It's classic and probably the most overused(other than a gunshot) movie death in film. The fall. Variants on the death include landing on sharp objects, landscape features, or falling into oblivion. Hitchcock did it best, as he would show the character in free fall then cut to reaction shots. But the death fall really hadn't evolved since, that is until Die Hard came out in 1988. This time we get a climactic slow-motion release and a long one-shot free fall to the ground floor of Nakatomi Plaza. If movies have proved anything, it's that gravity is never your friend. Especially if you are a villain.
The best part of Gruber's death most people miss is the watch itself which McClane unclasps. It's the same watch Holly received as a bonus for her hard work at Nakatomi Plaza(which is why she is so distant from John). So, not only does McClane save the day and kill the bad guy, he also symbolically unclasps Holly Genero.
Yippie-ki-yay, muthaf#@%*r! translates in Urdu to "here eat this"
For the shot, Alan Rickman was actually falling from a 20-foot high model onto an air bag. To get the right reaction, the stunt man dropped Rickman on the count of two, not three.
John McTiernan was originally going to make Commando 2, but Arnold Schwarzenegger turned the role offer down. Commando 2 was transformed into Die Hard (1988) and Schwarzenegger was the first actor offered the title role, but he again declined. Eventually Bruce Willis would get the part after Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, and Richard Gere were all offered the role.
