Publication Date: 12-08-2025

Live Free or Die Hard (2008) review

Dir. Len Wiseman

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

Be it Rambo, Prom Night, Indiana Jones, or The X-Files, no storied franchise was safe in the late aughts, including Die Hard, which saw itself rebooted with Live Free or Die Hard in 2007. Before it actually found a way into existence, it was actually a little difficult to imagine a franchise as wry and as unapologetically 80s and 90s as Die Hard making a comeback. The series resonated because its slickness came not always from its action sequences but in the attitude and demeanor of its hero, John McClane. Rebooting it in 2007, during a time when glossy superhero films were about to captivate audiences on a regular basis and action films became grittier — not to mention when horror films began looking a lot like action films — Die Hard was destined to become caught up in old habits and modern ways. Curiously, its premise took that memo as well.

Live Free or Die Hard does the most logical thing it could’ve done, and that’s transplant the Die Hard formula into a world that’s not only passed John McClane up, but lapped him a few times just to show off. Computers and technology have become integral parts in our personal lives and other industries, but McClane has seemingly lived in a bubble — one that houses middle-aged ennui, a battered hero complex, and a daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) that wants little to do with him. His calling comes, yet again, unexpectedly when the FBI responds to a series of cyber-attacks on the United States’ most vital infrastructures and needs McClane to help find the hackers. McClane, knowing next to nothing about computer hacking, enlists in the help of Matt Farrell (Justin Long), an experienced technological troublemaker who earned his clout by finding a spot on the “watchlist” for hackers in the U.S.

The attacks — which involve intercepting broadcast communication towers, taking control of vehicles, and destroying all remnants of social order — are coming from Thomas Gabriel, or Timothy Olyphant doing his best Michael Shannon impression. Gabriel is a disillusioned former analyst for the Defense Department, now leading a group of cyber-terrorists hellbent on inciting a “fire sale,” which is just a fancy name for a coordinated, broad-scale attack on all computerized systems. Working with his girlfriend, Mai Linh (Maggie Q), Gabriel fends off our two heroes as McClane tries to teach a soft Matt to hardened up and Matt tries to act as a Band-Aid and a competent accomplice to McClane by attempting to remain one step ahead of Gabriel’s unpredictable actions.

Formula and convention wouldn’t be so popular if it didn’t work on some level, and admittedly, screenwriter Mark Bomback’s (Godsend, later The Wolverine) decision to posit a millennial-boomer conflict at the core of this film is a fun one. His move presents a stark, if caricatured, context between 80s/90s macho actors and present-day geeks who earn their stripes clacking a keyboard, learning to define themselves by bringing peace or causing calamity with just a few keystrokes. Bomback too employs some bits of McClane reflecting on his life as the reluctant hero; the one who always ran towards a bomb in an airport or continued to solve riddles by running around Manhattan with a stranger — for reasons he still probably couldn’t coherently answer to this day. One particular bit leads Matt to be confronted with a reality so far and foreign from him, he has difficultly understanding where McClane is coming from, but we can tell he feels something during their little exchange, which counts even in the big picture.

The look of Live Free or Die Hard is decisively contemporary. The explosions both look and feel louder, with more photorealism (not that those in the past installments ever appeared the opposite — just not this polished) and a clear desire to be more excessive than ever before. Consider a scene where McClane manages to avoid Mai Linh and her mob of people, who try to bring him down as he flies through a long, dimly lit tunnel. McClane, of course, escapes, but not before tuck-and-rolling out of his vehicle, which reaches speeds of at least 60 mph as it flies up a ramp and collides into an airborne helicopter, causing both to explode. “You killed a helicopter with a car,” Matt yells at McClane. “I ran out of bullets,” he claps back.

Bomback and his screenplay are perpetually trying to outdo themselves every time there’s a cut as opposed to sticking with a smart, nimble concept — something that led me not only to admire Die Hard with a Vengeance but love it enough to call it the best of the series. Foolish was anyone to expect this sequel/reboot coming 12 years later to mimic that film’s intelligence and craft, especially without John McTiernan in the director’s seat; but hopeful was anyone to anticipate a film just as smart as the previous three.

Live Free or Die Hard doesn’t build to a climactic finale. It is a climactic finale. Its entire 129 minute runtime could be considered an extended action sequence, with the dialog-driven lulls in between the narrative simply justifications for something cool about to happen. The film becomes tedious after a while because it doesn’t really build towards anything exhilarating like the previous installments. It’s the film equivalent of what your grandmother likely once said: “too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing.”

As far as side-notes about the film go, I have quite a few. For one, I’ve always had a soft-spot for Justin Long as an amiable personality in his films, and he works here because he fits his role like a glove. Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Lucy McClane is also effective, despite how sparsely she’s utilized. If there’s any reason for yet another installment beyond what we already got in 2013 (don’t worry; I’ll get to that one shortly), it’s to expand on her character and her relationship with her father; we only get a small, cliché taste of it here. Then there’s Kevin Smith, who was working on an acting career during this time, appearing in this and that remarkably unmemorable romance flick Catch and Release, which also starred Olyphant), as a computer hacker — a fitting bit of comic relief and nothing more.

Live Free or Die Hard isn’t the catastrophic continuation of a beloved series, but its existence isn’t well-justified given how predictable and perfunctory much of the film feels. By the 90-minute mark, I was all but checked out. Funny how after I (and many others) basically groveled for something different following Die Hard 2 practically retracing its predecessor’s steps, while now after the fourth film, I want to revert back to something resembling what I’ve come back for time and time again. Old habits die hard, that’s for damn sure.

My review of Die Hard
My review of Die Hard 2
My review of Die Hard with a Vengeance
My review of A Good Day to Die Hard

Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Cliff Curtis, and Kevin Smith. Directed by: Len Wiseman.