Editing Die Hard (section)

===Development and writing===
[[File:John McTiernan at the Cinémathèque Française (Cropped).jpeg|thumb|upright|left|alt= Director John McTiernan dressed in a blue shirt and glasses facing the camera|Director [[John McTiernan]] in 2014]]
The development of ''Die Hard'' began in 1987, when screenwriter [[Jeb Stuart (writer)|Jeb Stuart]] was in dire financial straits. His script purchased by [[Columbia Pictures]] had been abandoned and a contract at [[Walt Disney Pictures]] was not providing him with sufficient income. Stuart had six weeks between contracted work so his agent [[Jeremy Zimmer]] contacted [[Lloyd Levin]], the head of development at the Gordon Company, a producing arm of [[20th Century Fox]].<ref name="VarietyBook"/>

Levin asked Stuart to work on an adaptation of the 1979 novel ''[[Nothing Lasts Forever (Thorp novel)|Nothing Lasts Forever]]'' written by former private investigator [[Roderick Thorp]].<ref name="VarietyBook"/><ref name=Independent1/> Thorp had been inspired to write ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' by a dream he had—in which armed assailants chase a man through a building—after watching the 1974 disaster film ''[[The Towering Inferno]]''.<ref name="VarietyBook"/><ref name="VanityFairat30"/><ref name="NYTimesThorp"/> Fox had adapted the book's 1966 predecessor, ''[[The Detective (novel)|The Detective]]'', for the [[The Detective (1968 film)|1968 film]] starring [[Frank Sinatra]] as NYPD detective Joe Leland, and purchased the sequel rights before ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' had been written.<ref name="VarietyBook"/><ref name="VanityFairat30"/>

Levin gave Stuart creative freedom as long as he retained the [[Christmas]]-in-[[Los Angeles|Los-Angeles]] setting; the concept, he considered, would provide an interesting aesthetic.<ref name="VarietyBook"/> The film was [[Pitch (filmmaking)|pitched]] as "[[John Rambo|Rambo]] in an office building", referring to the successful ''[[Rambo (franchise)|Rambo]]'' film series.<ref name="EbertSeitz"/> Producers [[Lawrence Gordon (producer)|Lawrence Gordon]] and [[Joel Silver]] hired director [[John McTiernan]] because of his work with them on the successful 1987 action film ''[[Predator (1987 film)|Predator]]''.<ref name="NYTimesSalaryAftermath"/><ref name="VultureRetro"/><ref name="EmpireRetro"/> McTiernan agreed to direct on the condition that the film would have "some joy" and not simply contain "mean, nasty acts", seen in other terrorist films.<ref name="VanityFairat30"/>

Stuart began working 18-hour days at his office at [[Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)|Walt Disney Studios]] in [[Burbank, California|Burbank]], which left him exhausted and "on edge".<ref name="VarietyBook"/> After an argument with his wife, he went for a drive and saw a box in his lane; unable to avoid it, he was forced to drive over it and discovered it to be empty. According to Stuart, he pulled over on the side of the freeway, his "heart pounding". From this, Stuart conceived a central theme of the story of a man who should have apologized to his wife before a catastrophe. He returned home to reconcile with his wife and wrote 35 pages that night.<ref name="VarietyBook"/> To shape the McClanes' relationship, Stuart also drew upon the marital problems of his peers, including divorces and ex-wives reverting to use their maiden name.<ref name="VarietyBook"/>

[[File:Disney studios burbank team disney building buena vista.jpg|thumb|alt=Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.|[[Jeb Stuart (writer)|Jeb Stuart]] wrote his initial draft in his office at the [[Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)|Walt Disney Studios]] in [[Burbank, California]].]]
John McClane was named John Ford initially, but 20th Century Fox felt this was disrespectful to the deceased director [[John Ford|of the same name]]. Stuart chose McClane as a "good strong Scottish name", based on his own Celtic heritage. He described the character as a flawed hero who learns a lesson in the worst possible situation and becomes a better, but not a different, person.<ref name="VarietyBook"/> Having no experience writing action films, Stuart drew on his experience writing thrillers, focusing on making the audience care about McClane, Holly, and their reconciliation.<ref name="VarietyBook"/> As Stuart pitched his story to executives, Gordon interrupted him, told him to complete a draft, and left the meeting. Stuart finished his first draft just under six weeks later.<ref name="VarietyBook"/>

Stuart credits Levin for helping him understand ''Nothing Lasts Forever''.<ref name="VarietyBook"/> He adapted many sequences faithfully, including a C-4 charge being thrown down an elevator shaft and the book's central character, Joe Leland, leaping from the roof. However, the novel is told entirely from Leland's perspective, and events he is not present for are not detailed.<ref name="VarietyBook"/><ref name="CreativeScreenwriting"/><ref name="AVNovel"/> Its tone is also more cynical and [[Nihilism|nihilistic]]: Leland visits his drug-addicted daughter at the Klaxon building, and she dies having fallen from the building alongside villain Anton Gruber, who is using naïve male and female guerrilla soldiers to rob the building because of Klaxon's support for a dictatorial government. This made their motivations less clear and Leland more conflicted about killing them, especially the women. Leland is written as an experienced older man working as a high-powered security consultant.<ref name="VarietyBook"/><ref name="EmpireRetro"/><ref name="AVNovel"/> Stuart rejected the novel's tone for being "too sad", and believed an older action hero—Leland being over 60—was nonsensical. Stuart created new material for scenes when McClane is not present, expanding upon or introducing characters: he gave Powell a wife and children, allowing him to relate more closely to McClane; and Argyle, whose novel counterpart disappears early in the story, is present throughout Stuart's draft, supporting McClane by broadcasting rap music over the terrorists' radios. Among the script's original characters is the unscrupulous journalist Richard Thornburg.<ref name="VarietyBook"/>

A fan of prominent Western film actor [[John Wayne]], Stuart was inspired to carry a Western motif throughout the script, including cowboy lingo. He befriended a construction superintendent at the under-construction [[Fox Plaza (Los Angeles)|Fox Plaza]] in Los Angeles, allowing him access to the building to gain ideas on how to lay out the characters and scenes. He delivered the finished screenplay in June 1987. It was [[Green-light|greenlit]] the following day, in part because 20th Century Fox needed a [[Blockbuster (entertainment)|summer blockbuster]] for 1988.<ref name="VarietyBook"/>