Die Hard with a Vengeance is a action film and the third entry in the Die Hard film series. It was produced and directed by John McTiernan, who directed the first film and stars Bruce Willis as NYPD detective John McClane. Vengeance also stars Samuel L. Jackson as Willis' reluctant partner Zeus Carver and Jeremy Irons as the main villain Simon Gruber. The film was written by Jonathan Hensleigh and was followed by Live Free or Die Hard in .

Plot

After a bomb explodes in the early morning at the Bonwit Teller department store in New York City, a man calling himself "Simon" (Jeremy Irons) telephones the police claiming responsibility, and demands that they play a game of "Simon Says" to prevent any more explosions. Simon orders suspended NYPD Lt. John McClane walk through Harlem wearing a sandwich board displaying racist slurs. Before McClane can be beaten by a group of outraged residents, Harlem shopkeeper and black supremacist Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) steps in to rescue McClane. Although he despises whites, Carver's main concern is that a murdered white cop in Harlem could result in "open season" on blacks by trigger-happy white cops. Together they return to the precinct where Simon calls and takes credit for stealing several thousand pounds of an Astrolite-like bi-component explosive, and warns McClane and Carver to continue to play Simon Says to prevent any more bombs made of the material to go off.

At the 72nd Street Subway Station, McClane and Carver are instructed by Simon to reach the Wall Street subway station, 90 blocks away, in 30 minutes, to prevent a bomb on a subway train destined for the station from going off. McClane manages to get aboard the moving subway car and locate the bomb, but it still explodes, sending the train cars tearing through the station, though McClane's actions prevent anyone from being killed. McClane and Carver regroup with the police and FBI and learn that "Simon" is really former East German special forces officer Simon Peter Gruber, and may be holding a grudge over the death of his brother Hans Gruber, who was killed by McClane at the end of the first film. Simon calls into the group and explains that he has planted a bomb in one of New York's public schools, and that any radio communication may set it off. This forces McClane and Carver to continue to follow Simon's instructions while the police, using every available man and resource without their standard means of communication, launch a search of every school.