One of the most iconic moments in ‘Die Hard‘ is undeniably the scene when Bruce Willis’ John McClane finally comes face-to-face with Alan Rickman’s terrorist mastermind Hans Gruber. Except, Gruber is pretending to be an innocent hostage named “Bill Clay” and has a pretty good American accent backing him up.
But before long, McClane realizes that something is off and narrowly escapes Gruber’s trap. For years, we assumed it was probably his police instincts that helped him with the deductions. But as it turns out, the writers of ‘Die Hard’ had a much more specific explanation in mind that never made it to the finished film.
The Deleted Scene That Explains A Major Plot Hole In ‘Die Hard’
As reported by SlashFilm, ‘Die Hard’ screenwriter Steven E. de Souza disclosed one deleted scene that explains how John McClane ultimately recognized Hans Gruber. The secret was there in Gruber’s watch all this time.
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According to de Souza, the clue was established in another iconic scene of the film when Gruber and the gang first arrive at Nakatomi Plaza. “Originally, they get off the truck, the camera cranes up, you saw them in a circle, and Alan Rickman says, ‘Synchronize your watches,'” the writer explained.
“They all put their arms out in a circle…and they all had the same TAG Heuer watch.” The idea didn’t stop there. There is also a longer version of the famous “Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho.” sequence, where McClane notices that all 12 terrorists were wearing the same watch.
The matching watches became the final clue that helped McClane piece together exactly who he was dealing with and recognize that the man standing in front of him isn’t Bill Clay from the 29th floor.
Why Did The Creators Delete Such An Important Plotline?
This subplot eventually disappeared because of one major change made near the very end of production. During the final week of filming, de Souza came up with the idea that Hans Gruber’s team plans to escape inside an ambulance hidden within their moving truck.
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That would eventually lead to Argyle crashing his limousine into the ambulance and stopping them from getting away. But there was one small problem. In the earlier scene when Gruber asks his folks to synchronize their watches, that ambulance wasn’t present in the truck.
So, they ultimately made the tough call to delete the plotline altogether. De Souza recalled, “[Director] John [McTiernan] says to the editor, ‘Get the scissors in there. Cut as soon as you can when they get off the truck so we don’t see there’s no ambulance.'”
Although you don’t get to watch the scene, you can still find remnants of this plotline in the movie. It is hiding in plain sight during the encounter between McClane and Gruber. When McClane offers Bill Clay a cigarette, you can see Rickman’s character reach out to take it from beneath his shirt sleeve.
“When Bruce offers the cigarette to Alan Rickman, Bruce sees the watch,” de Souza said. “You see his eyes look at the watch. That’s how he knows that he is one of the terrorists.”
Ultimately, a lucky guess or some brilliant detective work never exposes Hans Gruber. All along, it was the terrorist mastermind’s own watch that betrayed his identity to John McClane.
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