Even before Bruce Willis took on his most iconic role as the New York City hero cop John McClane, the Die Hard scenario wasn’t rare. Yet, after John McTiernan made his ’88 film, it became the genre definition. Every movie with a similar scenario has ever since started being nicknamed “Die Hard in an… The emotionally rich character writing, the unique action sequences, the calculated pacing, and Alan Rickman as the unforgettable villain Hans Gruber – there’s no dearth of reasons why Die Hard has become so iconic.
Most recently, the movie Cleaner (2025) starring Daisy Ridley repeated the Die Hard formula with fun results. Located on a relatively small site with limited options for set pieces, following a heroic man working alone or often with another partner, and involving a one-by-one villain encounter pattern, probably even set during a holiday – these are some of the few requirements for a movie to qualify as “Die Hard on a blank”. While Jason Statham hasn’t been in a Die Hard ripoff, most prominent action stars have at least one such movie in their repertoire.
10
Sudden Death (1995)
Die Hard on a football field
What makes Die Hard‘s hero John McClane so endearing is the delicate balance Bruce Willis maintains between his character’s physicality and emotionality. When the Muscles from Brussels teamed up with director Peter Hyams, one of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s most underrated movies was born. Sudden Death follows Van Damme’s character, who’s as much of a macho man as he’s emotionally sensitive, in a тιԍнт race-against-time thriller set in a football stadium.
Haunted by an incident from his past, the firefighter is set on a path of intense action when his daughter is kidnapped. He has to figure out a way to stop the kidnapper from blowing up the stadium and foil his plan. It’s a clear ripoff of the Die Hard formula, but it’s exciting enough to warrant viewing. With Van Damme’s kickboxing stunts, it’s an absurdly over-the-top entertaining action movie.
9
Cliffhanger (1993)
Die Hard on a mountain
A part of the Die Hard formula is the restricted space available for the hero’s various confrontations. Sylvester Stallone’s Cliffhanger is an exception to this rule despite being a Die Hard-like movie. It’s set in the sprawling icy lands of the Rocky Mountains. Stallone plays a rescue ranger, who’s joined by his partner on a rescue mission after a plane crashes in the mountains. Captured by the people they’re supposed to rescue, who are hijackers, the heroes must retrieve the loot in time before the hijackers, while still cooperating.
A Cliffhanger sequel has been in development since 1994, but 30 years later, through a journey of legal and logistical roadblocks, the movie was officially changed into a reboot and went into production in 2024.
An iconic characteristic of a Die Hard movie is an action hero who has a heavy emotional conundrum on his mind, like John McClane with his struggling marriage. Stallone’s character is haunted by the memory of a friend who fell to his death during a climbing expedition and this informs the choices he makes throughout the film. While Die Hard 2 is a disappointing second movie the franchise bounced back after, its director helmed Cliffhanger too, and it’s significantly better, even as a spiritual successor to Die Hard.
8
Under Siege (1992)
Die Hard on a battleship
Steven Seagal’s career had been moving in a hopeful direction for him ever since his debut as a cop in the 1988 thriller Above the Law, but it was his version of Die Hard that put him on the map as a bonafide action star. He plays a Navy SEAL who’s been demoted to battleship cook after punching a superior officer. When an ex-CIA operative, played by Tommy Lee Jones, takes over the ship, intent on using the nuclear warheads on board for blackmail, the cook takes on the responsibility of rescuing the hostages and dealing with the criminals.
One year before he directed The Fugitive, which features Harrison Ford in one of his best non-franchise movies, Andrew Davis directed Under Siege. While the average Steven Seagal movie is characterized by a collection of formulaic tropes that he repeated in all his movies, Under Siege is an exception, and is arguably his most entertaining movie. Instead of the Zen master he plays in most of his movies, Seagal is a jaded hero in this movie, and the contrast proves how much range he has.
7
The Rock (1996)
Die Hard in Alcatraz
Over three decades after he played James Bond, Sean Connery played a British agent imprisoned in Alcatraz in Michael Bay’s sophomore directorial feature. While Bad Boys (1995) is a fan-favorite action movie, The Rock put Michael Bay on the map as the new director of compelling action cinema in Hollywood. Joining two of the most iconic action heroes, John McClane from Die Hard, whose archetype is played by Nicolas Cage, and James Bond, played by the man who originated the role, it’s one of the most rewatchable movies of all time.
The imposing setting of Alcatraz provides the perfect backdrop for the Die Hard-like narrative.
When a disillusioned Army General leads men to take over the island and hold the US Government to ransom, the escaped prisoner and a young FBI chemical weapons expert, played by Cage, must team up. The imposing setting of Alcatraz provides the perfect backdrop for the Die Hard-like narrative. With a location that resembles a maze and a group of heroes that have to take down the enemy one man after the other, it’s a blatant copy, but a great one.
6
Con Air (1997)
Die Hard on a prisoner airplane
Nicolas Cage plays one of the most unintentionally funny movie characters in his version of Die Hard. He plays a convicted US Army Ranger who decides to do the right thing and take care of the situation when the prisoners who are being transferred on a plane decide to take control of the flight. Cage’s character has served his sentence and is on his way back home when other convicts on the flight hijack it, led by a criminal mastermind.
Characterized by his traditional over-the-top antics and his unique brand of action, Cage’s on-screen persona is an entertaining presence. He goes around taking down criminals one by one, and with the claustrophobic setting of the airplane, it is one of the most entertaining Die Hard ripoffs. Con Air is the quintessential ’90s movie that everyone loves, even those who don’t like it, because of the elaborate action sequences and the exciting ticking-clock plot.
5
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Die Hard in the White House
Antoine Fuqua, director of Training Day, the movie that earned Denzel Washington his only Oscar for Best Actor, took the Die Hard formula to the White House. Action star Gerard Butler plays a Secret Service agent who carries the guilt of the First Lady of America dying under his watch and has taken to a desk job ever since. However, when terrorists take the president hostage after laying siege to the White House, he jumps back into action.
This is one of the most obvious Die Hard ripoffs that fails to reach the heights of glory of the Bruce Willis movie. The tonal inconsistency between the exorbitantly violent war movie-like opening sequence and the one-man commando action set pieces featuring Butler can feel jarring at times. However, for fans of Die Hard, this is a must-watch movie to see how it has influenced thriller filmmaking in the years since its release.
4
The Raid (2011)
Die Hard in an apartment block
Directed by Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans, the Indonesian action thriller The Raid successfully recreates the Die Hard formula in a skyscraper in Jakarta. It’s perhaps the best iteration of the formula, or rather, the smartest one, as it subverts the genre conventions somewhat, by introducing a villain that knows the hero personally. Unlike Hans Gruber, who didn’t know John McClane, this villain turns vengeful when he realizes who is leading the SWAT team against him.
The narrative of the SWAT team trapped in a claustrophobic building where they’re being hunted by murderous henchmen makes The Raid one of the most intense action thrillers in recent years. The hero is still like John McClane and has the superior ability to pick off henchmen one by one. The skyscraper also serves as the perfect location by likening it to a video game where the character moves up levels as he takes down the henchmen on his way to confront the dangerous mob boss.
3
Air Force One (1997)
Die Hard on the President’s aircraft
Long after he had co-led the rebels to victory against the Empire in a galaxy far, far away, Harrison Ford took on the role of the fictional president in his own Die Hard movie. When his aircraft is hijacked by a terrorist, played by an unrecognizable Gary Oldman, the President takes on the role of the action hero to get rid of the terrorists led by him.
The president has limited space and resources to deal with the dangerous hijackers and goes about his job with clinical precision.
Unlike many other films that created Die Hard on an airplane, from Con Air to Snakes On a Plane, Air Force One is somber and intense with barely any hint of irony or comedy. It comes closest to mirroring Die Hard in this aspect, and also in the spatial setting of the Bruce Willis movie. Much like John McClane in Die Hard, the president has limited space and resources to deal with the dangerous hijackers and goes about his job with clinical precision. President James Marshall is one of the most iconic Harrison Ford roles to this day.
2
Speed (1994)
Die Hard on a bus
Of the many action heroes who have ruled the industry, despite him being most famous as ruthless killer John Wick today, Keanu Reeves seems like the least likely candidate to recreate Die Hard. He doesn’t embody the gruff style of action heroes from the ’80s that Willis’ movie tries to reinvent but doesn’t go far beyond just acknowledging emotional vulnerability. It is no surprise that the man who played John Wick, one of the characters who helped reshape genre expectations, plays a different kind of action hero in his version of Die Hard.
Keanu Reeves pushed back against Hollywood executives to ensure his character didn’t become the typically hypermasculine action hero and consulted real SWAT agents to understand the approach they’d take when dealing with such a situation.
Speed follows a SWAT agent who is trapped on a bus that must move at a particularly high speed to not trigger the bomb that has been planted by an extortionist. The agent, played by Keanu Reeves, is a soft-spoken and kind man who spends equal time trying to figure out how to disable the bomb and reᴀssuring the pᴀssengers. This refreshing change in demeanor makes him an endearing hero to follow. While it’s not traditionally a Die Hard movie because the setting is in motion, the intense pace of the thriller and the hero’s emotionality make parallels inevitable.
1
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Die Hard for kids
While the first Home Alone is one of the best Christmas movies much like Die Hard, the sequel feels even more like a Die Hard movie due to the main character’s unfamiliarity with the terrain. A lighthearted comedy that follows a kid played by Macaulay Culkin, the breakout role he is most known for, it tells the story of how the kid, stranded in New York, traps and deals with the thieves from the first movie in this city he’s new to.
The single location, the setting of traps to deal with the villains, the sense of justice to protect others, and the use of wits to outsmart enemies who outnumber the protagonist – Home Alone 2 has all the makings of a Die Hard movie. Through a lens of comedy and child-friendliness, it recreates the successful formula for a younger age group who can experience the same thrills in an equally iconic form, without having to deal with the gore and grittiness of Willis’ film.
