Live Free or Die Hard (released as Die Hard 4.0 outside North America) is a 2007 American action-thriller film and the fourth installment in the Die Hard film series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman and starred Bruce Willis as John McClane. The film's name was adapted from New Hampshire's state motto, "Live Free or Die". In the film, McClane attempts to stop cyber-terrorists who hack into government and commercial computers across the United States with the goal of starting a "fire sale" that would disable key elements of the nation's infrastructure. The film was based on the 1997 article "A Farewell to Arms" written for Wired magazine by John Carlin.
Responding to a brief computer outage at its Cyber-Security Division by tracking down top computer hackers, the FBI asks NYPD detective John McClane to bring in hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long). McClane arrives at Farrell's residence just in time to save Farrell from assassins sent by Mai Linh (Maggie Q), who works for Thomas Gabriel.
On the way to D.C., Farrell tells McClane that he had written an algorithm for Linh that could crack a specific security system for white hat purposes. Meanwhile, Gabriel orders his crew of hackers to take over transportation grids and the stock market, while nationally broadcasting a threatening message to the U.S. government. Farrell recognizes this as the start of a "fire sale", a cyber attack designed to disable the nation's infrastructure. McClane and Farrell are driven to FBI headquarters, when Linh (posing as a dispatcher) reroutes the convoy into an ambush, McClane fends off the attackers, destroying their helicopter.
After McClane pleads for his help, Farrell guesses that Gabriel's next target is the power grid, and he and McClane drive to a utility superstation in West Virginia. They find a team led by Linh taking over the superstation. McClane and Farrell kill the team, and Linh falls to her death following a struggle with McClane. Enraged over Linh's death, Gabriel redirects large amounts of natural gas to the utility superstation in an attempt to kill McClane and Farrell, although they are able to escape.
McClane and Farrell then travel by helicopter to the home of hacker Frederick "Warlock" Kaludis. Warlock identifies the piece of code Farrell wrote for Linh as a means to access data at a Social Security Administration building at Woodlawn, Maryland. Warlock tells them that Gabriel was a top security expert for the U.S. Department of Defense. Gabriel attempted to alert the Department to weaknesses that made America's network infrastructure vulnerable to cyberwarfare, but his unorthodox methods led to his dismissal. Warlock runs a traceroute and identifies Gabriel's location. Gabriel taps into their connection and reveals that he has located McClane's estranged daughter, Lucy, whom he kidnaps. McClane sends an image of Gabriel to the FBI. It is revealed that the Woodlawn building is actually an NSA facility intended to back up the nation's personal and financial records in the event of a cyber attack, which was designed by Gabriel himself. The attack on the FBI prompted a download of financial data to Woodlawn which Gabriel hopes to steal.
McClane and Farrell race to the Woodlawn facility; Farrell discovers one of Gabriel's men downloading financial information and manages to encrypt the data before he is captured. Gabriel then takes Farrell and Lucy with him as his team flees. McClane pursues Gabriel, hijacking the semi mobile base. Gabriel accesses the communication system of a United States Marine Corps Aviation F-35B Lightning II and orders the pilot to attack the truck McClane is driving. The jet is destroyed by falling debris and McClane survives and sees Gabriel's vehicle pull into a nearby hangar. There, Gabriel demands that Farrell decrypt the financial data; when Farrell refuses, Gabriel shoots him in the knee and threatens to kill Lucy. McClane arrives and kills two of Gabriel's henchmen but is himself shot in the shoulder by Gabriel's last henchman Emerson.
Gabriel positions himself behind McClane, putting the barrel of the gun in his shoulder wound. McClane then pulls the trigger. The bullet travels through McClane's shoulder and hits Gabriel in the chest, killing him. Farrell grabs a handgun and kills Emerson. Afterwards, McClane thanks Farrell for saving Lucy's life.
Casting
- Bruce Willis as Detective John McClane, who works for the New York City Police Department.
- Justin Long as Matthew "Matt" Farrell
- Timothy Olyphant as Thomas Gabriel, a former Defense Department analyst who leads a group of cyber-terrorists systematically shutting down the entire U.S. infrastructure. Olyphant filmed his role within three weeks.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy Gennero-McClane, McClane's estranged daughter. The inclusion of McClane's daughter was previously considered for the third film, and she was in the video game Die Hard: Vendetta. It was speculated that Willis' real life daughter Rumer, was a prime candidate for the part of McClane's daughter.
- Maggie Q as Mai Linh, Gabriel's second-in-command and lover
- Kevin Smith as Frederick "Warlock" Kaludis. Smith made uncredited rewrites to the scenes in which he appears.
- Cliff Curtis as Miguel Bowman, Deputy Director of the FBI Cyber Security Division
- Jonathan Sadowski as Trey
- Edoardo Costa as Emerson
- Cyril Raffaelli as Rand
- Yorgo Constantine as Russo
- Željko Ivanek as Agent Molina
- Christina Chang as Taylor
- Len Wiseman as the F-35B pilot
Additional characters include Gabriel's henchmen: Chris Palmero as Del, Andrew Friedman as Casper and Bryon Weiss as Robinson. Chris Ellis appears as Jack Sclavino, McClane's superior officer. Sung Kang makes an appearance as Raj, a desk officer of FBI's cyber division. Matt O'Leary appears as Clay, a hacker who unwittingly gives Gabriel a code, allowing his house to be destroyed. Jake McDorman plays a small role as Jim, Lucy's boyfriend. Tim Russ (whose best known role is Tuvok from Star Trek Voyager) appears as an NSA agent. Rosemary Knower has a cameo as Mrs. Kaludis, Frederick's mother.
