Editing Die Hard (section)

===Re-write===
[[File:Roy Rogers in The Carson City Kid.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Roy Rogers dressed in cowboy gear. | [[John McClane]]'s catchphrase "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" was inspired by western actor [[Roy Rogers]]'s (pictured) own "Yippee-ki-yay, kids".]]
Screenwriter [[Steven E. de Souza]] rewrote Stuart's script because he had experience in blending action and comedy.<ref name="SlashFilmSouza"/> He approached the story as if Gruber were the protagonist. He said, "If [Gruber] had not planned the robbery and put it together, [McClane] would have just gone to the party and reconciled or not with his wife. You should sometimes think about looking at your movie through the point of view of the villain who is really driving the narrative."<ref name="CreativeScreenwriting"/> De Souza used blueprints of Fox Plaza to help him lay out the story and character locations within the building.<ref name="SlashFilmSouza"/>

The script continued to undergo changes up to and during filming. Several subplots and traits for characters other than McClane were created during the first few weeks of filming because Willis was still working on ''Moonlighting''. He would film the show for up to ten hours and then work on ''Die Hard'' at night. McTiernan gave Willis time off to rest and tasked De Souza with adding the new scenes. These included scenes with Holly's housekeeper, Holly confronting Gruber following Takagi's death, an introductory scene for Thornburg, and more moments between Powell and his fellow officers.<ref name="SlashFilmSouza"/>

Silver wanted a scene between McClane and Gruber before the film's denouement, but De Souza could not think of a plausible scenario until he happened to overhear Rickman affecting an American accent. He realized this would allow Gruber to disguise himself when he met McClane, and the earlier scene of Takagi's murder was reworked to conceal Gruber's identity from McClane. Due to the addition of the Gruber/McClane meeting scene, a different one in which McClane kills Theo was excised.<ref name="SlashFilmSouza"/>

In Stuart's original script, ''Die Hard'' took place over three days, but McTiernan was inspired to have it take place over a single night like Shakespeare's ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''. He did not want to use terrorists as the villains, as he considered them to be "too mean", and avoided focusing on the terrorists' politics in favor of making them thieves driven by monetary pursuits; he felt this would make it more suitable summer entertainment.<ref name="DevMisc"/>

McClane's character was not fully realized until almost halfway through production. McTiernan and Willis had determined that McClane is a man who does not like himself much but is doing the best he can in a bad situation.<ref name="DevMisc"/> McClane's catchphrase, "Yipee-ki-yay, motherfucker", was inspired by old cowboy lingo, including cowboy actor [[Roy Rogers]]'s own "Yippee-ki-yah, kids", to emphasize his all-American character.<ref name=Independent1/><ref name="CreativeScreenwriting"/> There was a debate over whether to use "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" or "yippee-ti-yay, motherfucker"; Willis endorsed the former.<ref name=Independent1/>