10 Things You Didn't Know About Die Hard

On this day in 1988, John McClane and Die Hard came into our lives. In honor of this storied occasion, let's look at 10 things you didn't know about the best action movie of the last 25 years.

• 1. The Bill Clay Scene Was Added Late Because The Filmmakers Discovered Rickman Did A Great American Accent

  By the way this is my favorite "WTF" video online.

• 2. The Original Die Hard Posters Didn't Feature Bruce Willis

  

  The studio thought that his image might prevent box office success because he was a TV actor.

• 3. The German That The Terrorists Speak Is Meaningless And Borderline Gibberish

  

  Grammatically incorrect and nonsensical, the terrorists's origin had to be changed to "Europe" for the German release of the film.

• 4. Yippee-ki-yay, Motherfucker

  John McClane's catchphrase translated from Urdu means "Here Eat This, Motherfucker."

• 5. Six Actors Had The Role Before Bruce Willis

  

  Oh these hypothetical versions of Die Hard, the Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson versions would be awesome. The other four would be a disaster.

• 6. Die Hard Was Originally Conceived As A Sequel To Commando

  

  But when Arnold dropped out the movie began to change.

• 7. The Nakatomi Tower Is Actually 20th Century Fox's Headquarters

  

  They charged themselves rent to shoot there.

• 8. Alan Rickman's Film Debut

  

  He was cast based off his performance in the stage version of Dangerous Liaisons.

• 9. Die Hard Has Awesome Foreign Translations

  

  They include "Die Manly" (Serbia), "Chrystal Jungle" (Spain), "The Glass Trap" (Poland), and "Give Your Life Expensive" (Hungary).

• 10. Rickman Couldn't Shoot Without Flinching

  

  Every time Rickman would pull the trigger, he would flinch because of the noise. John McTiernan tried to cut away each time he shot, but he couldn't when Rickman shot Takagi so it's still visible there.