Die Hard is a 1988 American action film. It was written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart, and directed by John McTiernan. After the success of the movie, four more Die Hard movies were filmed. In this article, we share with you the best and most memorable Die Hard quotes from the first three movies in the series, since we find them to be the best ones: Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2 (1990), and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995).
As for Die Hard, an interesting fact that you may not have known, is that Die Hard movie is actually based on the novel titled “Nothing Lasts Forever”, written in 1979 by Roderick Thorp. The movie stars actors Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Alexander Godunov, Paul Gleason, and others.
Die Hard tells the story of John McClane (played by Bruce Willis), a New York City police detective visiting his wife and during that time, being caught up in a terrorist attack as the terrorists take over a Los Angeles skyscraper.
The movie is considered as one of the best action movies to this day and was a huge success, with a production budget of $25-$35 million, and grossing around $140 million in movie theaters. Die Hard (as well as the other two films that followed) has produced some memorable quotes, and we’re about to go over them all right now, so enjoy.
Here is a sneak peek at the quotes in this article:
Table of Contents
- Die Hard John McClane Quotes (1988)
- Die Hard Hans Gruber Quotes (1988)
- Die Hard 2 John McClane Quotes (1990)
- Die Hard 2 Colonel Stuart Quotes (1990)
- Die Hard: With a Vengeance John McClane Quotes (1995)
- Die Hard: With a Vengeance Simon Gruber Quotes (1995)
- Die Hard: With a Vengeance Zeus Carver Quotes (1995)
- Interesting Facts about Die Hard Movies
Die Hard John McClane Quotes (1988)
John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay muthafucka.
John McClane : Geronimo, Motherfucker!
John McClane: Yeah. I got invited to a Christmas party by mistake. Who knew?
John McClane: You throw quite a party. I didn’t realize they celebrated Christmas in Japan.
John McClane: Welcome to the party, pal.
John McClane: Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with smaller feet than my sister.
John McClane: Just a fly in the ointman, Hans. The monkey in the wrench.
John McClane: But, all things being equal, I’d rather be in Philadelphia. Chalk up two more bad guys.
John McClane: Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…
John McClane: I promise I will never even think about going up in a tall building again. Oh, God. Please don’t let me die.
John McClane: You would have made a pretty good cowboy yourself, Hans.
Supervisor: Attention, whoever you are, this channel is reserved for emergency calls only.
John McClane: No fucking shit, lady! Does it sound like I’m ordering a pizza?
Hans Gruber: Mr. Mystery Guest? Are you still there?
John McClane: Yeah, I’m still here. Unless you wanna open the front door for me.
Dwayne T. Robinson: I’ve got a hundred people down here, and they’re covered with glass.
John McClane: Glass? Who gives a shit about glass? Who the fuck is this?
John McClane: Oh, you’re in charge? Well, I got some bad news for you Dwayne, from up here it doesn’t look like you’re in charge of jack shit.
John McClane: Ooooh, I’m very sorry Hans. I didn’t get that message. Maybe you should’ve put it on the bulletin board. I figured since I’ve waxed Tony and Marco and his friend here, I figured you and Karl and Franco might be a little lonely, so I wanted to give you a call.
John McClane: Who’s driving this car, Stevie Wonder?
John McClane: Sister Teresa called me Mr. McClane in the third grade. My friends call me John, and you’re neither, shit-head.
John McClane: What kind of odds am I getting?
Sergeant Al Powell: You don’t wanna know.
John McClane: Put me down for twenty, I’m good for it.
John McClane: C’mon baby, come ta’ papa, I’ll kiss ya’ fuckin’ Dalmatian.
John McClane: Don’t you got any Christmas music?
John McClane: Now I know what a TV dinner feels like.
John McClane: Jesus! Fuckin’ California!
John McClane: Let’s see you take *this* under advisement, jerkweed!
John McClane: Drop it, dickhead. It’s the police.
Die Hard Hans Gruber Quotes (1988)
Hans Gruber: That’s a very nice suit, Mr. Takagi. It would be a shame to ruin it.
Hans Gruber: You can walk out of here or be carried out.
Hans Gruber: Sooner or later, I might get to someone you do care about!
Hans Gruber: But, you have me at a loss. You know my name but who are you? Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he’s John Wayne? Rambo? Marshal Dillon?
Hans Gruber: Touching, Cowboy, touching. Or should I call you, Mr. McClane? Mr. Officer John McClane of the New York Police Department?
Hans Gruber: When they touch down, we’ll blow the roof, they’ll spend a month sifting through the rubble and by the time they figure out what went wrong, we’ll be sitting on a beach…earning twenty percent.
Hans Gruber: Mrs. McClane. How nice to make your acquaintance.
Hans Gruber: Oh yes, what was it you said to me before? Yippee-Ki-Ay…motherfucker.
Hans Gruber: Due to the Nakatomi corporation’s legacy of greed around the globe, they’re about to be taught a lesson in the real use of power…you will be witnesses.
Hans Gruber: I’m going to count to three. There will not be a four.
Hans Gruber: What idiot put you in charge?
Hans Gruber: Now I have a machine gun. Ho, ho, ho.
Hans Gruber: Nice Suit. John Philips, London. I have two myself. Rumour has it Arafat buys his there too.
Hans Gruber: You idiot. It’s not the police. It’s him!
Hans Gruber: It’s Christmas, Theo. It’s the time of miracles. So be of good cheer…and call me when you hit the last lock.
Hans Gruber: Eh, that’s…very kind of you. I assume you are our mysterious party crasher. You are most troublesome, for a security guard.
Hans Gruber: And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept…for there were no more worlds to conquer. Benefits of a classical education.
Hans Gruber: Still the cowboy, Mr. McClane! Well, this time John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly.
Hans Gruber: I am an exceptional thief Mrs. McClane and since I’m moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite.
Hans Gruber: When you steal $600, you can just disappear. When you steal $600 million, they will find you unless they think you’re already dead.
Hans Gruber: The circuits that cannnot be cut are cut automatically in response to a terrorist incident. You ask for miracles. Theo, I give you the F..B…I…
Die Hard 2 John McClane Quotes (1990)
John McClane: I can’t fucking believe this. Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?
John McClane: Just once, I’d like a regular, normal Christmas. Eggnog, a fuckin’ Christmas tree, a little turkey. But, no. I gotta crawl around in this motherfuckin’ tin can.
John McClane: Damn it! I hate it when I’m right!
John McClane: I’m the cop, that was the bad guy…
John McClane: If Esperanza gets on that plane and makes it to a country that has no extradition treaties, we’re fucked.
Holly McClane: Honey, it’s the ’90s, remember? Microchips, microwaves, faxes, air phones.
John McClane: Hey, well, as far as I’m concerned, progress peaked with frozen pizza.
John McClane: Hey, Carmine, let me ask you something. What sets off the metal detectors first? The lead in your ass or the shit in your brains?
John McClane: That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. Doesn’t show up on your airport X-ray machines, here, and it cost more than you make in a month.
Carmine Lorenzo: You’d be a surprised what I make in a month.
John McClane: If it’s more than a dollar ninety-eight I’d be very surprised.
Esperanza: Who are you?
John McClane: A cop.
Esperanza: A cop?
John McClane: Yeah. One of the good guys. You see, you’re one of the bad guys, and now that I got your sorry ass, I’m gonna trade it for my wife.
Grant: You’re the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.
John McClane: Story of my life.
John McClane: Guess I was wrong about you. You’re not such an asshole after all.
Grant: Oh, you were right. I’m just your kind of asshole.
Al Powell: What’s this about?
John McClane: Oh, just a feeling I have.
Al Powell: Ouch. When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt.
Samantha Coleman: You give me this story and I’ll have your baby.
John McClane: Not the kind of ride I’m looking for.
John McClane: The only people that go to this much trouble are professionals, not luggage thieves and not punks!
John McClane: Holly! Here’s your fucking landing light. Whoo!
Al Powell: You’re not pissing in somebody’s pool, are you?
John McClane: Yeah, and I’m fresh outta chlorine.
Chopper Pilot: What’s the matter, cowboy? Ride too rough?
John McClane: I don’t like to fly.
Samantha Coleman: Then what are you doing here?
John McClane: I don’t like to lose either.
John McClane: All right, just stay here and get ready to call the marines.
Chief Engineer Leslie Barnes: I thought they were the army.
John McClane: Who gives a fuck, just be ready.
Grant: Too bad, McClane. I kind of liked you.
John McClane: I got enough friends.
Die Hard 2 Colonel Stuart Quotes (1990)
Colonel Stuart: Happy landings, asshole.
Colonel Stuart: Losing our own team wasn’t part of the plan.
Colonel Stuart: Attention, Dulles Tower. Attention, Dulles Control Tower. Mr. Trudeau, I know you’re listening. Unfortunately, you’re not obeying.
Samantha Coleman: Colonel Stuart, could we have a few words please?
Colonel Stuart: You can have two: “fuck” and “you”.
Colonel Stuart: Oh, McClane. John McClane. The policeman hero who saved the Nakatomi hostages. I read about you in People Magazine. You seemed a bit out of your league on Nightline, I thought.
Colonel Stuart: So much for the element of chance.
John McClane: Oh you look very familiar to me.
Colonel Stuart: I get that a lot. I’ve been on TV.
Colonel Stuart: McClane! I assume it’s you, McClane! You’re quite a little soldier! You can consider this a military funeral!
Colonel Stuart: You fail me again, and the chamber won’t be empty. Dismissed.
Garber: How’s the security around this place?
Colonel Stuart: Like we figured. A joke.
Die Hard: With a Vengeance John McClane Quotes (1995)
Zeus Carver: You know this guy Simon we’re talking to?
John McClane: Yeah. I threw his little brother off the thirty-second floor of Nakatomi Towers out in L.A. I guess he’s a little pissed off about it.
Inspector Walter Cobb: We’ll be back to pick you up in fifteen minutes.
John McClane: Take your time. I expect to be dead in four.
John McClane: The only thing better than blowing up 100 billion dollars’ worth of gold is making people think you did.
Simon: John…in the back of the truck you’re driving, there’s 13 billion dollars’ worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: Yeah, I got a deal for you. Crawl out from that rock you’re hiding under, and I’ll drive this truck up your ass.
Simon: How colourful.
John McClane: Listen, you fail I cover your ass. I fail you cover my ass!
Zeus Carver: And if we both fail?
John McClane: Then we’re both fucked.
John McClane: You know, you’re the first woman since Holly to see me do this.
Connie Kowalski: I’m honoured.
John McClane: Yeah, so was she
John McClane: Here take this.
Zeus Carver: How’s it work?
John McClane: You don’t know how to shoot a gun?
Zeus Carver: Look, all brothers don’t know how to shoot guns, you racist motherfucker.
John McClane: Sue me.
John McClane: Hi, fellas. Mickey O’Brien, aqueduct security. Hey, listen, we got a report of a guy coming through here with, uh, eight reindeer. Yeah, they said he was a jolly, old, fat guy with a snowy, white beard. Cute little red and white suit. I’m surprised you didn’t see him.
Zeus Carver: What the fuck are you doin’? John McClane: Interrogatin’ him.
Zeus Carver: Well, what’s he gonna tell you, “I’m dead”?
John McClane: Well, I ain’t gonna know ’til I ask him, am I?
Zeus Carver: Damn McClane, you know I was just starting to like you.
John McClane: Yeah, well don’t, I’m an asshole.
Simon: Why was the phone busy, who were you calling?
John McClane: The psychic hotline.
Mathias Targo: I see you all day, little man. Policeman. And you don’t go away.
John McClane: Yeah, I’m that fucking Energizer bunny.
John McClane: My ch-ch-ch-chair with me in it? That’s very exciting. Let me ask you a question, bonehead. Why are you trying to k-k-k-k-kill me?
John McClane: Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, fuck-head. So is his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys down at the bank? They’re gonna be a little late.
John McClane: I had no idea Canada could be this much fun.
John McClane: Hey dickhead! Did I come at a bad time?
John McClane: Cheer up. Things could be worse. I was working on a nice, fat suspension, smokin’ cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
John McClane: Hey, Walter, how ’bout you mind your fucking business about Holly, huh? Between you and Simon, you’re fucking up a perfectly good hangover.
John McClane: Hot in here, or am I just scared to death?
Die Hard: With a Vengeance Simon Gruber Quotes (1995)
Zeus Carver: Didn’t I hear you say you didn’t even like your brother?
Simon Gruber: There’s a difference, you know, between not liking one’s brother and not caring when some dumb Irish flatfoot drops him out of a window.
Simon Gruber: “Birds of a feather, flocked together, so do pigs and swine. As nice as their chance as well as I had mine.
Simon Gruber: $140 billion! Ten times what’s in Kentucky. Fort Knox? Ha! It’s for tourists.
Zeus Carver: No riddle is gonna stop this motherfucker?
Simon Gruber: No code, no riddle, no fancy little countdown.
Simon Gruber: I think he’s dead, my dear.
Simon Gruber: Said Simple Simon to the pieman going to the fair, “Give me your pies…or I’ll cave your head in.
Simon Gruber: Oh, God, I love this country!
Simon Gruber: Life has its little bonuses.
Simon Gruber: I’m a soldier, not a monster. Even though I sometimes work for monsters.
Simon Gruber: If killing you was all I wanted, you’d be dead by now.
Simon Gruber: Holy Toledo! Somebody had fun.
Simon Gruber: Money is shit to me. I would not trade McClane for all the gold in your Fort Knox.
Simon Gruber: Is there a detective named McClane there?
Inspector Cobb: He’s on suspension.
Simon Gruber: No, Walter, he’s not. Not today.
Inspector Cobb: Who is this?
Simon Gruber: Call me Simon.
Simon Gruber: Where are my pigeons now?
Inspector Cobb: Pigeons?
Simon Gruber: I had two pigeons, bright and gay, fly from me the other day. Why was it they did go? You cannot tell, you do not know.
Inspector Cobb: You mean McClane?
Simon Gruber: No, I mean Santa Claus.
Simon Gruber: I didn’t say “Simon says.”
Simon Gruber: They bought it. You can begin. Hook, line…and sinker.
Simon Gruber: You surprise me again, John. This is becoming an ugly habit.
Simon Gruber: Temper, John. The road to truth has many turns.
Simon Gruber: Good Lord!
Felix Little: Yes, yes. Heaven to Betsy if anyone knew! But…I thought this was a currency exchange.
Simon Gruber: Oh, I think we’ll go straight to the withdrawal.
Simon Gruber: Yesterday we were an army with no country, tomorrow, we have to decide which country we want to buy!
Simon Gruber: Now, who from the FBI is in the van, I wonder? Let’s see. Almost certainly Cross. Come on, Andrew, say hello.
FBI Agent Andy Cross: Hello.
Simon Gruber: And I know you never run alone, so say hello, Bill. Still trying to butch up by chewing on your glasses, huh?
Simon Gruber: “Simon Says”. Simon’s going to tell Lt. McClane what to do, and Lt. McClane is going to do it. Noncompliance will result in a penalty.
Die Hard: With a Vengeance Zeus Carver Quotes (1995)
Zeus Carver: Why you keep calling me Jésus? I look Puerto Rican to you?
John McClane: Zeus?
Zeus Carver: Yeah, Zeus! As in, father of Apollo? Mt. Olympus? Don’t fuck with me or I’ll shove a lightning bolt up your ass? Zeus! You got a problem with that?
John McClane: You know how to pick this lock?
Zeus Carver: Is this some black-shit again?
Zeus Carver: Wait a minute. You mean to tell me I’m in this shit ’cause some white cop threw some white asshole’s brother off a roof?
John McClane: You’re a racist! You don’t like me ’cause I’m white!
Zeus Carver: I don’t like you because you’re gonna get me killed!
John McClane: What are they doing?
Zeus Carver: Sitting in the fucking road! Waiting on the moor! How the hell should I know?
Zeus Carver: Shit! That was my gold bar!
Zeus Carver: You having a nice day, sir? You feeling all right? Not to get too personal, but a white man standing in the middle of Harlem wearing a sign that says “I hate niggers” has either got some serious personal issues, or not all his dogs are barking.
Zeus Carver: You got a problem with ebony?
Simon Gruber: No, no. My only problem is that I went to some trouble preparing that game for McClane. You interfered with a well-laid plan.
Zeus Carver: Yeah, well, you can stick your well-laid plan up your well-laid ass.
John McClane: Stop all the goddamn yellin’! I know what I’m doing.
Zeus Carver: Not even God knows what you’re doing!
John McClane: You know how to hot-wire this thing?
Zeus Carver: Of course I can, I’m an electrician. Only problem is…it takes too fuckin’ long.
Zeus Carver: How do Catholics do their thing?
John McClane: North, South, West, East.
Zeus Carver: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! I’m not going anywhere.
Inspector Cobb: Simon says you got to go.
Zeus Carver: I’m not jumping through hoops for some psycho! That’s a white man, with white problems. You deal with him. Call me when he crosses 110th Street.
Zeus Carver: Hey, hey, hey, hey, I ain’t your partner. I ain’t your neighbor, your brother, or your friend. I’m your total stranger.
John McClane: Think we should call a fire truck?
Zeus Carver: Aw, fuck ’em. Let ’em cook!
Zeus Carver: Don’t call me “boy”.
Zeus Carver: It’s my lucky fuckin’ day!
John McClane: Why’d you save my ass?
Zeus Carver: I didn’t. I stopped a white cop from getting killed in Harlem. One white cop gets killed today, tomorrow we got a thousand white cops, all of ’em with itchy trigger fingers. Got it?
Zeus Carver: You got a wife, McClane?
John McClane: Yeah.
Zeus Carver: I’m surprised anybody would stay with you long enough to be married.
Interesting Facts about Die Hard Movies
Now it’s time for some interesting facts and trivia about the best Die Hard movies, by which I mean the first three movies in the series. Ready? Here we go!
- Bruce Willis Wasn’t Even Considered for The Lead Role in Die Hard – I suppose we can’t imagine the Die Hard movie series without Bruce Willis, but the fact is, that he wasn’t even on the long list of actors considered for the lead role. Among the actors that were considered to play John McClane were: Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson, Don Johnson, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Burt Reynolds, Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone, and even Richard Dean Anderson (Mr. MacGyver himself). Studios had nothing against Willis, it’s just that at the time, he was considered a comedic actor and not an action star.
- Willis Almost Wasn’t on The Movie Posters – Studios were unsure to how the audience would react to an action movie starring Bruce Willis as the lead role, so Willis was barely seen on the movie posters. However, as the film started to gain popularity and success, all of the marketing material was changed and Willis was now part of it more and more.
- Sam Neill as Hans Gruber – I love it how Alan Rickman played the role of the bad guy Hans Gruber, but in fact, it was Sam Neill who got the offer to play this part. He turned it down, so production had to look for a different actor to play the bad guy. Then, in 1987, the casting director of Die Hard saw Rickman playing the role of Valmont in a stage production of Dangerous Liaisons, and knew he has found their bad guy for the movie. Believe it or not, Rickman’s role in Die Hard was actually his first in a feature film.
- The Catch-phrase That Started as a Joke – We all know this catch-phrase as it became the movie series trademark. In 2013, Bruce Willis admitted in an interview he gave, that the catch-phrase “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!” was nothing more than a joke. He simply wanted to make the crew laugh and never thought that it would be allowed on editing or become such a memorable phrase, that was used on all Die Hard movies.
- There’s a Made-For-TV Version of Die Hard 2 – By today’s movie standards, Die Hard 2 would be rated R, but another version of the movie exists (TBS version), where all of the profanity in the movie had been re-dubbed. Of course the voices are nowhere close to the those of the original actors and as for the famous Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker phrase, it was changed to Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcon. You can watch this hilariously bad dub here.
- Die Hard 2 is The Bloodiest in The Series – Die Hard 2 is without a doubt the bloodiest movie in the Die Hard series. Not only that, but it has the biggest body count, bigger even than if you combine all four other movies in the series. In the movie, the British Airline crash totals 230 people killed, and then 40 more people are killed during the movie. So all in all, 270 people die in Die Hard 2, but remember kids, it’s just a movie.
- Training in Martial Arts for The Role – William Sadler spent months training in tai chi and karate for his role in the movie Die Hard 2. He even asked director Renny Harlin to shoot his nude scene where he is seen practicing tai chi as far back as possible, thus allowing him more time to train at the gym and get his body in top form for this shoot.
- The Role of Zeus in Die Hard: With a Vengeance was Written for Laurence Fishburne – The part of Zeus in the third Die Hard movie was written specifically with Laurence Fishburne in mind. However, while Fishburne was negotiation to get a bigger pay check for this role, producer Andy Vajna went to Cannes and watched the Pulp Fiction premiere. After watching the film, she decided that the part of Zeus will be perfect for one Samuel L. Jackson.
- The Original Ending of Die Hard: With a Vengeance Was Different and Crazy – The ending of the third film sees Simon Gruber being caught at the Canadian border and then dying in a helicopter crash. But, the original ending of the film was a whole lot different and way crazier. In this ending, Simon escapes with all of the gold with John McClane taking the blame for it. For years, McClane spends searching for Simon until he finds him in a bar in Hungary. After the two chit-chat for a bit, McClane informs Simon that he is carrying a Chinese rocket-launcher with its sights removed. Meaning, it would be impossible to know which end will fire. McClane then proposes that they will play a game called “McClane Says”; only instead of a gun, they’ll use the rocket-launcher. He then asks Simon what could he have brought to the meeting that would save his life. After Simon guesses wrong, he decides to fire the launcher and in the process killing himself. McClane then walks away, revealing that he was wearing a flak jacket. The studio didn’t like the ending so much, because they felt it made McClane look calculated and too cold.
- 1995’s Highest Grossing Movie – Even though Die Hard: With a Vengeance struggled in the U.S., it ended grossing no less than $366.1 million with a production budget of $90 million. This made the movie the highest grossing movie of 1995!
For more exciting quotes from famous action movies, please check Top Gun quotes and Scarface quotes.