Die Hard made us feel proud to be american

Even though the setup is an off-duty cop being forced into action, "Die Hard" still comes off as a fantasy of vigilantism. Just what peeves John McClane as he fights alone against the world, and do you share his angst?

He bangs his head against a wall as he recalls how he and his wife separated, like the self-hatred of a man who hits women and is sorry. She's uppity with a good career and makes more money than his police salary, and he possibly resents alimony + child support as unfair. Also self-hates his addiction to tobacco.

The baddies are leftist radical foreigners, patterned after the Baader-Meinhof gang.

McClane has a low opinion of California and its population of space cadets (and gays). This boils up several times like when a man at the party kisses him on the mouth.

He hates dealing with female professionals in positions of authority; the one that really gets to him is the police dispatch operator.

Dwayne is an incompetent institutional bureaucrat representing government interference with the common man.

Takagi is a 'good' foreigner of a model minority.

The fantasy payoff of all McClane's macho heroic violence is winning his wife back.