It all comes down to the fact that the original film didn't have an ordinary world established. To put it another way, the film failed to define the relationships and characters of the main players, so they had no hope of developing or arcing. And if characters don't grow or change, the audience can't care about them or the outcome of the film.
Still, as convoluted and illogical as some of the plot elements in the film were, the story could've worked. Even keeping John McClane's son Jack as a CIA agent and the villainous events in Russia, the film could've worked, if only...
Here's how I would've resolved it.
Rather than a contentious relationship between John and Jack (as it's too similar to the contentious relationship McClane had with daughter Lucy in "Die Hard 4"), I'd have established their relationship as distant, but cordial. I'd imagine that McClane's many heroic moments over the years would've appealed to his son -- and perhaps Jack wanted to follow in his dad's cop footsteps -- but John put his foot down, insisting his son pursue a less dangerous profession. So, Jack instead goes into agriculture -- or some such innocuous field -- so John (and the audience) believes...
And rather than have McClane set off on a mission to rescue his son, I'd instead open on John in NYC en media res. In the opening shot McClane's already in a tense standoff with some mysterious super-villain who's got him solving some impossible puzzle, or racing across town against the clock. Or so he thinks (again -- gotta have those twists!)...
In reality, it's John's detective friends messing with him, sending him on a coffee run or some such nonsense, although he doesn't know it until he gets there. Joke's on John, but it's all in good fun -- because his cop buddies have noticed how bored McClane has become with mundane police work lately. After all, McClane hasn't had to save the world for quite some time.
Once the joke is done, McClane gets convinced to finally take some time off from the job, and he decides to spend it with his son. Only his son isn't home, he's on his way to Russia to attend to some "agricultural business." John decides to tag along on this trip, despite the long flight and his dislike of flying (the abandoned helicopter lessons from DH4 not withstanding).
Once there, John happens to overhear on their hotel room t.v. of the former billionaire and would-be politician whose fates will have some sort of dramatic impact on the U.S. and the world if they don't sort themselves out properly. McClane discusses the potential upheaval with his son, but Jack feigns total ignorance of the goings on.
Of course, Jack has secret C.I.A. work that needs doing, so he's sneaking about furtively. And of course, observant McClane would catch on quick to his son's secretive behavior, so he's spying on his spy son, thinking that his son's "agricultural business" may actually involve drugs of some sort.
Soon, John's taking action to take out his own son for his own good, only to learn (at the exact same time as the audience) that in plotting to foil his son, he's technically plotting against the American government because (big reveal) Jack is a C.I.A. agent!
McClane is furious (of course) to learn his son totally defied his "don't become a cop, it's too dangerous" dictate and has actually gotten himself into the even more dangerous C.I.A. So, even though he's been ordered to stand down, John inserts himself into the Plan B mission (because, he foiled Plan A when he thought his son was a drug kingpin), because John is determined to a) protect his son and b) see if he can't get his son kicked out of the C.I.A. and thus force Jack to move on to a safer career.
Naturally, even though Jack resents his father's meddling at first, it's actually a good thing that McClane stuck his gun in, because there's a traitor on the C.I.A.'s team. Jack would've been dead (like the rest of his team -- aside from the traitor) if John hadn't been on hand to rescue him.
So now it's down to Jack and John alone to complete this time-sensitive C.I.A. mission. Only John doesn't want to. You see, if Jack succeeds, then he'll get a commendation and assigned to even more dangerous duty in the future. And John doesn't want that, so he refuses to help. But Jack manages to convince his father that the fate of America hangs in the balance -- the mission must succeed or the U.S.A. will suffer.
So John reluctantly agrees, but ONLY if Jack consents to do things his way. So the second half of act two focuses on John trying to do it all while keeping his C.I.A. trained son on the sidelines for his own safety. Of course Jack can't stand for this -- seeing McClane fumble about in a foreign country when Jack actually speaks the language (to John's and the audience's surprise again) and has been briefed with vital classified information. So the two battle in typical father-son fashion.
In the end, John learns to let go and trust his son's ability and accept that Jack must risk his life (after Jack points out that ex-wife Holly McClane had to deal with the same struggles as a cop's wife back in the day). And Jack learns to respect and rely on his father's wing-it ways, rather than being locked in to the mission strategies. After all, even though Jack has some successes and shows up his father once or twice , in the end it's John McClane who saves the day.
THIS is the story that should've happened in between all the explosions in "A Good Day to Die Hard." Regardless of who the villains were or what they were after, a good story always comes down to the lives, relationships and lessons learned by the hero(es).
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment