Yes, ‘Die Hard’ Has a Prequel (of Sorts) Starring Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra was the original John McClain

To start, Detective not officially affiliated with the franchise, but tenacious indebted to the earlier film. tenacious itself was a script that originally came out of the book: Nothing is eternal, Roderick Thorpe. This book follows a retired NYPD officer named Joe Leland who arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve and finds himself forced to fight his way through a string of German terrorists and their leader in order to save his daughter and grandchildren who have been taken hostage. . Some details of the script were changed, including the main character’s name and age, but the basic plot development in the book and film remained the same.

What makes it even more interesting is that the book Nothing is eternal actually was continuation to an earlier book Roderick Thorpe, with the same central character in Joe Leland. The book, originally published in 1966, was made into a film of the same name in 1968. Detective in many ways very different from his later and more well-known legacy. Instead of an action-packed action movie, this is a dark and slow detective story with extensive (and mostly unnecessary) flashbacks. Instead of sharpness Bruce Willis, it features a remarkably subtle performance by Frank Sinatra at a later stage in his film career. Instead of terrorists, it focuses on mysterious murders and suicides. Instead of crowd-pleasing action and narrow escapes, the script focuses on themes that were poignant and pushed the boundaries of acceptability in the 1960s: namely, police corruption and (somewhat) sympathetic attitudes towards homosexuality.

‘Die Hard’ and ‘Detective’ (virtually) have the same protagonist

In other respects, the film also contains many elements that are easily seen as the seeds of the later iconic John McClane. While it’s hard to imagine McClain unearthing clues or solving murders with proper police procedures, he is a maverick who misunderstands many of his colleagues and relatives, as shown in Detective. While Joe Leland wouldn’t sound quite right shouting out “yippee ki yay”, both characters have an affinity for saltier languages, and Sinatra’s monologue of him declaiming the stupidity of a fictional stage play while eating a street hot dog might well was a distant memory from tenacious. The dynamic salt of McClane’s land is opposed by the refined and suave Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is one of the strongest character sequences, carried over from the original Leland. Both characters have difficult marriages and both struggle to save them in unorthodox ways.

How did Frank Sinatra’s character become John McClain?

Perhaps even more curious is how the better-known adaptation of Thorpe’s novel has changed as much as the original storyline and character. Thorpe was originally inspired to write Nothing is eternal after watching the film Rising Hell in 1975 and came up with the idea of ​​a man in a skyscraper trying to escape terrorists rather than an oncoming torrent of flames. While the book turned into a typical 80s action movie, the original storyline was actually much more in line with the themes. Detective. First, the incompetence of the police in the hostage situation was more in line with the corruption and frustration Leland had experienced with the NYPD in earlier history. Secondly, the ending was much darker, like in the climactic fight when Leland shoots Gruber, the terrorist leader falls to his death and drags Leland’s daughter with him as both fall to their deaths. Leland then symbolically throws all the money the group was trying to steal out the window as a comment on the pointless nature of the undertaking.

Thorpe himself originally wrote the story with the idea of ​​a film adaptation and wrote it as a sequel. Detective with the idea that Frank Sinatra would reprise his role as Leland in the film version. Unfortunately, Sinatra himself, then in his 70s, did not feel up to the task and therefore turned down the role. As a result, in the end, the whole character changed, from an old man to a young man trying to save his wife, not his daughter. For the sake of the public, it should also be admitted that shirtless Bruce Willis would have looked better than shirtless 70-year-old Frank Sinatra.

Die Hard and Detective have more than the same author

Although the films are not officially connected, there are actually several production overlaps between them that establish a certain continuity. For one thing Jacqueline Bisset V Detective played Norma McIver, a bereaved woman trying to solve the mystery of her husband’s apparent suicide. IN tenaciouspartner Bisset Alexander Godunov played in the film Karl, Gruber’s main henchman. Lloyd Bochnerwho played psychiatrist Dr. Roberts in Detectivealso relevant to the later film, as his son Hart Bochner played out of his element Harry Ellis in tenacious.

While not officially related to the later film, Detective a fascinating film in itself, both in itself and in that it carries with it the curious germs of a later story and central character; much more like a crime drama and much less action than tenacious, he nonetheless has character consistency with the later film and is notable for Sinatra’s excellent performance; just don’t expect him to ever win a one on one match with a fighter jet while driving a truck.