Scene 23
- Richard Thornburg finally gets his moment to shine. He's reporting from the scene, and Argyle's watching from his limo.
- He hears the words Nakatomi Plaza and turns on his CB radio.
- He can hear the police planning a raid on the building.
- We cut to Powell and Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson arguing over whether or not they should enter the building.
- Powell's not for it. There are innocent hostages up there, after all.
- But Deputy Police Chief Dwayne T. Robinson won't give him the time of day.
- When McClane sees what's up, he radios Powell and susses out what's really going on.
- He, too, thinks it's just about the worst idea since New Coke.
- While the police close in, the bad guys prepare for the assault. They're ready. This is not going to go well.
- Then a bunch of things happen pretty fast.
- McClane scrambles to see what's going on.
- Argyle frantically cruises around the parking lot, looking for a way out.
- SWAT teams swarm the building.
- The bad guys take their positions.
- Theo hacks into the security feeds and tells the bad guys who's coming in and where.
- Deputy Chief of Police Dwayne T. Robinson tells the SWAT teams to "kick ass," which is exactly what they don't do.
- The raid fails when the bad guys use that rocket launcher McClane saw earlier to blow up the SWAT tank that attempts to bust in the front door.
- As Theo puts it, "The quarterback is toast."
- McClane is pissed. He's gotta do something—anything.
- And by anything, we mean throw a computer tied to a chair and rigged with C4 down the elevator shaft, because why not?
- The ensuing explosion rocks the whole building, blows out a lower floor, takes out two bad guys, and nearly singes off McClane's eyebrows.
Scene 24
- Harry, high on cocaine, has decided to take matters into his own hands.
- He waltzes in to talk to Gruber because he negotiates million dollar deals "for breakfast."
- Harry (who, it's worth mentioning at this point, is also quite hairy) puts on his best yuppie moneymaker talk and tells Gruber he can get rid of McClane.
- How's that? Well, he says he knows the guy, and he can give him to Gruber.