Seriously, Why waste all those grenades? - Die Hard 2 (1990) Discussion

[–] oft_I_am 12 years ago

Dramatic effect?

I too thought the same thing though. A couple would have done it. I also thought "Huh. Those things sure have long fuses on them."

$§ "Support mental health or I'll kill you." ~o~

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[–] reggie182 12 years ago

That wasn't the only problem with that scene. The grenades take about one minute to go off.

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[–] ThePPrestige 12 years ago

Well, you have to consider that directors can't show certain dramatic scenes in the span of a few seconds, or vice versa.

A director is allowed to use time dilation and compression. In any case, it is a relatively light-hearted action movie.

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[–] lreed7950 12 years ago

LOL. Your presuming to be the authority on "what directors are allowed to do" (where's that rule book again?) is almost as idiotic and pontifical as the assertion that one of those rules allows for grenades to take 30 seconds to go off.

Did someone really write that?

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[–] jtrip-45023 9 years ago

The biggest problem with that scene is that particular model plane doesn't have ejection seats.

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[–] millsey72 (9689) 2 years ago

I don't know anything about airplanes but my college professor happens to be a pilot. He told me that all military planes have a seat ejection feature

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[–] PaladinNJ (20422) 2 years ago

No they don't. Only a few select fighter models do.

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[–] millsey72 (9689) 2 years ago

Why would only select fighter/military planes have it? It seems very reasonable that every plane used in combat or in combat activities would have a seat ejection feature

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[–] PaladinNJ (20422) 2 years ago

Well kid, I work on those planes every single day and can assure you most don't.

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[–] millsey72 (9689) 2 years ago

I stand corrected

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[–] moviechatterer (13742) 2 years ago

sick burn man!

also , everytime a see someone call someone 'kid' i roll my eyes , but i think that was the perfect place to use it .

and well done millsey for gratious 'bow out'

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[–] zozogogo 12 years ago

Had they thrown only one grenade in McClane could have just thrown it right back out. Especially considering how long it takes for these particular grenades to detonate...

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[–] Shaomoki 12 years ago

They kept throwing them in because they were obviously second-hand defective military surplus live grenades, note the extra long fuses, so they wanted to make extra, EXTRA, sure that they would go off and kill McClane.

Too bad he found the ejector seat before they finally went off.

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[–] LightningLad 12 years ago

Because they knows he dies hard. It's the title of the series!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mortal-Creeps-ebook/dp/B006LO3TCA

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[–] hack-stone 12 years ago

The last time I watched it, I timed from the first grenade thrown until the explosion. If I recall correctly, it was 47 seconds. And for the record, cargo planes do not have ejector seats, and if they did, he would have crashed into the canopy, and he did not have enough elevation for the parachute to deploy. Other than that, the whole scened was entirely plausible.

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[–] WildHamster235 12 years ago

It's John friggin' McClane, dang it! There's no such thing as wasting grenades on this guy, especially if you're a terrorist.

Never get out of the boat.

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[–] Englandizer 12 years ago

They could only afford the defective long-fused grenades as they'd used most of their money buying revolutionary "Glock 7's" made out of porcaline or fine bone china and can get through metal dectectors.

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[–] bonjovi82 12 years ago

There is another thing that bothered me. They throw at least 10+ granades , and no one misses the window. Whoa ! I bet that at least few of them should miss and bounce off from the plane to the ground.

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[–] millsey72 (9689) 2 years ago

Thats a great point because each of those guns costs more than Lorenzo makes in a month

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[–] Havgar 11 years ago

I agree that this scene was pretty weak. It's actually the only part of the movie that I didn't enjoy (well, together with how contrived it was when John starts shooting blanks in the airport to make a point and none of several armed guards you can see behind him intervenes or takes him down).

One properly timed grenade would have sufficed. Several were already overkill. 4 seconds is the standard delay of detonation for a hand grenade, so given 1-2 seconds of flight time, there would have been practically no time for John to react. Certainly no time for him to get into the pilot's seat, strap in, and eject.

And there's no ejection system in a commercial airliner like that.

I just don't understand how this scene made it into the movie.

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[–] SweatFromAFatMan 11 years ago

It's a staple in action movie to waste as much ammunition and grenades as humanely possible and to have McClane escape all of it makes it that more badass!! The movie came out in the 90s so it's okay...

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[–] Havgar 11 years ago

Oh, I understand that. Suspension of disbelief is obviously required for any Die Hard movies, and the vast majority of action movies. Even so, for most of the movie they appeared to strive for realism in every scene (even though you can of course argue that they got many things 'wrong', or that they changed things for dramatic effect), but in this particular scene it just felt like they threw all that out the window.

Up until this point of the movie, as far as suspension of disbelief goes, I was right there with John, feeling the danger he was in, feeling his fear. But when this scene came along, it just instantly snapped me out and reminded me that there's no way he's going to get hurt or die.

Still, love the movie!

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[–] denham 10 years ago

Has the grenade business been spoofed, I wonder? It seems to cry out for it.

Bad guy throws grenade into cockpit.
McClane throws it back.
Bad guy throws grenade into cockpit.
McClane throws it back.
Bad guy throws grenade into cockpit.
McClane throws it back.

Etc.

No doubt the grenades came from Grenada.

"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."

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[–] 10 years ago

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