There’s a reason why this has been ripped off by a dozen other films. The plot is so well constructed that it gets away with being as serious as it is, despite coming out during a time where being as cheesy and over the top as possible seemed to be the name in the game. The characters and dialogue are absolutely iconic, they took a major risk by making McClane this everyday man, because 'regular' people are cinematically boring, but he really pops because of the personality that’s given to him by Willis and the script. Rickman plays one of the best bad guys ever, so many quotables coming out of his mouth. Filmmaking’s terrific, love the use of wide shots and McTiernan’s faith in visual storytelling, a surprising amount of information in this film is communicated without dialogue. The main selling point are of course the action scenes, which are visceral, tense and bloody. You know, it’s the kind of action that gets an emotion out of you, which I appreciate because that barely happens now with action films generally being so tame. There’s some very minor stuff that hasn’t aged well (the portrayal of Argyle the driver feels a bit dated; some sets and props are clearly sets and props), but it’s nothing that’s inexcusable for an 80s production, or anything that takes me out of the experience. Easily one of the best action films, even though I will always prefer the other McTiernan classic over this one.

9/10