YMMV / Die Hard with a Vengeance

• Critical Dissonance: Vengeance received a mixed critical response, but was very-well liked by audiences and fans alike, and is often considered to be the best of the Die Hard sequels.
• Ending Fatigue: The film starts running out of steam once McClane and Simon come face to face. This is largely because no one knew how to end the story — the original scripted ending was never filmed, the first was considered too dark by test audiences, and the finished product was tacked on at the last minute.
• Evil Is Cool: Simon is often considered to be one of the best villains in the series, second only to Hans.
• Franchise Original Sin: The first Die Hard film whose plot wasn't "Die Hard" on an X. It worked here because John McTiernan shot great action scenes and Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson had great buddy chemistry, even as the story and action felt less intimate and more spectacle-driven. The sequels after tried to replicate its buddy cop formula to swiftly diminishing returns.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One of the cops makes an offhand reference to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, saying how inconvenient it was. Ouch. The entire plot can be harder to watch after 9/11: a beautiful late summer day, terrorists making an attack on New York City, schoolchildren possibly being in danger...
  • The sudden bombing of a crowded city block in New York City that kicks off the film is also harsher in light of the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon.
• He's Just Hiding: It's possible to harbor a little doubt about whether Simon and Katya die in the helicopter crash, given that they might have had time to jump out as it began its downward spiral during a few seconds where the chopper is out of the camera's sight.
• Magnificent Bastard: Simon Gruber is a former soldier, Hans's older brother, and master thief just like his sibling. Distracting the New York City police department with bomb threats, Simon strings along John McClane and Zeus Carver to play games following his instructions lest he detonate his bombs. Pretending to be masterminding revenge for his brother, Simon mobilizes on his real goal: robbing the Federal Reserve for over one hundred billion dollars in gold bars, while the preoccupied police force leaves it nearly completely unguarded for Simon and his men to plunder. When McClane attempts to follow his men, Simon improvises with a discarded bomb to flood the tunnel McClane is in, nearly drowning him. Alleging to destroy the gold to disrupt the American power grip on the world, Simon really means to make off with it himself. Every bit as adaptive and charming as Hans, Simon is yet another Gruber who is shown to be a brilliant criminal.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Federal Reserve guard who tries to hold off Simon's gang with a shotgun, and Jerry, the surprisingly well-educated truck driver, who solves the "what is 21 out of 42" riddle for McClane almost offhandedly.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Among the sequels, Vengeance is the least-criticized by fans, largely due to being directed by John McTiernan, and it directly followed up on events and characters from the first film.
• Retroactive Recognition: A young Aldis Hodge made his debut here, playing Zeus Carver's nephew Raymond.
• Signature Scene: John McClane walking around Harlem wearing the sign "I Hate Niggers".
• Tear Jerker:
  • Ricky's murder. The last thing anyone (who isn't a villain) said to him before he died was that he was "full of shit!" ...Ouch.
  • Equally upsetting is later when John finds his corpse below the Federal Reserve.

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