本片成为1988年全美票房收入最高的电影之一。 片中火爆的动作场面和新颖的场景设计以及打不死的英雄，确实令当时的观众大开眼界，布鲁斯·威利斯也因此片成为好莱坞一线 明星，影片的形式后来被很多影片模仿，使影片本身成为恐怖惊险犯罪电影的经典之作。
Tough New York cop John McClane finds himself in a tight situation when an office building in Los Angeles is taken over by terrorists. Apart from himself, everyone else in the building - including his wife - is held at gunpoint while their captors spell out their demands. The F.B.I. are called in to survey the situation, but John McClane has other plans for the terrorists...
影片片段：
John: Oh, God...
Al: Roy! Roy, you all right?
John: Just trying to fire down a 1,000-year-old Twinkie(一种饼干名称). What do they put in them?
Al: Sugar-enriched flour, partially hydrogenated(氢化的)vegetable oil, polysorbate 60(聚山梨醇酯), and yellow dye number 5. Just everything a growing boy needs.
John: How many kids you got, Al?
Al: Well, as a matter of a fact, my wife is working on our first. How about you, cowboy? You got any kids back on your ranch?
John: Yeah. Two. Sure hope I can see them swinging on a jungle gym with Al Jr. someday.
Al: Well now, that''s a date, but you''re gonna have to bring the ice cream.
Hans: Touching, cowboy, touching! Or should I call you Mr. McClane, Mr. John McClane of the New York Police Department?
Richard: Get on the phone to Harry in New York.
Woman reporter: Got it!
Al: You''d better get hold of somebody at Dispatch.
John: Sister Theresa called me Mr. McClane in the third grade. My friend call me John...and you''re neither, shithead!
Hans: I have someone who wants to talk to you. A very special friend who was with you at the party tonight.
