Hans Gruber is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the 1988 action film Die Hard portrayed by Alan Rickman. Gruber is a cunning thief and terrorist mastermind from East German town Zittau who holds the Nakatomi Plaza hostage to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds. His plan is foiled by New York cop John McClane, who happened upon Gruber's plot by mistake. Since his first appearance, Gruber has been cemented as one of the most iconic villains in film history – as well as often being ranked as the greatest action movie villain of all time and one of Rickman's most iconic roles. The villain became so popular with movie fans, the producers introduced his brother, Simon, as the primary antagonist of the third film in the franchise – Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Fictional character biography
Gruber was born in Germany with his brother, Simon, and claimed to have been classically educated. In his young adult life, Gruber joined the Volksfrei, a West German radical group. Gruber was eventually expelled from the organization due to his overly violent behaviour. Gruber used his past as part of the Volksfrei to be able to successfully anticipate certain attacks and defences and find ways of counteracting them. This was shown during the siege of Nakatomi Plaza, where Gruber was able to anticipate certain strategies from the LAPD and the FBI. Gruber used his reputation to amass a following of terrorists in Germany, and appointed Karl Vreski to be his right-hand man. Gruber plotted the siege of Nakatomi himself and travelled to the United States to enact his plan.
Taking the Nakatomi Plaza
Gruber, Vreski and the rest of his group enlisted the help of hacker Theo to successfully break through Nakatomi's security systems to steal the $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds that were being held at the tower in a high-security vault with 7 locks. The final lock of the safe was electromagnetic, which prompted Gruber to assume the guise of terrorists, to allow the FBI to intervene and cut the power to the building, allowing the vault to be opened. Gruber and the majority of his crew arrived at the Nakatomi Plaza via a Pacific Courier van. Karl and hacker Theo took out the guards in the main lobby, as Karl and his brother Tony proceeded to cut the telephone lines while Theo stopped the elevators. Hans and his henchmen arrived on the 30th floor of the building, where a Christmas party was taking place, and opened fire to make their presence known. This caught the attention of off-duty New York Police Department officer John McClane, who was at Nakatomi Plaza visiting his estranged wife, Holly Gennaro. McClane was able to successfully hide from the terrorists while Gruber scanned the party for the president of Nakatomi's trading, Joseph Takagi, taking Takagi to a boardroom to negotiate. Gruber began questioning Takagi for the code to the vault. After repeatedly denying any knowledge of the combination, Takagi retorted with "You're just going to have to kill me!" To which Gruber responded by shooting Takagi in the head. McClane kills Tony, causing Karl to become vengeful. While Gruber was distracted by Karl's grief, McClane was successfully able to attract the attention of authorities, who sent police officer Al Powell to investigate. After Powell was unable to find anything suspicious at Nakatomi, McClane threw one of the terrorist's bodies onto his car as he was about to leave, causing Powell to call for backup. McClane acquired a two-way radio from one of the terrorists and was able to explain the situation to Powell as the police arrived, led by Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson. Due to Gruber's ability to hear McClane's discussions over the radio, the two shared a conversation, in which Gruber began dubbing the unknown assailant "Cowboy". One of Holly's co-workers, Harry Ellis, attempts to negotiate with Gruber, and revealed McClane's name to Gruber, hoping to score cocaine from Gruber by turning McClane over to him. Hans then assassinates Ellis with McClane and the police force listening, and demands the release of several terrorist organisations worldwide. Just as Gruber had anticipated, the FBI arrives and takes control from the LAPD, shutting the power to the building.
First confrontation with John McClane
While searching for the detonators to his explosives, Gruber finally comes face-to-face with John McClane. Using the fact that he believes that McClane doesn't know who he is, Gruber uses the alias of "Bill Clay" and uses an American accent in hopes of gaining McClane's trust. McClane appeared to let his guard down and gave Gruber a gun. When Gruber revealed himself and attempted to use the gun against McClane, it is revealed that McClane had emptied the weapon. Gruber's men arrive to his location resulting in a shoot-out between McClane and Gruber. Gruber notices that McClane is barefoot, and instructs Karl to shoot at the glass panels nearby to slow him down and leave a blood trail. This caused McClane to flee, leaving the detonators behind. Gruber activated the detonators, revealing that he had set a trap for the FBI to lure them to use a helicopter to escort them to Los Angeles International Airport in exchange for the hostages being kept on the 30th floor, planning to use the explosives to make himself and his crew appear dead so they can escape with the money. Gruber witnesses a television report by Richard Thornburg, where he interrogates McClane's young daughter, Lucy, and reveals that Holly Genarro is John McClane's estranged wife. Vengeful, Gruber took Holly as his hostage while the FBI were dispatched in the explosion. McClane was able to save the hostages by scaring them back downstairs with gunfire, which leads to the FBI agents believing he was a terrorist. McClane narrowly escapes the explosion by jumping off the roof of the building with a fire hose tied around his waist.
Robbery and death
While Hans and the last remaining member of his crew, Eddie, collected the money, McClane's limousine driver Argyle dispatched of Theo in the parking garage, leaving Gruber with no getaway driver. McClane re-entered the building and discovered that Gruber had taken Holly hostage. McClane taped his berretta to his back and entered the vault. Gruber placed his gun to Holly's head, ordering McClane to drop his machine gun and place his hands behind his head. McClane seized this opportunity to kill Eddie and shoot Gruber out a window. Gruber staggered backwards towards the window whilst still holding on to Holly, attempting to drag her to death with him by holding on to her watch out the window. McClane rushes to save Holly, while Gruber aims his gun at McClane. Before he can open fire, McClane detaches the watch from Holly's wrist - sending Gruber falling thirty stories to his death.
Simon's revenge
Hans's estranged brother, Simon Gruber, would attempt to enact revenge on McClane seven years after the events of the Nakatomi siege. Simon would end up being defeated and killed by McClane and his friend Zeus Carver. Rickman also briefly appears as Hans Gruber in a flashback sequence through use of archival footage from the first film.
Production
Hans Gruber was the first major film role given to Alan Rickman. Rickman was cast after producer Joel Silver saw him during a Broadway run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. A green screen was used for the now infamous scene of Gruber's death. Rickman was to be dropped 70 feet, and was let go sooner than expected, causing the shocked look of fear on Gruber's face to be genuine. The first shot taken ended up being the one used in the movie, which angered Rickman. The scene where Gruber pretends to be an escaped hostage named Bill Clay was not originally included in the script, and was added once the production crew discovered that Rickman could pull off a convincing American accent. According to actor Hans Buhringer, who portrayed the terrorist Fritz in the film, Rickman researched meticulously to perfect his German accent and was even able to achieve the German-English dialect throughout the film. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza wrote the screenplay for Die Hard with the mindset as if Gruber was the protagonist of the story. De Souza stated, "If he had not planned the robbery and put it together, Bruce Willis would have just gone to the party and reconciled or not with his wife. You should sometimes think about looking at your movie through the point of view of the villain who is really driving the narrative."
Reception and legacy
Gruber has gone on to become one of the most iconic villains in cinematic history and is often considered one of the greatest. Gruber was listed by Empire magazine as the 17th Greatest Movie Character of All Time out of 100, while John McClane placed 12th on the same list. Gruber also ranked #4 on Empire's list of the Greatest Movie Villains of All Time, only being beaten by Darth Vader, The Joker and Loki. Gruber was also selected by the American Film Institute as #46 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains. Gruber was listed by IGN as #14 of their top 100 villains. Gruber would also go on to influence subsequent movie villains such as Howard Payne in Speed, Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom in Con Air, Eric Qualen in Cliffhanger and Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One. Due to the popularity of Gruber, actor Alan Rickman ended up being cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in in 1991, and was subsequently typecast as villainous characters until he portrayed the anti-hero Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. Rickman would also go on to cite Gruber as one of his favourite characters that he portrayed during his lifetime. Due to the film and the character's iconic status, Gruber has been referenced multiple times in popular culture. The police-comedy show Brooklyn Nine-Nine makes references to Gruber quite often, as the character of Jake Peralta cites Die Hard as his favourite film of all time. One episode in particular includes the cast going to the Fox Plaza and re-enacting iconic scenes from the film, including Gruber's death. As well as a Christmas themed episode where Peralta is thrown into a "Die Hard-esque" scenario involving terrorists and hostages. Other shows such as The Office and Friends have also featured references to Gruber. Gruber's death was also briefly parodied in The Lego Batman Movie in a scene where Alfred Pennyworth seemingly falls to his death. Gruber is also the subject of a parody video done by Funny Or Die in which Gruber negotiates via walkie talkie with Tropic Thunder character Les Grossman, played by Tom Cruise. Gruber is the namesake for Texas based punk rock band "Hans Gruber and the Die Hards", and was among the bases for the character Artemis Fowl II, the main antagonist of the book series of the same name, described by its author Eoin Colfer as "Die Hard with fairies".
