Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
One year after his heroics in Los Angeles, John McClane is an off-duty cop who is the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a snowy Christmas Eve, as he waits for his wife's plane to land at Washington Dulles International Airport, terrorists take over the air traffic control system in a plot to free a South American army general and drug smuggler being flown into the US to face drug charges. It's now up to McClane to take on the terrorists, while coping with an inept airport police chief, an uncooperative anti-terrorist squad, and the life of his wife and everyone else trapped in planes circling overhead.
Die Hard 2 is a competent but largely derivative sequel that recycles the original's formula in a new setting. The plot is serviceable but riddled with contrivances and lacks the tight, inventive construction of its predecessor. The airport/snow setting is memorable and Reginald VelJohnson and Bruce Willis bring energy to familiar roles, but the supporting cast is uneven. Cinematography is solid studio action work — nothing special but professionally executed. Novelty suffers most: it's a conscious retread of the original's beats (wrong-place hero, Christmas, wife in danger, bumbling authorities), offering little new beyond the location swap. The climactic runway finale is rousing enough to give the ending a slight edge.