- Nothing Lasts Forever (1979 novel)
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Nothing Lasts Forever Author(s) Roderick Thorp Country United States Language English Genre(s) Thriller novel Publisher W. W. Norton & Company Publication date 1979 Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) ISBN 0-393-01249-2 OCLC Number 5101628 Dewey Decimal 813/.5/4 LC Classification PZ4.T55 No 1979 PS3570.H67 Preceded by The Detective Nothing Lasts Forever is a 1979 thriller novel by Roderick Thorp. It is mostly known through its film adaptation, Die Hard.
Contents
Plot introduction
Nothing Lasts Forever is a sequel to Thorp's 1966 novel The Detective. It follows Detective Joe Leland, who is visiting the Klaxon Oil Corporation's headquarters in Los Angeles, where his daughter Steffie Leland Gennaro works. While he is visiting, a German terrorist team led by Anton "Tony" Gruber takes over the building. Leland remains undetected and fights off the terrorists one by one, aided outside the building by LAPD Sergeant Al Powell.
In 1975, author Roderick Thorp saw the film The Towering Inferno. After seeing the film, Thorp had a dream of seeing a man being chased through a building by men with guns. He woke up and took that idea and turned it into the The Detective sequel, Nothing Lasts Forever.
Characters
- Joseph Leland
- Leland is now a retired police officer on his way to Los Angeles to visit his daughter for a Christmas party hosted by her boss, Mr. Rivers. Leland is still somewhat depressed after his wife left him and the relationship between him and his daughter is strained. He has hopes that this visit might help the relationship, but when the building is under attack, he must jump into action and hope that he can save the 74 hostages including his daughter. In Die Hard, his name is John McClane and is portrayed by Bruce Willis
- Stephanie Gennaro
- The only daughter of Joseph Leland and an important executive to the Klaxon Oil building. She is sleeping with another executive named Harry Ellis. She invited her father to the party in hopes to see him and wish him a merry Christmas, but she soon falls hostage to Anton "Little Tony" Gruber and must believe that her father can do the impossible. In Die Hard, instead of the daughter being held hostage, it is McClane's wife named Holly Gennaro and is portrayed by Bonnie Bedelia.
- Anton "Little Tony" Gruber
- Anton Gruber is of German heritage and is the leader of the group of terrorists who have taken over the Klaxon Oil Building. Anton is his real name but people (including Leland) often refer to him as "Little Tony" or "Tony" just as a nickname. Anton Gruber is a ruthless man who will stop at nothing to complete his goal, no matter whom he has to kill. In Die Hard, his name is Hans Gruber and is portrayed by Alan Rickman.
- Sergeant Al Powell
- Al Powell is sent to the Klaxon Building to check on an emergency call made by Leland and is soon thrown into radio contact with him and monitored by Anton Gruber. Al Powell tries to talk Leland into keeping calm and not to lose his cool and sees Leland as the true hero that he is. Al Powell ends up saving Leland from Karl and getting him into an ambulance. In Die Hard, he is portrayed by Reginald VelJohnson.
- Chief Deputy Dwayne T. Robinson
- Dwayne Robinson is the deputy chief of police and is sent in to take charge of the situation at hand. He automatically dislikes Leland for what he is doing and feels that he is only making things worse for the hostages. He tries to convince himself that Leland could be one of the terrorists or a nutjob but is soon on Leland's side when he finds out what Leland's been doing. Dwayne is shot and killed by Karl at the end of the novel (but not in the film adaptation). In Die Hard, he is portrayed by the late Paul Gleason.
- Karl
- Karl is Anton's right hand man. Near the beginning of the novel, Leland kills his younger brother, Hans, and throughout the remainder of the novel, Karl wants nothing but Leland's blood. He is the last surviving terrorist after Anton is killed by Leland and appears at the end of novel supposedly dead but comes back with intentions to kill Leland. However, he is shot to death by Al Powell. In Die Hard, he is portrayed by the late Alexander Godunov.
- Mr. Rivers
- Mr. Rivers is the president of the Klaxon Oil Building and is the one who hosted the Christmas party and arranged the ride in for Leland. Mr. Rivers is soon disliked by Leland and is taken hostage by Anton to get the safe code in order to get the millions of dollars in the safe. Unfortunately, Mr. Rivers refuses to give the code and Anton shoots him in the lapel, killing him. In Die Hard, Rivers' name is Mr. Takagi and is portrayed by James Shigeta.
- Harry Ellis
- Ellis is an executive in the Klaxon Oil Building and is sleeping with Stephanie Leland Gennaro and does drugs (such as cocaine), which makes Joe Leland dislike him. In the middle of the novel, Ellis tries to help the terrorists and help himself by trying to talk Leland into giving himself up. When Leland refuses Ellis' proposal, Anton kills Ellis, which makes Leland feel responsible for his death. In Die Hard, Ellis is portrayed by Hart Bochner.
Die Hard film adaptation
Nothing Lasts Forever was originally adapted as a sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Commando, but when Schwarzenegger turned down the role, the script was retooled in 1988 for the film Die Hard.
The film follows its source material closely. Some of its memorable scenes, characters, and dialogue are taken directly from the novel. The story was altered to be a stand-alone film with no connections to Thorp's novel The Detective. Other changes included the older hero of the novel becoming younger, his name changed from Joe Leland to John McClane, his daughter becoming his wife (maiden name "Gennero," different from the book's spelling of "Gennaro"), and the American Klaxon Oil Corporation becoming the Japanese Nakatomi Corporation.
References
- Thorp, Roderick (1979). Nothing Lasts Forever. ISBN 0-393-01249-2.
External links
- The Detective at the Internet Movie Database
- Die Hard at the Internet Movie Database
Die Hard Films Die Hard (1988) · Die Hard 2 (1990) · Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) · Live Free or Die Hard (2007) · A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)Video games Related Categories:- 1979 novels
- American thriller novels
- Die Hard novels
- American novels adapted into films
- Novels set in Los Angeles, California
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