It’s been over seven years since Bruce Willis last played John McClane, the terminally unlucky yet resourceful cop of the Die Hard series, the first of which rebranded him from wisecracking TV star to action god. Given our current movie-scape’s love of revivals and reboots — as well as society’s yen for AARP-aged a*s-kickers, like Liam Neeson — another big screen spin with McClane isn’t out of bounds. Till then, you’ll have to subsist on this most leftfield return: As caught by Variety, Willis has exhumed the character for a super-sized commercial for batteries.
Somehow it’s taken 32 years for the DieHard battery brand, first established in 1967, to put two and two together — and fork over what looks like a generous amount of money — and get John McClane to hock their wears. The new ad, which runs some two minutes, begins mundanely: Willis’ McClane needs a new car battery. It’s not long for some unnecessary window breaking, and from there things quickly escalate.
Willis isn’t the only original Die Hard vet who returns. The bad guy is played by Clarence Gilyard, who appeared as Theo, the sarcastic techie and the only member of Hans Gruber’s thieving faux-terrorist cell that doesn’t die. Instead, he’s incapacitated by De’voreaux White’s Argyle, John’s limousine driver who, incidentally, also returns. There’s a chase, there’s a big explosion, there’s some Willis smirking, and it all looks incredibly expensive.
The commercial was shared by Willis’ daughter Rumer, whose hashtag, “DieHardIsBack,” may have been a touch misleading to people who may not have been expecting a commercial for car batteries.
#DieHardisBack #ad pic.twitter.com/UHn8RSBGP0
— Rumer Willis (@TheRue) October 17, 2020
Does this mean a Die Hard 6 is on the horizon? Who knows? But maybe if enough people buy car batteries, capitalism will help the pushing-70 actor to lean more on the McClane who can figure out headache-inducing puzzles.
(Via Variety)