Claymation ‘Die Hard’ tribute pits ‘John McClay’ against terrorists, Tetris blocks, and Matryoshka dolls

Will Perkins
·Blogger

If you've ever dreamt of seeing hard-boiled "Die Hard" action hero John McClane reimagined as a claymation terrorist-foiler (and really, who hasn't?), then today is your lucky day.

Just in time for the release of "A Good Day to Die Hard," the fifth entry in the "Die Hard" franchise, here comes a stop-motion send-up of the series courtesy of animator Lee Hardcastle. Titled "A Good CLAY to Die Hard," Hardcastle's short film re-dubs the famed Bruce Willis character John McClay and recaps some of the New York cop's previous cinematic bad days in gloriously goofy claymation. The animator then imagines what our hero's upcoming adventure (this time set in Russia) has in store him, pitting McClay against par-for-the-course international terrorists, and stereotypically Russian things like Tetris blocks and Matryoshka dolls.

See also: Is John McClane the last hope for the old school action hero?

In all likelihood, 20th Century Fox commissioned the stop-motion animator to create this claymation parody in order to help drum up some pre-release buzz for McClane's latest big screen outing, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.

Hardcastle's past work includes creating a claymation music video for musician Sufjan Stevens' song "Mr. Frosty Man," and a clay-crafted segment in the upcoming horror anthology "The ABCs of Death."

The flesh and bone John McClane returns to theatres in "A Good Day to Die Hard" on Feb. 14.

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