Die Hard 2: Terror Storm
by Elbarto1
This edit trims the fat to tighten up the dialog and remove silly over-the-top moments that hurt the film. The most noticeable change is the complete removal of the Dick Thornberg reporter character from the film.
member ratings:
(11 votes, average: 8.36 out of 10, rated)
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original film name: Die Hard 2: Die Harder
new film name : Die Hard 2: Terror Storm
film studio name : 20th Century Fox
edit crew name : Elbarto1
Date Original Film Was Released : 1990
Date Edit Was Released : April 2009
Original Runtime : 124 min
New Runtime : 107 min
Amount of time Cut/Added : 17 minutes cut
Fanedit Details: I have always enjoyed this film but it was my least favorite of the original trilogy. This edit trims the fat to tighten up the dialog and remove silly over-the-top moments that hurt the film. The most noticeable change is the complete removal of the Dick Thornberg reporter character from the film. Otherwise its just minor tweaks throughout to bring the film more in line with the other entries in the series (mainly 1 and 3).
The Changes: !!!-Includes Spoilers-!!!
- Intro credits altered to include subtitle “Terror Storm”
- Removed close up of exploding hairspray can in baggage shootout
- Removed McClane line(s) “what is this, a tag team?”
- “…on its way to cleveland”
- Removed all Dick Thornberg scenes
- Tightened up control tower dialog
- Removed McClane line(s) “…this is just the beginning”
- “how can the same thing happen to the same guy twice”
- Removed Barnes line “…who will watch yours”
- Removed Robert Patrick hesitation to kill barnes (its like he waiting for McClane to shoot him???)
- Tone down Annex Skywalk shootout – removed McClanes lack of cover usage and toned down his magical never-ending clip of 9mm bullets
- Removed thug line “I’m gonna kick your ass”
- Added scene of crowds rioting/panicking in airport after first plane crash. Now we get the impression the civilians are fearful from all the explosions/shooting/etc going on at the airport
- Toned down Esperanza’s plane coming at McClane while he is coming out of storm grate – now we get the implication that the plane is moving faster and might actually hit him rather than the “slow tire” coming at him at 30 mi/hr.
- Toned down/sped up grenades in cockpit scene. in the original the grenades take almost 30 seconds to explode. Now McClane immediately gets in the chair and ejects this way the scene plays out more realistically IMO… even though the grenades still take too long (15 seconds).
- Removed McClane line “wheres the fuckin door” when he is tangled in parachute
- Removed close-ups of mercs swapping their red “live ammo” for blue “blanks”. this was way too obvious and its show again when McClane discovers it. Now we discover it around the same time as McClane.
- Remove McClane jumping 18 wheeler on Snow Mobile – why was this even filmed? its like a 2 second clip and arent they are out in the woods???
- Removed Major Grant talking to Col. Stuart on radio “check your own fuckin plane”
- Removed Thornberg Newscast/Tazer Shock/Etc.
- End Credits altered to include me
and add “terror storm” subtitle
Hardware & Software Used:
- 2 Windows XP PC’s: one newer and fast, one older and slow
- Vegas 8 pro
- TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress
- AutoGK
- BeeSweet
- PGCdemux
- Virtual Dub
- DVDFab
- DVD Architect Pro 4.0
- PhotoShop CS3
Time Needed: 2 weeks
Special thanks to Boon23, Lewis886 & JasonN for answering my never ending editing/authoring questions!
Release info:
Single Layer NTSC DVD 4.7 GB
Motion Menus w/ Scene Selection
Audio – 5.1 Surround
Video – 2.35:1 Anamorphic
700MB AVI
Buy the original DVD and support FANEDIT.ORG:
IMAGES:
cover art by elbarto1 (download here):
Disclaimer: You must own the original movie before acquiring any FanEdited movie. We here at FanEdit.org respect the company’s copyrights, and don’t want to infringe on any company’s rights. Thank you, FE!
Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info through Rapidshare (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
Great edit, I enjoyed it alot
Review by StarShipMagneto — April 10, 2009 @ 5:57 am
Its been a long time since watching Die Hard 2 prior to this edit. It probably wasnt long after the movie was released. I remember enjoying the film for the most part, but didn’t really remember much, aside from some scenes that were memorable to me for some reason (throat slashing in truck, icicle in the eye & magazines full of blanks). I was pretty excited to watch this edit, with no expectations. After I started the DVD, the movie stylings of the late 80s and early 90s started to rush back to me. I could tell, why I didn’t remember the movie that well.
The editing here was VERY well done. No hard cuts whatsoever, and I could not tell that this had been fanedited (especially since I have not seen the movie in a while). The removal of William Atherton’s character was a great move. I would have liked to have seen a few more cheezy lines gone. Especially from Denis Franz’s character, and the janitor guy, but all in all, great job in toning down some cheese, and tightening it up.
Editing: 10 of 10
Entertainment: 7 of 10 (and after realizing what has been removed, I would probably rate the original a 5 or 6 now. So while this is still no masterpiece, its a fun action crime flick. For those of you that are really into this genre, you will get a big kick out of it)
Image & Video Quality
Image quality was great. The additions to the credits were really nice too, and it looked like they were a part of the original
Video Quality: 10 of 10
Audio Editing & Audio Quality
It was seamless to me. I could not hear any hard cuts at all, and it sounded fine on my system (which is just a stereo system, so I never get too anal about surround).
Audio Quality: 10 of 10
Audio Editing: 10 of 10
Presentation
Cool DVD. It comes with menu transitions, and animated menus. Nice work. We also get another elbarto1 DVD cover. No DVD extras, but everything else was great
Presentation: 9 of 10
Final Result: 9 of 10 for me
A cool watch for me, and I could not tell at all that this was a fanedit. So, as I mentioned above, as this is still no masterpiece, I think it is really well done, and it is an improvement over the original. I will happily watch elbarto1’s fanedits in the future
Review by ThrowgnCpr — April 13, 2009 @ 12:24 am
I found this a very well done fanedit. The cuts were indeed seamless, and the removal of Dick Thornberg was a great decision, and helped the film immensely. Also loved the smaller cuts as well, including some of the cheesier lines. Often times, I’m not a fan of removing scenes, preferring additional scenes added or extended cuts if anything. However, this is a case where the cuts definitely helped the movie. Video quality was excellent, as well as the menus. A very well put together job.
I did notice one possible inconsistency created by the removal of Dick Thornberg, though. Since he was removed, the people on Holly’s plane are not aware of the terrorist situation, because Dick did not create the panic by alerting everybody as to what he discovered. However, as Holly is exiting the plane at the end, she still makes the comment to John, “They told me there were terorists!”. But she should not have been aware of that because of the removal of Dick Thornberg. She should be more or less clueless about what was really happening. Please correct me if I am mistaken. I imagine that to correct this inconsistency, that line would just need to be cut out.
Overall, an excellent fanedit that is now my preferred version for Die Hard 2. Great work!!
Review by oknihcap — April 16, 2009 @ 6:26 am
to oknihcap – first off, thanks for taking the time to watch, I am glad you enjoyed my version! As far as the inconsistancy, I suppose you are right however I just chalked it up to the comment made in the tower that “many planes had airphones and we got through to them” as well as the tower being able to communicate the situation to the planes via the outer marker beacon. Whether or not she knew it, people on the plane did. Couple this with the fact that holly asks the stewardess about not having enough fuel and the fact that hat shes a bright lady and I felt it was enough of a leap since they just landed using a trail of fire and were evacuating the plane w/ the inflatable slide. I guess I can just easily imagine/speculate her overhearing something like “theres terrorists at the airport”. Regardless, its something I can live with considering I removed all of her “empowered woman” scenes on the plane. Thanks!
Review by elbarto1 — April 16, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
Die Hard 2 – Terror Storm by Elbarto1
review by boon23
Prologue:
For completion of the series I once bought DH2, but must confess that I haven’t watched it in years. Until DH4 this was to me the worst part of the series, created by one of my least favorite directors (and unforgettable killer of Carolco) Renny Harlin. I think whatever he touches becomes superficial. So it was a welcome ooprtunity to watch it again with a fresh mind and, well, some expectations, because of Elbarto’s first and well done fanedit: Running Scared – True Crime Edition.
As for all my reviews: this is just my personal opinion of this fanedit. I cannot tell anybody else, if he or she will experience it in the same way or the opposite. So my review is not objective and does not reflect the opinion of fanedit.org.
!!!!This review contains heavy spoilers!!!
The edit:
It was nice after some years to meet with the young John McClane again and to watch an action movie from 1990. I know, I enjoyed this edit a lot more than the original with this annoying reporter. All the changes were very well executed and are not noticeable. And they all serve the greater good of this movie. It’s still not a masterpiece, but for what it is, it’s the best version of Die Hard 2 I have ever watched and if I have to watch it again, it would be without a doubt, this fanedit.
So far, so good, BUT there is still a lot that I don’t like about this movie, especially the over-the-top scenes and the unbelievable parts. So they are on an airport with hundreds of people working there and it always is John McClane and John McClane alone, who does the cool stuff? What are the other guys doing all the time? What’s so hard about putting some electric light to guide the planes or at least help them a bit? Where is the airport staff? Why don’t they line up cars?
The sequel to Die Hard was supposed to put John McClane into another situation where he is the lonesome cowboy, but with the airport they really picked a stupid idea to make that happen.
As for this fanedit, I would have loved it,if it went further and some more stuff got deleted, for example John McClane waving the torches, before the plane blows up and various other stuff.
The already mentioned inconsistency about the terrorists being known to Holly is true.
Still this was a vast improvement over the original and shoudl be ackowledged as that: the best version of Die Hard 2 ever available.
editing: 9 of 10,
entertainment: 7 of 10 (original 5 of 10)
Image and video quality:
The video quality suffers a bit from a slight stutter in camera drives. Other than that it is perfect. Image quality is sharp and colorful. Very well preserved.
Video quality: 9 of 10
Audio editing and audio quality:
The audio editing was perfect. I did not notice anything disturbing. Sound quality is great.
audio editing: 10 of 10
sound quality: 10 of 10
presentation:
This fanedit comes with a nice animated menu, beautifully animated scene selection and good cover art. The movie credits were partly self created (which unfortunately shows a few times through change of font, but is not too distracting). There is no additional bonus material.
DVD menus: 9 of 10, cover art 9 of 10, extras: 0 of 10, existence of menus, chapters and cover art: 10 of 10
This results in a 7 of 10 rating from me for presentation.
Final result: 8 of 10 (if you sum up the numbers you’ll get to 9 of 10, but as it is my mean style I never differ more than 1 star from my entertainment of the main feature, which is good for fanedits with a very bad presentation, but high entertainment, and bad for fanedits with incredible presentation and editing quality, but a lack of entertainment).
Recommended.
Review by boon23 — May 19, 2009 @ 3:56 pm
yes!
Review by joebshmoe — November 2, 2009 @ 2:48 am
I’m alway happy to watch a fanedit without technical glitches and this is very well done indeed.
I haven’t watched the original in years and I didn’t really notice anything missing,
I only just now read the changes made and I can see that Elbarto1 made some great editing decisions.
9/10
Review by zeppelinrox — March 20, 2010 @ 10:03 pm