How do people figure out John and Holly McClane's identities in the first Die Hard?

How do people figure out John and Holly McClane's identities in the first Die Hard? - Woman in White and Pink Stripe Dress Holding Pink Strap

Originally, the protagonist in Die Hard says his name is "Roy" in an effort to conceal his identity.

Somewhere down the line, his ally Al Powell and everyone else outside know he is John McClane. How?

And later on the boss even figures out that John's wife is among the hostages, while not noticing it previously. How does he suddenly know that?

Based on comment and based on my first view of the movie, it has something to do with Ellis talking to the bad guy about John. It wasn't very clear though.

Also if Ellis talks to the boss, then how come the cops know it too? So a related question will be, how are John, the terrorists, and the cops in the same frequency?

Basically, how do Hans, and Powell, start realizing that Roy is John McLane?



Best Answer

Ellis, who believes he's smarter than everyone else, asks to speak to Hans. When brought to the office, he tells Hans, "Is the big guy upstairs ruining everything? I can give him to you."

It's presumed that between that scene and when Hans calls John by name that Ellis has told them McClane's identity, but left out his relationship to Holly. Instead, he said something to the effect that they are friends from school, and McClane was his guest. This was all stated by Ellis while McClane was telling him he'd made a big mistake and to tell them he didn't know John.

As for the police hearing this, that's a little bit harder to give a rational explanation for. They may have switched to a police channel given that McClane had obviously been in contact with them and figured he'd be on that channel. But remember; Hans' plan was to involve the police and the FBI from the start. It was the only way to get the electricity cut to the building, which is what was keeping the 7th wall of security to the vault active.

Al did not know John McClane's name until that radio conversation between John and Hans. However, he did suspect he was a cop. Nothing beyond that was known by Al and company until that conversation.




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What happened between Holly and John McClane?

Holly Gennero, formerly Holly McClane, is the ex-wife of John McClane. Over the course of the series, their relationship becomes more and more strained and by the fourth film, they are divorced. She is tritagonist of the first and second films.

What does Hans call John McClane?

McClane, shocked that Hans knows his name, taunts that Sister Teresa called him McClane in the third grade & his friends called him John and he's neither. Hans tells McClane that someone wants to talk to him, claiming that a special friend with him at the party.

What building is John McClane trapped in in Die Hard 1?

Of course, this isn't reality, but the culminating scene in the 1988 Christmas-action Die Hard. And the man jumping off the building isn't named John McClane, nor is it actor Bruce Willis, it is stuntman Ken Bates. And Nakatomi tower, well that's really Fox Plaza in Century City, the building that became a star.



Die Hard: John Mclane's message to his wife




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Images: Yaroslav Shuraev, Gabe Garza, Element5 Digital, Andrea Piacquadio