Clarence Gilyard Jr., Dennis Hayden, Al Leong, Hans Buhringer, Alan Rickman, Wilhelm von Homburg, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Joseph Plewa, Andreas Wisniewski, Gary Roberts, Bruno Doyon, Gérard Bonn, and Alexander Godunov in Die Hard (1988)
“Some badass perpetrators and they’re here to stay…”
Los Angeles, Christmas 1987
Film: Die Hard
Release Date: July 15, 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
On the 35th anniversary year of this action classic, today’s post analyzes the style of the dozen bad guys led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) during their Christmas Eve takeover of Nakatomi Plaza. As I’ve done with Christmas episodes of The Office in past years, I’ll dig into my own completely arbitrary rating system to rank each by their suitability for a holiday party hijacking.
One of my favorite aspects of Die Hard is how it makes the effort to define distinctively personalities for Hans’ baddies, rather than just filling the cast with anonymous mooks as in any lesser action movie. We may not get full backstories and motivations (we only have two hours, and would we really need to know?), but they still have distinctive roles, attitudes, and aesthetics to differentiate them and make return viewings even more rewarding.
As their leader, Hans maintains an elevated look with his dark double-breasted suit, informed by his knowledge of men’s fashion (“John Phillips, London,” he acutely observes of Nakatomi CEO Joe Takagi’s silk suit), but how do his twelve henchmen rate?
Unlike Hans’ ultimate descent from Nakatomi Tower, let’s start at the bottom.
12. Tony Vreski (Andreas Wisniewski)
Tony, were you even trying? A groutfit? Sweatpants? Who are you, George Costanza?
At first, Tony looks promising as he strides with Hans Gruber’s gang into the Nakatomi loading dock with a dark olive suede chore coat (with a contrasting brown collar!) over a baggy light-gray boat-neck jumper, but he undoes the goodwill when he peels off the coat to reveal a pair of light-gray sweatpants that reminded me a little too much of the bloated Scott Calvin arriving late to a client pitch in The Santa Clause. And those Dahmer-style specs? I know it’s the ’80s, but you’re better than that, Tony. At least your comrades may have appreciated that your small shoes prevented John McClane from protecting his feet as they shot up the glass around him.
“Drop it, dickhead. It’s the fashion police.”
11. Karl Vreski (Alexander Godunov)
Karl’s baggy black athleisurewear may be on trend for 2023, but it just looks sloppy for being the dapper Hans Gruber’s second-in-command. It would be one thing if he was pulling on a half-zip to insouciantly lounge around after a shower or workout (maybe with some of that mulled wine Ellis was talking about), but it doesn’t seem practical for taking over a skyscraper on Christmas Eve. At least the zippered top and pocket add some interesting and functional complexity over the matching set his little brother wore, and the black pleated slacks—rather than sweatpants—are more functional.
Constantly on the move, Karl is clearly able to hold his own in all those layers of cotton, but in all-black? With that stringy yellow hair? Just because you are a villain in an ’80s action movie doesn’t mean you have to go all-out to look like it, Karl.
Even zipping up the shirt a bit? Closing the pocket? I know you don’t care, but you’re not doing yourself any favors, Karl.
10. Uli (Al Leong)
I respect what Uli’s going for here. It’s like he knew Karl was planning to wear a quarter-zip so he pulled one of his own from his closet, perhaps not realizing his collared gray quarter-zip with its double sets of white surface-marking stripes looked more like a substitute teacher than a terrorist… not that it’s an entirely bad thing. Unfortunately, poor Uli is no James Dean so the amount of white undershirt we see under the unzipped top just looks sloppy.
But what trousers to wear with a sweater like this? Jeans? Black slacks like Karl? Sweatpants like Tony? Uli says “none of the above” and decides that if he’s going to die in a high-profile hijacking, he’s going to do so wearing some black leather pants. It’s a gamble, and I respect his gumption—as well as his inability to resist snacking while on the job. You go right ahead and enjoy that purloined Nestlé Crunch, my man.
A frumpy gray quarter-zip and black leather pants while reloading your MP5 and your feedbag… never change, Uli.
9. Eddie (Dennis Hayden)
They say to “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” In Eddie’s case, it’s “dress for the job you’re pretending to be for the police’s benefit after killing the guy who did that job previously.” He wears the standard Nakatomi security gray blazer, metal-buttoned vest, and tie well enough, but adding the cowboy boots to suit his all-American gambling addict cover is a touch of genius that clearly manages to fool supercop Al Powell.
8. Franco (Bruno Doyon)
Feisty Franco is a dangerous guy to have watching over the hostages, as he looks every bit the bruiser he wants to be in that black leather jacket. As the action builds, he unzips the jacket and pulls it off to continue the evening in a marled charcoal sweater and pleated slacks… until McClane shoots him in the knees and sends him headfirst through a plate-glass window, one of the more intense deaths this side of Hans Gruber.
7. Kristoff (Gérard Bonn)
Kristoff keeps to himself, quietly assisting Theo as needed but otherwise not engaging in any gunplay against cops, hostages, or McClane. For his generally nonviolent role, Kristoff is rewarded with a mere pistol-whipping from McClane, leaving his fate uncertain as perhaps one of the few Nakatomi terrorists to survive the evening. During our brief moments with Kristoff, we can see he’s seasonally dressed in a dark-green sports shirt buttoned to the neck, tucked into gray pleated slacks.
Die Hard fans… meet Kristoff.
6. Heinrich (Gary Roberts)
I can appreciate a lot of what Heinrich is doing here. He anchors his look with an oversized cream-colored crew-neck sweater, detailed with a horizontal seam across the chest and a low-slung pocket for storing the usual tools of a terrorist tasked with managing C4 detonators. The olive pleated slacks are a smart pairing with them.
Of course, Heinrich is a terrorist and that means needing some armament, carrying his Walther P5 in a heavy-duty shoulder rig. Just like his jobs, Heinrich is trying to balance too much—managing detonators vs. chasing McClane, preppy vs. tactical—and neither ultimately works out for him. A lesson to pick a lane and stick with it.
In another life, Heinrich could have made a wúnderbar third member of Modern Talking.
5. James (Wilhelm von Homburg)
James, we hardly knew ye. No seriously, James, who are you? Based on his well-worn flight jacket and black “tactile-neck”, James dresses like he thinks he’s the hero of the story… after all, I would consider an outfit like this if I were going to be the star of an action movie. (And you could argue that there would be no Die Hard without James, as it’s he who gets momentarily distracted by boobs just long enough to allow McClane to initially escape from the 30th floor.)
James’ brown leather jacket is one of the many USAAF A2-inspired civilian jackets that were popular through the ’80s, retaining the zip-up blouson-style design and shoulder epaulets but differing with snap-fastened cuffs and hand pockets inset behind the flapped hip pockets. Unfortunately, James appears to follow Tony Vreski’s sweatpants misstep, though James’ black joggers are dark enough that it’s not as immediately obvious.
We don’t see much else of James’ black underpinnings before he gets blown up by the C4 that McClane drops down the elevator shaft, but you can understand why he’s one of the few terrorists who keeps his jacket on after the takeover.
James decided to take over the Nakatomi building while wearing the leather jacket he bought a few years earlier after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark.
4. Marco (Lorenzo Caccialanza)
The unhinged Marco follows Kristoff’s sartorial approach of a dark silky shirt and pleated slacks, but he takes it to a festively appropriate level by wearing a bright-red cardigan when he and the gang arrive. Only the MP5 in his hand as he roughly handles a scantily clad Nakatomi employee separates him from the special guest on an Andy Williams Christmas Special.
The cardigan is gone by the time Heinrich and Marco corner McClane in the board room, giving us a better look at Marco’s black shirt, open at the top to reveal the gold cross around his neck, though I don’t get the sense that Marco is overly religious. He also wears olive trousers and hardy brown leather derby-laced work boots… if only McClane had thought to try those on after peppering their wearer with 9mm rounds.
Yes, I would’ve tuned in to your Christmas special, Marco.
3. Alexander (Joseph Plewa)
“And when Alexander saw the breadth of his style game, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” — Hans Gruber, paraphrased
In his blue raglan-sleeved guernsey sweater and tonally coordinated plaid pants, Alexander dresses smartly in case he needs to convince a Nakatomi employee—or the LAPD—that he was merely a partygoer who got caught up in the terrorist takeover. Not to mention that, especially by late ’80s standards, it all fits pretty well!
I would say Alexander, you’ll always be famous… except I don’t think anyone knows who you are. If that exploding C4 hadn’t murked you too, you could’ve gotten away with it.
2. Fritz (Hans Buhringer)
Judging Fritz’s style means not just taking into account his distinctive taste in clothes but also appreciating his long, flowing Fabio-style locks as well as his attitude: Fritz doesn’t seem to share the rest of the group’s avaricious blood-lust, and he seems to recoil in shock and sadness anytime the proceedings turn violent.
So R.I.P. Faux-bio. You deserved better than the meager 20% that Hans Gruber promised. (Sophie Goulopoulos published a well-researched tribute to Fritz for The Cut in 2020, including insights from Die Hard‘s on-set hair stylist Paul Abascal, who confirmed that Fritz’s hair “required ‘the most maintenance’ during filming.”)
But to get back to the clothes… Fritz dresses for the Nakatomi takeover in a heavy-weight houndstooth shirt semi-buttoned over an ivory turtleneck, tucked into black pleated slacks held up by a brown Western-tipped belt. If you didn’t already doubt that this king knew how to layer, look no further than the chunky black textured cardigan he wore when the evening began. Judging solely on overall panache (and with relatively muted colors!), you can’t beat Fritz’s fit.
1. Theo (Clarence Gilyard Jr.)
Theo may not have been brought along for his charming personality, but a fashion plate like Hans Gruber would have surely appreciated how well his computer-hacking expert dressed, adding a dash of yuppie trendiness to his smart seasonal layers, finished with a few unique accessories shining from his wrist and fingers.
The fact that Theo took a less “active” role in the hijacking may have allowed for some neater dress than his colleagues, so he goes admirably hard in a roomy cream fisherman’s guernsey sweater layered over a blue striped shirt. His single-breasted sports coat is grid-checked in multiple shades of blue against a charcoal ground, providing fashionable complexity with a texture that coordinates with his sweater’s raised knitting while the color calls out his shirt.
As one of only two regularly bespectacled members of Gruber’s crew, Theo opts for a more timeless set of gold-framed specs than the unfortunate Tony, and he doesn’t let his ornate bracelet and ring get in the way of his weapon of choice—a computer keyboard, rather than an MP5.
It’s a relief that Theo was also the most likely henchman to have survived the situation. After all, it’s a nice jacket and sweater… it would be a shame to ruin it.
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out Die Hard. Ho-ho-ho!
Even McClane knew Tony’s outfit was in need of improvement.
The post Die Hard: Ranking the Henchmen’s Holiday Hijacking Wardrobes appeared first on BAMF Style.