I Can't Believe I Just Learned About Die Hard's 6th Sequel
Die Hard is one of the greatest action movie franchises of all time, but did you know the franchise has a little-seen sixth sequel? It's true: John McClane came out of retirement for one last mission in 2018, although it wasn’t on movie screens, but rather the comic book page.
Released by Insight Comics, A Million Ways to Die Hard was an original graphic novel that came from the creative team of writer Frank Tieri and artist Mark Texeira. Taking place thirty years after the original film, the story catches up with John McClane in L.A. as a new monument is erected at Nakatomi Plaza in honor of Hans Gruber’s attack.
While there, McClane’s ex-wife Holly winds up getting abducted by a figure from his past, bringing the old detective out of retirement to deal with an old case that still haunts him.
'A Million Ways To Die Hard' is Basically the Franchise’s Sixth Installment
It turns out that Holly has been kidnapped by a serial killer known only as “Mr. Moviefone,” who stages his victims’ deaths based on famous scenes from movies. Along the way, McClane meets an Interpol officer who also has a history with the killer, the son of Officer Al Powell from the first Die Hard, and even Hans Gruber’s younger sister (attempting to atone for her brother’s previous crime). Given all these ingredients, you might think you’d be in for a good time, but sadly, you would be wrong.
Die Hard previously entered the world of comics with Die Hard: Year One, which told the story of John McClane's early years with the NYPD
A Million Ways to Die Hard is a rather curious artifact in the overall franchise; a graphic novel from a boutique publisher that came and went with little fanfare. As a story in its own right, the graphic novel bears little resemblance to the film franchise with which it shares a name. At 80 pages, it’s a brisk read, barely leaving any time to develop the characters or story. While many characters have the same name as their film counterparts, that’s where the similarities end.
This is most obvious example is John McClane himself, one of the most iconic movie characters of all time, who comes off here as a bad parody of a typical action movie hero – little more than a collection of one-liners with a gun. The other characters are even worse, having no real impact on the story as Mr. Moviefone goes from one victim to the next. The nom de plume of the villain highlights everything wrong with the story: it’s obvious, gimmicky, and one-note.
'A Million Ways to Die Hard' Misses The Franchise's Mark
Little of what defines the Die Hard franchise is found here, with the graphic novel missing the everyman-stuck-in-an-incredible-situation found in the best installments. The original Die Hard was so influential it basically created an entire subgenre, with many action movies using the basic framework of the plot for their own needs (Die Hard on a bus, Die Hard on a plane, etc.). A Million Ways to Die Hard contains no high-concept, action movie set-up of it’s own, resulting in a limp story lacking the kind of dynamic action set-pieces the movies excelled at.
One could almost say that A Million Ways to Die Hard acts as a parody of the action movie fare it’s desperate to emulate, especially given the concept of a movie-obsessed serial killer, but it makes no effort to provide comment upon its many tired tropes or genre clichés. Artist Mark “Tex” Texeira defined Ghost Rider and Wolverine in the 1990’s, and while Tex doesn’t do many comics these days, getting a full graphic novel drawn by the artist could have been enough to carry the story. But not even Tex can do much to salvage things.
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It honestly feels like the creative team had an idea for an entirely separate story, and to give it a boost in terms of commercial potential, simply swapped out some character names, and slapped the “Die Hard” brand on the cover. Surprisingly, this is pretty much the approach nearly every other installment in the Die Hard franchise took.Die Hard was famously an adaptation of the novelNothing Lasts Forever, albeit with its main character heavily modified. Die Hard 2 was in turn based on the unrelated novel 58 Minutes, and the third and fourth films began life as completely different scripts separate from the Die Hard franchise. Sadly, this tactic didn’t work for the 2018 graphic novel.
For Better or Worse, A Million Ways to Die Hard is The Most Recent Franchise Installment
A Million Ways to Die Hard was released a few years before Bruce Willis announced his retirement from acting due to ongoing medical issues, so the future of John McClane and the entire franchise is currently in doubt. For better or worse, that makes the graphic novel perhaps the last installment of thefranchise (if we’re not counting those strange Advance Auto Parts commercials from 2020), at least until Disney decides they want a reboot.
Even though it doesn’t live up to the promise of the previous films, the beloved (or guilty pleasure) entries in the overall franchise, or its own name, A Million Ways to Die Hard is at the very least a curious footnote for completist fans. Just don't expect to ever see it adapted onto film, no matter who the leading man could be.
- Movie(s)
- Die Hard (1988), Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard (2007), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
- Created by
- Roderick Thorp
- First Film
- Die Hard (1988)
- Latest Film
- A Good Day to Die Hard
- Cast
- Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Franco Nero, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Justin Long, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jai Courtney
- Movie(s)
- Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Live Free or Die Hard, A Good Day to Die Hard
The Die Hard franchise, which began as a series of books in the 1960s, is an action-adventure series that chronicles the harrowing exploits of NYPD Detective John McClane. Renowned for its action-packed sequences and intricate plots, the series showcases McClane's battles against various adversaries, especially the infamous Hans Gruber, during high-stakes crises.
