Directed by Eric Appel, “Die Hart: The Movie” takes us on a hilarious ride where we witness the plight of an actor who has been typecast by the industry so badly that no matter what he did, people couldn’t accept him in roles belonging to other genres. Kevin Hart plays his fictional self, where he wants people to see him as an action hero, though he understands that there are a lot of prejudices society has against it. He was sick and tired of playing the goofy friend of the titular character and, for once, wanted to do something that he wanted, even if the odds were not in his favor. So, let’s see if Kevin Hart is able to break the mold and become a successful action star.
Spoilers Ahead
‘Die Hart: The Movie’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
Kevin Hart was not happy with the image people had of him. He wanted people to look at him as a serious actor who knew the craft well, but instead, he just became the funny guy who played second fiddle to the main protagonist. There was a lot of anger inside Hart, and he was constantly telling his agent, Danny, that he thought that he had the potential to be a great action hero. Hart had a lot of confidence in his abilities and didn’t consider himself any lesser than Dwanye The Rock Johnson or Jackie Chan.
Things got out of hand when Kevin decided to address the issue during one of the talk shows where he was coming to market his present release. Something snapped inside Kevin, and he no longer cared what the studio wanted him to do or what would be beneficial for his career. He started speaking about how he had been typecast by the industry, and he was desperate to break that image and explore new pastures. Danny knew that Hart’s action would have severe consequences, and he had already started doing damage control. Amidst all the chaos, contrary to expectations of Danny, Claude van de Velde gave him a call and asked if Kevin wanted to play the role of an action hero in his film. Danny didn’t understand why Claude was doing what he was doing, but he knew that it was an opportunity that Kevin needed to grab at all costs. The studio had already started removing him from the posters of his film, and Danny was of the opinion that they were extremely lucky that Van De Velde had seen something inside Kevin and decided to work with him.
In “Die Hart: The Movie,” we saw that a hopeful Kevin went to meet Claude Velde, and the ace director suggested that he attend Ron Wilcox’s action star school. Kevin didn’t think that he needed to attend any such training program because he believed himself to be a natural. Claude persistently told him that, be it Matt Damon or Tom Cruise, they had become so successful in what they did and come to be known as the greatest of all time only because they had gotten proper training at Ron Wilcox’s school. But Kevin was adamant, and he wanted to prove to the director that he didn’t need to go to any school to be able to execute action sequences and change his image in front of people. Claude Velde told him that if he could complete the task that he was about to give him, he would believe that he didn’t need any training. Claude asked Kevin to jump from one terrace to another, and the latter almost broke his bones while trying to do the stunt. Kevin failed miserably, and he had no option but to go to the training school, which was situated in the middle of nowhere, and learn the tricks of the trade and create his own unique version of Ethan Hunt.
‘Die Hart: The Movie’ Ending Explained: Was Wilcox Able To Make Kevin An Action Star?
Kevin was desperate to change the perception that people had of him. He always said that it was the perspective that was getting in the way of him doing more diverse roles. He blamed his physicality and societal prejudices for not being able to bag action-packed roles, but he now had a genuine chance to change that, though he was not prepared for the kind of trouble that was awaiting him in the action-star school. Ron Wilcox had strict rules in his school that everyone needed to follow. Mobile phones were not allowed inside the campus, and Kevin was given strict instructions to only respond when he was called by the name ‘Agent Hart.’ Ron had a theory that the name of the person was important in building his profile in the eyes of the public. He said that for being an action hero, the name should exude a kind of strength, something like Ethan Hunt, and he felt that nobody would believe that a guy named Kevin could be a great action hero who was going to save the world.
Ron also believed that the first thing that any action hero needed to learn was how to save a person stuck inside a burning building. He had created a set inside his training camp, and he decided to put Kevin to the test. He started a fire and asked Kevin to go and save the mannequin that bore an uncanny resemblance to Kevin, though Ron didn’t agree that it looked like him. Jordan King, an aspiring action actress, is introduced to us for the first time when Kevin risks his life and goes inside the burning building. Ron had told Kevin that he would come and save him if he got stuck, but the former got so engrossed in talking to Jordan that he forgot that he had to go and save his other trainee. Kevin’s FBI jacket wasn’t able to save him, and we witnessed in the film, “Die Hart: The Movie,” how Kevin was barely able to survive and came out all bruised and burned.
In “Die Hart: The Movie,” we saw how attracted Kevin was to Jordan from the moment he saw her, though the latter had made it very clear that she just wanted to focus on her training and join the extremely small list of female action stars. Ron started putting Kevin and Jordan into hypothetical situations where they had to complete the tasks and improvise where they felt the need to. Kevin found it quite illogical that every time they were given backstories that explained the motivations, he was told to do something completely absurd and impossible. One time Kevin was asked to attack Jordan with a retractable knife, but he ended up hurting her because it was a real knife. He didn’t understand why Ron was lying to him and making him risk his and Jordan’s lives. Kevin was told that his situation was still better than Jason Statham’s, who had been stabbed in the heart and survived. The thought of giving up had crossed Kevin’s mind more than once, but he just didn’t want to be a goofy sidekick throughout his life, and he wanted to prove to the world that he had much more to offer.
In “Die Hart: The Movie,” we got to know that it was Claude Velde’s plan to make Kevin achieve the impossible feat and keep filming him without letting him know. Claude wanted real emotions on screen, and he knew that he could extract those only if Kevin felt that he was actually in some kind of danger. Claude knew that Kevin was in a very fragile state of mind and that the threat of being forgotten loomed over him. Claude wanted an actor harboring deep-rooted insecurities because he believed that only such a man could give him that kind of response when out in danger.
Kevin decided to escape because he knew that if he stayed, Ron would kill him. Kevin met a mysterious man in the woods, and he went inside his trailer to call his manager and tell him about everything that had happened there. The man was repairing his car when the car jack collapsed, and the man got stuck beneath. Kevin came out of the trailer after hearing his screams, and he managed to lift the car and save the man’s life. The man called Kevin a real-life Rambo, and that’s when it struck Kevin that maybe he was not as bad as he had presumed. No doubt he was petrified of squirrels, but he was capable of lifting heavy weights and, more importantly, saving lives. Kevin once again went back to the action star training school, and he was put to the test for one final time.
Claude made a group of men attack the facility, and Kevin was made to feel once again that the threat was real. He saw them kill Josh Hartnett right in front of his eyes, and Ron and Jordan realized that Claude was probably improvising at the last moment because they also weren’t informed about somebody actually dying. Ron told him that they were dangerous men who were after him because a drug deal had gone wrong, and he had murdered the nephew of a drug lord. Kevin asked him to muster the courage and confront his fears. Kevin felt even more petrified when he saw them killing Ron, but still, he didn’t give up. He kept fighting even when the odds were against him. He fought the actors who pretended to be members of a drug cartel and overcame his fears. He thought he had lost Jordan when Claude and the entire crew, who had been filming Kevin secretly up until then, came out in the open. They applauded him, and for a moment, he was not able to ascertain what was happening to him.
The film came out, and it was exactly how Claude had intended it to be. It was the strangest movie that the people had ever seen, but they still loved it because they hadn’t seen anything as raw and unadulterated as it. Kevin finally became the leading man of his own action movie, and the feeling was unparalleled. But the experience had brought a change in his sensibilities, and he realized that an actor was nothing without his co-stars. The celebration began, and the film was declared a hit, but once again, Kevin’s limelight was stolen by another co-actor. This time, it was a squirrel, not a human, who saved the day, and everyone thought the rodent was the real action hero.
