Their music is like
the brandy of the damned
Pogue Mahone
they are the last
pure hearts
from Dickens, Joyce, Dylan Thomas
to Christy Moore
like Red Diamonds,
Pirates, full of malarkey
they're little giants,
they're Bill Sykes
They are all orphans
and they are leaving
on the 2:10 train
with no ticket
Rapscallion, angry, weeping
passed out songs, songs
that seem to be born
effortlessly, or
not born but found
on top of an old wood stove
like a Bowler hat
and the Pogues know
where the little people go
and they follow them
they're as old as treasure island
songs that we all should carry
I learnt'em and sung'em
and changed'em
and passed them on
down the wild blue road
as Shane MacGowan and the Pogues
warm their hands
on a fire
made from chopsticks
and a horse pulls a milk wagon
up the steep, wet cobblestone
street and stumbles
to his kness, bloodying them
as a man
no bigger than my thumb
dances in the broken glass
and jumps rope with a shoe lace
the song he sings
is one by the Pogues

by Tom Waits

In 1988, a little-known TV star faced off against a bunch of Eurotrash villains in a LA skyscraper, leaving in their wake a trail of bodies, wreckage and a legacy that has been imitated countless times since. John McTiernan’s ultimate action movie has since become the benchmark against which all subsequent blockbusters have been measured for a very good reason… it’s awesome! Join me as I celebrate 20 years of Die Hard and “Welcome to the party pal!”

20: It's The Best Non-Christmas Christmas Film Ever Made
It may be far from a Wonderful Life for John McClane but for movie fans who can't stomach sugary festive schmaltz, Die Hard is the ultimate seasonal flick. It's got all the usual wholesome ingredients - family togetherness, Christmas music, big teddy bears - plus it's got the added bonus of terrorists roasting on an open rooftop.

19:It's An Action Film For The Working Man
The bad guys are murderous capitalist assholes willing to kill a whole bunch of blue-collar office workers to get their millions and only a work-a-day cop/family man has the balls to stand in their way. Every inch the average joe, John McClane is a hero for the masses.

18:Sgt Al Powell
The office jockey who gets a fateful call en route to his Twinkie-loving wife (yeah right), Powell proves to be the best friend an embattled NYPD detective ever did have. Trustworthy, reliable and way smarter than his superiors, he even pops up with a terrorist-finishing bullet at the 11th hour.

17:The Soundtrack
"Haven't you got any Christmas music?" "This is Christmas music!" From Run DMC's Christmas In Hollis to Vaughn Monroe's Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! by way of Beethoven's Ode To Joy (Hans Gruber's personal theme) - without even mentioning Michael Kamen's stirring score, Die Hard's soundtrack is magnificent.

16 are Feet - It's A Great Plot Device
How do you make a man who's alone, tired and hurting feel even worse? You take away his shoes. Rudely interrupted while making fists with his toes, McClane is forced to fight off the bad guys sans footwear. An effective metaphor for his seemingly powerless position, the barefoot motif also paves the way for that immortal line - "SHOOT THE GLASS!!!"

15:Richard Thornburg
The dogged reporter who would sell his mother's ashes for a good story, William Atherton's asshole journo makes Paxman look like Parkinson. No trick is too immoral for KFLW's Pulitzer-jonesing newshound, including doorstepping McClane's family and inadvertently uncovering the shoeless detective's reason for attending the party.

14:The Vest
The must-have accessory for all aspiring action heroes, John McClane's clean-then-dirty-then-clean again undershirt is almost iconic as its wearer. So much so, in fact, that Bruce Willis has worn variations of it in many of his subsequent films - check out the natty Gautier-designed orange number from The Fifth Element.

13:Holly Gennaro
Alongside Marion Ravenwood and Princess Leia, John McClane's estranged wife is one of cinema's spunkiest damsel in distress ever. Caught up in a situation over which she has no control, Bonnie Bedelia's high-flying executive still gives short shrift to Hans and his acolytes. The real fly in Gruber's ointment? That'll be the missus.

12:The Legacy
Without Die Hard, we would never have had Speed, Con Air, The Rock, Under Siege and, well, basically everything Bruce Willis has done since. Setting the benchmark for extreme challenges in tight spaces, John McTiernan's movie opened the door to countless Die Hard On A… flicks.

11:Harry Ellis
"Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast, I think I can handle this Eurotrash." Hart Bochner's slimy coke-snorting executive epitomised the arrogant yuppie culture of the late Eighties. Convinced he could talk his way out of any situation, Ellis proved not to be Hans' white knight as he followed Mr Takagi to that luxury washroom in the sky.

10:Jan de Bont
The guy who made i

Jimi Hendrix was once asked in an interview, "What does it feel like to be the World's Best Guitarist", he replied "I don't know, you should ask Rory Gallagher that question sir."