Hans Gruber
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Hans Gruber, portrayed by Alan Rickman, is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the film Die Hard. In 2003, the American Film Institute declared Hans Gruber the 46th greatest villain in the past 100 years of film.
Gruber was originally a member of a fictional German terrorist organization named the 'Volksfrei' movement (approximate translation: 'People's Freedom'), until he was expelled. Now only concerned with personal gain, he concocts an elaborate robbery scheme using a terrorist pretence as a cover to manipulate the authorities in his plan. He leads his gang of thieves on Christmas Eve to take control of Nakatomi Tower in Los Angeles and steal the $640 million in Bearer bonds that is being held in a high-security vault. Meanwhile, they also take all of the civilians in the tower hostage with the intention of killing them all to fake his and his gang's deaths to facilitate their escape.
However, Hans unexpectedly must match wits with John McClane, a cop from New York City, played by Bruce Willis. McClane eventually drops Gruber from a window on the 32nd floor of the tower, providing ostensible motive for his brother, Simon, the antagonist of the third film of the Die Hard franchise, Die Hard: With a Vengeance. His primary weapon is an HK P7 pistol, but he occasionally wields an MP5 like his comrades, and even gets ahold of McClane's Beretta 92 pistol at one point, albeit with no ammunition in it.
[edit] Quotes
- "Nice suit. John Phillips... London? ... I have two myself. Rumour has it that Arafat buys his there."
- "'When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.' The benefits of a classical education."
- "Mr. Takagi, I could talk about industrialization and men's fashion all day but I'm afraid work must intrude, and my associate Theo has some questions for you, sort of fill-in-the-blanks questions..."
- "It's a very nice suit, Mr. Takagi. It would be a shame to ruin it. I'm going to count to 3. There will not be a 4."
- Takagi: "You're just gonna have to kill me."
- Gruber: "Okay." (shoots Takagi). "We do it the hard way."
- "I wanted this to be professional. Efficient. Adult. Cooperative. Not a lot to ask. Alas, your Mr. Takagi did not see it that way... So he won't be joining us for the rest of his life."
- "By the time they figure out what went wrong, we'll be sitting on a beach, earning twenty percent."
- "I'm an exceptional thief, Mrs. McClane. And now that I'm moving up to kidnapping, you should be more polite."
- "Now I have a machine gun. Ho... ho... ho." (Reading a note from John McClane attached to the dead body of one of his men)
- "(Listing terrorist leaders and groups they are pretending to want released) In Sri Lanka, the nine members of the Asian Dawn movement..." (Karl mouths "Asian Dawn?" questioningly) (Hans turns off radio and shrugs) "I read about them in Time Magazine."
- "(Holding John McClane at gunpoint) What was it you said to me before? "Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker.""
[edit] Other Uses
- "Hans Gruber" is also the name of a minor villain who appears in the 1966 action film Our Man Flint.
- A scene in the 2004 film Eurotrip featured a pair of workers in a brothel in Amsterdam named Hans and Gruber.
| The Die Hard films |
|---|
| Die Hard | Die Hard 2 | Die Hard with a Vengeance | Live Free or Die Hard |
| Characters |
| John McClane | Hans Gruber | Colonel Stuart | Simon Gruber | Zeus Carver |
| Video games |
| Die Hard | Die Hard Arcade | Die Hard Trilogy | Die Hard Trilogy 2 | Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza | Die Hard: Vendetta |
