Talk:John McClane

New York Accent
He has one in the first one, but by the last one it has completely diminished.--76.173.248.173 23:10, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Die Hard 5...
If they do make one, I think they should include John's son. It might be a little odd, since john's son's a junior, but hey, why not? Son of Jadoja 13:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Live Free or Die Hard.jpg
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Social Security (he's not from New York)
I don't want to come across as one of those die hards (fnerr fnerr), but on a whim I paused a frame from Die Hard 4.0 and noted that his social security number was 380-42-661

the 380 prefix denotes Wisconsin, not New York.

Was tempted to write that in, but since I've only seen bits of the other movies, wouldn't want to contradict something that's explicitly scripted. In case anyone cares, though - the information is here —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.138.93 (talk) 14:27, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

BetacommandBot 03:56, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

~Plus the fact that the last set is missing a number (presumably to avoid accidently using a real SSN) TySoltaur (talk) 23:52, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Hyperplasmia bit
Is this for real? I don't recall this ever being mentioned in the series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.63.189.112 (talk) 20:23, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

-Agreed. I'm going to take it down until it's verified. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.242.174.185 (talk) 13:30, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Family
In the first film, he makes mention of a sister. Should that be included in the "family" section, or is there just not enough information to warrant inclusion? - Cubs Fan (talk) 09:12, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

In Live Free or Die Hard, Gabriel pulled up Holly's drivers license and it showed she has moved to San Francisco since they divorced. - User:stryteler —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.144.88.162 (talk) 18:37, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Re-added relevant material
I've re-added accurate descriptive material about the character, which includes descriptions of events that actually occur within the film. Please leave this, as it not only is useful in describing McClane's approach, but also as I said relies on events from the film to support its' observations. If one of the collaborative authors requires source citations, please advise on the mechanism used to claim citation from the films themselves, as that is the source.

Petrus4 (talk) 01:56, 10 May 2008 (UTC)


 * It's written in a style resembling that of a magazine article, with really peacock terms like "magniture greater" "recently outdone" as well as originally observing how he fights his enemies (outside of the box thinking). I don't know how to write it in a non-NOR style, but this is way over the top and I tried to kill all of it when I came back to his article.  I'm removing and will try to rewrite it in the future. hbdragon88 (talk) 18:36, 10 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Ignore_all_rules
 * Are you at all familiar with this? ;-) I'm not saying for one moment that it should apply in every case; but given that passage's factual accuracy, despite its' "tone," is this not a single instance in which we can perhaps be a little liberal in the interpretation of policy?


 * Petrus4 (talk) 22:17, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Yippee ki-yay
I can't find anything on Wikipedia about this phrase, a Native American war-cry meaning This is a good day to die. Is this an oversight? Nuttyskin (talk) 18:12, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It's from the TV Show "The Lone Ranger", which starred Roy Rodgers...who Willis compares himself too in the film. Come on guys...that's an easy one!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.194.134.18 (talk) 15:27, 25 December 2011 (UTC)
 * The above brought to you from the "I can make stuff up 'coz I watch teevee" department. Yes, Nuttyskin, the lack of Wiki articles on "Yippee ki-yay" is an oversight. Don't know about the war cry part, but that sounds wrong, too.  Git along. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sterlingjones (talk • contribs) 22:57, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Depictions Outside Die Hard films
This might be considered "Trivia", but a mention of the character appearing outside Die Hard cannon would be of interest. Willis reprised the role of John McClane in the Loaded Weapon 1 film, and alluded to portraying the character in Mad About You. There might be other noteworthy instances too. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.87.56.109 (talk) 09:54, 9 July 2012 (UTC)

The 9 year old John McClane?
Does the name of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise come from Joe McClaine, the protagonist of a 1960s british spy-kid themed TV series called the "Joe 90"? Today Joe 90 is mostly remembered for its electronic music OP / ED, otherwise it was a weird british clay-stop-motion animation production. 82.131.210.163 (talk) 10:24, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Detective Joe Leland
It might be worth noting that there was an earlier Detective Joe Leland novel, filmed as “The Detective” with Frank Sinatra as Detective Joe Leland; the book which became Die Hard was written with the intention of it being filmed as another vehicle for Sinatra, on which he passed. It seems to be more relevant than saying he was partially based on the character in the novel that the sequel was derived from (which seems odd, as the character already existed by then), and “Dirty Harry” Callaghan, who post-dates the earlier Detective Joe Leland movie (and for which assertion no citation is given. 109.154.149.154 (talk) 22:31, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on John McClane. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080604054934/http://www.aintitcool.com:80/display.cgi?id=23479 to http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23479

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Irish-American or Scottish-American?
McClane is listed as Irish-American, but other than Gruber's reference to him being Irish (not sure where he got that from?), is there anything to confirm this? The script writer Jeb Stuart, himself of Scottish descent, said he chose the name McClane as he wanted the character to have a "good Scottish name", which McClane indeed is.

This excerpt is taken from Jeb Stuart's interview with Variety: "Having abandoned the name Joe Leland, Stuart was going to call his hero John Ford, but Levin told him that film director John Ford was too important a name in the history of Fox to use for an action-movie character. “I promptly ran through fifty last names,” Stuart says. He eventually hit on the right one, swayed by his own Celtic roots. “McClane I always heard was a good strong Scottish name, and that’s what I wanted to put in there.”

Taken from: https://variety.com/2018/film/news/die-hard-ultimate-visual-history-making-of-movie-book-1203017890/ Ses102 (talk) 13:06, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

another appearance
I remember years ago that they did an appearance on the show top gear they did a skit where could see if officer McClane blow the horn on a car.

Here is the link.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WINddcWPgHg

does this need to be added as an appearance? 71.121.162.151 (talk) 00:30, 16 May 2024 (UTC)