The newest Die Hard movie, A Good Day to Die Hard, would not live up to the prior movies without complete and utter destruction. After Thursday’s viewing, the latest film in the series lives up to the Die Hard name by destroying 132 vehicles, in one scene alone. You read that correctly, 132 vehicles were destroyed in one epic car chase with Bruce Willis, while driving the Mercedes-Benz G-Class in Russia. These weren’t junky cars getting destroyed either, besides the Mercedes vehicles, one of the cars destroyed was a Lamborghini! Total Scene Cost: $11 million.
In addition to the 132 cars that were beyond repair, another 518 required a lot of work. “With Die Hard it’s about how audacious the action is,” Moore says. “So you have to drive over a Lamborghini. An actual one. And yes it hurts me. I’m a car fanatic.”
In total, it’s an expensive scene that plays out over several minutes and features some classic Bruce Willis one-liners, especially as he’s literally driving over the cars. Was it worth it? We think so, nice to see some actual destruction instead of CGI action.
Making of: A Good Day to Die Hard
As for how the filmmakers pulled it off, they got some help from Mercedes for the G Class, a vehicle that fits perfectly with the Russian backdrop.
“You go to Moscow it’s covered in these Mercedes, like yellow taxi cabs in New York,” says Moore. “So we said ‘Hey, can you help us out. Because we cannot afford to wreck all the cars that you see in Moscow. So send us some of those G wagons.”
Mercedes did just that and several Mercedes-Benzes vehicles died in the pursuit of great stunts, especially the ones with the supercharged engines. W’re told in fact the director was tempted to spare one of the cars when he was told he could keep it. “And there was a moment where it was like, ‘If I don’t wreck it, they said I can keep it.’ I really had this St.-Paul-on- the-road-to-Damascus moment.”
But, he stayed true to the destruction necessary for a Die Hard movie and wrecked it. Don’t feel to bad for him though, A Good Day to Die Hard finished number one at the box office over the weekend and has already pulled in over 100 million worldwide, he can afford a new car. Source: Mercedes-Benz & USA Today
