McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over the air traffic control system.

Die Hard 2 was a major box-office success, grossing $240 million and doubling the earnings of its predecessor and finishing as the year's seventh-highest-grossing film.

On Christmas Eve, two years after the events of the previous film,[Note 2] John McClane is now a lieutenant with the LAPD, who arrives at Dulles International Airport to pick up his wife, Holly.

Meanwhile, a plane carrying corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza is also headed to Dulles under extradition for using U.S. funds to buy drugs.

With the help of his friend Sergeant Al Powell, he discovers that the dead man's fingerprints correspond to an American soldier who was listed as having died in a helicopter accident two years earlier.

McClane reports his concerns to the ill-tempered airport police chief, Carmine Lorenzo, and air traffic control director Ed Trudeau, but neither believes him.

Stuart and his men, operating out of a church on the outskirts of the airport, cut all communications with incoming airplanes, disable all runway lighting, and demand that Esperanza's plane be allowed to land without interference.

Chief airport engineer Leslie Barnes decides to try using an unfinished antenna array to communicate with the stranded circling airplanes.

In retaliation, Stuart crashes a British airliner, killing everyone on board, by impersonating air traffic control and faking the airplane's altimeter reading by recalibrating sea level.

Confused as to how he failed to wound anyone, McClane realizes the gun was filled with blanks, meaning the earlier firefight was staged and Grant's team are secretly in cahoots with Stuart.

From the airplane's lavatory, Richard broadcasts the recording live on television, leading to a panic in the airport terminal which prevents McClane and Lorenzo from getting to the 747.

Additional cast members include Colonel Stuart's hitmen: Don Harvey as Garber, John Costelloe as Sergeant Oswald Cochrane, Vondie Curtis-Hall as Miller, John Leguizamo as Burke, Robert Patrick as O'Reilly, Tom Verica as Kahn, Tony Ganios as Baker, Michael Cunningham as Sheldon, Peter Nelson as Thompson, Ken Baldwin as Mulkey, and Mark Boone Junior as Shockley.

[10] Die Hard 2 was the first film to use digitally composited live-action footage with a traditional matte painting that had been photographed and scanned into a computer.

This was brought forward to June 22; however, following claims of the film running over time and budget, the release date was pushed back two weeks to July 4.

The site's critical consensus reads: "It lacks the fresh thrills of its predecessor, but Die Hard 2 still works as an over-the-top – and reasonably taut – big-budget sequel, with plenty of set pieces to paper over the plot deficiencies.

[26] Roger Ebert, who gave the original film a mixed review, described the sequel as "terrific entertainment", despite noting substantial credibility problems with the plot.

and RoboCop 2, and said, Whatever small pleasure there is to be found in this loud dud is due mostly to the residual good feelings from the first film... As played by Bruce Willis, McClane is still an engaging character, even if he is much less amusingly drawn this time.

[28]Empire magazine rated the film three out of five stars, while stating, "It's entertaining nonsense that doesn't quite manage to recapture the magic of the original.