, once the director realised Alan Rickman could do a passable American accent), the scene where Hans shoots Takagi was reedited in such a way as to be clear that McClane never gets a good look at Hans' face, only hears his voice.

31st Jul 2023

X (2022)

Question: At the beginning, what were the cops looking at in the basement that was so bad? As far as I recall, there was just the dead guy chained to the wall, and possibly Jenna Ortega's body. Neither of which seem any more messed up than the bodies the cops already covered up.

Answer: It was just the naked man chained up. Lorraine was being dragged inside when she gurgled, and the old man had a heart attack and died. They were just inside the front door.

posty

Answer: The plane does in fact hit one of the towers. It strikes the tower, then crashes to the ground.

Answer: The plane does not hit one of the twin towers. Start video at 1:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkU1LFgKS9Y. The towers are on the far left, and then when it strikes the building, that is not what the external view of the twin towers look like. Then, when it shows the video of the escape pod, the building that it hit was the same height as a lot of the buildings surrounding it.

posty

Answer: Whilst not explicitly shown onscreen, at least in the dvd I own, the plane is shown heading straight for the twins. The crash also is never seen, due to budgetary reasons.

Alan Keddie

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.