Don’t miss this cult action film that you must have seen at least once in your life. It airs on television this week.
In the pantheon of Hollywood action films, we find many feature films that have thrilled or kept millions of spectators in suspense. This week, one of them is broadcast on television in France. It is one of the great classics that you must have seen at least once in your life, and that many spectators rewatch regularly because it is so popular. It is also rated 8.2/5 on IMDB and is at the top of the ranking of the best action films of all time established by Time Out magazine, second on that of Collider (behind Seven Samurai).
Released in 1988, Crystal Trap is the first (and best) episode of the Die Hard saga. In this film, spectators were able to discover for the first time the exploits of John McClane, a determined New York police officer ready to take any risk to carry out his mission. Especially when a commando invades the building where his wife, Holly, works, from whom he has been separated for several months and with whom he hopes to reconcile during the holidays. To save her, John McClane has no choice but to enter the building by surprise and destroy this commando led by the ruthless Hans Gruber.
Crystal Trap is cult in many ways. This is the first time that Bruce Willis takes on the features of John McClane, a character who will become ultra-popular and make a name for himself in pop culture. So much so that some of his lines, like the cult “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker”, uttered by the hero, will become an unforgettable line in action cinema. For some, it is even one of the Christmas films to watch during the holidays, even if it is not a classic romantic comedy, since its plot takes place on December 24.
In this feature film, director John McTiernan lays the foundations of the franchise by offering high-energy action scenes and a thrilling game of hide-and-seek with fearsome terrorists, in a huge glass building. Crystal Trap gave Alan Rickman one of his most popular villain roles (behind Harry Potter’s Severus Snape) and the late British actor is chilling as an ultra-charismatic and dangerous terrorist.
If the sequels are much more uneven, this first episode remains a masterpiece of the genre. Crystal Trap is broadcast this week on television on M6. The sixth channel offers it in its schedule on Tuesday May 7, 2024, from 9:10 p.m. If you prefer streaming viewing, you should go to the Disney subscription platform.
