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" Every Wednesday we show you a great scene from film history you may remember, you may not \u2014 and then we break it down for you.      When people talk about how good American action movies used to be, they&amp;#039;re talking about Die Hard. The film has launched four sequels (to date) and a whole half-assed subgenre of &amp;quot;Die Hard in a ________&amp;quot; actioners. But nothing really comes close. More than anything, Die Hard is exceptionally precise. Steven de Souza and Jeb Stuart&amp;#039;s screenplay runs like a Swiss watch \u2014 or a well-oiled German terrorist takeover plot. Example: Early in the film, Bruce Willis&amp;#039;s John McLane accepts a bit of folk wisdom to ease his jetlag, a man telling him to remove his shoes and socks and curl his toes into foot-fists. When he arrives at L.A.&amp;#039;s Nakotomi Plaza to reunite with his half-estranged wife, he does just that. Which means when he escapes into the ductwork after terrorists seize the building, he&amp;#039;s barefoot. It&amp;#039;d be a needless detail if it didn&amp;#039;t pay off. But in due course, Willis is forced to tread barefoot across a floor of shattered glass. It&amp;#039;s the ultimate trial of his everyman hero. And it&amp;#039;s so clearly flagged that you don&amp;#039;t even need to see Willis actually walk across the floor \u2014 the glass and the anguished look on his face say it all.  The classic action stars \u2014 John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin \u2014 never winced. But Willis sweats and struggles and looks believably pained (or at least pissed off) as he yanks glass shards from his heels. It&amp;#039;s also cosmic punishment for his earlier smartass remark, barked at an LAPD deputy complaining that glass is falling from the tower \u2014 &amp;quot;Glass? Who gives a shit about glass?&amp;quot;  The scene is Die Hard in a nutshell: bloody, funny, impressively humane, and satisfyingly delivered. That&amp;#039;s the alchemy all those formulaic Die Hard in a battleship/submarine/bus/Air Force One knockoffs could never successfully replicate. Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a18823/die-hard-glass-scene/>