When does John arrive in Los Angeles?
John arrives in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. His wife, Holly is at a party held by her employer, Nakatomi Corporation at the still-unfinished high-rise Nakatomi Plaza. Argyle, a limousine driver, takes John to the office building and offers to wait for him until he has his accommodations figured out.
John discovers that Holly is using Gennaro as her last name. After John meets her, they have an argument over her using this. Meanwhile, a group of armed terrorists led by Hans Gruber seize the tower and hold the partygoers hostage. However, John manages to slip away into the maintenance areas of the building. ..
What’s Gruber’s purpose?
Takagi learns that Gruber’s motive is to steal $640 million in bearer bonds stored in the building’s lockers. Takagi refuses to reveal the combination to open the vault, so Gruber executes him. The head terrorist then tasks one of his men, Theo, with breaking into the vault. ..
As the LAPD sergeant walks down the hall, he is alerted to a sound coming from one of the floors of the tower. He goes to investigate and finds John, who has killed Tony and taken his weapon and radio. John then contacts LAPD who send sergeant Al Powell to look into the matter. Powell is unable to find any signs of disturbance, so he leaves.
John manages to stop the terrorist assault by detonating explosives on his car. This causes the terrorists to flee in terror, and John is able to arrest them.
Does Gruber shoot John?
John is trying to negotiate with Gruber on his behalf when Gruber pretends to be an escaped hostage. The plan works and John hands a gun to Gruber. Gruber triggers the gun but finds out it’s unloaded. John escapes, however, he loses the detonators he collected from the terrorists he killed.
What action does the FBI take?
The FBI has agreed to provide a helicopter to transport Gruber from the building, in order to avoid any further disruptions to the security system.
John realizes that Gruber wants to do more harm than just stealing. He finds that Gruber has rigged the helipad on the roof with detonators, and plans to kill everybody.
How does John save the hostages?
As John tries to get everybody inside safely, the FBI shoots at him – mistaking him for one of the terrorists. John escapes again using a fire hose as a rescue rope.
Gruber discovers from a news report that John is Holly’s husband. He uses her as a shield against any attack from John.
John, down to his last two bullets, surrenders with his gun taped to his back. Just as Gruber the opponent was down, John pulls out his pistol – killing his last aide and shooting him through the chest. Gruber falls through the building window, but grabs hold of Holly’s wristwatch. His weight also drags her out of the window. John unstraps her watch just in time causing Gruber to fall to his death. The couple shares a tight smooch. ..
As they are about to leave, Karl, one of the terrorists who has been pretending to be an injured hostage, attempts to ambush John and Holly with an assault rifle. However, Powell shoots him. The couple leave in Argyle’s limo and save both the hostages and Christmas.
