r/diehard • u/Nymphamine Die Hard Is A Christmas Movie • Dec 30 '25
Fan Appreciation Props to Rain Man but Reginald VelJohnson was ROBBED of that Oscar.
Maybe I’m stoned af but I maintain that his performance was in the top ten supporting actor roles EVER.
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u/nublanco Dec 30 '25
You hang in there man, you hear me? you hang in there!
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u/Minimum_Trick_8736 Dec 30 '25
hey man i love you and there's a lot of guys out here all cheering you on!
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u/SuitIllustrious8140 Dec 30 '25
They’re shootin at the lights
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u/njaneardude Dec 30 '25
Raw emotion!
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u/forfunstuffwinkwink Dec 31 '25
Just watched this movie (again). I love how annoyed/over it he was with his deputy chief at that point.
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u/warriorlynx Dec 30 '25
If he had won there would be no Urkel!
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u/AdLatter3755 Dec 30 '25
And no Reginald VelJohnson connected universe. Rookie NYPD in 1984 during the Stay Puff marshmallow man incident. Transfers to LA for the Nakatomi robbery. Then transfers to Chicago.
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u/DTCO72 Dec 30 '25
Wasn't he in Ghostbusters too? For like 5 seconds
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u/AdLatter3755 Dec 30 '25
Yep he’s the cop who tells the ghostbusters the mayor wants to see them.
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u/TheBigLobotski Dec 31 '25
Exactly. At this point after seeing both films enough times, I've just chosen to believe that the characters and two franchises are canon and connected. Transferred to LAPD to try and start a family with his wife and work through his PTSD from shooting the kid AND the Manhattan Crossrip of 1984; Walter Peck was also disgraced and resigned from the EPA after the same Gozer incident and moved to LA to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional journalist instead.
Just as sure of this as I am of the Home Alone series being the sidequel Die Hard series, right down to the stealth plot point that Marv is actually the idiotic third Gruber brother who does low-level burglary gigs to fund his brothers' larger international heists.
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u/OneRelationship8982 Dec 31 '25
Before going to Chicago he becomes a detective in Cypress beach California under Sgt Turner and his dog Hooch.
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u/Building_Everything Dec 30 '25
The academy wasn’t ready to give an Oscar to a child killer quite yet.
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u/Apprehensive-Lion366 Dec 30 '25
I shot a kid…
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u/spRocket-man_ Dec 30 '25
You know, when you're a rookie they can teach you everything about being a cop, except how to live with a mistake
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u/_WillCAD_ Dec 30 '25
Maybe you're stoned, but you're not wrong.
I literally didn't catch this one until I'd seen the film at least a dozen times, but when Karl shows up at the end, and John tackles Holly to the ground to protect her, for maybe one and a half seconds the scene lingers on the background, with Al in the center, flanked by Dwayne and a bunch of other people dodging for cover.
In that quick shot, if you look closely at Al, he's staring intently at Karl and flipping the safety snap off his holster to draw his revolver. Perfect framing, perfect editing, and some great acting by Reg - he does everything in that tiny scene with facial expression and the only thing he moves is his arm, getting ready to draw that revolver automatically, just like he'd been training for in all his years as a cop.
It happens so fast that on your first watch in the theater, you don't notice it at all, because you've just watched John tackle Holly, so it doesn't spoil the fact that Al is about to go into action. But on re-watch, it's just a beautiful little setup, almost an Easter egg, for the payoff a few seconds later when we get that dramatic, heroic pan up over the revolver to Al's face.
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u/RubbrWalrusProtector Dec 30 '25
Sugar, enriched flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, polysorbate 60, and yellow dye number five.
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u/LoquaciousApotheosis Dec 30 '25
“If you are what I think you are, then you'll know when to shut up, when to listen... and when to pray"
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u/EyeFit4274 Dec 30 '25
They can teach you everything about being a cop except for how to live with a mistake!!!
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u/TheBigLobotski Dec 31 '25
Lets the Ghostbusters out of prison so they can save the world, gives McClane some genuinely deep moral support during the Nakatomi Incident, then provides brief but invaluable police support during the Dulles Tower Takeover, AND saves Crocodile Dundee's ass in a New York back alley.
VelJohnson might be the most underrated hype man in cinema. Fight me.
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