Written by Old Bluffer 9th Nov 2007

Written by Mad Movie Mathew

Hans and his team of terrorists have now taken control of the Nakatomi Tower and are about to teach the corporation "a lesson in the *real* use of power." Now normally I would do an introduction here about the character whose death this page describes, but Hans, sulking around the room for his target does such an excellent job, I'm just going to hand it over him. Take it away, Hans.

"Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi, born Kyoto, 1937. Family emigrated to San Pedro, California, 1939. Interned at Manzanar, 1942 to '43. Scholarship student, University of California, 1955. Law degree, Stanford, 1962. MBA, Harvard, 1970. President, Nakatomi Trading. Vice Chairman, Nakatomi Investment Group..."

OK, Hans, that's enough. Anyway, as you might have guessed, Takagi is a very important fellow and hence that's why Hans takes him away to answer some "fill in the blanks questions". But the reason turns out to surprise even Takagi.

"You broke in here to access our computer?" asks Takagi. "Any information you get, when they wake up in the morning in Tokyo, they'll change it. You won't be able to blackmail our executives, threaten our..."
"*Sit* down!" orders Snape Hans.
Slowly, Takagi takes a seat facing Hans.
"Mr Takagi, I'm really not interested in your computer," explains Hans. "But I need the code key for I *am* interested in the $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds that you have locked in your vault. And the computer controls the vault."
"You want money?" Takagi says in surprise. "What kind of terrorists are you?"
Hans giggles. "Who said we were terrorists?"

Meanwhile, barefooted McClane, gun in hand, wanders into the next room, before getting down and crawling on the floor, looking in on Takagi's questioning through the glass doors.

Hans removes the silencer on his gun and puts down on the table. "The code, please."
"It's useless to you," Takagi defiantly claims. "There are seven safeguards on our vault. The code key's only one of them. You won't get it open."
This doesn't stop Hans, who places his gun on the table. "Then there's no reason not to tell it to us."

Meanwhile, Karl and Theo are appearing to making guesses on the conclusion of the interrogation.
"I told you," says Theo to Karl.
"It's not over yet," Karl dismisses.
Hans looks over at them like naughty children, before returning to Takagi.

"It's a very nice suit, Mr. Takagi," threatens Hans. "It would be a shame to ruin it."
Pause. Takagi does not move. Hans barely surpresses a sigh.
"I'm going to count to three," Hans says. "There will not be a four. Give me the code."
Pause. Hans puts his hand on the gun. "One."
Takagi remains firm, even though he is pouring with sweat.
"Two."
Theo thumbs his computer, ready.
"Three..."
"I don't know it," says Takagi in desperation. "Get on a jet to Tokyo and ask the chairman. I'm telling you, you're just going to have to kill me!"
Hans doesn't mind this. "OK." He picks up the gun and fires into Takagi's head. This gives McClane a less than pleasant view of Takagi's head splattering against the window.

"We'll do it the hard way," says Hans as Takagi chair collapses over. Meanwhile, Karl hands Theo over a dollar, obviously on the losing end of the bet. And lucky for Hans, Theo does have some hacking skills to help break into the vault just in case...

Comments:
The 2-disc DVD has an editing section which allows you to edit your own version of the scene using alternate takes, including a view of Takagi being shot from the front and Gruber having an alternate ab-lib of "Capitalist terrorists."