Die Hard 3: Mise-En-Scene

By

Jonathan Burden

Synopsis Of The Film

• Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is now divorced, alcoholic and jobless after getting fired for his reckless behavior and bad attitude.

• He is called back into action, however, when a cryptic terrorist (Jeremy Irons) takes New York City hostage in a lethal game of "Simon Says" and refuses to speak with anyone but McClane.

• Teaming up with a electrician named Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), McClane dashes through the city, trying to stay one step ahead of a murderous plot.

Introducing The Film• The Film starts out with different establishing shots of New York city, with a summer

soundtrack accompanying the scene to make the audience feel as if nothing bad is going on during the opening scene.

• It also has the title coming in fast with additional sound effects to enhance the action mood. The bold, large text is right in your face to make the audience keep on their toes.

• The colours start out predominantly red, showing the sun rising, making the audience feel a little uneasy, since red can signify evil, then going to normal colours of a late morning, once again making the scene look uninteresting.

• The film also includes two iconic landmarks/symbols in the form of the Statue Of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

• The Song used in the opening sequence is a famous 1970s song called Summer In The City, possibly used to make older audiences remember their time as youths themselves.

• Part of the American culture in New York City is shown as commuters go about their day during the establish shots.

• Here is a clip of the beginning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAqBvO63oE

Beginning Of The Film• The film starts off with having a few more shots of New York City from long shots, the film then

uses an elevated camera, slowly scrolling up to get more of an action shot of people going about their day.

• Suddenly, a building explodes, cars flip about everywhere, there’s a lot of dust and debris flying around everywhere. People scatter around and the camera then zooms in closely at the action, providing the audience with a point to focus their attention on.

• The camera goes back and forth zooming in and out of the explosion multiple times with different angles to show each possible side of the explosion.

• Some of the different angles are also in slow motion to further impact home what is going on in the scene.

• Finally, the action settles down and two different camera angles capture the devastating aftermath both with long and close shots.

• We then cut to someone messing with a bomb, a message to the audience indicating what will be the main enemy in the film-Bombs.

• McClane- The main protagonist is shown watching the other police officers disarm a bomb then, throw the detonator towards the door, where a female assistant almost gets struck.

• The Camera uses many close shots here during the police station, helping the focus stay towards all the officers in the building.

Ending Of The Film•In the end of Die Hard 3, the heroes find the abandoned warehouse of the villains and give them a surprise. The camera angles first show the helicopter coming in with a close shot, then it goes to a close up view to the villains, allowing viewers to see how angry they are at this. The woman tries to shoot the helicopter with a pistol, with little effect.•The next few shots cut fast, showing the villains going into their own helicopter to give chase to the heroes. These cuts make the scene feel faster and helps to get to the action portion quicker.•The villains shoot at the heroes, damaging their helicopter. The heroes shoot back, but miss their target. The heroes are forced to land and the main protagonist attempts to lure the villains away from the downed helicopter.•The camera angles go to a birds-eye view of the action, giving us an idea of what the villains are currently seeing. The villains shoot at the hero, then cutting to a low-angle full shot, to see more of the action.•After this, we then see the hero in a close shot, seeing that he only has two bullets left to stop the helicopter. With a tracking close shot, he looks around franticly, trying to find away to defect the villains. •Eventually, the camera swings over to an overhead wire and a billboard and hero, now in an extreme close up, takes aim and shoots at the overhead wires and the wires snap. The villains try to escape but, they get caught and blow up in spectacular fashion, with the hero exclaiming his famous line.

•Here is a clip of the ending below:

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeSouvoINHY

During The Film•The two heroes suddenly find themselves in the middle of a terrorist attack and find out there are plenty more bombs to find and disarm. The leader of the terrorist group, the brother of the villain who was killed in the first Die Hard film, wants revenge on not only the hero but the city also. •The terrorist leader calls the heroes using payphones scattered around the city, directing them to other payphones within time limits, finally telling them where a particular bomb is and how to disarm it.•One bomb in particular has the two heroes having to work out how to get two jugs to have the exact number of water in both jugs, the number being 4 litres, while working against a time limit before the bomb explodes.•All the meanwhile, using a verity of disguises and tactics the terrorists go after the masses of gold stored in the massive Bank Of America and take all of it, using dump trucks as disguise.• The Heroes attempt to track them down but, the enemy stays one step ahead of both and keeps them at bay.• The two heroes then find a big ship with the villains all on it but, the final bomb is on it and the villains detonate it, seemingly destroying all the gold on board, but this later turns out to be false, as the gold was all substituted with scrap metal.

Costumes/Make-up/Locations• The costumes used in Die Hard 3 are ordinary clothes that civilians living in the city would wear, along

with the police force, wear uniforms or suits although, the main protagonist clothes over time start to gradually tear up more and more as the film goes on.

• The film takes place in New York City, one of the biggest cities in the world, a perfect fit to make the film feel big to the audiences for the story involving many different bombs all around the city.

• The locations go from the city, to a dam, to a ship to an abandoned warehouse. These different locations keep the film fresh and also present a new challenge for the heroes as they keep the pressure on the villains.

• The hero gets more and more injured as time goes on so, make-up is important, as the hero has to stay injured as the film goes on since he does not get time off to recover his injuries.

• The locations also get dirtier and dirtier, reflecting the progress that the two heroes make, the city looks clean compared to the dam and the abandoned warehouse shown later in the film.

• The villains dress normally, although some of their assistants dress in army clothing.

Principle Stars/Actors•Main Actors:

•Bruce Willis: as Lieutenant John McClane

•Jeremy Irons: as Simon Peter Gruber, a former military colonel and cunning professional thief who decides to seek revenge on McClane for the death of his brother Hans Gruber

•Samuel L. Jackson: as Zeus Carver, owner of a small electronics store in Harlem, and McClane's reluctant partner.

Principle Stars/Actors Continued•These three actors were all household names by 1995, of the two, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson were very well known by audiences for action films and summer blockbusters as well as Willis already been the main star of the previous Die Hard films as John McClane.

• Samuel L. Jackson was also known for action movies, he also had massive successes with Pulp Fiction and Jurassic Park. Jackson was known for being loud and sometimes poetic with his speeches, along with being tall guy and having the confidence to make him a presence on screen. He and Willis personalities were not the same, leading to comic moments in Die Hard 3, due to the two trying to figure the situations out, their way.

•Bruce Willis was by this point a very successful action movie star, as well as being the main star for the previous two Die Hard films, which both were critically and commercial success. Willis was known to be a funny guy on screen when speaking but could also be serious, crazy and commanding along with his presence, annoying and worrying his foes when comforting them.

•Jeremy Irons was known well by audiences as a theatre personality who had recently had massive mainstream success thanks to The Lion King, a Disney film which became the Studio’s highest grossing film ever. He was well known for being able to adept to his roles well and suited the Die Hard 3’s idea for getting revenge for a fallen brother, thanks to his calm demeanour, tough gravelly voice and for showing a menacing presence.

Chosen Cameras/Effects•The film uses a combination of many close and far shots, these two different shots are able to show the audience both what’s going on fully with far shots and also more intense action with the closer shots. The closer shots also help the scenes to emit tension to the audience as the heroes realise how serious the situation really is.

•Due to the title of the film “Die Hard”, a lot of the action scenes are over the top, giving the audience something exciting to see as the heroes try to survive the onslaught of bombs and enemies coming their way. The explosions are very big and loud, with each of them having a slow motion effect to them at some point, as well as many different camera angles, capturing the same scene in a verity of ways.

•Many of the scenes are shot with a handheld camera, making the audience feel like they are part of the action as the screen shakes and moves around. It also evokes the idea that the scenes are really tense and when the action heats up, it makes the scenes appear more explosive to the viewers.

•A lot of the special effects are mostly handmade and feature very little GCI in the film, this makes the film look more realistic then if everything was computer generated. It also really hits the audience once the explosions start happening on screen, making them look threating to the heroes.

•Some examples of the Camera’s/Effects: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oNhMisb9Fs

Editing Style•Because Die Hard 3 is an action movie, a lot of the editing is fast paced. This not only helps to keep the film moving quickly through its action scenes, it makes the audience on it’s feet and stay interested, as the story unfolds.

•If this film had slower paced edits, the audience would not be as captivated to watch or take in the films atmosphere. Although, this sometimes backfires on the film and the constant fast editing means people can’t appreciate the look of the film or can start to get confused since the scenes are changing so rapidly.

•When a crucial moment is discovered by the heroes, the cameras slowly goes in towards them as the realisation comes to light. This tells the audience that the story has gone through a big change in some way and in this film the characters have a clue or part of a solution during the story.

•This short clip here will demonstrate how fast and slow the editing can be in this film:

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwpfSkB8nls

Use Of Sounds•Die Hard 3 has an array of sound effects, many of them used to make action scenes even more hard hitting than normal plus having dramatic music played over the background to further tell the audience that the said scene is all fast paced action.

•There’s also a handful of over sound effects, like the bombs ticking away, the terrorist leader over the phone talking to various people as he tells others his demands and use of slower songs, usually when the main characters discover something important or when they are being told what to do.

•Certain scenes have soundtracks that possibly do not quite fit with what’s going on in the said scene. This best example is when the terrorists raid and clean out the gold in the Bank Of America in the film. The soundtrack used here sounds more fitting for a scene in Christmas time although, this could be seen as the terrorists early Christmas present for a well pulled off heist.

•A clip here will show you some of the sounds used in this movie:

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m5QoYnKne0

Propp’s Theory •Bruce Willis’s Character, John McClane is the main protagonist of this film. He’s looking to defeat the terrorist leader, while minimizing causalities and possibly looking to get with his ex-wife Holly.

•Jeremy Irons’s character: Simon Gruber is looking to avenge the death of his brother from the first film by destroying McClane and the city.

• The LAPD tell McClane what’s going on and update him and thus pointing him to his next destination.

•Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Zeus Carter is McClane’s helper, giving him support and helping him with technology related issues the two come across.

•McClane’s reward at the end of the movie is not only stopping the terrorists but, to finally attempt to settle things with Holly.

Todorov’s Theory•The Equilibrium at the star of the movie is that New York City is going about a normal Summer’s day, with everyone going on their daily commute . We do not see any of the main characters at this point, assuming they too are just going about their daily business.

•Suddenly, a bomb goes off in New York. Now a Disequilibrium is introduced since now the city is gripped with fear and panic. The characters are quickly introduced then a terrorist reveals himself, demanding money and placing more bombs throughout the city. The heroes have to solve puzzles, disarm bombs, fight their way though multiple henchmen, keep the public safe and find and stop the terrorist, all while fighting for their lives and for the city. When they do finally find out the terrorists hideout towards the end of the film, a fierce battle in the air and ground takes place. Eventually the terrorists and their leader are killed.

•The New Equilibrium now is the city is safe, both characters survive the experience, the main protagonist finally gets a chance to sort old issues out properly and the other hero goes back to his old job, being a store worker. Everything seems like it’ll go back to normal.

Barthes Codes Theory•Die hard 3 usually relies on its action scenes to advance to another important plot point but, others are also used to. For example:

•Enigmas: Throughout the film, the villain leader sets both heroes puzzles to solve in order to get to the next bomb and to give them clues about where to go next. The heroes try to solve them while attempting to think one step ahead of the villain. The audience is also trying find out what is going on and whether the characters will solve the puzzle or not.

•Action- The majority of the film has many action scenes to help the plot advance though. These key scenes include finding the bomb on a train and throwing it out, countless shootouts, fighting the henchmen among others. This code is the most commonly used in the film and is the one that keeps the film moving forward.

Binary Oppositions Theory•Die Hard 3 has many conflicts due to it’s action roots and the fact that a terrorist is attacking the city with bombs. However, the main conflict is the struggle between good and evil, right and wrong. It also shows how good people can end up being gripped by fear from one person seeking revenge and taking the whole city hostage. Here are some other examples of this theory:

•LAPD Terrorists•Good Evil•Heroes Villains•Inside society Outside society•Scared Confident •Protective Aggressive •American European•City Abandoned Warehouse•Cautious No mercy•Tactical Ruthless•Fear Anger•Not in control In control •Citizens Outsiders•Defusing Planting