It was recorded at the 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage and performed by the Los Angeles Motion Picture All-Star Orchestra.

The accompanying album consisted only 40 minutes of music, part of an hour's score being used in the film.

[2] Jonathan Broxton in his review for Movie Music UK wrote "Die Hard 2 is one of Michael Kamen’s most bombastic action scores, and was written during the period where his action music was successful and ubiquitous in Hollywood [...] his true genius was revealed when he composed from the heart rather than the bicep; his beautiful dramatic and romantic scores offered a much more revealing portrait of who he was as a person.

"[3] Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com wrote "Die Hard 2 is a sufficient and occasionally entertaining score, serving as a decent alternative on album (either on the shorter or longer releases) for those who do not care to spend a fortune on the historically rare Die Hard albums.

"[4] Steven McDonald of AllMusic wrote "there's something very traditionally 1950s about much of this score—the drawn-out orchestral stabs, for example, are classic stuff that resemble any one of a dozen Bernard Herrmann thriller scores; one can almost see the odd angles, the monochromatic film noir photography, the desperate looks and desperate actions, and jarring cutaways.