Alan Rickman Almost Turned Down Die Hard But One Thing About The Script Changed His Mind

[BootinUp]

But it seems it wasn't just the encouragement of his management that pushed Rickman to accept the role of Gruber. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the actor was impressed by "Die Hard's" script, which he said was actually surprisingly progressive for the time:

"Not to get a sledgehammer out to it, but every single black character in that film is positive and highly intelligent. So, 28 years ago, that's actually quite revolutionary and quietly so."

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[station agent]

1. Still, the message is good guy with a gun fixes crime, gov can't do anything right, copaganda...

Pretty conservative still.

[OnlinePoker]

2. The computer nerd criminal was positive?

Intelligent yes, but he was still happy when innocent people got killed.

[lefthandedskyhook]

3. Please explain

please...

[OnlinePoker]

4. Theo, the computer hacker that helped Hans Gruber break into the vault

When the criminals first came into the lobby and the desk guard was shot, he said something like "pow, two points" then kicks the body out of the way to access the computers.

And later when he directed the defense against the police:
Theo: [as the SWAT Team closes in]
[over the CB]
Theo: All right, listen up guys. 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except... the four assholes coming in the rear in standard two-by-two cover formation.

Then: [laughing as a LAPD SWAT armored vehicle is hit with a missile] Oh my God, the quarterback is TOAST!

He may have been intelligent, given his skills with the computer, but he was definitely not a positive character.

On edit: Clarence Gilyard Jr., who portrayed Theo, died on November 28th at 66 years old.

[XanaDUer2]

5. That's what I remember nt

[Ilsa]

6. The character impressed me as a brilliant psychopath,

completely unworthy of redemption.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. But the cop with the junk food addiction

was positive and intelligent, and comes through in the end.

As for the psychopathic computer nerd, we still weren't seeing many black people being portrayed as intelligent, or even having significant supporting roles in mainstream films. Look at this list from 1988.

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&year=1988-01-01,1988-12-31