Synopsis:
Live Free or Die Hard is my second favorite Die Hard movie (behind the original, of course). For most it is probably Die Hard - With A Vengeance, which I also love, but I have always enjoyed Live Free (except for one scene, the F35 scene). For me it goes; Die Hard – A nearly perfect movie. Live Free – Slightly flawed, but I enjoy. With a Vengeance – Nearly perfect. Die Hard 2 – A good (but not great) action movie, with no glaring flaw that can be fixed by an edit and doesn’t necessarily need it anyway. A Good Day to – Very flawed and just not a good movie at all. I already did an edit of it, trying to make it at least tolerable as part of a rewatch. But back to the point of this post, Live Free or Die Hard. This edit uses the unrated version as the base and adds back in most of (if not all) that was removed from the theatrical to make the unrated version. The only things that were not added back are the lines that were directly replaced with a new line. And the biggest changes are to the F35 scene near the end.
Intentions:
To add back in what was removed from the theatrical version to make the unrated version and to trim the over the top F35 scene.
Change List:
Changes; Added FE intro Added my B-Movie intro 13:03 - Added line – “That’ll wake the neighbors.” McClane 26:02 - Added line “We’re under attack.” Bowman 28:12 - Added line "All those nickels and dimes they saved had meaning. 'Useful idiots', as Lenin would say." Gabriel 30:13 - Added the hackers sending the video package. 38:06 - Added line "...you're a Timex watch in a digital age." Gabriel 49:49 - Added line "I don't know. It's not responding." Casper 1:01:32 - Added subtle line "I'm not that guy." Matt 1:35:41 - This whole scene between Bowman and DHS is reworked, combining both the theatrical and unrated cuts. 1:53:00 - Then the scene with the most changes, the scene with the F35 jet chasing and shooting at McClane in the truck. This scene has always bothered me, it is the reason for this edit, it is the flaw that I mentioned earlier. It is so over the top. It’s a little too unbelievable, even for a Die Hard movie. It is heavily trimmed. Far less crumbling highway. There is still some, but far less. Far less of the F35 shooting at the truck and missing. F35 no longer plays chicken with the truck. The truck no longer nearly tips over and McClane saves it by turning the wheel. When McClane falls onto the F35, he no longer rides it for nearly a minute and jumps off. He falls and lands on it, it spins around, and he falls off. It all happens quickly and is a tad more believable. And more. The 5 1/2 min scene is trimmed to about 4 min.
Additional Notes:
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Other Sources:
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to Artisdead, LoveMoviesandTV and INIGHTMARES for the reviews, previews and all the kind words. Thanks!