Die Hard with a RedBull

We had another “Movie Marathon” session with friends last night. We haven’t done one in ages and this time we figured we’d watch all four Die Hard movies. The plan was to watch them all, one after the other. Yes, we’re crazy :)

It was fun to watch the original Die Hard again – it’s been years since I last saw it. Amazing to see Alan Rickman playing the part of Hans Gruber – from terrorist to Professor Snape with a bit of Marvin the Paranoid Android along the way. It was also most amusing to see Bruce Willis with real hair…

I found it was easy to suspend my disbelief during Die Hard and Die Hard: With a Vengeance (aka #3) as they were just fun, impossible scenario action movies. You sit back, plug into the adventure and enjoy the ride. Sadly, I just couldn’t switch off on Die Hard 2 as the whole aviation aspect was just too close for me. Like, gee, terrorists take over the airport and shut down air traffic control, leaving a whole lot of aircraft orbiting waiting for news. Ummmm, no, they’d all be heading to their alternative destinations. If the airport was also the home of the TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Controllers) meaning that the aircraft would have no ATC to talk to as they worked their way into the airport, they would switch to “guard” (VHF 121.5MHz – the emergency channel) for comms.

And this was just the first and most obvious bit. Oh well…

As to Live Free or Die Hard (aka #4) I really can’t say. I’ve heard the movie isn’t that good and I still don’t know – I fell asleep within the first 10 minutes of the movie. Ooops. Still, I was the last one to pass out :)

To help get through the long night marathon, we had stocked up with a supply of RedBull drinks – they don’t taste too bad with vodka. Given I don’t have much caffeine in my diet (no coffee or tea and around 0 to 2 cans of coke a week these days) I have to say that this stuff worked – perhaps a little too well. I was buzzed and active despite it being a Friday night after a long, tiring week. While the others were watching, I was back at the table surfing on the laptop, getting drinks & nibbles for everyone and so on. While the others were starting to fade, I was still enjoying the movies. It wasn’t until about 4am that I was getting tired and I passed out around 4:30.

As to the recovery, I don’t know which was worse – the hang over or the after effects of so much sugar, caffeine, taurine and other stuff in those cans :)