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There’s a common misconception amongst casual movie fans that reshoots are a sign of a troubled production. What kind of clowns, these people reason, would move forward on such a pricey undertaking without a finished screenplay and an ironclad schedule that will ensure actors finish on time so they can move on to their next project?
The truth is that flexibility is key on a creative endeavor. What works on the page might not work once the scene is up on its feet and before cameras. This is one of several reasons there might be on-set rewrites, which, if extensive enough, could cause plotting issues further down the road. This could even necessitate the eventual scrapping of an entire action set piece and the constructing of a new one — and sometimes the need for an entirely new sequence isn’t evident until the test screening process. This means everyone’s going to have to come back for a reshoot.
As we’ve learned over the years, reshoots are factored into the production of a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, even the good ones. The reasons, again, are myriad (and often tied to changes in the franchise’s overall story arc), but it’s typically no cause for alarm. It can, however, be a pain in the tuchus for folks who are working on a new movie or television show, as was the case for Bruce Willis when it came to orchestrating an entirely new action climax for “Die Hard with a Vengeance.”
Bruce Willis knew the original ending ‘wasn’t a Die Hard ending’
In a 2007 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Willis revealed that he knew the original ending of “Die Hard with a Vengeance” was a non-starter. According to the star, “I remember on the third one, ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance,’ when we reshot the ending — which I predicted, not that I’m smart or anything, I just knew that the ending that we were going with wasn’t a ‘Die Hard’ ending.”
He was right. That ending, which is available online and on the Blu-ray collection, is surprisingly dark for a “Die Hard” movie. It takes place a year after the events of the film in Belarus, where the scheming Simon Peter Gruber (Jeremy Irons) is enjoying a quiet life of luxury after having screwed over all of his associates. As such, he’s taken aback to receive a visit from John McClane (Willis), who’s supposed to be dead (he’s only lost his job, pension and, once again, his wife). He deftly plays off his shock as mild bemusement until McClane whips out a Chinese rocket launcher for a game of “McClane Says.” The directional arrows and sight have been stripped from the weapon, so this will be a game of Russian roulette, one that Simon gruesomely loses.
Why was Willis so certain this ending was a goner from the day it was shot? As the star told EW:
“It wouldn’t satisfy the audience when they said ‘One Year Later’ at the end — you never want to see that. I remember telling one of the producers on the film, ‘Look, in six months I’m going to be doing ’12 Monkeys.’ I’m going to have a shaved head, tattoos all over my skull, and I’m going to have to put a wig on to look like John McClane and it isn’t going to be fun.’ And it wasn’t.”
“Die Hard with a Vengeance” is a great film in spurts, but one of those spurts is not the Canada-set ending they settled on. Still, I’m not a fan of the original conclusion either, so maybe this second sequel (and the last good movie in the franchise) was always destined to be just a little off.
