Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis in Die Hard (1988)
Vitals
Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis, coked-out Nakatomi Corporation executive
Los Angeles, Christmas 1987
Film: Die Hard
Release Date: July 15, 1988
Director: John McTiernan
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As the season of holiday festivities continues, let’s flash back to one of the most famous office Christmas parties in cinematic history—the Nakatomi Corporation’s Christmas Eve extravaganza that was ruined by a dozen armed terrorists led by the charismatic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).
Gruber’s takeover definitely ruined plans for Harry Ellis (Hart Bochner), Nakatomi’s sleazy director of international development who masks his holiday loneliness with plenty of cocaine and half-hearted pickup attempts toward his colleague Holly Gennero (Bonnie Bedelia), so he’s none too pleased when her husband John McClane (Bruce Willis) arrives at the party from New York… even as John ultimately proves to be the group’s only chance to fight back against the terrorists.
After Gruber kills their boss Joe Takagi (James Shigeta), Ellis fortifies with a bump and decides to take things into his own hands (“I negotiate million-dollar deals for breakfast, I think I can handle this Euro-trash”), though he’s too coked-out to realize that he’s fatally out of his element against this professional, motivated, and happenin’ group of killers.
“You use a gun, I use a fountain pen,” Ellis declares to Gruber, paraphrasing Woody Guthrie—the leftist “Dust Bowl troubadour” who would hate everything about the brash capitalistic Ellis.
Hart Bochner’s performance as Ellis exemplifies the enduring appeal of Die Hard, filled with not just an interesting hero and villain but also an array of side characters who make the most of their screen time, thanks to Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza’s fine screenplay and how each character was brought to life by their respective actors. Ellis is neither a protagonist nor strictly an antagonist; we may root against him, but it’s hard to say he’s working actively against the good guys here—he just thinks he knows better, thanks to a cocaine-boosted confidence, and his intervention merely makes the situation a little worse… especially for him.
For a 2012 interview with Simon Brew for Den of Geek, Hart Bochner recalled:
… my take on Ellis was that I always feel that when you’re playing a bad guy, you look for their insecurity, which drives their behavior. While the character was a bad guy, he was certainly ridiculously obnoxious, and a fly in everyone’s ointment. So I came it at it from it’s coke behavior, and the coke masks his insecurity.
So it’s Christmas Eve, it’s the party, he’s all alone, and he just wants somebody, so he hits on Bruce Willis’ wife. And I was doing it very much fast and loose and a bit hyper in the rehearsals.
[Director John] McTiernan came up to me and said “I don’t know what you’re doing. I hate it. It’s not what I envisaged for this character. I want smooth. I want Cary Grant”. And I said to him I know we haven’t discussed this, but I feel the character’s behavior really has to come from insecurity and coke”. He said to me “you know what, that’s bullshit. Get rid of it. I hate it. Calm down.”
Bochner also confirmed that he ad-libbed the now-famous Yiddish nisertion where he attempts to endear himself to Hans:
I was on the set, and I was improvising quite a bit. And I said to Joel Silver during rehearsals, what do you like, do you like bubbe? “I like the bubbe, do the bubbe,” he said. So all that stuff, the Rolex, I just kind of winged it. And they used what they felt worked, and didn’t use what they didn’t like.
Like many other characters in Die Hard, Harry Ellis was adapted almost unchanged from Roderick Thorp’s source novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, in which our protagonist Joe Leland observes that “beneath his salesman’s gloss, Ellis was as grisly a specimen as Leland had ever seen… the rolled-up dollar bill, evidence of cocaine, made the guy clear. An asshole.”
What’d He Wear?
Harry Ellis dresses for Nakatomi’s Christmas party in a sport jacket with a busy but low-contrasting stripe scheme. The pattern consists of wide blue stripes—bordered on each side with three narrower black stripes—that alternate with subdued rust-colored bar stripes, all against a charcoal ground.
The full cut is typical for ’80s fashions with its wide, padded shoulders, ventless back, and low-gorge notch lapels that roll to a low two-button stance, but the proportions are still appropriate as the top button fastens right over the top of the trouser waistband. Ellis’ jacket also has two-button cuffs, flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket, which he dresses with a dark slate-blue satin pocket square that matches his tie silk.
“I watch 60 Minutes. I say to myself, these guys are professional, they’re motivated, they’re happening, e.g., they want something.”
Ellis’ lilac cotton shirt has a spread collar that looks especially disproportionate with the lower gorges of his lapels. The shirt also has a front placket and button cuffs.
His dark-slate satin silk tie calls out the blue stripe in his jacket but, again, is unfortunately matched to the pocket square—a not unsurprising choice given Ellis’ overall tacky personality. Otaa concisely explains that “your tie should definitely complement your pocket square but making them exactly the same eliminates opportunity for sophistication.”
Ellis wears solid charcoal woolen trousers, which appear to be pleated in accordance with prevailing ’80s menswear trends. I would have chosen a lighter pair of trousers for a more significant contrast against the jacket, but that’s hardly the most unwise of Ellis’ decisions. The trousers have side pockets and turn-ups (cuffs). Worn with black leather cap-toe oxford shoes, Ellis’ navy-blue socks recall the colors of his jacket stripe, tie, and pocket square.
Juxtaposed with an out-of-touch “expert” describing how the hostages may be in the early stages of Stockholm syndrome (or “Helsinki syndrome,” according to Dr. Hasseldorf), we see they’re experiencing anything but as Gruber’s team drags Ellis’ lifeless body out Holly’s office.
Despite how prominently he celebrates the ill-fated wristwatch that Nakatomi gifted Holly for her job well done (“…it’s a Rolex”), we see little of the stainless steel watch on Ellis’ right wrist aside from the ridged edges of a rotating bezel and an Oyster-style three-piece link bracelet. This bracelet and his line about Holly’s timepiece builds the case that Ellis also wears a Rolex—probably a diver like a classic Submariner or Sea-Dweller.
The condemned man was probably hoping his last Coke would’ve been…well, coke.
What to Imbibe
Karl brings Ellis a can of Coca-Cola in exchange for his dubious services in helping bring in the “poison pill” that has been fouling Gruber’s plans. I’ve read that this may have been the group’s misinterpretation of the sniffling yuppie Ellis’ request for “coke”, but he seems a little too pleased by that familiar red can to suggest he expected anything else.
Assuming you actually survive your office Christmas party, Ellis would approve of you going home to host an intimate holiday date night in front of a roaring firplace with mulled wine and a nice aged Brie.
How to Get the Look
Hart Bochner as Harry Ellis in Die Hard (1988)
Just as one shouldn’t follow Ellis’ on-screen decisions, I would also recommend diverging from his sartorial philosophy with an updated jacket, lighter gray trousers for a more significant contrast, and a festive patterned pocket square that coordinates to the tie without directly matching it.
- Black, navy, and rust-striped charcoal single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Lilac cotton shirt with spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
- Dark slate-blue satin silk tie
- Charcoal wool pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
- Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
- Navy-blue socks
- Stainless steel Rolex dive watch on steel Oyster-style link bracelet
- Dark slate-blue satin silk pocket square
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Hans, bubbe, I’m your white knight.
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