Trivia / Live Free or Die Hard

• Actor-Inspired Element: Director Len Wiseman credits Timothy Olyphant with coming up with the idea of how McClane kills Gabriel. In order to keep it a secret, the scene was not included in the film's shooting script.
• California Doubling: While DC, Camden and Baltimore serve as filming locations, most was done in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
• The Cast Showoff: French actor and martial artist Cyril Raffaelli, who plays Rand, does his stunts almost without special effects and wires.
• Completely Different Title: The French title translates as Die Hard 4.0: Return to Hell.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The film was based on a combination of a magazine article titled "A Farewell to Arms" and an original screenplay titled WW3.com.
• Executive Meddling: When the fourth movie was being made, the studio execs forced the filmmakers to aim for a PG-13 rating, thus eliminating half the fun, including McClane's favorite word. The "unrated" DVD version of the film fixes that problem and Bruce Willis resolved an argument over the phone with the studio over the script by asking "Who's your second choice to play John McClane?"
• Harpo Does Something Funny: When filming the scenes of John walking through the corridors talking to Gabriel on the two-way, there were no written lines of dialogue for Bruce Willis, according to Len Wiseman on the DVD Commentary. So what they did on set was have Willis hold the two-way up to his mouth and speak gibberish so it looks like he's talking to Gabriel. If you'll notice, there are a couple of times where the two-way isn't all the way up to Willis' face and you can see his mouth doesn't match the dialogue being spoken.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Bruce Willis was injured during a fight scene when he was kicked above his right eye by Maggie Q's stunt double, who was wearing stiletto heels. He was hospitalized and received seven stitches that ran through his right eyebrow and down into the corner of his eye.
  • Willis' stunt double Larry Rippenkroeger was knocked unconscious when he fell 25 feet from a fire escape to the pavement. Rippenkroeger suffered broken bones in his face, several broken ribs, a punctured lung, and fractures in both wrists. Owing to his injuries, production was temporarily shut down. Willis personally paid the hotel bills for Rippenkroeger's parents and visited him a number of times at the hospital.
• Prop Recycling: The gun that one of the Mooks uses to execute Gabriel's subordinate hackers is the same Beretta 92FS that Bruce Willis used in Die Hard 2 and Die Hard with a Vengeance.
• Refitted for Sequel: The plot point of McClane having to rescue a kidnapped Lucy was carried over from a rejected script for Die Hard with a Vengeance.
• Throw It In!: McClane yellng "Whoa!" when he flings the parkour-using henchman off his car and into a wall; it was Bruce Willis' genuine reaction to the actor taking a bigger bump for the stunt than expected.
• Uncredited Role: Kevin Smith wrote most of the dialogue for his part. According to Smith, he rewrote the scene when he auditioned for the part, and the studio hired him because it was cheaper than giving him a writer's credit. Smith was credited for his acting, but not for his script edits.
• Wag the Director: Ramón Langa, life-long voice actor for Bruce Willis in Spain, refused to dub him unless he was allowed to use all the profanity he wanted.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Bruce Willis wanted Ben Affleck to play Matt Farrell in order to recreate the chemistry between two characters previously accomplished in Armageddon (1998), while Len Wiseman wanted Scott Speedman. Kal Penn and Brad Renfro auditioned for the role.
  • Justin Timberlake was in talks to play Jack McClane before the character was changed.
  • Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears auditioned for Lucy McClane.
  • Eli Roth was asked to direct, but turned it down in favour of Hostel Part II.
  • The film's climax originally involved McClane racing alongside an exploding gas pipeline on a motorcycle with Matt in a sidecar. The idea evolved into Gabriel trying to kill McClane and Matt by routing gas to their location through the pipelines.
• Working Title: While in early development with a script that was eventually discarded, the movie had been given the subtitle Tears of the Sun. Bruce Willis told the studio he would commit to a Die Hard 4 if he could use the title for Tears of the Sun.

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