Though the atrocities committed by Len Wiseman’s installment in the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard, were myriad, perhaps none was more grievous than its pussification of John McClane’s catch phrase, “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker,” to the coy and no less offensive, “Yippee ki-yay, *gunshot noise*,” so that what should have been a hard R-rated action movie could get a PG-13 rating and play to an audience of teenyboppers who probably don’t even know what a Die Hard is.
The first trailer for this fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise, director John Moore’s A Good Day to Die Hard, didn’t give us any indication as to whether or not the real version of McClane’s catch phrase would be reinstated in this film—instead it was just an adrenaline pumping mishmash of guns shooting, things exploding, and women undressing; which is fine and all, but doesn’t give us much to go by when judging how this film is going to differ from its predecessors.
This international trailer for the film, along with a poster that was debuted by Entertainment Weekly, give us a little bit more of an idea of what to expect, however, and not all of it is good. This trailer gives us a little bit more plot (it becomes clear that McClane has traveled to Moscow to get his son out of some kind of trouble), it gives us a little bit more McClane dialogue (it turns out he’s still gruff and put upon), and it even introduces us to a wacky Moscow cabby (who might even make for a mouthier sidekick than Los Angeles’ Argyle).
None of that is all that bad. The offense comes from the of hints at how this film is going to handle F-bombs. The trailer has McClane muttering to himself a simple, “Yippy ki-yay,” sans motherfucker. And the new poster, in the biggest offense of all, has turned a catch phrase meant to color a moment of anger and righteous retribution into dumb, punny humor. “Yippy ki-yay, Mother Russia?” Ridiculous! A family-friendly John McClane is no John McClane at all. [Yahoo! UK]