In the third Die Hard, weary, unshaven, hard-drinking New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) once again finds himself targeted for cat-and-mouse games by a robber posing as a terrorist. (Fittingly, Jeremy Irons’ Simon is the brother of Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber, the similar villain McClane dispatched in the first movie.) This time, however, McClane has a reluctant partner, a black-nationalist electrician named Zeus. (Why an electrician? Why named for the king of the Greek gods? Do we really need reasons?)
In order to prevent a riot, Zeus — played by Samuel L. Jackson — helps McClane out of a racially inflammatory situation in Harlem (in which Simon has placed him) early in the film and is rewarded by having McClane drag him all over the city to fulfill Simon’s whims, solve his riddles, and try to defuse his bombs. Zeus’ response is understandably apoplectic (and no one does apoplexy like Jackson); he’s the closest thing in the movie to a reasonable human being. He and Willis strike up a believable chemistry, and that, more than anything else, makes Vengeance the most enjoyable Die Hard besides the original.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m5QoYnKne0]