On the Second Day of Die Hard, My True Love Gave To Me...

When it came out in 1988, Die Hard was a solid hit. Released in the Summer of that year (despite, you would think, it working better as a Christmas release), the film went on to make $141.5 Mil against a reported $35 Mil budget. It then spawned an even more successful sequel (at least from Box Office numbers), Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and that then led to a whole series of films, video games, comics, and more. John McClain suddenly became an action hero archetype, and Bruce Willis had a career defining role.

That kind of success is hard to ignore, and just about every studio had to have their own Die Hard. I’ve spent a few years now recounting all of those, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the number of clones Die Hard spawned. The early 1990s were rife with them, changing the kind of action audiences wanted to watch. Gone were the days of massive, burly action heroes; everyone now wanted everymen put in dire situations. Terrorists would come out of the wood work, and it was always a lone, put upon hero that had to take them down.

Still, a trend can only go so far before it starts to peter out. The late 1990s saw a surge of popularity for a different kind of action. Between the successes of Independence Day and Armageddon, Hollywood saw a new trend take shape: the disaster movie. Giant, ensemble films with big budgets and massive effects became the new hot thing, while “doing a Die Hard” was considered a little passe. Those kinds of films still got made, but they didn’t have the same rousing success they once found. For the genre to continue, just maybe producers needed to put the Die Hard formula into a disaster film.

You can feel that thinking going on with Hard Rain, the 1998 disaster film about bad guys trying to steal money during a massive flood. It has everything audiences said they wanted: action, massive effects, a giant disaster, all alongside a plot that could have been ripped out of a Die Hard clone. And, in all honesty, it worked pretty well. Although not a perfect film, Hard Rain had a lot of good things going for it: actions, a game cast, and decent writing. Unfortunately its massive effects also drove up the budget and, when audiences didn’t show up in droves, it turned the movie into one of the bigger flops of the year. A real pity as this film has been cast aside and basically forgotten by all but the hardest of Die Hard fans.

The film focuses on Tom (Christian Slater), an armored car courier working with his uncle/partner Charlie (Ed Asner) during a massive flood. With the waters rushing into a small town in Indiana, the two guards had been sent to collect money from a number of banks, leading to almost three million sitting in their truck. Unfortunately they aren’t able to outrun the rain and, on the drive back they get caught in a dip in the road, flooding out their engine. Their only hope is the Nation Guard coming along and finding them, unless some kind passerby finds them first.

As it happens some passersby do find them, except they aren’t there to get the guys out of the rain. Instead they’re there to get the three mil in the truck. Things quickly take a turn and Charlie ends up dead, leading Tom to run (well, swim) off with the money. He hides it somewhere no one can find, and then tries to outrun the bad guys. But the robbers, led by Jim (Morgan Freeman), won’t be easily dissuaded. And as the waters keep rising, and the dangers mount, Tom is going to have to rely on the few locals left in town for help… that is if they don’t get greedy and try to take the money for themselves first.

Hard Rain is clearly a film modeled on the later Die Hard films. It has a pretty strong Die Hard With a Vengeance vibe, especially once he’s teamed up with Minnie Driver's Karen. She and Christian Slater have good chemistry, and their scenes together are fun and funny. The two of them working together to evade the bad guys (all the bad guys) while hoping to stay alive really give the film its energy. Plus, that’s two people to root for when the flood waters roll in and things start to get really harrowing.

Credit where it’s due, the disaster action in this film is great. Honestly it’s better than the gun fights and other combat that happen in the film. Gun fights and brawling aren’t really that interesting when all the participants are stuck on boats, limiting what they can do and how much real action they can get up to. But when people are stuck in the water and those waters are rising, threatening to drown them, that’s when the action really starts to get good. In that regard Hard Rain works better as a disaster film than a Die Hard, no matter what plot machinations it may have going on.

Honestly, the story gets pretty messy by the last act. We have Tom trying to evade Jim and his crew, only for the local cops, led by Sheriff Mike Collig (Randy Quaid), to turn around and become the bad guys. At that point Tom then ends up teaming up with Jim and the film acts like all is forgiven and the two guys are cool working together. Remember, earlier in the film Charlie died because Jim’s goons killed him. Even if that wasn’t planned and (spoilers for a 25-plus year old movie) Charlie was supposedly in on the heist and accidentally got caught in the crossfire, that still feels like something that would be unforgivable. But the film just shrugs and moves on, no hard and no foul.

The heel turn for the cops is also pretty weak, if I’m being honest. While Quaid was a decent actor in this role and was just slimy enough to sell his character being questionable, the fact is that we know almost nothing about the Sheriff and his men before they make a heel turn. Everything we see about them leads us to think they’re solid, honorable men. And yet, three million comes along and they throw it all away, to the point where they’re suddenly willing to take hostages and kill people. That feels like a bridge too far for the characters no matter how well the actors try to sell it.

So yeah, it’s not a perfect film. It’s a lesser effort, both in the disaster genre and the Die Hard formula. The reason I like it is because of the few solid moments that come up, all between Tom and Karen. Their scenes are what drive the film and they really carry so much of the weight for Hard Rain. While I can understand why audiences didn’t show up for the film at the time, I thought it was great fun when I found the movie (later that year, on home video). It’s one of those movies I go back to from time to time because even while it’s not perfect it is still fun.

It’s a bit of a cult classic, a film forgotten by most people. But if you like Die Hard style films and don’t mind a bit of disaster movie action, this film will do you pretty well. Sometimes even a lesser effort of the genre can still provide fun, and that’s what Hard Rain has. It’s often times just fun.