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Why I'd like to be … Reginald VelJohnson in Die Hard Why I'd like to be … Reginald VelJohnson in Die Hard
(about 4 hours later)
When I was a kid I could never shoot the Indians. It didn't seem right to waste your mates just because they weren't pretending to be John Wayne. And who was John Wayne anyway? A dead bloke in a neckerchief who spoke with a comma between every word. No, being the cowboy wasn't for me – but holding back the mad ranch-owners was. That's why, one Christmas, I realised my action idol was the man who didn't even make the movie poster: the straight-talking Al from Die Hard, a bloke who didn't have the minerals to wade in with gunfire but kept vigil over McClane while pigging out on Twinkies.When I was a kid I could never shoot the Indians. It didn't seem right to waste your mates just because they weren't pretending to be John Wayne. And who was John Wayne anyway? A dead bloke in a neckerchief who spoke with a comma between every word. No, being the cowboy wasn't for me – but holding back the mad ranch-owners was. That's why, one Christmas, I realised my action idol was the man who didn't even make the movie poster: the straight-talking Al from Die Hard, a bloke who didn't have the minerals to wade in with gunfire but kept vigil over McClane while pigging out on Twinkies.
Superbly played by Reginald VelJohnson, Sgt Al Powell (aka "pal") was a 3D sidekick, more fleshed out than the action genre deserved. Making the most of his frugal screen time – he doesn't appear until 40 minutes in, when McClane uses the walkie-talkie he rifled from Evil German 1 – his first action is a reluctant drive-by of the Nakatomi Plaza forecourt. McClane gets his attention with a corpse out the window and from there on a relationship is forged, the vested one relying on Sgt Al for moral support.Superbly played by Reginald VelJohnson, Sgt Al Powell (aka "pal") was a 3D sidekick, more fleshed out than the action genre deserved. Making the most of his frugal screen time – he doesn't appear until 40 minutes in, when McClane uses the walkie-talkie he rifled from Evil German 1 – his first action is a reluctant drive-by of the Nakatomi Plaza forecourt. McClane gets his attention with a corpse out the window and from there on a relationship is forged, the vested one relying on Sgt Al for moral support.
So what picks Al out from the other shirking badges on the ground? For a start, he's the first cop after McClane to follow his hunch. He keeps on trying to broker peace between the queue of blockhead police chiefs and McClane's fantasy rampage (running topless through the 30th floor gunning down suits). He tells McClane he loves him, tells him the other guys love him, even reads out a Twinkie recipe. The man's a counsellor in all but paycheque, doing a superior job to the book-plugger wheeled on by the news network. Al's idea of "establish empathy" is to confess without hesitation that he hasn't been able to draw his gun in years. And he confesses it on a public radio channel – talk about guts.So what picks Al out from the other shirking badges on the ground? For a start, he's the first cop after McClane to follow his hunch. He keeps on trying to broker peace between the queue of blockhead police chiefs and McClane's fantasy rampage (running topless through the 30th floor gunning down suits). He tells McClane he loves him, tells him the other guys love him, even reads out a Twinkie recipe. The man's a counsellor in all but paycheque, doing a superior job to the book-plugger wheeled on by the news network. Al's idea of "establish empathy" is to confess without hesitation that he hasn't been able to draw his gun in years. And he confesses it on a public radio channel – talk about guts.
While McClane gets to scream "yippee ki-yay", it's Al who's Die Hard's silent hero, "just a desk jockey on his way home". Picture him two hours after the credits roll: the police cleanup team are bulldozing rubble and he's on his way back to his desk, trying to avoid the sniggers from Armed Response. The real Al, of course, would just laugh it off. He's the sanest voice in the film, and that includes Holly McClane, who repeatedly does her best to wind up Alan Rickman (never clever).While McClane gets to scream "yippee ki-yay", it's Al who's Die Hard's silent hero, "just a desk jockey on his way home". Picture him two hours after the credits roll: the police cleanup team are bulldozing rubble and he's on his way back to his desk, trying to avoid the sniggers from Armed Response. The real Al, of course, would just laugh it off. He's the sanest voice in the film, and that includes Holly McClane, who repeatedly does her best to wind up Alan Rickman (never clever).
Popular enough to return for Die Hard 2 but with enough savvy to avoid Vengeance/the virus one/the recent one with kids in, Sgt Al Powell emerges as the franchise's most honourable character. It marked a hat-trick of sideman performances from VelJohnson, after Crocodile Dundee's worldly limo driver and the non-dog sidekick in Turner & Hooch. It also saw him complete any of those script's fullest arcs, silencing Paul Gleason's hothead lieutenant with a line later sampled by Ned's Atomic Dustbin: "Why don't you wake up and smell what you shovelin'?"Popular enough to return for Die Hard 2 but with enough savvy to avoid Vengeance/the virus one/the recent one with kids in, Sgt Al Powell emerges as the franchise's most honourable character. It marked a hat-trick of sideman performances from VelJohnson, after Crocodile Dundee's worldly limo driver and the non-dog sidekick in Turner & Hooch. It also saw him complete any of those script's fullest arcs, silencing Paul Gleason's hothead lieutenant with a line later sampled by Ned's Atomic Dustbin: "Why don't you wake up and smell what you shovelin'?"
When he finally gets to meet McClane under a snowfall of exploded desk reports, this grunt who let a 7-Eleven clerk backchat him sees off his demons and finally fires his weapon. But he did a bigger thing than that. Earlier in the night he said the words that kept his cowboy friend's chin up: "I'm here, John."When he finally gets to meet McClane under a snowfall of exploded desk reports, this grunt who let a 7-Eleven clerk backchat him sees off his demons and finally fires his weapon. But he did a bigger thing than that. Earlier in the night he said the words that kept his cowboy friend's chin up: "I'm here, John."
• Why I'd like to be … Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird• Why I'd like to be … Julie Christie in Billy Liar• Why I'd like to be … Patrick Fugit in Almost Famous