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Detective Lieutenant John McClane
Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard.
First appearance	Die Hard
Last appearance	Live Free or Die Hard
Portrayed by	Bruce Willis
Information
Gender	Male
Age	50
Date of birth	August 11, 1957(1957-08-11) New York City, New York,  United States (disputed)
Occupation	Police officer
Title	Detective Lieutenant
Spouse(s)	Holly Gennero McClane (divorced)
Children	John McClane, Jr. Lucy McClane
Relatives	Kevin D'Arcy (Cousin) (Sister)

John McClane is a fictional character and the protagonist in the Die Hard series of films. He is portrayed by Bruce Willis. Premiere ranked him as number 46 of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time list.

Contents 1 Development and description 2 Depiction 3 Family 3.1 Holly Gennero 3.2 Lucy McClane 3.3 John McClane, Jr. 4 Series inconsistencies 5 References 6 External links

McClane was originally based on the fictional character Detective Joe Leland from Roderick Thorp's novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, along with another character, Frank Malone from Walter H. Wager's novel 58 Minutes (later turned to Die Hard 2) and is somewhat based on and inspired by Dirty Harry. He is depicted as the "American Cowboy", a running gag throughout the films, which in addition to McClane's catch phrase "yippee-ka-yay, motherfucker," often has the villain comparing McClane to John Wayne, although McClane claims he was always partial to Roy Rogers.

McClane often has an African-American supportive person whether be it giving advice, or providing physical back-up. Starting with Al Powell (played by Reginald VelJohnson) during Die Hard and Die Hard 2; Argyle, the limo driver (played by De'voreaux White) in Die Hard; Leslie Barnes (Art Evans) and temporarily Major Grant (John Amos) during Die Hard 2; and lastly, Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) in Die Hard with a Vengeance. This pattern is broken in the fourth installment Live Free or Die Hard, with Caucasian hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) as his ally.

McClane's marriage is in a constant state of crisis, his vigilantism and disregard for authority have put him in danger of losing his job more than once, and he is a chain-smoker who is described as "two steps away from becoming a full blown alcoholic,"^[1] which McClane jokingly insists is only one step.

McClane survives chiefly due to a rare blood disorder, hyperplasmia, which gives him several extra pints of blood. This explains McClane's ability to lose between 6 and 8 pints of blood per film, yet remain conscious and active.

As a combatant, McClane survives and thrives due to a number of factors – outside-the-box thinking, tenacity, a bizarre form of grace under pressure, and occasionally sheer luck. Paramount to his success, however, is his refusal to let a threat intimidate him into inaction. Whether bungee jumping with a firehose to escape a bomb, emptying a magazine full of blanks at an uncooperative airport security chief, blowing apart handcuffs with binary explosives, or launching a police car towards an enemy helicopter, he refuses to let his opponents control an encounter. Recently he's outdone himself - his battle with Thomas Gabriel forced him to engage martial-artists several orders of magnitude more skilled than the terrorists he fought in Nakatomi Tower and Dulles International Airport. Mai Lihn, a high-degree black belt, effortlessly disabled him in hand-to-hand combat. McClane decided against another beating and instead drove a Ford Expedition though the building and knocked her down an elevator shaft. Rand, a master traceur, however, proved resistant to even this approach. McClane instead dealt with him with the suicidal tactic of blasting him with liquid nitrogen, resulting in Rand getting shred to pieces by the revolving blades below him.

Any of his enemies seem to die a bizarre yet spectacular death. Hans Gruber, after getting shot by McClane, hangs on to Holly's wristwatch, McClane then takes off Holly's watch, thus resulting in Gruber falling 30 stories to his death. During the events at Dulles International Airport, Col. Stuart, on the verge of escaping, kicks McClane off the wing of the plane. Unknown to him, McClane pulled out a fuel plug, and a trail of kerosene is formed. McClane then simply lights up the trail using his lighter, and the plane is blown up. In 1995, he finds himself cornered as he is low on bullets and his nemesis, Simon Gruber (Hans' brother) is armed with a M60. Resourceful, McClane uses his last bullets to disconnect a power line above Simon's helicopter. The helicopter gets electrocuted, glows, and then lands in a fireball. Recently the new villain Gabriel himself had him at gunpoint – McClane then shot himself in through the shoulder to eliminate his own captor holding him from behind. Where most people would hesitate – and die – McClane simply acts, with spectacular results.

However, despite his impressive abilities, McClane could be considered a reluctant hero. Citing the state of his life, he says he gets involved in dangerous situations, "because there is nobody else to do it". This philosophy is central to his character.^[2]

John McClane is an Irish-American, however the Scottish-Irish spelling of McClane is incorrect, and in fact “McClane” is not a genuine last name. The correct spelling for the name pronounced "McClane" is McClain, McLain, McLane, MacLean or McLean, which are all pronounced the same; however McClain, McLain, or McLane are interpreted much more easily than MacLean or McLean. In Die Hard, he is a detective lieutenant with the New York City Police Department and has been an officer for 11 years. At the beginning of the first film, he is separated from his wife, Holly Gennero McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), who is using her maiden name. Holly moved to Los Angeles several months earlier to pursue a career that John ultimately thought would fail, leading to their separation. They have two children, Lucy and John, Jr.

On Christmas Eve, 1988, John visits his wife at her workplace at the Nakatomi Plaza. Simultaneously, Hans Gruber initiates his plan to steal $640 million in bearer bonds and takes the Nakatomi employees, including Holly, hostage. McClane escapes and eventually defeats the criminals.

With husband and wife reconciled in that trying night, John moves to Los Angeles with a transfer to the Los Angeles Police Department. However, two years later on Christmas Eve, 1990, in Die Hard 2, McClane discovers that mercenaries have seized control of Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C.. The terrorist group takes control of the airport's communications and threatens to cause deadly plane crashes, including the plane that is carrying his wife, unless their demands are met. McClane foils the scheme.

However, by the time of their depiction in the third film Die Hard with a Vengeance, set in the fall of 1995, the McClanes have separated and John has moved back to New York City. McClane mentions this strife as he and Zeus Carver foil the explosive revenge plot of Hans Gruber's brother and his scheme to steal the Federal Reserve's gold bullion.

In Live Free or Die Hard, set during the summer of 2007, McClane, with the aid of hacker Matt Farrell, takes on a network-based terrorist organization that is conducting acts of cyber-terrorism on the United States by systematically attacking financial institutions, public safety targets, and the nation's power grid. By this time John and Holly are divorced and their daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), is not speaking to her father. During the course of this film Lucy is captured by the terrorists as leverage against McClane.

Holly Gennero (formerly Holly Gennero McClane) is the wife of John McClane. Over the course of the series their relationship becomes more and more strained and by the fourth film, they are divorced. They have two children together, John Jr. and Lucy. Holly is portrayed in the first two films by actress Bonnie Bedelia.

When Holly is first introduced in Die Hard, she works at Nakatomi Plaza, a skyscraper in Los Angeles, which is home to a Japanese corporation. Her marriage to John has been estranged ever since she took up her new job and he refused to relocate with her from New York. Holly lives in L.A. with their children, who Holly is keen for John to spend more time with. They quickly get into an argument over why Holly chooses to use her maiden name (Gennero) at work, and are separated for most of the film while John fights the terrorists. At the end of the film, as in Die Hard 2, they appear to reconcile, although this is more likely a temporary result of the ordeal they have been through rather than any long lasting understanding.

Holly is a strong willed woman, and a match for John's own domineering personality, as she doesn't back down from confrontation. However, she is also loyal and when necessary, can be violent, twice assaulting the opportunist news anchor, Richard Thornburg. Realising the gravity of the situation she asserts herself as spokesperson of the remaining hostages in the Nakatomi Plaza, while at the same time avoiding revealing herself as McClane's wife, aware that she may be used as a pawn.

Holly does not return for the third film in the series, Die Hard with a Vengeance, although she is mentioned in conversation and John makes an attempt to telephone her. Through this, we learn that she still resides in LA, and is still married to John, although it appears their marriage is in dire straits, partly due to John's drinking habits. In the latest installment of the story, she has divorced John.

While Holly does not physically appear in Live Free or Die Hard, cyber-terrorist Thomas Gabriel does pull up a picture of her driver's license in one scene.

Lucy McClane is John's daughter. She is played by Taylor Fry in Die Hard and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Live Free or Die Hard. Her first appearance is in Die Hard talking to her mother on the phone. She plays a much greater role in the film Live Free or Die Hard - she is estranged from her father; she tells her boyfriend (fiancee in the original script) that he is dead, and goes by her mother's maiden name, styling herself as Lucy Gennero.

Villain Thomas Gabriel kidnaps her and uses her as leverage against John McClane as he closes in on Gabriel. During the climatic scene, she grabs a gun and shoots the person who is holding her and attempts to slide a gun to her father, but is foiled. At the end of Live Free or Die Hard she shows some interest in Matt Farrell, McClane's sidekick in the film, and is getting along with John.

John McClane's son only appeared briefly in the first film so far as a young child. Willis stated in an interview that if John Jr. ever appeared in another Die Hard film, he wanted Justin Timberlake to be given the role. In Live Free or Die Hard Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) calls John McClane's son Jack (It is unknown if this is a mistake or canon. However Jack is a common nickname for males named John. It's also possible that, like Lucy, John Jr. wants nothing to do with his father and prefers to be called 'Jack' to avoid further association with him.)

• In the first three films, his handgun was a Beretta 92FS, while in Live Free or Die hard, he uses a SIG-Sauer P226R. (If one were to rewatch Die Hard With A Vengeance, one would notice that McClane has his 92FS taken away from him. In the finale, when he "comes at a bad time," interrupting Simon and his lady friend, his lady friend is so furious she begins firing at McClane with a 92FS. She is never seen with this weapon before McClane's was taken away. McClane later has to use a revolver to return fire, further evidence that he does not have his 92FS and Simon's lady friend was probably using McClane's against him. Add all of this up, and it is simple to see that right after Die Hard With A Vengeance, McClane had to buy a new handgun and he eventually decided on the 226 we see him using in the beginning of Live Free or Die Hard.)
• In the first three films, his allies have been African-Americans, while in Live Free or Die Hard, his ally is Caucasian.
• In the original films, McClane has openly used fully-automatic weapons (MP5s and the like), in Live Free or Die Hard, he acquires one, A UMP45, but never uses it as in Die Hard With A Vengeance, he acquires a MAC-10 while infiltrating a boat but doesn't use it, seeing as he is captured.

• John McClane at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Die Hard series
Die Hard • Die Hard 2 • Die Hard with a Vengeance • Live Free or Die Hard
Cast	Bruce Willis • Alan Rickman • Bonnie Bedelia • Reginald VelJohnson • William Atherton • William Sadler • Dennis Franz • Samuel L. Jackson • Jeremy Irons • Timothy Olyphant • Justin Long • Maggie Q • Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Crew	John McTiernan • Renny Harlin • Lawrence Gordon • Joel Silver • Roderick Thorp • Steven E. de Souza • Doug Richardson • Jonathan Hensleigh • Michael Kamen • Len Wiseman • David Marconi • Mark Bomback • Marco Beltrami
Video games	Die Hard • Die Hard Arcade • Die Hard Trilogy • Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas • Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza • Die Hard: Vendetta
Related articles	John McClane • Fox Plaza • Nothing Lasts Forever • Val Verde • Washington Dulles International Airport