February 20, 2008
Staring out the window of his 11th-floor office in downtown Richmond, stock analyst and daydreamer David P. Russell came to a stunning realization that the city would make an incredible setting for the fifth installment of the “Die Hard” series.
“I’m not even sure if they are planning a fifth, but if they did, could you imagine? We’ve got the perfect location,” Russell said of the four-film franchise starring Bruce Willis as New York detective and hero cop John McClane.
“Dude, seriously, think about it – they’ve done L.A., New York, D.C. and Dulles airport. Come a little farther south, and prepare to be blown away…in Richmond,” he said, making explosion sounds and throwing his hands up in the air like a mushroom cloud.
With the understanding that he would accomplish little work and be of no help in assisting with ISOs and NQSOs during the next hour, Russell explained his wide-ranging, several-fold reasons for believing that the Virginia capital is “Die Hard”-worthy.
“For one, our water, rail and road infrastructures alone make for the perfect chase sequences,” he said, noting the hill on Easy Cary Street leading into Shockoe Slip would be awesome for seven to eight cars – McClane in a pickup truck – to drive down at high speeds, flying in the air, guns blazing, as they pass through intersections toward lower ground.
“Of course, a few cars will have to go crashing into parallel-parked cars,” Russell noted, adding that glass would fly everywhere.
“And [McClane] will need to fish-tail his truck around a corner somewhere,” he added, mimicking the move by sliding aside an inventory-level analysis for a Fortune 500 retailer that was due more than hour ago.
In terms of the “Die Hard 5″ plot, Russell said the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond would have to play an integral role, as it is one of the 12 central banks in the U.S.
“Perhaps something about how the terrorists plan to completely bankrupt America and use the money to buy nukes or drugs,” Russell said, adding the bad guys would be Russian for nukes or South American for drugs.
However, Russell noted, while the “Die Hard” movies are known for their storylines and humor, more important are the film’s famed action sequences.
“Which is, I think, where the city can really shine,” he said.
He said there would need to be a street-shootout scene, which would require closing down the 9th Street bridge for filming. The James River’s world-class white-water rapids could also be leveraged into a boat-fighting scene, Russell noted.
In addition, one of the area’s many warehouses under renovation could also be utilized, he said, as McClane battles terrorists in a sharply-choreographed sequence involving metal poles, scaffolding and a “really gory part” as a bad guy is killed by band saw.
“Then Bruce Willis could steal the guy’s gun and say something clever, like, ‘Don’t think he saw that one coming,’” Russell said, hitting the ignore option on an incoming BlackBerry call.
He was quick to mention that since the films have favored major explosions such as the blasts at the Nakatomi Plaza in the first movie and a Boeing 747 in the second – along with a subway station, department store, cargo ship and toll plaza in the third and fourth installments – “Die Hard 5″ would need to find something in Richmond that is expendable, an explosion likely done through computer animation. “I could easily see a railroad explosion with the nukes or drugs,” he said.
Russell also had ideas for the film’s climactic ending.
“A definite chase through Byrd Park, incorporating that jogging trail with all the the runners and walkers jumping out of the way like in the third one where Bruce Willis drives the taxi through Central Park,” Russell said.
“Then he dodges onto the Downtown Expressway, a black helicopter shooting at him from above,” he added, making helicopter noises and using a stapler and calculator to demonstrate his vision. “Then it’s onto those overpasses above Shockoe, which is where things would really get hairy.”
At this point, Russell believes McClane’s car would be shot by a missile from a Harrier jet that is perhaps being flown by a bad guy, the propulsion from which sends the hero and his car off the highway and straight into a living room in the Vistas on the James at 14th Street.
“Where someone is likely having sex,” Russell chuckled, “though only brief nudity – nothing major, to keep the focus on the action.”
Filing away a cost-to-service tradeoff analysis for a regional transportation company with operations throughout the mid-Atlantic, Russell explained that McClane will be bloodied and tired but make his way onto the roof, jumping onto the bottom of the chasing helicopter. “Which is spinning out of control and just goes barreling straight into the side of the [Federal] Reserve,” Russell said, using a pen and his computer monitor to simulate the sequence and humming possible background music for the scene.
A huge fight ensues between Bruce Willis and the bad guy, “probably Philip Seymour Hoffman, on the side of the building, 22 stories up, on top of the helicopter, which is just hanging there by a metal cable or two.”
And in the final minutes, Russell said, McClane would come to the conclusion that, against all odds, he has the upper-hand and give his classic line, “Yippee-ki-yay, mother-effer,” before kicking Hoffman off the side of the building.
“It could be great,”Russell concluded, maximizing the computer window for Oracle Discoverer to finish up his workday.
The studio that produces the “Die Hard” franchise, 20th Century Fox, said it was considering Richmond as “the 27th option” on its list of possible locations for the sequel, just one spot behind Charlotte, N.C.
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Richmond would not make a perfect location for DH5, if it is to happen!! in DH4 they travel to many different locations. Starting in Jersey, going to DC, Baltimore, places in PA, and im pretty sure there are more. There are plenty of footage of DH4 in MD, so why would we travel to VA, when MD is really just an hour away?? If DH5 were really to happen, they would need to film in another popular location.