- "You are in my little pond now, and I am the big fish that runs it."
- ―Carmine Lorenzo to John McClane
Carmine Lorenzo is the stubborn and initially incompetent Chief of Police of Dulles International Airport. On Christmas Eve, 1990, he constantly argued with John McClane and gave him problems when McClane tried to intervene and help them fight the terrorists, as he thought McClane was arrogant. Despite this, however, he does grow to like McClane and later tears up his parking ticket as gratitude for stopping the terrorists. He is also the brother of Sergeant Vito Lorenzo.
Die Hard 2[]
Confrontation with McClane[]
Carmine Lorenzo in grief after kicking McClane out of his office.
After Oswald Cochrane is killed, McClane first talks with Lorenzo in his office. Lorenzo rudely states that McClane broke seven FAA and five District of Columbia regulations for shooting at people in his airport. McClane complains that Carmine is being irresponsible by letting reporters in the area and not closing off the luggage section. Carmine gets annoyed with McClane telling him how to do his job and assumes that the men he fired at the luggage handling section were just punks trying to steal luggage, despite the fact that the men pulled a rare porcelain gun that's designed to evade airport metal detectors. But Lorenzo still refuses to listen to him, beeps in his best cops, and orders him out of his office. McClane leaves in disgust over his irresponsibility.
Lorenzo and McClane arguing about their situation in the control room.
Later that night, Lorenzo was present when Trudeau, chief of air operations of Dulles Tower, announced that Washington National Airport has been shut down due to icy conditions on their runways and that they will getting more planes above them. Lorenzo says to Trudeau that they got a problem with the media reporting the story of extradition of deposed General Ramon Esperanza and now they interested in the shootout in the airport. He admits that he wants every reporter ejected of the airport, but he doesn't want to cause problems with the ACLU and violate the First Amendment. Then McClane unexpectedly appeared in the tower. Lorenzo tells McClane the tower is restricted and tries to convince Trudeau that he is not welcome in the tower, but Trudeau overrides him since he wants to know what's going on. McClane hands Trudeau the dossier of Cochrane, identifying him as a black-ops mercenary reported to be KIA two years before.
As McClane states that someone will likely take control of the airport, Lorenzo complains about it. Trudeau believes McClane's suspicions and wants Lorenzo to have his shift commanders check in to report anything out of the ordinary, despite Lorenzo's objections. Then suddenly, the runway lights have been shut down. He was present when he hears that all systems are down and complains that they should call the power company, but Trudeau says that they're on the same grid. Lorenzo then was present when someone called on the FAA hotline and was put on the speaker with the mastermind who took control of the airport's control systems. The man demands to let the plane carrying Esperanza, Foreign Military One, to land on the runway at his destination where no one will approach it. He also wants a 747 cargo conversion fully fueled and place at his disposal. The mastermind says if they try to restore their systems, they will be met by severe penalties. Lorenzo thinks he's bluffing, but later knows he's not before the man hung up.
Losing his SWAT team and the crash of Windsor 114[]
Lorenzo and Trudeau in the control tower.
When McClane says that he wants to help, Lorenzo dismisses it and makes John leave. Suddenly, reporter Samantha Coleman comes into the tower and Lorenzo kicks her out, too. After both McClane and Coleman were placed in the elevator, the frustrated Lorenzo calls in two officers on the lobby and have both McClane and Coleman removed from the elevator. After Dulles chief engineer Leslie Barnes reveals his plan to fix up the airport's frequency, Lorenzo sends his SWAT team to go with him as cover, unknowingly sending his SWAT team to a death trap in the annex skywalk.
Later, when the mastermind contacts Dulles tower, Lorenzo was present as the leader reveals that they are going to suffer severe consequences for the lost of his men in the skywalk. Then McClane tells the mastermind, revealed to be Colonel Stuart, that there are five dead officers. Lorenzo rudely cuts in and tells him to keep out it. But Trudeau furiously cuts him off during a mid-sentence and glares at him that his SWAT team is dead and that he just revealed McClane's identity to the terrorists. He was present when they learn that Stuart plans to crash Windsor 114 to runway 29 as they change the sea level on the computer and they can't see in the blizzard. Lorenzo saw someone in the runway and Trudeau sees that it's McClane, trying to signal the plane to abort landing. But his efforts were in vain as the plane crashed. Lorenzo watched in horror as the plane crash killed all onboard.
Still showing no respect for McClane[]
Later, two Army helicopters arrived and dropped off a Army Special Forces team, Blue Light, led by Major Grant. Lorenzo was among the people who introduces himself to Grant. Then they setup the command post in his police station. Then Grant's men found the signal device in the luggage area, which makes Lorenzo look bad since he assumed earlier the men McClane fired at we're punks stealing luggage. Then he was among the men who headed for pilot's briefing room with Grant.
After McClane's failure to stop Esperanza in runway 25R that resulted in the death of Stuart's mercenary, Thompson and the explosion of Foreign Military One, Lorenzo rudely berates McClane that they don't even know the exact number of men Stuart has. He witnessed Grant reprimanding McClane for his heroics.
Afterwards, Barnes calls Lorenzo on his cell phone. Lorenzo asked where he and McClane had gone too. Barnes tells him that they are in Highland Lake Community Church at the west side of the airport. Lorenzo wasn't thrilled that Barnes went on his own with McClane, but Barnes tells him that the church must be the place of the terrorists' operation and tells him to get over there quickly. Just as he was signing the location on the paper, Grant tears it off since they got positive ID on Stuart's location and headed for the church. Once they arrived in the church, McClane walks sluggishly to Lorenzo and Grant after he killed Baker during a grueling fight. Lorenzo disrespectfully reprimands McClane for his actions and threatens to have spent the rest of the night in a police cell. Grant angrily tells Lorenzo to shut up and to seal off the street. Lorenzo says to the major that he can't talk to him like that, but Grant tells one of his soldiers to remove Lorenzo away from McClane. Lorenzo reluctantly walks away from the scene as one of the soldiers escorted him away.
After the firefight in the church, Lorenzo came back and Grant tells him to seal off the building since the equipment is booby-trapped by C4 explosives. Lorenzo was displeased by the news. Then, he asked where McClane was, since he was no where in sight. Afterwards, Lorenzo was present when Stuart was talking to Dulles Tower about their plane is inside Hanger 11, the most remote hanger in Dulles and Grant confronting Stuart on the radio. After Grant tells his men his strategic plan to assault Stuart and his remaining men, he tells Lorenzo to have his officers back to the airport and seal off every exit, which the police chief pleasedly complied.
Convinced by firing blanks[]
"It's time to kick ass!"
Back in police station, McClane later arrives in the airport luggage cart, driven by the airport janitor, Marvin. Just as Lorenzo angrily confronts McClane for showing up in the airport cart, McClane asks about the Blue Light Team. Lorenzo informs McClane that Stuart has got explosives all over the airport equipment in the church but that Grant and his men are going to kill Stuart and get the detonators so they can land the planes. McClane tells him that Grant and his men are in league with Stuart and going to take off with them on the airport. Lorenzo refuses to believe him since he witnessed the massive firefight between Grant and Stuart's men at the church earlier and angrily attempts to arrest McClane. But McClane shoved him away and fires the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun owned by Garber at him. Lorenzo jumped back and desperately tried to shield himself with his hands while cowering, only to emerge unscathed. The other cops nearly shoot McClane, but they notice that there are no bullet holes in the walls or windows. Lorenzo realizes what happened and McClane reveals that the bullets they used during the firefight were merely blanks, which convinces Lorenzo that Major Grant is on Stuart's side and the firefight was faked. A shaken Lorenzo then realizes Major Grant and his men are traitors, recalls every officer in the airport to the motor pool with body armor and full weaponry. As he loads his pistol, Lorenzo says "It's time to kick ass" as he left the station with McClane following him.
As they were going the panicking crowd, thanks to Richard Thornburg's reporting the terrorist situation to the media, Lorenzo tells his officers to head for Hanger 11 and show up with backup. He tells McClane to get in his car. Once he went into his car, he tells McClane say hi to his brother, Police Sergeant Vito Lorenzo, which they both recognized each other from before. As Lorenzo was heading out, he collides in the taxi cab, blocked due to the mass panic. Lorenzo tells the cab driver to move his cab away out of the way and furiously tells Vito to clear the path. As Lorenzo was yelling around to get the path clear, McClane again went on his own to stop the terrorists.
Carmine Lorenzo smiles at John after ripping up his parking ticket.
After the explosion of the 747 carrying the terrorists and safe landing of all the planes above Dulles, Lorenzo arrives just as McClane and his Holly were about to take off in Marvin's cart. He asked McClane about the the parking ticket that Vito gave him earlier in the day and McClane confirms it. He finally does something nice for him and tears up the parking ticket. Lorenzo smiles as McClane and Holly took off in Marvin's cart.
Trivia[]
- His character is similar to Dwayne T. Robinson from the original Die Hard as he did not want John to interfere with the critical situation.
Quotes[]
- Oh, he's not sure! Well, I'm stunned! I gotta lie down!
- Hey, pal, you're the one that gave us that fuckin' body, remember that.
- You'd be surprised what I make in a month.
- ...the worst part, Mr. Trudeau, is the press. Oh they were here anyways - crawling all over the Esperanza story - so they got it right on the fucking news, you know, bloodstains and all. Now personally, I'd like to lock every damn reporter out of the airport. But then they'd just pull that "freedom of speech" crap on us and the ACLU would be all over us.
- McClane, you keep out of this! You've been enough of a pain...
- Ah, what the hell; it's Christmas!
Gallery[]
