Die Hard Wiki
Register
Advertisement

"We have to find him and shut him up. He's telling them everything!"
―Franco on John McClane [src]

Franco was a French terrorist employed by Hans Gruber to aid him in the Nakatomi Plaza robbery. Although his main role in the takeover was to keep control of the 30 hostages, he was a very reliable and trusted terrorist, that was present during several attempts to kill John McClane for most of the film.

Backstory []

Franco is hired along with a crew of about a dozen henchmen to rob the Nakatomi building in Los Angeles of its $640 million dollars in negotiable bearer bonds. The plan was cooked up by Franco’s temporary employer, Hans Gruber, and seemed simple enough to pull off: take hostages, steal the loot, and escape after blowing up the roof of the building. The police will think the bad guys were killed in the explosion, and they certainly won't wonder why the roof spontaneously blew up in the first place. 

Die Hard[]

Nakatomi Takeover[]

Hansandhisgroup

Franco (far right) arrives with James and Hans on the 30th floor.

Franco was among the terrorists on the Pacific Courier truck and later got into an express elevator. Once he arrived on the 30th floor where the party is, Franco was among the thugs firing into the air to force the terrified Nakatomi employees to the fountain at the center of the floor. Franco's main job was to keep watch of the hostages. Then when the body of Tony Vreski came to the elevator, he and Fritz moved Tony's body upstairs and returned to the 30th floor. After the intruder's call for help on the radio on the roof, he headed up there with Karl Vreski and Fritz. While on the elevator, Franco takes off his leather jacket as he and the others got off the elevator. He, along with Karl and Fritz fired at their intruder on the roof until he went through a large ventilation fan. While their unknown intruder is at the entrance of the fan, Franco went down for cover. Karl had him spring the ambush, where Franco jumped to his side and fired at the intruder, but he escaped through the fan after stopping the blades. Karl and Franco joined Fritz at the entrance to the elevator shaft. When Karl spotted their unwelcome guest in the vent of the 34th floor, Franco and Fritz followed him down there and Franco kept on guard when they got a call that a cop has responded. He and the others rushed to the lower floor where Alexander is at, keeping an eye on the cop. They see the body of Marco tossed onto the police car, which led to the cop, Sergeant Al Powell, alerting the LAPD.

When the police arrived, Hans tried to calm Franco, along with Karl and Fritz, since it's only the beginning. When their mystery guest called in and taunts Hans with the names of the terrorists involved, which includes Franco. He sternly asked how does he know about them, but Hans kept him quiet while speaking to their intruder. Hans has him, Karl and Fritz check on the others. They find Heinrich dead in the 34th floor conference room and Marco down on the street. They also find Heinrich's bag carrying the detonators is missing. After they returned to Hans on the 30th floor and gave him the full report, Powell contacts the person who radioed for help. As they are listening, Franco furiously demands that they have to find their intruder and kill him. However, Hans tells him to let him inform the police, since he is waiting for the FBI to arrive, but they also need to find the bag of detonators.

PDVD 054

Franco and Fritz follow Karl onto the roof.

When the news crew arrived, one of the hostages, Holly Gennero came in to Hans' who is using her office as his main outpost with Franco guarding her. After she makes her requests, Franco lets her leave her office and go back to the fountain. When Theo reports that there is an armored RV coming on the southeast corner, Franco looks out the window at the 30th floor. When a hostage was coming way too close to him, he forces the hostage back at gunpoint. He also witnessed the explosion of the entire third floor of the building that killed James and Alexander.

He was present when they learned the true identity of their intruder, off-duty New York cop John McClane from Nakatomi executive Harry Ellis, who claims that he is friends with him. When McClane refused to give up the detonators, Hans killed Ellis. It would be Franco who would move Ellis' body out of Holly's office.

Death[]

PDVD 093

Franco's knees are shot out.

When Hans informed the other terrorists via radio that McClane and himself are on the 33rd floor, Karl, Fritz and Franco arrived and began shooting at McClane. After Fritz was shot in the chest by McClane's MP5 outside the elevator, he, along with Hans and Karl pursued McClane. When Franco charged at him, McClane turned the machine gun on Franco, who had his kneecaps shot out by the hail of bullets, before falling headfirst into a glass window, killing him instantly. He was the seventh terrorist in Hans Gruber's gang to die.

Quotes[]

  • "Let's go Karl! The police!
  • "Get back! Get the fuck back!!"

Trivia[]

  • For the character's fall through the glass after being shot through both knees by McClane's machine gun fire, the character was doubled by stunt performer Steve Picerni. The demo reel for that role can be seen here. Picerni would later double for Burke in the second film.
Advertisement